Vladimir Vinnichevsky

Vladimir Vinnychevsky
Born Vladimir Georgievich Vinnychevsky
July 1923
Verkhnyaya Salda, Ekaterinburg, RSFSR
Died November 11, 1940
Sverdlovsk Oblast
Cause of death Executed by firing squad
Other names "The Urals Monster"
Conviction(s) Murder
Criminal penalty Death
Details
Victims 8
Span of crimes
 1938–1939
Country Russia
State(s) Sverdlovsk Oblast
Kushva
Nizhny Tagil
Date apprehended
 October 24, 1939

Vladimir Georgievich Vinnychevsky (born July 1923 in Verkhnyaya Salda, Ekaterinburg - November 11, 1940 in Sverdlovsk Oblast), known as the "Urals Monster", was the youngest Soviet-Russian serial killer.

He was convicted of eighteen attacks on children aged between two and four years in 1938-1939 in Sverdlovsk, Nizhny Tagil and Kushva. Eight of these attacks resulted in murder.

On January 16, 1940, Vinnychevsky was sentenced to death and executed several months later.

Early years

Vladimir Vinnychevsky was born in July 1923.[1] His father - George Ivanovich, was a master in the municipal public utilities of Sverdlovsk. And his mother - Elizaveta Petrovna, was an accountant. The family lived in a separate private house in the center of Sverdlovsk. The Vinnychevsky family was provided well by Soviet standards at the time: Vladimir had a suit, a tank helmet, a Swiss knife, and leather shoes. He also had pocket money - at the time of his arrest he was found to have more than 20 rubles, which was then the two-day earnings of an average worker. Vladimir also studied at the Sverdlovsk School № 16, in class 7 "B". Although his progress was low, he remained in the second year. However, Vinnychevsky sang well and knew many songs by heart.

Vinnichevsky was on friendly terms with Ernst Neizvestny, who later became a famous sculptor. Neizvestny and Vinnychevsky were in the same year of schooling (Vinnychevsky was two years older than Neizvestny, but went to school a year later and once remained in the second year). The adolescents lived near and went to school together, went to the cinema together and attended performances in the Theater of Musical Comedy. Vinnychevsky often visited Neizvestny's apartment. During an interrogation on November 17, 1939, Ernst Neizvestny described Vinnychevsky[2]:

Murders

It is now known when Vladimir committed the first murder, since the investigators could not find the relatives of the first victims, about whom Vinnychevsky gave evidence.[3] To commit his crimes, Vinnychevsky would go around yards, saying that he was under the orders of the Komsomol organization for the sponsored Pioneer squads collecting scrap metal, and therefore went around neighborhoods, figuring out which residents had scrap.[4]

The first murder (or more precisely, the third, as there is no information on the previous murders) was that of 4-year-old Gerta Grebanova, committed in the summer or early autumn of 1938 in Sverdlovsk. Vinnychevsky entered the courtyard of the private house where the Gribanovs lived, took the girl to the kitchen garden, where he strangled her, and then struck her head 8 times with a kitchen knife, breaking it, and leaving a splinter in the victim's skull.[5] He later disposed of the broken knife and used a screwdriver and a folding knife in later murders.[6]

Although Vinnychevsky committed most of the attacks in Sverdlovsk, he made trips to other cities in the Sverdlovsk Oblast to confuse the investigation - one attack was committed in Nizhny Tagil, and another in Kushva.[7] He attacked both boys and girls. The motive of the attack was a sexual act with the victim. At first, Vinnychevsky tried to perform a "natural" sexual act with the female victims, but he was convinced that, due to anatomical limitations, this could not be done. Then he began to perform anal intercourse, and in some cases (usually in the cold season) limited himself to rubbing his genitals.[8] After the act Vinnychevsky would choke his victim, and sometimes stab them to death.

The murder of Gerta Gribanova gave the investigators evidence, as the girl's skull had a knife piece stuck in it. The girl's body was beheaded by the investigative authorities: the skull was left as evidence, and the rest given to the child's parents for the burial. The assumption was that the killer would use the same kitchen knife that ended Gribanova's life, but later, this assumption turned out to be false.

The fifth victim of Vinnychevsky was a boy who, most likely, survived, but could not be found. Then the killer suggested to 4-year-old Borya Titov to go sledging with him, took him to a wasteland, and attacked him after a snowdrift. Although Vinnychevsky prudently took the child with him, Borya was rescued, and later told the investigators about the murderer.

The seventh victim was 3-year-old Katya Lobanov in Kushva. The girl was killed, and her body later thrown into a swamp to hide the smell of degradation.

In Sverdlovsk, Vinnychevsky began to practice the kidnapping of children and killing them in the forest massifs to the outskirts, where the bodies were covered with branches. This is how 4-year-old Lida Surina and 3-year-old Valya Kamaeva died in the spring of 1939. Later, 3-year-old Alya Gubina was kidnapped, with whom Vinnychevsky had sexual intercourse, after which he stabbed her several times with a knife, leaving a wound 25 centimeters long. After that, he threw the girl away, but she survived, and quickly fled. At the same time, Vinnychevsky did not take the child further than 1 km away from the place where he picked her up. He killed not only in the outskirts, but also near his home on Mamin-Sibiryak Street, where he kidnapped two children.

The last victim - 4-year-old Taisia Morozov - after killing her, Vinnychevsky threw her body into a cesspool, placing her clothes into the front garden of the apartment building, hoping that it was there that they would search for the child's remains.

The wounded victims from Vinnychevsky's attacks who were thrown into cesspools had practically no chance to escape, even if they were still alive. However, 4-year-old Raya Rahmatulina, thrown by Vinnychevsky into a cesspool, woke up and began to scream, alerting passers-by who rescued her.

Arrest

The Sverdlovsk criminal investigation department found it difficult to investigate cases of abductions of children. The kidnappings were very different - from the different locations, to the different disposal of the bodies. In addition, the surviving children could not give a clear description of the kidnapper. Finally, the parents of some of the victims did not file a complaint to the police. At the same time, the investigators made several erroneous assumptions about the murderer's identity. Everyone was sure that the killer had been convicted earlier, and, it was supposed, for crimes against the sexual inviolability of the person. It was assumed that the murder was between 20 and 25, and looked like a teenager.[9] According to one theory, the killer was a disable or seriously ill person. Only in the summer of 1939 were all known cases connected into one thing. However, the attacks in Nizhny Tagil and Kushva were connected with the Sverdlovsk murders. In 1939, Sverdlovsk was flooded with hidden police patrols, with more than 300 people arrested.

On October 24, 1939, during the commission of the crimes, Vinnychevsky was detained by three militia cadets named Popov, Angelov and Krylov.[10] Patrolling at the tram stop in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, the cadets noticed a tall man who was carrying a little boy into the forest. Vinnychevsky had kidnapped the 3-year-old Slava Volkov, whom his mother left for a few minutes at the entrance of the family home. The killer snatched the boy quickly, and got into the tram to get away from his pursuers. Cadets followed the teenager and found him at a time when Vinnychevsky was choking the boy. Slava was rescued, and Vinnychevsky was detained.

As Borya's neck covered his neck, Vinnychevsky had to unbutton his button and begin strangling Borya, leaving well-visible scrapes of skin on his fingernails.[11] This deprived Vinnychevsky of the opportunity to come up with an exculpatory version of his actions such as: "I wanted to fix the boy's scarf" or "loosen the button on his shirt collar".[12]

Trial, sentence and execution

During the investigation, Vinnychevsky confessed to the murders, revealing that he had recorded all the murders on paper, encrypting the text.

Vinnychevsky's parents brought this statement to the regional newspaper titled "The Ural Worker":

The doctor of jurisprudence AS Skryalin emphasizes that the trial of Vinnychevsky was held when Soviet legislation provided for the death penalty for minors who had reached the age of 12 years. The People's Commissar for Defense, Kliment Voroshilov, on March 19, 1935, sent Stalin, Molotov and Kalinin a letter with a proposal to introduce the death penalty for children, pointing to the statistics of child crime in Moscow and, in particular, on wounding a son of the deputy prosecutor of the Soviet capital by a 9-year-old boy. Voroshilov was well acquainted with Stalin for battle of Tsaritsyn. The letter quickly gave the result in the form of a normative legal act. On April 8, 1935, a joint resolution of the CEC and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "on measures to combat juvenile delinquency" was promulgated, providing for the imposition of the death penalty from the age of 12. This was known abroad. The famous writer Romain Rolland, in a conversation with Stalin on June 28, 1935, questioned the humanity of such a measure. Stalin replied to him:

On April 20, 1935, the top secret circular of the USSR Prosecutor's Office and the USSR Supreme Court No. 1/001537-30/002517, which was signed by the USSR Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky and the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR Vinokurov, is dated. The Circular explained to Prosecutor's Offices and Courts the Resolution "On measures to combat crime among minors":

Тhus, the USSR prosecutor's office and the Supreme Court of the USSR virtually abolished article 22 of the Criminal Code, which explicitly abolished the execution against persons under the age of 18. On January 2, 1936, the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR indicated that if persons who have attained the age of 12 commit crimes not listed in Article 12, but connected with violence, bodily harm, mutilation or murder, they are liable under the relevant article of the Criminal Code.[13]

Secret circular № 1/001537 - 30/002517 also prescribed (under the proposal) prosecuting authorities and the courts to inform the prosecutor of the USSR and Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR "on all cases of criminal trial of juvenile offenders in respect of which it is possible the use of the death penalty".[14]

On January 16, 1940, Vinnychevsky was sentenced to death by the Soviet court. The convict filed a pardon, in which he claimed that he was ready to win forgiveness in battle, and expressed desire to become a tanker, since at the time of the USSR was at war with Finland.[15] His clemency was denied, and he was executed.

Place of burial

In the USSR, bodies of those executed were not given to relatives for burial, but were buried in special secret places. Vinnychevsky was probably buried at 12 km of the Moscow tract.[16] This is the only known burial place in the Sverdlovsk region, where the bodies of the executed were buried in the 1930s. These bodies were not divided for what they were shot for, therefore, in one mass grave, those executed for political reasons and on criminal charges, such as Vinnychevsky. In the 1990s, the burial place was turned into a memorial complex of victims of reprisals of the 1920-1950s. On November 20, 2017, at this complex a monument titled "Masks of Sorrow: Europe-Asia" was opened, the work of a friend of Vinnychevsky, Ernst Neizvestny.

Vinnychevsky's case files and publications about him

Vinnychevsky's criminal case is No. 434. According to the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region, the archive contains four volumes of the criminal case against Vladimir Georgievich Vinnychevsky, considered by the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in 1940. They are in the fund of the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region R-148 "Sverdlovsk Regional Court" (Inventory 2). In one media in the summer of 2017, information appeared that the materials of the criminal case of Vinnychevsky had been kept secret for more than 70 years.[17] However, according to the answer of the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region on March 16, 2018, the Vinnychevsky case was archived in 1991, and since then has been freely available.

 In January 2018, A. Rakitin published a two-volume book dedicated to Vinnychevsky, titled: "The Urals Monster: Chronicle of the exposure of the most mysterious serial killer of the Soviet Union". In this book, the author put forward a version that Vinnychevsky had an accomplice.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 275.
  2. ↑ State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region. - F. Р-148. - Op. 2. - D. 746. - L. 164-165
  3. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 268.
  4. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 271.
  5. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 270.
  6. ↑ "Винничевский Владимир (1938-1939 гг., Свердловск)". murders.ru. Retrieved 2017-07-27.
  7. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 273.
  8. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 270—273.
  9. ↑ Смыкалин А. С. Из истории правоприменительной практики 1930-х годов: дело самого молодого в СССР серийного убийцы-педофила // Государство и право: эволюция, современное состояние, перспективы развития (навстречу 300-летию российской полиции). — Санкт-Петербург: Санкт-Петербургский университет МВД России, 2017. — С. 262.
  10. ↑ Спецпроект «Архивные дела», ЧАСТЬ III: самый молодой маньяк в истории СССР, пойманный на Уралмаше (ФОТО)
  11. ↑ Смыкалин А. С. Из истории правоприменительной практики 1930-х годов: дело самого молодого в СССР серийного убийцы-педофила // Государство и право: эволюция, современное состояние, перспективы развития (навстречу 300-летию российской полиции). — Санкт-Петербург: Санкт-Петербургский университет МВД России, 2017. — С. 263.
  12. ↑ Смыкалин А. С. Из истории правоприменительной практики 1930-х годов: дело самого молодого в СССР серийного убийцы-педофила // Государство и право: эволюция, современное состояние, перспективы развития (навстречу 300-летию российской полиции). — Санкт-Петербург: Санкт-Петербургский университет МВД России, 2017. — С. 263.
  13. ↑ Смыкалин А. С. Из истории правоприменительной практики 1930-х годов: дело самого молодого в СССР серийного убийцы-педофила // Государство и право: эволюция, современное состояние, перспективы развития (навстречу 300-летию российской полиции). — Санкт-Петербург: Санкт-Петербургский университет МВД России, 2017. — С. 264.
  14. ↑ История сталинского Гулага. Конец 1920-х — первая половина 1950-х годов. Собрание документов в 7 томах. Том 1. Массовые репрессии в СССР Отв. ред. Н. Верт, С. В. Мироненко; отв. составитель И. А. Зюзина. — М.: Российская политическая энциклопедия (РОССПЭН), 2004. — С. 258.
  15. ↑ Ракитин А. И. Социализм не порождает преступности. Серийная преступность в СССР: историко-криминалистический анализ. — Екатеринбург, М.: Кабинетный ученый, 2016. — С. 275.
  16. ↑ «Маски скорби» по маньяку?
  17. ↑ "Был хитрым и находчивым: в конце лета выйдет книга о свердловском маньяке-школьнике". www.e1.ru. Retrieved 2017-07-27.
  18. ↑ Новая книга в «ридеро». «Уральский Монстр».

Literature

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