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