Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein, or “Sonya the Golden Hand”. Sonya golden pen Sonya golden pen biography

Real name - Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak-Blumstein (1846 - ?). An inventive thief, a swindler, capable of transforming into a society lady, a nun or a simple servant. She was called “the devil in a skirt,” “a demonic beauty whose eyes enchant and hypnotize.”

The journalist Vlas Doroshevich, popular at the end of the 19th century, called the legendary adventuress “all-Russian, almost European famous.” And Chekhov paid attention to her in the book "Sakhalin".

Sofya Bluvshtein, whose maiden name was Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak, did not live in freedom for too long - hardly forty years. But when she started as a girl with petty thefts, she didn’t stop until Sakhalin. She has achieved perfection in the game. And talent, beauty, cunning and absolute immorality made this young provincial woman a genius of a scam, a legendary adventurer.

The Golden Hand was mainly involved in thefts in hotels, jewelry stores, and hunted on trains, traveling around Russia and Europe. Smartly dressed, with someone else’s passport, she appeared in the best hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw, carefully studying the location of rooms, entrances, exits, and corridors. Sonya invented a method of hotel theft called "guten morgen". She put felt shoes on her shoes and, silently moving along the corridors, entered someone else's room early in the morning. While the owner was fast asleep before dawn, she quietly “cleaned out” his cash. If the owner unexpectedly woke up, an elegant lady in expensive jewelry, as if not noticing the “stranger,” began to undress, as if mistakenly mistaking the room for her own... It all ended in skillfully staged embarrassment and mutual shuffling. This is how Sonya ended up in a provincial hotel room. Looking around, she noticed a sleeping young man, pale as a sheet, with an exhausted face. She was struck not so much by the expression of extreme suffering as by the amazing resemblance of the young man to Wolf - whose sharp face could never depict anything close to true moral torment.

On the table lay a revolver and a fan of letters. Sonya read one - to her mother. The son wrote about the theft of government money: the loss was discovered, and suicide is the only way to avoid dishonor, the ill-fated Werther informed his mother. Sonya placed five hundred rubles on top of the envelopes, pressed them with her revolver and just as quietly left the room.

Sonya's broad nature was not alien to good deeds - if her whimsical thought at these moments turned to those whom she loved. Who, if not her own distant daughters, stood before her eyes when Sonya learned from the newspapers that she had completely robbed the unfortunate widow, the mother of two girls. These 5,000 stolen rubles were a lump sum benefit for the death of her husband, a minor official. Sonya didn’t think twice: she sent the widow five thousand and a small letter by mail. “Dear Madam! I read in the newspapers about the grief that befell you, which I was the cause of due to my unbridled passion for money, I am sending you your 5,000 rubles and I advise you to hide your money deeper in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness, I send my regards to your poor orphans.”

One day, the police found her original dress in Sonya’s Odessa apartment, made specifically for shoplifting. It was, in essence, a bag in which even a small roll of Expensive fabric could be hidden. Sonya demonstrated her special skills in jewelry stores. In the presence of many customers and with the help of her “agents,” who cleverly distracted the attention of clerks, she quietly hid precious stones under specially grown long nails, replaced rings with diamonds with fake ones, and hid the stolen goods in a flower pot standing on the counter so that she could come back the next day. and pick up the stolen goods.

A special page in her life is occupied by thefts on trains - individual first class compartments. Bankers, foreign businessmen, large landowners, even generals became victims of the fraud - in Frolov’s, for example, on Nizhny Novgorod railway she stole 213,000 rubles.

Exquisitely dressed, Sonya sat in the compartment, playing the role of a marquise, countess or rich widow. Having won over her fellow travelers and pretending that she was succumbing to their advances, the impostor marquise talked a lot, laughed and flirted, waiting for the victim to begin to fall asleep. However, captivated by the appearance and sexual appeals of the frivolous aristocrat, the rich gentlemen did not fall asleep for a long time. And then Sonya used sleeping pills - intoxicating perfumes with a special substance, opium in wine or tobacco, bottles of chloroform, etc. From one Siberian merchant, Sonya stole three hundred thousand rubles (huge money at that time).

She loved to go to the famous Nizhny Novgorod Fair, but she often traveled to Europe, Paris, Nice, preferred German-speaking countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary, rented luxury apartments in Vienna, Budapest, Leipzig, Berlin.

Sonya was not particularly beautiful. She was small in stature, but had an elegant figure and regular facial features; her eyes radiated a sexually hypnotic attraction. Vlas Doroshevich, who talked with the adventuress on Sakhalin, noted that her eyes were “wonderful, infinitely pretty, soft, velvety... and they spoke in such a way that they could even lie perfectly.”

Sonya constantly wore makeup, false eyebrows, wigs, wore expensive Parisian hats, original fur capes, mantillas, and decorated herself with jewelry, for which she had a weakness. She lived on a grand scale. Favorite places Her holidays were Crimea, Pyatigorsk and the foreign resort of Marienbad, where she posed as a titled person, fortunately she had a set of different business cards. She did not count money, did not save for a rainy day. So, having arrived in Vienna in the summer of 1872, she pawned some of the things she had stolen in a pawnshop and, having received 15 thousand rubles as bail, spent it in an instant.

Gradually she got bored of working alone. She put together a gang of relatives, ex-husbands, thief in law Berezin and Swedish-Norwegian citizen Martin Jacobson. Members of the gang unconditionally obeyed the Golden Hand.

Mikhail Osipovich Dinkevich, the father of the family, a respectable gentleman, after 25 years of exemplary service as the director of the men's gymnasium in Saratov, was dismissed. Mikhail Osipovich decided to move to his homeland, Moscow, with his daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren. The Dinkevichs sold the house, added to their savings, and accumulated 125 thousand for a small house in the capital.

While walking around St. Petersburg, the retired director turned into a pastry shop and in the doorway almost knocked over an elegant beauty who had dropped her umbrella in surprise. Dinkevich involuntarily noted that before him was not just a St. Petersburg beauty, but a woman of an exceptionally noble breed, dressed with the simplicity that is achieved only by very expensive tailors. Her hat alone was worth the annual salary of a gymnasium teacher.

Ten minutes later they were drinking coffee with cream at the table, the beauty was pinching a biscuit, Dinkevich had the courage to have a glass of liqueur. When asked about the name, the beautiful stranger answered:

"That's right."

“Oh, Sofya Ivanovna, if only you knew how drawn I am to Moscow.”

And Mikhail Osipovich, suddenly experiencing a surge of confidence, explained his needs to the countess - about a pension, and about a modest capital, and about a dream about a Moscow mansion, not the most luxurious, but worthy of a good family...

“And you know what, dear Mikhail Osipovich...” the countess decided after a moment’s thought, “my husband and I are looking for a reliable buyer. The count has been appointed to Paris as His Majesty’s ambassador...”

“But Countess! I can’t even handle your mezzanine! You have a mezzanine, don’t you?”

“We have,” Timrot grinned. “We have a lot of things. But my husband is the chamberlain of the court. Should we bargain? You, I see, are a noble, educated, experienced man. I wouldn’t want any other owner for Bebut’s nest... "

"So your father is General Bebutov, Caucasian hero?!” Dinkevich was alarmed.

“Vasily Osipovich is my grandfather,” Sofya Ivanovna modestly corrected and rose from the table. “So when will you deign to look at the house?”

We agreed to meet in five days on the train where Dinkevich would board in Klin.

Sonya remembered this town well, or rather, the small station, since out of the whole city she knew only the police station. Sonya always remembered her first adventure with pleasure. At that time she was not even twenty, and with her small stature and grace, she looked sixteen. It was six years later that they began to call her the Golden Hand, when Sheindlya Solomoniak, the daughter of a small moneylender from the Warsaw district, became famous as the think tank and financial god of “raspberries” of international proportions. And then she had only talent, irresistible charm and the school of the “family nest”, which she was no less proud of than Countess Timrot, the Nest not of a general, but of a thieve, where she grew up among moneylenders, buyers of stolen goods, thieves and smugglers. She was at their beck and call, easily learning their languages: Yiddish, Polish, Russian, German. I watched them. And like a true artistic nature, she was imbued with the spirit of adventure and merciless risk.

Well, then, in 1866, she was a modest thief “in trust” on the railroad. By this time, Sonya had already managed, by the way, to run away from her first husband, the merchant Rosenbad, taking not so much for the trip - five hundred rubles. Somewhere “among people” her little daughter was growing up.

So, approaching Klin, in a third-class carriage, where she was doing small things, Sonya noticed a handsome cadet. She sat down, bowed, flattered him with “colonel” and so innocently looked at his cockade, sparkling boots and suitcase next to them with all her eyes (the power of which she already knew well) that the young military man immediately felt the impulse characteristic of all men encountered on Sonya’s path: to protect and take care of this girl with a face fallen angel- if possible, until the end of your days.

At the Klin station it cost her nothing to send a conquered cadet - well, let’s say, for lemonade.

This was the first and last time, when Sonya was caught red-handed. But even here she managed to get out. At the police station, she burst into tears, and everyone, including Misha Gorozhansky, who had been duped and had fallen behind the train, believed that the girl had taken her fellow passenger’s suitcase by mistake, confusing it with her own. Moreover, in the protocol there was a statement from “Sima Rubinshtein” about the loss of three hundred rubles from her.

A few years later, Sonya went to the Maly Theater. And in the brilliant Glumov I suddenly recognized my Klin “client”. Mikhail Gorozhansky, in full accordance with his pseudonym - Reshimov - abandoned his military career for the theater and became the leading actor of Maly. Sonya bought a huge bouquet of roses, put a witty note in it: “To a great actor from his first teacher,” and got ready to send it to the premiere. But on the way, I couldn’t resist and added a gold watch from a nearby pocket to the offering. Still young, Mikhail Reshimov never understood who played a prank on him and why the cover of the expensive souvenir was engraved: “General-in-Chief N for special services to the fatherland on his seventieth birthday.”

But let’s return to “Countess” Sophia Timrot. In Moscow, as expected, she was greeted by a chic departure: a coachman all in white, a gig sparkling with patent leather and lush coats of arms, and a classic pair of bay horses. We stopped by the Dinkevich family on the Arbat - and soon the buyers, as if not daring to enter, crowded at the iron casting gates, behind which stood a palace on a stone plinth with the promised mezzanine.

Holding their breath, the Dinkevichs examined bronze lamps, Pavlovian chairs, mahogany, a priceless library, carpets, oak panels, Venetian windows... The house was sold with furnishings, a garden, outbuildings, a pond - and for only 125 thousand, including mirror carps! Dinkevich's daughter was on the verge of fainting. Mikhail Osipovich himself was ready to kiss the hands not only of the countess, but also of the monumental butler in a powdered wig, as if specially called upon to complete the moral defeat of the provincials.

The maid with a bow handed the countess a telegram on a silver tray, and she, squinting myopically, asked Dinkevich to read it aloud: “In the coming days, presentation to the king, presentation of credentials period, according to the protocol, together with your wife, period, urgently sell the house, leave, period, I’m looking forward to Wednesday, Grigory.”

The "Countess" and the buyer went to the notary's office on Lenivka. When Dinkevich followed Sonya into the darkish reception room, the obliging fat man quickly jumped up to meet them, opening his arms.

This was Itska Rosenbad, Sonya’s first husband and the father of her daughter. Now he was a buyer of stolen goods and specialized in stones and watches. The cheerful Itska adored the clinking breguettes and always had two favorite Bure with him: a gold one, with an engraved hunting scene on the lid, and a platinum one, with a portrait of the Emperor in an enamel medallion. On this watch, Itska once beat an inexperienced Chisinau plucker by almost three hundred rubles. To celebrate, he kept both braces for himself and loved to open them at the same time, checking the time and listening to the gentle discord of the ringing. Rosenbud did not hold a grudge against Sonya; he forgave her five hundred rubles a long time ago, especially since, based on her tips, he had already received a hundred times more. He paid the woman who raised his girl generously and visited her daughter often, unlike Sonya (Although later, having already had two daughters, Sonya became the most tender mother, did not skimp on their upbringing and education - neither in Russia, nor later in France. However, her adult daughters disowned her.)

Having met two years after the escape of his young wife, ex-spouses began to “work” together. Itska, with his cheerful disposition and artistic Warsaw chic, often provided Sonya with invaluable help.

So, the notary, aka Itska, losing his glasses, rushed to Sonya. “Countess!” he cried. “What an honor! Such a star in my pitiful establishment!”

Five minutes later, the notary's young assistant drew up a bill of sale in elegant handwriting. The retired Mr. Director handed over to Countess Timrot, née Bebutova, every penny of the savings of his respectable life. 125 thousand rubles. And two weeks later, two tanned gentlemen came to the Dinkevichs, who were stunned with happiness. These were the Artemyev brothers, fashionable architects, who rented out their house while traveling around Italy. Dinke-vich hanged himself in cheap rooms...

Sonya's main assistants in this case were captured a couple of years later. Itska Rosenbad and Mikhel Bluvshtein (butler) went to prison companies, Khunya Goldshtein (coachman) went to prison for three years, and then went abroad “with a ban on returning to Russian state"Sonka loved to work with her relatives and ex-husbands. All three were no exceptions: not only the Warsaw resident Itska, but also both “Romanian subjects” were at one time legally married to “mother”.

She came across more than once. Sonya was tried in Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Kharkov, but she always managed to either cleverly escape from the police station or achieve an acquittal. However, the police were hunting for her in many cities Western Europe. Let's say, in Budapest, by order of the Royal Court of Justice, all her belongings were seized; In 1871, the Leipzig police transferred Sonya to the supervision of the Russian Embassy. She escaped this time too, but was soon detained by the Viennese police, who confiscated her chest of stolen items.

Thus began a streak of misfortune; her name often appeared in the press, and photographs of her were posted in police stations. It became increasingly difficult for Sonya to disappear into the crowd and maintain her freedom with the help of bribes.

She shone during the happy times of her stellar career in Europe, but Odessa was the city of luck and love for her...

Wolf Bromberg, a twenty-year-old sharper and raider, nicknamed Vladimir Kochubchik, had an inexplicable power over Sonya. He extorted from her large sums money. Sonya took unnecessary risks more often than before, became greedy, irritable, and even descended to pickpocketing. Not too handsome, from the category of “pretty” men with a mustache shaved into a thread, narrow in bone, with lively eyes and virtuoso hands - he was the only one who once risked setting Sonya up. On the day of her angel, September 30, Wolf decorated the neck of his mistress with a velvet with a blue diamond , which was taken as bail from an Odessa jeweler. The collateral was a mortgage on part of the house on Lanzheron. The cost of the house was four thousand more than the cost of the stone - and the jeweler paid the difference in cash. A day later, Wolf unexpectedly returned the diamond, announcing that the gift was not to the lady’s taste. Half an hour later, the jeweler discovered the fake, and an hour later he established that there was no house on Lanzheron. When he broke into Bromberg’s rooms on Moldavanka, Wolf “admitted” that Sonya had given him a copy of the stone and that she had concocted a false pledge. The jeweler went to see Sonya not alone, but with a police officer.

Her trial lasted from December 10 to December 19, 1880 in the Moscow District Court. Feigning noble indignation, Sonya desperately fought with the judicial officials, not admitting either the charges or the presented material Evidence. Despite the fact that witnesses identified her from a photograph, Sonya stated that Zolotaya Ruchka was a completely different woman, and she lived on the means of her husband and familiar fans. Sonya was especially outraged by the revolutionary leaflets planted in her apartment by the police. In a word, she behaved in such a way that the jury later attorney A Shmakov, recalling this trial, called her a woman capable of “putting a good hundred men in her belt.”

And yet, according to the court’s decision, she received a harsh sentence: “The Warsaw bourgeois Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Rosenbad, aka Rubinstein, aka Shkolnik, Brenner and Bluvshtein, née Solomoniak, having been deprived of all rights to her fortune, be exiled to a settlement in the most remote places of Siberia.”

The place of exile was the remote village of Luzhki, Irkutsk province, from where in the summer of 1885 Sonya escaped, but five months later she was captured by the police. For escaping from Siberia, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor and 40 lashes. However, even in prison, Sonya did not waste time; she fell in love with the tall prison guard, non-commissioned officer Mikhailov, with a lush mustache. He gave his passion a civilian dress and on the night of June 30, 1886, brought her out. But Sonya only enjoyed herself for four months freedom. After a new arrest, she ended up in the Nizhny Novgorod prison castle. Now she had to serve a hard sentence in Sakhalin.

She couldn’t live without a man, and even at the stage she became friends with a fellow convict, a brave, hardened elderly thief and murderer, Blokha.

On Sakhalin, Sonya, like all women, at first lived as a free resident. Accustomed to expensive “luxuries” of the European class, to fine linen and chilled champagne, Sonya slipped a penny to the guard soldier to let her into the dark barracks entryway, where she met with Blokha . During these short meetings, Sonya and her seasoned roommate developed an escape plan.

I must say that escaping Sakhalin was not such a difficult task. This was not the first time that Blokha had fled and knew that from the taiga, where three dozen people work under the supervision of one soldier, it would not cost anything to get through the hills to the north, to the narrowest place of the Tatar Strait between Capes Pogobi and Lazarev. And there is desolation, you can put together a raft and move to the mainland. But Sonya, who even here had not gotten rid of her passion for theatrical adventures, and was also afraid of days of hunger, came up with her own version. They will follow the well-trodden and lived-in path, but they will not hide, but will play a game of hard labor assignment: Sonya in a soldier’s dress will “escort Flea.” The repeat offender killed the guard, and Sonya changed into his clothes.

The flea was caught first. Sonya, who continued her journey alone, got lost and went to the cordon. But this time she was lucky. The doctors of the Alexander Infirmary insisted on removing corporal punishment from the Golden Hand: she turned out to be pregnant. Bloch received forty lashes and was shackled in hand and leg shackles. When they flogged him, he shouted: “For my cause, your honor, for my cause! That’s what I need!”

Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka's pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Her further imprisonment in Sakhalin resembled a delirious dream. Sonya was accused of fraud; she was involved - as a leader - in the case of the murder of the settler-shopkeeper Nikitin.

Finally, in 1891, for the second escape, she was handed over to the terrible Sakhalin executioner Komlev. Stripped naked, surrounded by hundreds of prisoners, under their encouraging hooting, the executioner inflicted fifteen lashes on her. Not a sound was uttered by Sonya. The Golden Hand crawled to her room and fell onto the bunk. For two years and eight months, Sonya wore hand shackles and was kept in a damp solitary confinement with a dim tiny window covered with fine bars.

Chekhov described her this way in the book “Sakhalin”, “a small, thin, already graying woman with a rumpled old woman’s face... She walks around her cell from corner to corner, and it seems that she is constantly sniffing the air, like a mouse in a mousetrap, and her facial expression is mousey." At the time of the events described by Chekhov, that is, in 1891, Sofya Bluvshtein was only forty-five years old...

Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was visited by writers, journalists, and foreigners. For a fee you were allowed to talk to her. She didn’t like to talk, she lied a lot, and was confused about her memories. Exotic lovers took pictures with her in a composition: a convict woman, a blacksmith, a warden - it was called “The handcuffing of the famous Sonya the Golden Hand.” One of these photographs, sent to Chekhov by Innokenty Ignatievich Pavlovsky, a Sakhalin photographer, is kept in the State Literary Museum.

After serving her sentence, Sonya was supposed to remain on Sakhalin as a free settler. She became the owner of the local "café-chantant", where she brewed kvass, sold vodka under the counter and organized fun evenings with dancing. At the same time she became friends with the cruel repeat offender Nikolai Bogdanov, but life with him was worse than hard labor. Sick and embittered, she decided to escape again and left Aleksandrovsk. She walked about two miles and, having lost strength, fell. The guards found her. A few days later the Golden Hand died.

And on Sakhalin, legends multiplied one after another. Many believed that the real Sonya escaped along the road, and her “replacement” ended up in hard labor. Anton Chekhov and Vlas Doroshevich, who talked with Sonya on Sakhalin, noticed the age discrepancy between the legendary Sonya Bluvshtein and the “person in hard labor.” They also talked about the prisoner’s bourgeois mentality. And, as we remember, Sonya was very smart and educated even for high society.

In the 20s, Nepmen used to scare each other with it. But at that time, numerous followers acted under the name Sonya, often acting simply as guides. They were far from Sonya's talents. Yes, and the time was different. Residents of Odessa claim that the Golden Hand lived under a different name in Odessa on Prokhorovskaya Street and died only in 1947.

And in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery there is a monument to Sonya. Female figure in full height made of a piece of white marble walks in the shade of forged palm trees. This sculpture was specially commissioned from a Milanese master and then brought to Russia (they say it was done by Odessa, Neapolitan and London swindlers). There are also many secrets around this grave. There are always fresh flowers and scatterings of coins on it. Inscriptions from “grateful thieves” often appear. True, over the past 20 years, out of three palm trees, only one has remained. And the sculpture is without a head. They say that during a drunken fight, Sonya was dropped and her head was taken away.

Biography of Sofia Bluvshtein, obituary, life and death. When she was born and died Sonya Golden Hand. Monument at Vagankovskoye Cemetery. Photos and videos.

Years of life

born 1846, died 1902

Epitaph

The earthly path is short,
The memory is eternal.

Biography of Sofya Bluvshtein

B Iography of Sonya Zolotoy Ruchki- the story of a woman who became famous thanks to her very dubious talent. Still, it's hard not to admire or be surprised by how deftly tricked me around my finger men, guardians of the law, naive ordinary people and even strict jailers, this little charming woman. To this day Films and TV series are being made about the talented fraudster, the life of Sonya Golden Hand, whose nickname speaks for itself, seems so incredible.

Sonya's history is full of secrets and mysteries; the reliable dates of birth and death of Sonya the Golden Hand are still unknown. It is possible that she did not die at all on Sakhalin Island, but somewhere in Odessa or Moscow, having managed to escape from prison and leaving a fake friend in her place. All her life There were all sorts of legends about Sonya- they say, she lived in a Turkish harem, opened a school of thieves in London, had an uncountable number of lovers and robbed in all the cities of Russia and Europe! According to official data, she born in Warsaw. Since childhood, Sophia had the gift of theatrical transformation and an adventurous character, which determined her fate.

Sonya was married several times, and either her husbands were cheaters themselves, or she made them so, forcing her to participate in her machinations. She was first seriously arrested when she was already about 30 years old, then she was exiled to a remote village in Irkutsk region, but soon fled from there. Afterwards, she ran away more than once, and often not without the help of guards who were in love with her. After another attempt to escape, Sonya was even shackled. In 1980 I met her Anton Chekhov, then he wrote: “This is a small, thin, already graying woman with a rumpled, old woman’s face. She has shackles on her hands: on the bunk there is only a fur coat made of gray sheepskin, which serves her both as warm clothing and as a bed. She walks around her cell from corner to corner, and it seems that she is constantly sniffing the air, like a mouse in a mousetrap, and her facial expression is mouselike.”.

The death of Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, according to prison authorities, occurred in 1902. The cause of death of Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka was a cold. But even then there were rumors that the fraudster had long escaped from prison; there was constant information that she had been seen in different cities Russia and Ukraine. The funeral of Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka took place at the Aleksandrovsky post, in the same place, at the local cemetery, there was the grave of Sonya the Golden Hand, on the site of which a residential sector has already been built today, so it's impossible to visit her.

Life line

1846 Year of birth of Sonya Golden Hand (Sophia Solomoniak-Blyuvshtein-Shtendel).
1860 Beginning of criminal activities.
1865 Birth of daughter Sura-Rivka Rosenbad.
1875 Birth of daughter Tabba Bluvshtein.
1879 Birth of daughter Michelina Bluvshtein.
1880 Arrest in Odessa for major fraud, transfer to Moscow.
December 10-19, 1880 Trial above Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka, a link to a settlement in Siberia.
1881 Escape from the place of exile.
1885 Detention of Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka in Smolensk, sentence to three years of hard labor.
June 30, 1886 Escape from Smolensk prison.
1888 Another arrest, sentence to hard labor on Sakhalin Island.
1890 Meeting with Anton Chekhov.
1898 Liberation, settlement in the city of Iman.
1899 Departure of Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka to Khabarovsk, return to Sakhalin Island.
July 1899 Baptism by Orthodox rite with the name Maria.
1902 Year of death of Sofia Bluvshtein (the exact date of death of Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka is unknown).

Memorable places

1. Powązki, microdistrict in Warsaw (former village), where Sofia Bluvshtein was born.
2. The city of Odessa, where Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was arrested in 1880.
3. The village of Luzhki, where Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was exiled for major fraud.
4. The city of Smolensk, where she was captured in 1885.
5. City of Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky ( former post Alexandrovsky on Sakhalin Island), where Sonya was sent in 1888 and where Sonya the Golden Hand was buried.
6. Dalnerechensk (formerly Iman), where Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka remained in the settlement in 1898.
7. Vagankovskoe cemetery, where the monument to Sonya the Golden Hand is located.

Episodes of life

There are several legends about Sonya the Golden Hand, indicating that she was not devoid of compassion and kindness. For example, once Sonya saved a young man from suicide who was involved in a scandal involving the theft of government money. Another time, she found out that she had robbed a widow, a mother of two children, on a train, and sent her the stolen money back by mail with an apology.

Monument to Sonya the Golden Hand

Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka still enjoys love and popularity in criminal circles, and simply among young people who dream of quickly getting money. Thus, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery there is a sculpture of a woman by an unknown Italian master. For some reason it is believed that this is the grave of Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka, although she is buried on Sakhalin Island. But precisely to this monument to Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka on Vagankovsky all year round visitors flock, leaving notes and inscriptions asking for help to get rich (the symbolic monument is called a cenotaph).

Condolences

“She was distinguished by such charm, such charm, such internal energy that she surpassed most criminals not only in Russia, but throughout Europe. She knew how to subjugate everyone around her to her will.”
Anastasia Mikulchina, actress who played Sonya the Golden Hand

Documentary film “Sonka the Golden Hand. End of the legend."

Sonya Golden Handle, aka Rubinstein, aka Shkolnik, aka Brenner, aka Bluvshtein, nee Sheindlya-Sura Solomoniak.

Sofia Ivanovna Bluvshtein was born in 1846 in the small town of Powonzki, Warsaw district. Sheindley spent his childhood among merchants who bought stolen goods - profiteers, moneylenders and smugglers.

As they say, she did not sparkle with beauty, but she had that inner charm that was simply impossible to resist. This is how she was described in the police report: “Height 1 m 53 cm, pockmarked face, moderate nose with wide nostrils, wart on the right cheek, brunette, curly hair on the forehead, mobile eyes, impudent and talkative.” But, apparently, the ability to use makeup and wigs made the swindler’s external flaws invisible.

This woman played brilliant combinations, cleverly stole money and at the same time managed not to leave any evidence behind her. Any man could envy her intelligence and fortitude, and, in addition, she was a subtle psychologist who knew how to win over any person. It was interesting to communicate with her, Sonya knew five languages, and was persistent and convincing in her judgments. And she had the main thing that made her stand out from the crowd of ordinary scammers - she had enormous talent. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this talent was channeled into crime. The brave, proud, independent adventurer Sonya was not afraid to plunge into the most risky scams, because... She had a sharp mind and calculated the development of the situation several moves ahead. Sofya Bluvshtein did not receive an education, but a life full of adventures and dangers turned this person into one of the most educated women of her era. Aristocrats of Russia and European countries they took her for a society lady. For this reason, she traveled around Europe without much difficulty and introduced herself as a baroness, a countess, or a viscountess... No one doubted her belonging to the aristocracy.

She loved to go to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, but often traveled to Europe, Paris, Nice, preferred German-speaking countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary, rented luxury apartments in Vienna, Budapest, Leipzig, Berlin. She lived on a grand scale. Her favorite vacation spots were Crimea, Pyatigorsk and the foreign resort of Marienbad, where she posed as a titled person, fortunately she had a set of different business cards. She did not count money, did not save for a rainy day. So, having arrived in Vienna in the summer of 1872, she pawned some of the things she had stolen in a pawnshop and, having received 15 thousand rubles as bail, spent it in an instant.

In 1864, when Sheindla-Sura Solomoniak turned eighteen, she married the grocer I. Rosenband. In Warsaw, the act of her marriage has been preserved to this day. A year and a half later, the young woman ran away from her husband with her daughter and five hundred rubles.

From 1868 to 1874, Sophia married several more times. One of her husbands was the famous card sharper and carriage thief Mikhel Bluvshtein, whose surname she would bear until the end of her days. In the criminal field, Sophia declared herself quite early. There are known petty thefts when she was 13 - 14 years old.

There are known cases where Sonya showed nobility towards poor people who suffered from her actions. One day she learned from the newspapers that one of the women she had robbed was a poor widow of a common employee. After the death of her husband, the widow received a one-time benefit of five thousand rubles. Golden Hand, as soon as she recognized her “client” in a newspaper article, immediately hurried to the post office. Sonya sent the poor widow an amount exceeding the amount of stolen money and escorted remittance letter: “Dear Madam! I read in the newspaper about the misfortune that befell you. I regret that my passion for money was the cause of the misfortune. I return your money to you and advise you to hide it deeper in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness. I send my regards to your poor little ones ".

While “working” at the hotel, Sonya looked at one of the rooms. Opening the door, she entered the room, dimly lit by a candle standing on the table. Sonya looked around. On the bed she saw a man sleeping with clothes on top of the bedspread young man. The Golden Hand approached the table where purses, watches and other pleasant accessories of hotel clients are usually kept. But on the table, next to the candle, there were only some papers and a revolver. Sonya took the letters in her hands. They were addressed to the chief of police, the city prosecutor, the innkeeper and the mother. From the letters she learned that the young man had decided to commit suicide. It turned out that this young man spent 300 government rubles on the treatment of his seriously ill sister. He asked to calmly accept the news of his suicide as the only remedy for dishonor. Sonya put 500 rubles in one bill next to the letters and quietly left.

In November 1885, the Golden Hand was nevertheless caught in several thefts of jewelry worth a large amount. She was guarded by the most trained guards. The Bluvshtein case caused a great stir in Russia. The hall where the court hearing was held could not accommodate everyone. The sentence was strict - hard labor. Sending to Sakhalin.

On the day the steamer departed, the entire embankment of the Quarantine Pier was dotted with people. Odessa came to say goodbye to Sonya the Golden Hand. On the deck of the ship departing for Sakhalin, among the officials of the administration was the Odessa mayor P. Zelenoy. High authorities wanted to take a closer look at the famous thief. After a short conversation, Mayor Zelenoy wished Sonya a successful journey and felt sorry for the Sakhalin authorities. Touched by such attention, Sonya decided to give a farewell gift to the governor. She extended her hand to the governor with a gold watch with an applied coat of arms eagle on the lid.
“Thank you,” the governor weakly thanked Sonya, looking at the dangling empty chain on his jacket, and immediately, to the cheerful laughter of the sailors, he hurried to go ashore.

On Sakhalin, Sonya’s criminal talent did not allow her to live without a “case.” She rallied notorious thugs around her and began planning criminal operations against wealthy settlers. In May 1891, Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka escapes. This escape became legendary in its own way. The disappearance of the Golden Hand was noticed immediately. Two squads of soldiers were sent in pursuit. One squad chased the fugitive through the forest, the other was waiting for her at the edge. The chase continued for several days. A figure in a soldier's dress ran out of the forest to the edge of the forest. The detachment commander, tormented by anticipation, commanded “Fire.” A volley of thirty guns was heard. The shooting was to kill. But the figure fell to the ground a moment before the shots were fired. Thirty bullets whizzed overhead.
- Don't shoot! “I give up,” a desperate female voice rang out.
It was Sonya the Golden Hand dressed as a soldier.
In June of the same year, for the second escape, Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was punished with 15 lashes (from the official document).

Officially, she began to be listed as the owner of the kvass plant. She brewed excellent kvass, built a carousel, recruited a four-piece orchestra from among the settlers, found a magician among the vagabonds, organized performances, dances, festivities, copying Odessa cafes in everything. She unofficially sold vodka, bought and resold stolen items, and organized a gambling house. Police officials complained that they searched her three times a week - day and night, but no one knew how and where she managed to store vodka. They even checked the floor and walls - to no avail.

There were a lot of legends about her on Sakhalin. For a long time the opinion was held that this was not Sonya at all, that she was a “replacement”, a figurehead who was serving her sentence while the real Golden Hand continued her elusive activities in rich Europe. It is a known fact that even the high Sakhalin authorities could not fully believe that Sofia Bluvshtein was serving a sentence at hard labor.

ABOUT last days There are many legends about the Golden Hand on Sakhalin. But many historians agree that the already ill Sonya decided to escape again. They say that it was a gesture of despair, the last push towards freedom. Sonya walked only about two miles. Her strength left her and she fell unconscious. The guards found her during their rounds. A few days later, without regaining consciousness, she died in the prison infirmary.

True, in the mid-nineties a number of mysterious robberies swept across Europe. And the main suspect was a woman. The handwriting and description of the criminal resembled our heroine. The criminal was not caught. Again everything pointed to the handwriting of the Golden Hand. But she was in hard labor.

The last years of her life, as the legend says, the Golden Hand lived with her daughters in Moscow. Although they were in every possible way ashamed of their mother’s scandalous popularity. Old age and health undermined by hard labor did not allow him to actively engage in the old profession of thieves. But the Moscow police were faced with strange and mysterious robberies. A small monkey appeared in the city, which in jewelry stores jumped on a visitor who was picking up a ring or diamond, swallowed the valuable item and ran away. Sonya brought this monkey from Odessa.

Legend has it that Sonya the Golden Hand died at an old age. She was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, plot No. 1. After her death, legend claims, a monument was commissioned from Odessa, Neapolitan and London scammers with money from Milanese architects and delivered to Russia.

In the history of the criminal world Tsarist Russia, perhaps, there was no more famous and famous female criminal than Sonya the Golden Hand. Fascinating thieves' stories about her have been passed down from mouth to mouth for many generations.

Sofya Ivanovna (Sheindlya-Sura Leibovna) Bluvshtein(nee Solomoniak; 1846, Powązki, Warsaw province) is a legendary Russian criminal-adventurer of Jewish origin, known by the nickname Sonya the Golden Hand.

In the history of the criminal world of Tsarist Russia, there was perhaps no more famous and famous female criminal than Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka. Fascinating thieves' stories about her have been passed down from mouth to mouth for many generations. She herself became a legend during her lifetime, and all the newspapers talked in detail about her adventures. Postcards depicting the famous thief could be found in the most remote corners of the country, and at the beginning of the silent film era, an entire series was filmed about her. Sonya the Golden Hand, according to eyewitnesses, was not distinguished by external beauty. In surviving police documents, she is described as follows: “Height 153 cm, face pockmarked, nose with wide nostrils, thin lips, wart on the right cheek.”

But Sophia was surprisingly charming and knew many seduction techniques. This is artistry, the gift of transformation, and the talent of a real psychologist. All these abilities made the woman the queen of the underworld of St. Petersburg. Her whole life consisted of deceptions and falsifications, so after 100 years we can say almost nothing about her for sure.

According to one version, Sophia was born in 1859 in Ukraine into the family of a local barber, Sheindel. The girl was severely abused by her stepmother, and at the age of 17, unfortunate Sonya ran away with a young Greek man. Later she was left alone, but soon married an Odessa sharper. The young parents could not adequately provide for their two daughters from this marriage due to the instability of their husband’s earnings. When he eventually went to prison, Sonya herself took up the “family business” to feed the children. The marriage soon fizzled out, and Sophia married an old rich Jew, Shelom Shkolnik (whom she later divorced, leaving her without money). And then her husband became the railway thief Mikhel Bluvshtein, under whose name she appeared in all court cases. This marriage soon broke up, giving her a daughter, Tabba.

But there is another version of the birth of the famous fraudster and thief. According to her, Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak was born in the town of Powązki, Warsaw district, into a family of buyers of stolen goods and smugglers. Little Sonya (the girl herself came up with this name, since the name Sheindl was given from birth did not suit her) from childhood, she observed the sale of counterfeit money in her house, witnessed many thieves' transactions, and sometimes she herself carried out small orders for buyers of stolen goods. Older sister Feiga was also a talented thief, but Sonya beat everyone else.

She almost always acted alone. Sofya Bluvshtein did not like small matters and impromptu things. She prepared for each task carefully, trying to predict contingencies. At the same time, she spoke five languages and perfectly mastered secular manners. This allowed her to always remain an “aristocrat” of the criminal world. Sophia was as proud of her nickname, which she received in the early seventies, as a title, and her lovers were the most famous St. Petersburg swindlers.

Sonya mercilessly robbed the rich and was generous to the poor. Once, having learned from the newspapers that the woman she had robbed turned out to be the poor widow of a simple employee, Sonya immediately hurried to the post office: “Dear Madam! I read in the newspaper about the misfortune that befell you. I regret that my passion for money caused unhappiness. I return your money to you and advise you to hide it better in the future. Once again I ask for your forgiveness. I send my regards to your poor little ones.”

Despite the fact that Sonya preferred to act alone, she still created her own gang. And in 1872, she was offered to join the famous criminal club of Russian swindlers, “Jacks of Hearts.” A year later she was already one of the “leaders” of this club. Its activities spread to Moscow, Odessa, Rostov-on-Don, Riga, Kyiv, Kharkov, Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod and others largest cities Russian Empire.

The Golden Hand had her own “signature tricks”: she hid precious stones under specially grown long nails, and for shoplifting she built a bag dress in which a whole roll of fabric could be hidden. Later, she “got to work” with the monkey - while the owner was bargaining, the animal swallowed stones, and at home he got rid of them with the help of an enema.

Robbery of the banker Dogmarov.

In October 1884, in the Odessa Fanconi cafe, a certain banker met Mrs. Sophia San Donato. During the conversation, she asked to exchange her rent for a thousand rubles. It soon became clear that the charming lady was leaving for Moscow by evening train. By “coincidence of circumstances,” the banker himself was supposed to travel on the same train from Odessa to Moscow. He, like a true gentleman, offered himself as a travel companion. In the compartment they chatted pleasantly and ate chocolates. In the morning, the businessman, who slept soundly, found neither money nor securities in the amount of 43 thousand rubles. Also, there was no beautiful companion in the compartment.

Jeweler robbery.

In May 1883, a charming client appeared in von Mehl's jewelry store. A young lady, socialite and wealthy, introduced herself as the wife of a famous psychiatrist. She selected products from French craftsmen worth thirty thousand rubles, wrote out an invoice and arranged a meeting at her home. At the appointed hour, a jeweler with a collection of diamonds entered the doctor’s waiting room. The hospitable hostess met him, took the box, and invited him to her husband’s office. The psychiatrist who was waiting for him was not at all surprised by the visit. When the jeweler persistently demanded that the psychiatrist pay the bills or return the diamonds, the orderlies tied him up and took him to a hospital. As it turned out in the evening, the beauty introduced herself to the doctor as von Mehl’s wife, said that her husband was crazy about jewelry, and paid for his treatment in advance. By the time everything became clear, Sonya was already gone.

The story of a brothel robbery.

One day Sofya Bluvshtein found herself in Paris. Here she came up with the idea of organizing another scam, playing the role of an inexperienced provincial French girl. Chance brought her together with Mrs. Peret, who expressed her sympathy for the girl and kindly invited her to visit her home. The experienced swindler immediately realized that her new acquaintance was the mistress of a fashionable brothel, and she, as an inexperienced, but young and rather attractive girl trying to lure him into it. Sophia with imaginary fervor and quite plausibly dropped that she would really like to pose for some artist. The hostess offered the “Golden Hand” an acquaintance, apparently with a very important client of the house.

Finding themselves in the room together, the “Golden Hand” quietly added some kind of drug to the old man’s wine. The visitor soon lost consciousness. The “Golden Hand” took everything more or less valuable that the man had and decided to rob the rest of the visitors to the brothel. With a cry of “He’s dead, he’s dead!” she began to rush around all the rooms occupied by visitors. Half-naked girls and their clients began to jump out of their rooms into the hall in panic. Within 10 minutes, Sonya was riding in a night cab towards the station. She carried with her countless wallets, gold cigarette cases and watches, which she acquired while visitors fled their rooms in panic.

Robbery of Khlebnikov's jewelry store.

In August 1885, the store manager T. recommended a collection of jewelry worth 22 thousand 300 rubles to the Courland baroness Sophia Buxhoeveden. When the jewelry was packed, the respectable lady remembered that she had left the money at home. Together with the diamonds, she left for cash, and as collateral she left her relatives accompanying her - a gray-haired father and a female baby along with a bonnet. When two hours later the manager reported the robbery to the police station, it turned out that the “relatives” had been hired through an advertisement in the newspaper.

Robbery of a jewelry store in Geneva.

Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka was an excellent director who knew the intricacies of dramatic acting and took into account all the intricacies of human psychology. She could create the most believable situation that corresponded to her director's intent. The owner of the jewelry store helpfully offered the two ladies more and more jewelry with diamonds and precious stones. Finally, the women purchased everything they needed for the astronomical sum of 45,000 Austrian schillings. One of them, named Sophie, asked the owner to carefully pack what she bought and suddenly asked: “Tell me, do you have a phone. I would like to speak with my husband, the director of the new city bank. What if he doesn't approve of my choice? I have to go to him and show him the purchase, if you don’t mind. I’ll leave you my friend as collateral.”

The woman left the store, and after a while two young policemen quickly entered the store. They grabbed a friend who had been left as collateral. Posing as police agents, they said that the lady who had just left the store was a known thief, and she had just been captured. Before leaving, they suggested that the owner receive his jewelry at the nearest police station. At the police station they told the jeweler that they had no idea about any robbery there, and that he had been robbed very cunningly.

Numerous arrests of Sonya.

Sofya Bluvshtein mastered the skill of transformation. She toured all over Russia - Odessa, Moscow, Tiflis, Astrakhan. At first, Sonya came across surprisingly rarely, and even in these cases she managed to get away with it.

But she was lucky in this sense until one incident in Smolensk. After robbing several jewelry stores, she was arrested. Everyone was talking about the first trial of Sonya Russian newspapers. During the few days spent in the Smolensk prison, Sonya charmed the guards. She read poetry to them different languages, told amazing stories about life in distant countries... As a result, one gendarme arranged an escape and fled with the defendant. Afterwards he was caught and tried, and Sonya returned to her “work”. Once she even fleeced her own lawyer, but he still continued to defend her.

1885 turned out to be a bad year for Sonya - she was caught stealing from several large jewelry companies and was arrested again. The trial lasted from December 10 to December 19, 1880 in the Moscow District Court. Feigning noble indignation, Sonya desperately fought with the judicial officials, not admitting either the charges or the presented material evidence. Despite the fact that witnesses identified her from a photograph, Sonya stated that the Golden Hand was a completely different woman, and she lived on the means of her husband and familiar fans...

The court sentenced the woman to exile to Sakhalin. A huge crowd saw her off, and even the mayor himself came to wish her bon voyage. Touched by such attention, Sonya decided to make a reciprocal gesture and gave him a gold pocket watch. Only a couple of minutes later the man realized that it was his own watch!

Sonya fled from Sakhalin three times. During her first escape, she came under constant surveillance by guards. But they took pity on her and did not punish her with whips, as was expected, because of her pregnancy. But it was a lie. In 1891, Sofya Bluvshtein made her next unsuccessful escape. After wandering around the island for several days, she accidentally came upon a search party, which was given the order to shoot at her to kill. Of the 30 bullets fired, not one hit Sonya! For this escape she received 15 lashes.

Gradually, the Golden Hand came to terms with her situation and became the owner of the leaven. At the same time, she sold vodka, bought stolen goods, and even opened a gambling den. Despite frequent searches, the police were unable to convict her of any illegal act. On the third attempt to escape, either alone or with her lover, the murderer Bogdanov, Sophia broke down. According to some sources, she died soon after. According to others, she resigned herself and lived out her life as a kvass keeper.

But it’s hard to believe that this woman’s adventurous life could end so calmly. In fact, even the authorities of the penal servitude were not sure that it was Sophia Bluvshtein who was serving her sentence, and not a figurehead. Doubts intensified after a series of thefts that swept across Europe in the late nineties. The handwriting was very familiar!

Odessa residents claimed that Sonya lived incognito on Prokhorovskaya Street. And in 1921, when the Cheka shot her last lover, she drove in a car along Deribasovskaya, scattering money “for her husband’s wake.” They say that the Golden Hand lived out her last days in Moscow with her daughters, who hid her from people. That’s why she was buried in the capital after her death...

They say a lot, but no one knows how it really happened. There are also different opinions about the exact burial place of the famous swindler. According to one version, Sofia Bluvshtein was buried in a meter-long section of the Vagankovsky cemetery. At her grave, with the money of Odessa, Rostov, Neapolitan and London thieves, an unusual monument was erected by Milanese craftsmen: near a tall forged palm tree stands a full-length white marble figure of a woman with her arms raised to the sky. And at the foot of the monument there were the following inscriptions: “Help, Sonya, we are going to work” or “Sonya, teach us to live”...

In art

In 2007, the television series “Sonka the Golden Hand” was released, directed by Viktor Merezhko. The main role was played by Anastasia Mikulchina.

The group “Bad Balance” dedicated a song to Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka in the album “Legends of Gangsters”

Source - http://ugro.com.ua
Source - http://ru.wikipedia.org
Source - http://russisk.ru

Her life was ruled by passion. Once upon a time, a 17-year-old unfortunate girl, Sonya, ran away with a young Greek man from her evil stepmother. Later she married an Odessa swindler Blyuvshtein, and when he ended up in prison, left alone, she took over the “family business” in order to feed the children. And she also went to prison because of passion - she took on the blame of her young lover.

Sofya Bluvshtein or Sonya the Golden Pen. Oh, how many stories and legends were told about her nimble fingers. And even more - about the charm and charm that the deceiver so cleverly used. This girl had brilliant ingenuity and talent. She found it easy to rob jewelry houses and wealthy bankers. Luck went hand in hand. Sonya's main trump card was artistry and the ability to transform, trying on the life and image of other people. The public adored her. Each scam became a sensation in society. The thief lived with passion and excitement. Another success, the desire for profit and power kindled real flames in her soul, turning passion into the meaning of life. But, probably, the main scam of her life was her love for a young gambler named Kochubchik.

Fatal meeting

Sonya the Golden Pen - a legend criminal world.

It was truly a fateful visit to Odessa. Sonya fell in love with this city, and also, unexpectedly for herself, developed a strong, burning feeling for the young, thin sharpie. Having never known such a strong feeling before, Sonya was ready to do anything to keep her young lover. And he, in turn, taking advantage of such a gift of fate, knew no restrictions either in money or in revelry. Kochubchik lost a lot and constantly demanded more. Volodka saw in the famous thief an opportunity to live in grand style.

One of the few lifetime portraits of Sofia Bluvshtein.

At first, he even called Sonya mom, and not beloved, as the young lady herself wanted. Almost every night, the sharper took the stolen treasures and went to play cards. Sonya rushed after him, hoping to bring her beloved to reason. Kochubchik quickly got tired of such guardianship; the thief irritated him and caused him aggression. The gambler raised his hand against the girl and did not spare bad words, driving her out of the gambling houses. And she justified his behavior with another loss, she believed that her love would be enough for both of them.

Photo of Sofia Bluvshtein from police archives.

The girl was full of hopes of melting the heart of the sharpie, endured all the humiliation and showered her lover with diamonds. And it wasn’t enough for him. Living in such tension, Sonya became careless and was forced to take more and more risks. The gambler quickly became tired of Sonya herself and her dependence on her. He spent all her money and jewelry; he didn’t need her anymore. The thief was left completely destitute, with no money or jewelry. Moreover, she has a tail and is being followed everywhere. She understood perfectly well that the only way out was to run.

Road to Sakhalin

But how to escape? When the only meaning of her life will remain in this city. It's easier to die than not to see him. And she stayed, knowing that she was going to certain death. She looked for her beloved everywhere, followed on his heels. And Volodka was so disgusted with poor, old Aunt Sonya that he dreamed of getting rid of her in any way. Volodka, without hesitation, betrayed his patroness in order to recklessly plunge into the world of excitement and young ladies. Sonya ended up in the dock, and then was exiled to hard labor on the island of Sakhalin. And Volodka Kochubchik, having taken the thief’s money into his hands, settled down well for himself, buying himself an estate with these funds.

Sonya the Golden Pen in hard labor.

Sonya tried to escape from hard labor three times. And not in order to live in freedom or continue his glorious activities. The only purpose of the escape was to see my beloved, to look into Volodka Kochubchik’s eyes at least once. She forgave him a long time ago and was ready to forgive all his antics and betrayals for the rest of her life. But she didn’t have freedom and life without her beloved gambler. Imprisonment on the island was not hard labor for Sonya. Hard labor was in her heart. In the impossibility of existing without ever winning the affections of a young lover.

Inscriptions-requests on the monument to Sonya the Golden Pen.

The history of Sonya the Golden Hand is shrouded in riddles, secrets and, of course, deception. Her whole life is a legend that the deceiver created with her own hands. To this day, there are many secrets surrounding the life and death of the great fraudster. However, there is no doubt that only Volodka Kochubchik saw Sonya’s true face. For his sake, the thief tore off all her masks, trampled her pride and laid her life and freedom at his feet.

A marble sculpture of a woman without arms and head is a monument to the legendary swindler Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka.