Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka (Sofia Bluvshtein) - biography, information, personal life. Sonya - Golden Pen: biography, facts from life Sonya golden pen life story

In 1868, the famous queen of thieves came to Dinaburg, where she married a local rich man, an old Jewish man, Shelom Shkolnik.

How did the nickname “Sonka the Golden Hand” come about?

Queen of Crime Sonya-Golden pen She never offended those who were poorer, but she believed that it was a sin not to profit at the expense of big bankers, jewelers and rogue merchants.
Her thieving career unfolded simultaneously with the development railways. Starting with petty thefts in third-class carriages, the talented thief moved to class compartment carriages. Therefore, it is not surprising that Sonya the Golden Hand ended up in Dinaburg. Here in 1868 she married an old, wealthy Jew, Shelom Shkolnik, who was destined to briefly become her second husband. Having robbed the poor man, the charming swindler leaves her Dinaburg husband for a card sharper, whom she soon exchanged for the famous railway thief Mikhel Blyuvshtein. However, she did not wear these marriage shackles for long. The husband, who regularly found either military men or aristocrats in the marriage bed, could not stand it and filed for divorce.

Your nickname "Sonka-Golden Hand" The thief received, for her wild luck, charming hands with sleek, feathered fingers. Under her long nails she hid precious stones stolen from jewelry stores. Under her bag style dress, Sonya managed to carry whole rolls of fabric out of the shops. She invented the original method of hotel theft, called “guten morgen”, or simply “with good morning" Dressed in elegant outfits, Sonya checked into decent hotels and carefully studied the guests, noticing the rich and the careless. Having identified a victim, early in the morning she calmly entered the rooms in silent felt shoes and took out all the most valuable things. If the guest woke up, the thief pretended that she had the wrong number, blushed, flirted - for the sake of business, she could sleep with the victim. Moreover, Sonya did it so sincerely and naturally that it was impossible to resist her.

It can be said that she life path was lined with robbed men.

Sonya the Golden Hand, creator of the thieves' common fund

According to eyewitnesses, Sonya the Golden Hand was far from beautiful. This is how she was described in police documents: “Thin, height 1 m 53 cm, pockmarked face, moderate nose with wide nostrils, wart on the right cheek, light brown hair on the forehead, curly, brown eyes, mobile, impudent, talkative.”

Nevertheless, Sonya enjoyed great success among men. Her charm was akin to witchcraft. Without receiving an education, Sonya easily spoke five languages. Traveling around Europe, she introduced herself as either a countess or a baroness, and no one had the slightest doubt.

The right to be considered the birthplace of the famous swindler is claimed by Odessa-mama, gangster Petersburg and the town of Powonzki, Warsaw district. Her real name at birth was Sheindlya-Sura Leibova Solomoniak. Sonechka’s family, let’s face it, was still the same: buying stolen goods, smuggling, and selling counterfeit money were commonplace. Her older sister Feiga, who had three husbands, was also a thief, but she was far from her younger sister.

At the age of 18, in Warsaw, Sonya married a certain Rosenbad, gave birth to a daughter, Sura-Rivka, and immediately left her husband, robbing him goodbye. With a certain recruit Rubinstein, she fled to Russia, where her crazy career as a thief began. In January 1866, she was first detained by the police on charges of stealing a suitcase, but Sonya cleverly got out that she had grabbed the suitcase by mistake. It was at this time that Sonya the Golden Hand made her first attempt to create a gangster brigade in St. Petersburg, for which she brought the famous thief Levit Sandanovich to the city. It is believed that the idea of ​​the first thieves' common fund and helping comrades in trouble with money pooled together belongs to Sonya herself. Sonya the Golden Hand also ran schools for young thieves in Odessa and London.

Sonya always acted alone, disdained to deal with small matters and, despite the fact that she skillfully knew how to transform, could not stand impromptu speeches. She carefully prepared and thought about each case.

The pretty thief invented a method of stealing by distracting the victim for sex - this method later became known as “hipes”. The "hipes" usually worked in pairs - the woman would bring the client to her room and please him in bed, and her partner (a "cat" looking after the interests of his "cat") would clean out the pockets of the unlucky lover's clothes. The scammer worked inventively and artistically. It was simply impossible to suspect a lady dressed in luxurious furs and gold jewelry. It used to be that Sonya would go into jewelry stores with a trained monkey. Pretending that she was choosing diamonds, she secretly gave a pebble to the animal. The monkey obediently swallowed it or put it behind its cheek, and at home the jewel was removed from the pot. One day a rich lady came into a jewelry store. While looking at the most expensive diamond, she accidentally dropped it on the floor. While the salesman, sweating from exertion, crawled on his hands and knees, looking for the stone, the customer left the store. There was a hole in the heel of her shoe filled with resin. So simply, stepping on the diamond, Sonya did her next job.

Volodya Kochubchik

But soon luck turned away from her - Sonya fell in love. The handsome young thief Volodya Kochubchik (in the world Wolf Bromberg, who began stealing at the age of eight) quickly adapted to living at the expense of his mistress. He lost everything Sonya “earned” at cards, but she had to be nervous, take risks, make mistakes, until in the end she got caught. Although there is a version that Volodya Kochubchik himself sold and handed over Sonya to the police.

After a high-profile trial in Moscow, the Golden Pen was convicted and sent to Siberia. The thief fled, and again all of Russia started talking about her. Sonya continued to fleece rich fools. After several high-profile robberies of jewelers, she was sentenced to hard labor, from where she tried to escape three times and failed three times. After the second time, she was caught, punished with fifteen lashes (women were never punished so cruelly in hard labor) and shackled, which she wore for three whole years.

And Volodya Kochubchik, who betrayed her, was released six months after the trial and went to Bessarabia, where he very profitably invested the jewels Sonya had stolen into houses and vineyards.

Monument from the lads made of white marble

There are many legends about Sonya's death. Her life in hard labor allegedly did not end, and she died in 1947 in Odessa as a very old woman. According to another version, she died in 1920 in Moscow and was buried at the famous Vagankovsky cemetery.

At her grave, with the money of Rostov, Odessa, St. Petersburg and even London thieves, an unusual monument was erected by Italian craftsmen: a female figurine made of white marble stands near tall forged palm trees. True, over the past twenty years, out of three palm trees, only one has remained, and Sonya is standing without a head. They say that during a drunken brawl the statue was dropped and the broken head was carried away.

There are always fresh flowers and scattered coins on the grave, and the pedestal of the monument is covered with inscriptions: “Solntsevskaya lads will not forget you,” “Yerevan bandits are mourning,” “Rostov remembers everything.” There are also such: “Sonya, teach us to live”, “Mother, give happiness to Zhigan”, “Help, Sonya, we are going to work”...

The undisputed queen of the underworld of St. Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century was the famous Sonya - the Golden Hand. Sofia Bluvshtein (Sheindla-Sura Leibova Solomoniak) was born in the town of Powązki, Warsaw district. The family was like that - they bought stolen goods, engaged in smuggling. Her older sister Feiga was also a thief who had three husbands, but, of course, she was far from Sonya.

The first victim can be considered a certain Rosenbad: in 1864, Sheindlya married him in Warsaw, gave birth to a daughter, Sura-Rivka, and immediately left her husband, robbing him goodbye. With a certain recruit Rubinstein, she flees to Russia, where her dizzying adventures begin. In January 1866, she was seized for the first time by the police of the city of Klin on charges of stealing a suitcase from the cadet Gorozhansky, whom she met on the train. Sonya got out of it, saying that she had grabbed the suitcase by mistake, and headed to St. Petersburg, where she cleaned out the dachas of aristocrats together with her lover Michel Brener.

Apparently, it was in St. Petersburg that the famous method of hotel theft, called “guten morgen,” was invented. The method was simple - beautifully dressed, elegant Sonya stayed at best hotels city, carefully studied the room plans, looked closely at the guests... Having identified a victim, she entered his room early in the morning, putting on felt shoes, began looking for money and jewelry. If the guest woke up, Sheindlya pretended that she had the wrong number, became embarrassed, blushed, used her sexual charms - for the sake of it, she could even sleep with the victim, and she did it sincerely and naturally, as they say with invention and sparkle... The stolen jewelry came true jeweler Mikhailovsky, who remade them and sold them.
Subsequently, in St. Petersburg, the method of theft with the distraction of the victim for sex would become widespread - this method would be called "hipes" - "hipes" usually worked in pairs - the woman brought the client to her room and pleased him in bed, and her partner (the "cat" watched for the interests of his “cat”) rummaged through the pockets of clothes left somewhere in the hallway. "Cats" - hippie women often made a lot of money. The famous St. Petersburg hipster Marfushka managed to accumulate a substantial capital of 90,000 rubles by the beginning of the 20th century, her colleague Sonya-Sinichka, who “worked” at about the same time, settled on the amount of 25,000 and opened a fashion workshop. The beautiful hipster Petrushkina brought a fresh twist to the method - she used trained dogs to bark signals to her “cat”. The “hipes” usually came across because of quarrels during the division of the spoils - “cats”, offended by their partners, with purely feminine logic, often “snitched” on their accomplices to the police.
In 1868, Sonya briefly leaves for Dinaburg, where she marries an old rich Jew, Shelom Shkolnik, but soon leaves him. In 1870, Sonya fell asleep on a large scale in St. Petersburg and barely managed to escape from the reception area of ​​the Liteinaya Unit, leaving the police with the confiscated items and money. Realizing that she has already become somewhat familiar in the capital, the Golden Hand goes on a big “international tour”.

Sophia did not like small matters and impromptu things. I prepared carefully, tried to predict accidents. For her there were no high walls or state borders. She spoke five languages, perfectly mastered social manners, and after a successful “business” she preferred to relax in Marienbad using forged documents of some baroness. It is surprising that at the same time Sonya remained an “aristocrat” of the criminal world. She was proud of her nickname as a court title; her lovers included the most famous St. Petersburg swindlers. Preferring to act alone, she nevertheless created her own gang together with Levit Sandanovich, and even became a member of the prestigious criminal club in Moscow “Jacks of Hearts”.

In 1871, she married the famous railway thief Michel Bluvshtein, a Romanian citizen whose parents lived in Odessa. From this marriage, the Golden Hand gave birth to a daughter, Tabba, and the marriage itself soon fell apart, because Bluvshtein constantly caught his wife with some baron, then with a count, or even with just a beggar officer who liked him, from whom there was nothing to take , which especially irritated my husband.
It is strange that with all the intensity of her adventures, Sonya always evaded the police - later, when she was tried at the end of 1880 in Moscow, the testimony of one witness flashed during the trial, in which he said that at one time Sheindlya was recruited as an informant, paying off to the police that she “turned in” her competitors in the trade, but it is not known how reliable this information is. The popularity of the Golden Hand among the people was so great that in the era of the absence of television news, it was recognized on the street; At first, such popularity even helped her - several times the enthusiastic public pushed the police away from her, giving her the opportunity to hide, but this could not last long... When Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka first found herself in the dock, all Russian newspapers reported about it.

For several days spent in the Smolensk prison, Sonya charmed the guards - she read them poetry in different languages, told stories about life in distant countries... In general, one gendarme arranged an escape and fled with her. Afterwards he was caught and tried, and Sonya continued her work. In 1871, she was caught by the police in Leipzig and transferred under the supervision of the Russian Embassy, ​​but Russia tried to get rid of her as quickly as possible by sending her abroad. In 1876, she was caught in Vienna along with her local lover Elias Weniger, she was accused of stealing 20 thousand thalers in Leipzig, but Sonya again, charming the police, escaped, pawning four stolen diamonds in the capital of Austria-Hungary... Soon ending up in Krakow prison, she manages to rob her own lawyer, who, despite this, did not refuse to defend her, but still receives a ridiculous sentence - 12 days in prison...
Little by little she grew old, her luck began to fail her, and besides, her next affair with the handsome eighteen-year-old Marviher thief Volodya Kochubchik (in the world - Wolf Bromberg, famous for, that he began his career as a thief at the age of 8, managing to rob his fellow professionals) was not very successful - Kochubchik himself gave up stealing, but mercilessly exploited Sonya, who had fallen madly in love with him, demanded money from her, becoming a capricious and irritable gigolo, losing everything he “earned.” "Sonka plays cards. She was forced to take more and more risks, she was nervous, and frayed nerves always very quickly affect the success of people in such professions. Considering herself an aristocrat of the underworld, Sonya nevertheless descended even to pickpocketing.

In September 1880, Wolf decorated the neck of his mistress with a velvet cloth with a blue diamond, which was taken as collateral 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 his lady did not like the gift. 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 the 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 fought desperately, not admitting either the accusations or the evidence presented. 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. Sonya was especially outraged by the revolutionary proclamations planted in her apartment by the police. In a word, she behaved in such a way that later attorney at law A. Shmakov, recalling this trial, called her a woman capable of “putting a good hundred men in her belt,” and also noted that “Sofia Bluvshtein is outstanding example what can put Jewry on the criminal stage." The verdict read: "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 ". And her young lover, having escaped with 6 months in a "workhouse", became a wealthy landowner in the south of Russia. Sonya's place of exile was the remote village of Luzhki, Irkutsk province. Soon she managed to escape from there, and again all of Russia was talking about Sonya.
In May 1883, a charming client appeared in von Mehl's store. A young lady, socialite and wealthy, charmingly introduced herself as the wife of the famous psychiatrist L., chose 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 greeted him and took the box to try on the treasures for evening dress, and invited me into my husband’s office. 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 had gone crazy on the “pebbles,” and paid for his treatment in advance. Of course, the scammers are gone...
Soon, incredible fame began to seriously interfere with Sonya’s scams. In addition, over the years, Sofya Bluvshtein became sentimental. She returned 5,000 rubles to the widow who had been robbed by her and who had two daughters. In a fit of emotion, she sent an actor of the Maly Theater to the stage with a gold watch, taken from a neighbor’s hall. Seeing a sleeping person in a hotel room young man, near which lay a revolver and a letter to her mother confessing to the embezzlement of 300 rubles given for her sister’s treatment, Sonya took out a 500-ruble note and slipped out of the room. In addition, she spent a lot of money on training her daughters, who, having inherited their mother’s artistic talent, subsequently performed on the operetta stage, but carefully hid their origins.

The Golden Hand had its own “signature things”. For specially grown long nails she was hiding gems, for shoplifting, she had a bag dress in which a whole roll of fabric could be hidden. She went out to deal with a monkey - while the owner was bargaining, the animal swallowed stones, and at home he got rid of them with the help of an enema.
In October 1884, in the Odessa Fanconi cafe, a certain banker met Mrs. Sophia San Donato. While talking, she asked to change her rent for a thousand rubles. It soon became clear that the lovely lady was leaving for Moscow on the evening train, the same one as Mr. Dogmarov. The banker 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.
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 forgotten the money at home. She, along with the diamonds, hastily left to get the cash, leaving her accompanying relatives as collateral - her gray-haired father and a female baby along with the bonnet. When they reported to the police station two hours later, it turned out that these “relatives” were hired in Khitrovka based on an advertisement in the newspaper.

In 1881, Zolotaya Ruchka was in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, but already in the summer of 1885 it fled from Siberia. However, she did not walk free for long - in December of the same year she was again arrested in Smolensk and tried. But on June 30, 1886, she escapes from the Smolensk prison along with the warden Mikhailov, who fell in love with her... After 4 months, she is caught again... In the summer of 1888, she is sent by steamship from Odessa to Sakhalin in Aleksandrovsk-on-Sakhalin, from where she again trying to escape - through the taiga, disguised as a soldier... She was caught the very next day, flogged with rods in the Alexander prison... For two years and eight months she wore hand shackles and was kept in solitary confinement (this was the first shackled woman in the history of hard labor!) . In 1890, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov visited Sakhalin and even looked into the cell at the Golden Hand: “Of those sitting in solitary confinement Particularly noteworthy is the famous Sofya Bluvshtein, the Golden Hand, who was sentenced to three years of hard labor for escaping from Siberia. 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 she has a mouse-like expression on her face. Looking at her, I can’t believe that just recently she was beautiful to such an extent that she charmed her jailers...”

However, the funny thing is that 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. Especially after a series of thefts swept across Europe in the late nineties, very familiar in style. It is not surprising that they were attributed to Sonya the Golden Pen. What a surprise it was Russian police, when a sensational announcement appeared in all the newspapers of the world that the famous Sonya, the Golden Hand, had been captured by the police of one of the countries. She introduced herself as the wife of the Archduke, and to the police she called herself Sophia Beck. But nothing was found out - the fraudster escaped from the convoy, charming one of the guards... According to other sources, these crimes were committed by another adventurer - Olga von Stein, who copied Sonya's handwriting.
In Odessa they say that Sonya lived incognito on Prokhorovskaya Street. In 1921, she was allegedly seen on Deribasovskaya, driving in a car and scattering money “for the wake of her husband” - her last lover, who was shot by the Cheka. The last days of her life, again according to rumors, the Golden Hand lived out in Moscow with her daughters, secretly, because the daughters did not really want to spoil their reputation with such family ties.
The grave at the Vagankovskoe cemetery in Moscow, where, as legend says, the great adventurer was secretly buried, is a place of pilgrimage for people with a criminal present. Monument ( female figure made of luxurious white marble under huge black palm trees) is covered with admiring admirers of her talent. The pedestal of the monument is covered with inscriptions like: “Sonya, teach us to live,” “Solntsevskaya lads will not forget you,” “Mother, give happiness to Zhigan.” The gravestone was ordered with money from Odessa, Neapolitan, London, St. Petersburg and other scammers. The monument suffered damage several years ago, when dashing guys from the Urals, having gotten drunk, went to kiss it and accidentally tore the head off the statue. According to some guides, the grave was built either for fun or for worship, but in fact it is empty, while others claim that the grave is real and the very one found peace in it. bright star thieves' world of the late 19th century Sonya Golden Hand.

“Sonka - the Golden Hand” is a woman who went down in history, becoming famous for her very dubious talent. It’s hard not to be amazed at how easily this small and very charming person could serious men, guardians of the law and prison officers.

To this day, films are being made and written about her and her talents. interesting books. The nickname “Sonka - the Golden Hand”, which Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein had, spoke for itself.

The Great Fraud of Russia - “Sonka - The Golden Hand”

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Russia stood in the forefront among the most prosperous and richest powers in the whole world. Every eighth inhabitant of the planet knew Russian. There were external enemies from whom a reliable guard on the border of a vast state protected. Internal enemies were revolutionaries - terrorists and various kinds criminal elements harming civilians.

Just such a prominent representative of this community was a woman named Sofya Bluvshtein. She was the most famous among the representatives of the underworld Tsarist Russia. In all printed publications told about the thieving adventures of the legendary criminal. Interesting stories passed from generation to generation. It was impossible to buy a postcard with her image. When silent films appeared on screens, the main character Sonya was in many films.

Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: biography

“Sonka the Golden Hand” was far from a beauty. Here are the descriptions preserved in the documents (quote): “Thin in appearance, 1 meter 53 cm tall, pockmarked face, moderate nose with wide nostrils, wart on the right cheek, curly, brown hair, brown eyes, lively, too impudent, talkative.” This is how Sophia Bluvshtein was at that time, whose biography has been preserved unreliably.

Sophia Solomoniak - Bluvshtein - Shtendel did not describe her life accurately, which is why information about her birth cannot be found anywhere. Official court documents record that the adventurer was born in 1846 in the Warsaw province, in the town of Powązki. In 1899 she was baptized. She received an education and could speak several foreign languages ​​fluently.

Sophia got married more than once. Her last husband, Mikhail Yakovlevich Blyuvshtein, was an avid card player. Among all the surnames she used were: Rubinstein, Rosenbad, Shkolnik and Brener.

In the sixties and seventies, this woman was engaged in theft in the cities of Russia and Europe. In 1880, Sonya was again arrested for fraud. She was brought to Moscow. The Moscow court decided to exile her to the Irkutsk region, to the remote village of Luzhki. In 1881 she escaped from there.

In 1885, there was another arrest in Smolensk for theft of property on an especially large scale and a sentence to three years of hard labor in prisons in the European part of Russia. And on June 30, the criminal escaped from Smolensk prison. In 1888, she served another sentence in the Aleksandrovsky fast.

Chekhov met with Sofia Bluvshtein in 1890. He described her this way in his book: “...Thin, small, with gray hair and a very rumpled face. There are shackles on his hands. On the bunk lay a gray sheepskin coat, which served as clothing and at the same time was a bed. She walked and seemed to be sniffing the air all the time, like a mouse in a mousetrap. Looking at her, it was hard to believe that just so recently she was famous for her beauty...”

In 1898, “Sonka the Golden Hand,” having freed herself, went to Khabarovsk. In July 1899, after baptism by Orthodox rite she acquired the name Maria.

Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: children

All that is known about this lady’s children is that she has three of them. The first Sura-Rivka Isaakovna, born in 1865. Her mother left her and her father Isaac Rosenbad, who lived in the Warsaw province of Powązki, took her into her care. What happened to the child in the future is unknown.

Tabba Mikhailovna, the second daughter, (named Bluvshtein) was born in 1875. She became an operetta actress in Moscow.

Bluvshtein Mikhelina Mikhailovna is Sophia's third daughter. Year of birth - 1879, also an operetta actress in Moscow.

Criminal talent

Sonya did not waste herself on trifles. She prepared diligently for every new project she planned, trying to predict all the surprises, weighing everything down to the smallest detail. For the clever swindler, there were no state borders or high fences. The young woman knew how to start a conversation with dexterity, and she was accepted into society everywhere.

After every successful case, the brave thief liked to relax in Marienbad, imagining herself as a baroness. Sonya always preferred to remain an aristocrat in the criminal world. Her lovers were prominent swindlers from St. Petersburg.

She loved to “work” alone, sometimes she took on assistants, even created her own gang and became a member of a club of criminals called “Jacks of Hearts.”

Quotes from Sofia Bluvshtein

The famous director wrote wonderful book, in which the life story of “Sonka the Golden Hand” is very interestingly described.

Below are quotes from Sofia Bluvshtein.

“My dear mother... I’m so lonely, it’s so hard without you. Dad lives with the rude and uncouth Evdokia, who came into our heads from nowhere. For this redneck, the main thing is that dad steals more.”

“I think He rewarded me... I take risks. But this is the life that drags me forward with such force that my head is spinning all the time.”

And the most important saying is known to many.

What did you steal?

Gold, or what?

Not only, more diamonds.

This is not theft. Pampering.

What is theft?

Theft is when souls are stolen.

The last years of the life of “Sonka - the Golden Hand”

As they say, in recent years During her life, Sofia Bluvshtein was in Moscow with her daughters, even though they were ashamed of their unlucky mother. She could not practice her long-time profession of thieves, since her health was undermined by hard labor.

But there was such a case when the Moscow police discovered rather strange robberies. In jewelry stores, the monkey snatched rings or diamonds from the hands of visitors and ran away. They predicted that the famous Sonya brought the monkey from Odessa.

It is unknown when exactly Sophia died. There are only legends. According to one version, she lived in Odessa until old age and died there in 1947, according to another, she died in 1920 in Moscow and was buried there.

There are other inaccurate data: she lived in Primorye before her death, and they also say that her body is represented by criminal world taken to Moscow and buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Nobody really knows how things really were. Of course, it is clear that Sofya Bluvshtein has definitely passed the end of her life, but “Sonka the Golden Hand” lives on the planet even in our century.

The power of the monument to Sofia Bluvshtein

Why, in Moscow, there is the grave of the legendary thief - swindler "Sonka - the Golden Hand". It is made of marble in the form of a sculpture - a woman without arms and head. Time has taken its toll: the marble is cracked, the fence is torn to pieces.

There is a belief that even after death Sonya helps those who ask for it. Near the grave there is always a crowd, thieves come, young girls visit with the hope of helping to find good job, and others - just for an excursion.

The folds of the dress, made of stone, are covered with black marker: “Dear Sonya, help me get rich”, “I really want money”, “Help me get well, become happy” and many others. At the foot of the monument there are fresh flowers.

Sonya's life was strange, everything seemed to be going the other way around. I became an actress not on stage, as I dreamed, but in train cars; love did not elevate me, but pulled me down. You can end your recollection of “Sonya the Golden Hand” with these words: Sofya Bluvshtein was and remains an example of what Jews can give to the criminal scene.

The future adventurer, famous throughout Russia, was born in 1846 in Poland into a Jewish family of small traders. However, exact information about early years her life does not exist, since all the details are known only either from the words of Sonya herself (who, of course, fantasized a lot), or from rumors that further increased the fantasy. It is reliably known that her real name was Sheindlya-Sura Leibovna or Sofya Ivanovna. Maiden name: Solomoniak. The girl was given good education, she knew several foreign languages.
Sonya got married for the first time quite early, at the age of fifteen. The husband was the Warsaw merchant Rosenbad. In this marriage, a daughter was born - Sura-Rivka. But the marriage itself did not last long - no more than two years. Unable to bear it family life, in 1865, a young wife runs away, leaving her daughter and husband, and even taking with her a considerable sum. This is where her career as a swindler and thief began.

Sonya's schemes

Sofya Ivanovna was clearly a gifted person, for each of her thefts was a thoughtful performance. For example, she, richly dressed, walked into a jewelry store. Sellers began to fuss around her, vying with each other to offer their services and demonstrate their goods. Distracting their attention, Sonya deftly hid precious stones under specially grown nails, and hid larger prey in special secret pockets of her wide dress.
Another option was carried out by a swindler in hotels. She checked into a hotel under the guise of a noble lady, and then secretly made her way into the room of some rich merchant. While the intended victim was sleeping, Sonya quickly found money and jewelry and ran away. True, sometimes surprises happened: the “client” woke up. Then all the feminine charm came into play, and the thief began to make excuses that she had simply mixed up the number. The apology could have had a very heated continuation...
The Golden Hand generally loved dressing up, wigs and other changes in appearance. She easily transformed into any image and was a born actress. These traits also contributed to the flair of legend that surrounds this person to this day.

Beauty or charisma? Husbands and lovers of Sonya of the Golden Hand.

Here we come close to another legendary feature of Sonya - supposedly her unearthly beauty, allowing her to easily charm everyone around her. And indeed, she was married more than once and had many lovers. What did Sonya look like? And how did she win hearts – with her beauty or her innate charm?
Very few photographs of Sofia Ivanovna have survived, and one cannot vouch for the authenticity of almost all of them. Later photographs - already in hard labor - when shackled - inspire confidence, but it is very difficult to discern beauty in them. Photos from the investigation case and another photograph, the most famous, indicate that Sonya was not a beauty. This is evidenced by the dry lines of the protocol: “Height 153 cm. Brown hair. Moving brown eyes. The nose is moderate with wide nostrils. Lips are thin. The chin is oval. Wart on right cheek."
But there was undoubtedly something more to this woman than beauty. Many noted the liveliness and insight of her gaze, which was impossible to forget. She was smart, had a great understanding of people, saw people through and through. That’s why she could easily charm a person and knew how to act in each specific case.
Several Sonya husbands are known - Rubinstein, Shkolnik, Briner. Thanks to them, she often changed her last name, which also allowed her to remain elusive. Last official husband became Mikhail Yakovlevich Blyuvshtein, card sharper. Sonya later went to hard labor under his last name... In this marriage two daughters were born, Tabba and Michelina. The mother doted on her daughters, but they later abandoned such a relationship...

Sonya's kindness

It seemed that the words theft and kindness were in no way connected with each other. How can someone who robs people indiscriminately be kind and merciful? But Sonya’s character was very broad and varied, whatever traits she had. She was capable of sympathy and compassion...
One day, having made her way into the hotel room, as usual, Sophia saw a sleeping young man. At his head there was a pile of letters, pressed down on top by a pistol. Sonya quickly ran her eyes: embezzlement of government money, begging forgiveness from relatives... The young man was clearly preparing for suicide the next morning. Sonya resolutely put 500 rubles on the notes and quietly left...
Another time, the Golden Hand, having learned from the newspapers that it had robbed a widow and two children, completely depriving them of their livelihood, returned the entire amount to her by mail, also sending her a letter of deepest apology.

Betrayal and arrest

Sonya was extremely lucky. She was arrested more than once, caught red-handed in different cities Russia and even Europe (it also operated abroad). But they were always released - the clever woman managed to avoid consequences, escaping the clutches of the police. But one day Sonya was unlucky...
It all started with a fatal love for a young gigolo - Volodya Kochubchik (Wolf Bromberg). As usual, Sonya’s love did not diverge from business - the lovers pulled off scams together. But Kochubchik didn’t burn with special love, he only needed money... And Sonya, already aging (she was 34 years old, a considerable age at that time) held tightly to her last love and she was ready for anything... This is what ruined her.
Greedy for money, Wolf decided to pull off a pretty big scam. A young lover bought a luxurious blue diamond from a jeweler, and as payment provided a valuable document - a mortgage on a house. Of course, the house cost much more than the stone, and the salon owner paid the difference in cash. The next day after the purchase, Kochubchik came to the jeweler and returned the stone - they say it didn’t fit. Only the diamond was already fake, and a professional eye saw it right away. To top it all off, it turned out that there was no building and there never was. The deceived merchant easily found the swindler, who, out of fear, turned the arrows on Sonya. In 1880, after the trial, she was exiled to the Irkutsk province.

Life in hard labor, a series of escapes

The successful adventurer could not come to terms with this turn of fate for a long time. How should she, still a young woman, full of strength, spend the rest of her days in Siberia? It didn't fit in my head. Sophia decided to escape almost immediately.
She escaped in 1881. And she won four more years of freedom from life! She even managed to commit a number of thefts, but was caught again in 1885. The sentence was already more severe - hard labor for three years and fifty lashes. But this did not break the proud Sonya. She managed to charm her warden to such an extent that he agreed to facilitate the escape. In the summer of 1886, the adventurer ran away again.
But this time fate was less merciful and gave her only four months... Captured again, Sonya the Golden Hand was sent to hard labor in the Aleksandrovsky prison on the Sakhalin Peninsula. After this, Sophia tried to escape several more times - it seemed impossible to break this woman’s willpower! As a result, the prison authorities decided, in order to avoid new troubles, to shackle her.
In this position, the writer A.P., who came to Sakhalin in 1890, saw her. Chekhov. Sonya was already a very old woman, broken by life, and it was difficult to recognize in her the once tireless and successful adventurer who charmed everyone around her. Chekhov remarked: “Her face is mousey.” The legendary Sonya Golden Hand gave up...

Life after hard labor

In 1898, Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein was released from hard labor to a settlement. She first lived in Dalnorechensk, later tried to go to Khabarovsk, and then returned to Sakhalin. In the summer of 1899, she was baptized into Orthodoxy with the name Maria. It is difficult to say what was behind this decision - whether it was a sincere desire or simply necessity (the attitude towards the Orthodox in Tsarist Russia was much better than towards Jewish Jews).
Last love and death
Even at the end of her life, after the hard labor she went through, Sonya remained a woman. She became friends with former convict Nikolai Bogdanov. However, this latter - rather than love, but simply a purely feminine need to have support and support nearby - brought Sophia only grief and an untimely death. They say that Nikolai severely beat his partner. One day she could not stand it and ran away from him into the forest, but, not having walked even two miles, she fell into the snow, exhausted. That's where they found her. She was still alive, but soon died of a cold. Sonya the Golden Pen passed away in 1902.

Posthumous legend and mysterious grave

The legendary Sonya would not have been legendary if, after her death, a wide variety of rumors had not started circulating about her. Some believed that a figurehead was behind her in prison, and that the adventurer herself had been living in Moscow with her daughters for a long time. Others believed that Sonya still served hard labor, but did not die in 1902, but managed to reach Moscow again. Someone claimed that he met a very old Sonya already in Soviet era... There were a lot of rumors. All these versions gave rise to the legend that Sofia Ivanovna’s grave is supposedly located at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
This is, indeed, probably the most remarkable monument in the necropolis, which cannot be ignored. The statue of a slender girl in a dress flowing in beautiful folds immediately brings to mind images of Greek goddesses. And nearby there is a tall palm tree with iron leaves. There are always fresh flowers on the grave, and the monument itself is covered with inscriptions, because people still come here eager to ask for help from Sonya the Golden Hand. Some people just can’t repay their debt, some people dream of getting rich, some people ask for good luck in trading or financial matters. Cemetery watchmen assure that in the early morning or late evening, when there are practically no visitors, criminal authorities also come here...
However, guides and historians believe that Sonya could not have been buried here, and in this grave lies a girl who committed suicide out of unhappy love. Her name is unknown. Versions are also given that this could be the mistress of one of the merchants, who died during childbirth, that this was some kind of actress who played the role of exotic heroines (hence the palm trees). There are many explanations, but which one is true? Maybe this monument stores Sonya’s looted wealth, for which she was nicknamed the Golden Hand? Who knows...

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 countless 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, and there was constant information that she had been seen in different cities of 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 according to the Orthodox rite with the name Maria.
1902 Year of death of Sofia Bluvshtein ( exact date Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka's death 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 learned 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 getting money quickly. 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."