Enterprising Crime

The late-at-night knock on the door supposedly has disappeared in Russia. But who can be sure? Hearing the knocks, householders admitted grim-faced men flashing badges and search warrants. In Moscow the family of one Nina Ivanovna was brusquely told that Nina had been arrested at her job as manager of a state-owned secondhand store. The callers demanded all of Nina's valuables, and her terrified mother handed over a bag containing some 250,000 rubles in cash and government bonds. Fur-Cutter Aleksei Aleksandrov caved in at the sight of the dreaded secret police and surrendered 300,000 rubles in money and furs. One victim, finally, put in a timid call to the authorities, to ask if the night visitors were really official. Last week the "secret policemen" who had spread a little incidental terror from Moscow and Leningrad to Kharkov and Stalino were exposed as a gang of criminals and con men headed by one Leon Voskonian.

On trial in a Moscow district court, Voskonian and his gang got help of a sort from those they had robbed. Nina Ivanovna and her mother insisted that the stolen bag contained only 100,000 rubles, not 250,000. Furrier Aleksandrov estimated his loss at a mere 45,000 rubles and, at first, even denied owning a diamond watch shown him for identification. What the blackmailed Muscovites feared was revealed in the columns of Moskovskaya Pravda, which stated ominously: "We assume the Anti-Speculation Squad will try to clarify how the victims accumulated such large sums. Speaking plainly, it is hardly usual for a store manager or a fur cutter to possess hundreds of thousands of rubles."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.