How the USSR’s most cunning thief got 93 years in prison, escaped NINE times & lived for 100 years

Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union

On September 29, 1971, legendary front-line pilot Grigory Kozlov, a ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’, went to the Sochi police department. He filed a robbery complaint - his pen, jacket, passport, airplane ticket, Hero’s ID card and the Gold Star were missing from his room at the ‘Golden Spike’ sanatorium. However, the victim admitted that the star was not gold, but bronze. The cautious veteran carried with him a copy of the award, so as not to lose the valuable original. But the documents were genuine!

The police immediately concluded that they were dealing with a dilettante who could not even distinguish a copy from the original. Interestingly, however, the thief did not take any money from Kozlov’s room, only the medal. It became a high-profile case for the Soviet Union - few people dared to steal from Heroes, the most respected people in the country. But, there were no leads. The case stalled until the criminal made another appearance.

A month later, another veteran contacted the Sochi police department. ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ Pyotr Rogozin reported that some intruder had replaced his Gold Star with a bronze fake in the ‘Caucasian Riviera’ sanatorium. Senior investigator Malayev, responsible for the case, recalled Rogozin’s story: “He was walking down the stairs and the star flipped over. He looked at the medal and there was no number. Then, he realized that it was a fake medal and called the police.”

Caucasian Riviera sanatorium in Sochi, 1962.

The “medal thief” was detained only a year later in Moscow. He turned out to be an elderly man named Ivan Petrov, aka ‘Vanka Khitry’, aka the famous thief nicknamed ‘Zvezdochet’. But, he was not only interested in the Golden Stars. They also found documents of a KGB colonel and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, a diploma of a lawyer and a certificate of a front-line soldier at Khitry’s house. His collection included not only stolen, but also forged papers. When asked why he stole the awards, Petrov confessed:

“Do you think I only wanted these trinkets for the gold? Or for cover, to make it easier to steal? No, these stars have a different value. We are all divided into the humiliated and the humiliating, the insulted and the insulting… I really didn’t want to be in the first category. And with the Star, you are not crumpled by waiting lines, nobody is rude to you and bureaucrats don’t make your life miserable. If you want a humane attitude to yourself - show yourself a Hero!”

Fear & loathing in Sochi

Sochi - the resort capital of the Soviet Union.

Vanka Khitry was born in 1900 in the village of Pasynkovo, Tver Region. He lived very poorly and eventually took up a life of crime. He first stole at the age of 10 and, at age 16, he was arrested for the first time, while at age 25, he received his first prison sentence. From 1925 to 1972, he went to prison 13 times and made nine escapes with his total sentence time amounting to 93 years. It is still unknown how he managed to slip out of the hands of justice each time. He even managed to escape from the famous Solovetsky camp!

Alleged photo of Vanka Khitry.

Ivan Petrov was an extremely charming and artistic man. It is understandable, otherwise he could not have succeeded in the criminal world. At the same time, he had an elegant appearance - rough, but correct facial features, noble gray hair. The swindler knew how to impress women and gain the trust of rich and powerful men. He introduced himself to his victims by different names - Avin, Guskov, Abdershin, Kokora, Dyachkov, Serebryakov. A total of 14 aliases are known.

Khitry also loved luxury. He constantly traveled around the country and stayed in the best hotels, spent time at elite sanatoriums, dined in the most expensive restaurants and attended high-profile theatrical premieres. He always spent his summers at sea resorts - Yalta, Batumi, Ghagra. But more than anything else, he loved Sochi.

From the certificate of the Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Sochi:

“The wave of complaints from persons who were cheated by swindlers literally overwhelmed the police departments of Sochi. Therefore, in 1969, the fight against gamblers at the Department of Internal Affairs was assigned to senior lieutenant Lukashov, who treated his work faithfully and began not only to collect all the complaints from victims, but also photos of all gamblers-professionals. In this way, a certain Bablarian nicknamed Pindos, Petrov (Vanka Khitry), Kirny, Darzhania, Biryukov and others slowly popped up on the police’s radar. Leading an anti-social, parasitic way of life, they lived by playing cards.”

Gambling was illegal in the USSR, but that didn’t stop gamblers from making fortunes out of it.

Looking at this note, Khitry might have taken offense at the fact that the police mentioned him only as “one of the…”. After all, in criminal circles, he had the reputation of the most authoritative and virtuoso swindler. The daily “income” of an experienced gambler could exceed 1,000 rubles. In the days of Brezhnev’s USSR, this was crazy money, which allowed Khitry to live the luxurious life he had dreamed of since childhood.

For the sins of his father

In between thefts, gambling and jailbreaks, Vanka Khitry managed to marry twice. Yevgeny Petrov, one of his three children, held the prestigious position of commentator in the main propaganda department of the All-Union Radio. For the sake of a successful career, he had to keep silent about his family lineage - in the USSR, the path to the upper class was closed to the children of criminals.

“I began to learn the truth only in the tenth grade. My father sat me down in the kitchen across from him and, looking me straight in the eye, began to tell me about his ability to deceive and steal. It was scary. My father told me that he was a thief-in-law. And that I would cripple my fate if I ever told anyone about it,” Evgeny Petrov wrote in his testimony.

Khitry continued to live a life of crime and was not very interested in Yevgeny’s upbringing. However, years later, the thief, having learned of his son’s high position, suddenly came back into his life.

“One day, my father showed up unexpectedly, as always, and gave me 16,000 rubles for a car for my wedding. And then, he came in with some forms of paperwork. I wanted to send him away. But he laid out the money again. And he hinted that my job might find out whose son I was. I started doing whatever he asked. And I was afraid of losing everything I already had. I waited for my father with new gifts and hated him for the fear that had already instilled in me.”

Sometimes, it seems that Vanka Khitry was inspired by Ostap Bender, the hero of novels by Ilf and Petrov. In the photo - Andrei Mironov in the movie ‘The Twelve Chairs’.

Yevgeny faithfully helped the father he hated to forge documents. He also assisted Khitry in one of his main undertakings - he helped him write a letter of petition to Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the USSR. The fraudster introduced himself as former front-line soldier Alexander Denisov, who had fought with Brezhnev in the 18th Army during the Great Patriotic War and asked for a residence permit and an apartment in Moscow.

Khitry lied so skillfully that the powerful Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Suslov, and the Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Nikolai Podgorny, responded to his request. They ordered to allocate “frontovik” and “toiler” Denisov a two-room apartment in a prestigious actor’s cooperative in the very center of Moscow.

After a while, the hoax was uncovered. Investigators analyzed the handwriting and found out that the author of the letter was not Denisov, but Yevgeny Petrov, a commentator of the main propaganda editorial office of All-Union Radio. So, Yevgeny found himself in the dock with his father. During one of the interrogations, he confessed: “Now, I understand that he robbed my mother and me more than anyone else. And I will never forgive him for that.”

The last case

The criminal history of Vanka Khitry ended in the Spring of 1972, when he unsuccessfully robbed a customer in the ‘Berezka’ store in Moscow. The thief stole a wallet from the famous dentist Arkady Kushner, lulling his vigilance with a gold star on the lapel of his jacket and talking about Italian fashion. But Kushner quickly came to his senses and personally detained Khitry when he tried to hide in the street crowd..

Soviet police (militsiya) department.

At the police station, the criminal was found to have a Hero’s ID card in the name of Grigory Kozlov. During the interrogation, Vanka skillfully evaded questioning and convinced the investigators that his passport was in the apartment of his front-line friend in Kryukovo and that he himself had come to the capital to visit from Leningrad. While the police were checking the facts, Khitry performed his favorite trick - he pretended to faint and then escaped from hospital.

But, the police had already collected too many facts and, most importantly, they now had a photograph of the criminal. Soon, the experienced officers recognized him as the famous swindler Ivan Petrov. Vanka Khitry was detained a few days later in his favorite Sanduny bathhouse in Moscow. The thief did not even resist. He was no longer young and was probably tired of running. In his pocket, they found another fake ID in the name of Major Avin, a former ‘SMERSH’ officer (an umbrella organization for three independent counterintelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942).

Sanduny Bathhouse, a favorite place of the Soviet elite.

Vanka Khitry was sentenced to 10 years in prison. After serving his last sentence, he was released in 1982 and never went behind bars again. A peer of the 20th century, the legendary swindler died in 2000 at the age of 100.