ZVEZDA — broadcast
20260920 180000 UTC
296 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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[00:00:11] It was only in the movie that the MUR operatives caught the dangerous Black
[00:00:14] Cat in just a few months. In real
[00:00:18] life, it took much longer to get to the gang,
[00:00:21] which would later be called the Tall Blonde gang.
[00:00:24] In the winter of
[00:00:35] '51, district police officer Kochkin was returning from duty, it was already
[00:00:38] dark, but he still spotted a suspicious
[00:00:42] trio. One of them was wearing a long leather
[00:00:45] coat. The vigilant policeman immediately
[00:00:48] approached closer.
[00:00:50] "May I see your documents?" This
[00:00:54] one said, "Documents, please."
[00:00:57] But instead of documents, the guy in
[00:01:00] leather pulled out a pistol. Kochkin
[00:01:03] didn't have time to react. The young policeman died on
[00:01:07] the spot. As it soon turned out, that day the Tall
[00:01:10] Blonde gang robbed a Savings Bank. Back
[00:01:14] in the fifties, the murder of a police
[00:01:18] officer was an extraordinary event, however, the
[00:01:21] Tall Blonde gang was responsible for three
[00:01:24] murdered policemen in just one
[00:01:27] year.
[00:01:30] From that moment, the bandits, emboldened by their own impunity,
[00:01:33] seemed to have gone off the rails. Raids
[00:01:36] occurred almost every week. The gang not
[00:01:40] only managed to terrorize all of Moscow, it also
[00:01:43] angered Nikita
[00:01:45] Khrushchev. In March of '52, a black car with
[00:01:49] tinted windows stopped
[00:01:53] at the building of the MUR at Petrovka 38.
[00:01:55] When the door swung open, the guards almost had a heart attack. On
[00:01:59] the sidewalk.
[00:02:30] He put forward a loud slogan that crime and
[00:02:33] prostitution in our country are forever
[00:02:36] gone. Ism is the best life for
[00:02:39] a person, and the best life is material and
[00:02:43] spiritual blessings for a person, so let's,
[00:02:46] comrades, do everything
[00:02:48] so that our current good
[00:02:52] will be even better tomorrow.
[00:02:56] Khrushchev demanded an immediate meeting with the MUR leadership.
[00:04:00] we'll beat the local
[00:04:02] police in the room, and from Moscow
[00:04:05] we'll call a car, bring it to us in the car
[00:04:08] and distribute it among ourselves
[00:04:12] and work. For several days without sleep and
[00:04:15] rest, the operatives personally checked all
[00:04:18] the thieves' dens. In the criminal areas of the capital, one
[00:04:22] could meet Arapov himself. Dressed in a fashionable
[00:04:25] cap and a dashing jacket, he looked
[00:04:28] like one of them among the lowlifes.
[00:07:12] a psychopath, of course, that was the noise, real
[00:07:16] criminals and cinematic heroes, Black
[00:07:19] Cat, the true story,
[00:07:31] soon a robbery occurred which gave the detectives a
[00:07:34] radically new version,
[00:07:37] the Tall Blonde gang suddenly changed
[00:07:40] its M.O., though... just one detail, but
[00:07:44] what a detail! The leader shoved not a pistol in the store director's
[00:07:47] face, but red
[00:07:50] ID cards. MGB, supposedly
[00:07:53] for inspection.
[00:07:56] There's even a term among professional criminals:
[00:08:00] a "raid" under the guise of, say, an employee
[00:08:03] of either the KGB, as it was then, or
[00:08:06] the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or the FSB, as it is now, so that they immediately raise their hands,
[00:08:10] and don't resist. The raiders, as usual, emptied the cash register
[00:08:14] and disappeared without a trace. Of course, it was a shock, a real one,
[00:08:17] because no one expected such a double
[00:08:20] life. This time, the detectives were lucky with
[00:08:24] a witness. The store director managed to remember the name on
[00:08:28] the red ID cards. They immediately contacted
[00:08:30] Lubyanka, but the check showed that they had
[00:08:34] no such person and never did. The ID card
[00:08:37] was fake. In the movies, it just shows that you sit down,
[00:08:41] figure it out, and that's it, everything's solved. In reality, everything is gathered bit
[00:08:45] by bit. It was at that very moment
[00:08:49] that what Nikita Khrushchev had so feared
[00:08:52] happened: the elusive gang was reported
[00:08:55] to Stalin, personally by
[00:08:58] Lavrentiy Beria.
[00:09:00] The leader summoned Nikita Sergeevich to his office and
[00:09:03] demanded an immediate end to the lawlessness,
[00:09:07] adding: "I will personally
[00:09:10] observe everything." Khrushchev understood that his life and career
[00:09:14] hung by a thread,
[00:09:17] but it was beyond his power to stop the Black Cat, it
[00:09:21] roamed on its own, always
[00:09:24] not where it was
[00:09:26] sought.
[00:09:29] After the war, a huge number of beer stalls opened
[00:09:32] in Moscow, that's where life was bubbling, although there
[00:09:36] wasn't much foam in the drink, popular
[00:09:39] Zhigulyovskoye, light Rizhskoye, dark Barkhat.
[00:09:43] In winter, it was always taken heated, an electric
[00:09:46] kettle with beer was constantly on the stove, and those
[00:09:50] who wished had hot beer
[00:09:53] added to their cold mug.
[00:09:59] One February day, a small pub was surprisingly
[00:10:03] empty. Only one customer. A strong
[00:10:06] guy in a leather coat. The establishment
[00:10:09] was closing, and the staff couldn't wait
[00:10:13] for the guy to leave the table. The guard and
[00:10:16] the barmaid asked,
[00:10:19] in general, since it was already
[00:10:22] late, to vacate the premises. He
[00:10:25] didn't react, stared out the window with a glazed
[00:10:28] look and seemed not to hear
[00:10:31] anything. But then, district police officer Beryukov
[00:10:35] looked into the pub. Seeing the police uniform, the guy
[00:10:38] perked up. He sharply pulled out two
[00:10:42] pistols from his pocket and opened fire to
[00:10:44] kill. Only the barmaid
[00:10:48] managed to escape, instantly diving under
[00:10:51] the counter. District police officer Beryukov was shot dead on
[00:10:54] the spot. The clumsy guard also didn't manage to
[00:10:57] duck, and he died from his wounds in
[00:11:01] the hospital. As it turned out, that evening, the Tall
[00:11:05] Blonde didn't calm down. The bloody massacre in the pub wasn't
[00:11:09] enough for him. Already on
[00:11:12] the street, the killer saw a married couple. The man and woman
[00:11:15] were entering the entrance of the building. He calmly
[00:11:18] waited for the door to close
[00:11:20] behind them.
[00:11:27] The unfortunate couple died from numerous wounds, and
[00:11:31] Moscow detectives got a new reason to
[00:11:33] ponder: perhaps the Tall
[00:11:36] Blonde is just
[00:11:38] an amateur psychopath?
[00:11:41] Any thief, any bandit knows
[00:11:44] that in everyday life, you need to be quieter than water, lower
[00:11:48] than grass, you need
[00:11:50] to not be remembered and not draw attention.
[00:11:57] After a sudden outburst of rage and four corpses in one evening, anything
[00:12:01] could be expected from the Tall Blonde. The dangerous
[00:12:04] killer and his entire gang had to be
[00:12:07] immediately caught, but where
[00:12:10] to expect their appearance? Stationing guards at every
[00:12:14] savings bank was impossible. They never
[00:12:17] appeared in the same district twice: the savings bank in
[00:12:20] Khimki, shops in Khovrino,
[00:12:22] Kuntsevo, only once.
[00:12:56] In a town near Moscow, there was a holiday, general
[00:12:59] festivities, when suddenly a rumor spread
[00:13:02] instantly. Rich people are flaunting
[00:13:05] on the central street. A group of young people approached
[00:13:09] a beer stall. Presenting a large sum
[00:13:12] of money, the barmaid said
[00:13:15] there was no change. Then they bought a whole
[00:13:19] barrel of beer, rolled it out and started
[00:13:22] treating all passersby. A crowd of thirsty
[00:13:25] people gathered for the free treat, and among
[00:13:29] them was a special agent, so
[00:13:32] after tasting the foamy drink, he went not
[00:13:35] home, but to the Criminal Investigation Department. For modern
[00:13:39] Russia, this is a very unconventional
[00:13:42] act; for Stalin's USSR, it's triply
[00:13:46] unconventional. With this act, they undoubtedly drew attention to
[00:13:50] themselves. Where did a group of students
[00:13:53] get such huge sums of money?
[00:14:01] Perhaps very few people remember those post-war
[00:14:04] times: in stores, shelves were overflowing with jars
[00:14:08] of red and black caviar, but no one bought
[00:14:12] it, there was no money,
[00:14:15] and most importantly, not because they earned little, but because
[00:14:19] state loans were regularly conducted,
[00:14:22] huge bonds of 50 to 100
[00:14:25] rubles. Up to 70% of
[00:14:28] people's salaries were seized under the guise of
[00:14:31] loans; try not signing up.
[00:14:34] After the incident with the beer barrel, Lukin came to the attention of
[00:14:37] the police. The guy turned out to be a student
[00:14:41] of the Aviation Institute. Komsomol member, athlete, excellent student - nothing
[00:14:45] suspicious. Despite the excellent
[00:14:47] characteristics, the MUR decided to conduct an unannounced search
[00:14:51] of the guy's apartment. And they found it under the bed.
[00:15:25] But Lukin exclusively met with positive individuals,
[00:15:28] Komsomol members, shock workers, athletes. How
[00:15:32] to guess which of them were connected to
[00:15:34] the gang? But this time... the hint
[00:15:38] was given to the detectives
[00:15:39] by the criminals themselves.
[00:15:43] During another raid, the telephone rang in the savings bank. One of
[00:15:46] the robbers picked up the receiver, decided
[00:15:49] to fool around. To the question, "Is this the savings bank?", he replied, "No,
[00:15:53] this is a stadium." Arapov racked his brain. Why
[00:15:56] a stadium? What if the bandit was given away by a conditioned
[00:16:00] reflex? And he named a place with which he was, one way or
[00:16:03] another, connected in his ordinary life.
[00:21:30] Back then, none of the detectives even suspected that they would find
[00:21:33] the leader, the most mysterious
[00:21:37] tall blonde, at the stadium.
[00:21:41] In Stanislav Govorukhin's film, the gang and its leader were hiding in
[00:21:45] a thieves' den. In the real story of the Black Cat,
[00:21:48] the gang didn't hide.
[00:21:51] That day, a skinny old man in horn-rimmed glasses appeared at the stadium's
[00:21:54] checkpoint. No one paid attention to him,
[00:21:58] but the old man was looking with all his eyes. He
[00:22:01] had received such an order from Arapov: if you see
[00:22:05] the bandits, give a sign. The pensioner
[00:22:08] was one of the few survivors after meeting the Cat,
[00:22:11] a witness. It was he whom the bandits
[00:22:14] tortured for a bunch of keys to the warehouse. The old
[00:22:17] frontline soldier peered at every
[00:22:50] When Rapov received information about the athlete, he simply
[00:22:53] couldn't believe it. Mytin himself was
[00:22:56] awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor,
[00:23:00] a workshop master, a party member. How
[00:23:04] could a young communist be involved in a bloody
[00:23:07] gang?
[00:23:10] Maybe old man Frontovik, being half-blind,
[00:23:12] got it wrong?
[00:23:17] In Soviet times, I had several acquaintances.
[00:24:20] technical, they could
[00:24:23] listen,
[00:24:27] every step of his was controlled.
[00:24:30] Soon, his circle of acquaintances became clear: student
[00:24:34] Lukin and five more members of his own factory
[00:24:37] brigade. All of them were subordinate to Mytin in the hockey
[00:24:41] team. When you look at the service record,
[00:24:44] it's surprising, because among them were shock workers
[00:24:47] of competitions. Heroes of Labor. And one
[00:24:50] of the bandits was even awarded a medal for valiant labor in the Great
[00:24:54] Patriotic War, and these medals were not given
[00:24:57] out just like that. The arrest was prepared for like
[00:25:00] a battle, armed to the teeth, they gathered everyone
[00:25:04] they could, our MUR men, 20
[00:25:07] to 18, probably, cars,
[00:25:11] we had a car in our department, it was the
[00:25:14] head of the department's
[00:25:16] Pobeda, they decided to arrest the Tall Blonde
[00:25:20] and his gang
[00:25:22] late at night.
[00:25:28] One of the most spectacular scenes of the film is the arrest of Gorbatiy and his
[00:25:32] accomplices. But the gang of the Tall Blonde was arrested
[00:25:36] much more quietly, or, as the MUR officers say,
[00:25:40] more professionally, without a single
[00:25:42] shot. No one resisted, they didn't
[00:25:46] expect it. In the film "The Entire Black Cat,"
[00:25:50] there are hardened criminals and at the head a real godfather,
[00:25:53] Gorbatiy. Armen Dzhigarkhanyan is still proud of this
[00:25:57] role. There is no such thing as a negative
[00:26:00] hero. There is your truth,
[00:26:03] his truth, my truth,
[00:26:06] this conflict creates
[00:26:09] life. The gang of the Tall Blonde were all
[00:26:12] young guys, the leader
[00:26:14] Ivan Mytin was 25.
[00:26:17] The MUR officers tried to understand what these young
[00:26:21] men lacked, why the shock workers
[00:26:23] and athletes started killing.
[00:26:27] The truth turned out to be shocking.
[00:26:30] They committed crimes not only for ...
[00:27:34] Arapov was surprised by how powerful and audacious his
[00:27:38] character was, even on the verge of death,
[00:27:41] he never
[00:27:42] repented.
[00:27:46] The Tall Blonde gang forever ended its
[00:27:49] bloody path. It was their story that
[00:27:53] became the prototype of the Black Cat in the cult
[00:27:56] film.
[00:27:59] The MUR officers from the homicide department were able to breathe easily,
[00:28:03] but
[00:28:03] not for long.
[00:28:13] The cold summer of '53 was approaching,
[00:28:17] and with it the most terrible,
[00:28:21] mass amnesty
[00:28:22] for criminals.
[00:28:39] I am a crime journalist, and over the years
[00:28:42] of my work, I have accumulated several notebooks of notes, especially dear
[00:28:46] to me are the notebooks about criminal investigation officers of the Soviet
[00:28:49] period. I do not idealize this time and these
[00:28:52] people. At all times, the work in criminal investigation remained dirty,
[00:28:56] difficult, and incredibly dangerous. As long as
[00:28:59] I have the opportunity, I will tell about these detectives. Only the truth.
[00:29:25] That evening, in the main theater of Minsk, the Bolshoi Academic Theater, it was
[00:29:28] a full house. Hamlet, the season's premiere, was playing. The audience
[00:29:32] sympathized with the Danish prince, condemning the insidious
[00:29:36] tyrant-poisoner.
[00:29:42] Suddenly, in the middle of the play, the stage lights
[00:29:45] went out. In the pitch darkness, several
[00:29:49] women screamed. Panic began. The actors
[00:29:53] rushed backstage to find out what was wrong. In
[00:29:57] one of the service rooms, they stumbled upon the prostrate
[00:30:00] body of the stage manager.
[00:30:06] "Help me," that's all he could utter.
[00:30:09] And then he began to convulse in his death throes. No one
[00:30:13] could have imagined then that this was the beginning
[00:30:17] of a series of brutal crimes.
[00:30:20] A mysterious and ominous case would go down in the history
[00:30:23] of criminology. Only
[00:30:25] a few knew the whole truth about it.
[00:30:43] Behind his back, he was called a bloodhound; he could dig up a criminal
[00:30:45] from under the earth.
[00:30:52] One December day in '82, an urgent call came
[00:30:56] to the Minsk ambulance from the academic building.