"Sonka - Golden Pen" - a woman who went down in history, becoming famous for a very dubious talent. It is hard not to be surprised at the ease with which this small and very charming person could fool serious men, law enforcement officers and prison officers around her finger.
Movies are being made about her and her talents to this day, interesting books are being written. The nickname "Sonka - the Golden Pen", which Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein had, spoke for itself.
The Great Fraudster of Russia - "Sonka - Golden Pen"
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Russia stood in the forefront among the most prosperous and richest powers in the world. Every eighth inhabitant of the planet knew the Russian language. There were external enemies, from which a reliable guard defended on the border of an endless state. Internal enemies were revolutionaries - terrorists and various kinds of criminal elements that harm civilians.
Just such a bright representative of this community was a woman named Sofya Blyuvshtein. She was the oneknown among the representatives of the criminal world of Tsarist Russia. All printed publications told about the thieves' 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 the screens, Sonya was the main character of many films.
Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: biography
"Sonka - the Golden Pen" was far from the 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, a wart on the right cheek, curly hair, blond, brown eyes, mobile, too bold, talkative”. Sophia Blyuvshtein was like that at that time, whose biography has been preserved unreliable.
Sofya Solomoniak - Bluvshtein - Stendel did not describe her life exactly, which is why it is impossible to find information about her birth anywhere. Official court documents have records that the adventurer was born in 1846 in the Warsaw province, in the town of Powazki. She was baptized in 1899. She was educated, fluent in several foreign languages.
Sophia got married more than once. Her last husband, Mikhail Yakovlevich Bluvshtein, 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. Moscow court decidedsend her to the Irkutsk region, to the remote village of Luzhki. She escaped from there in 1881.
In 1885, another arrest followed in Smolensk for theft of property on an especially large scale and a sentence of three years hard labor in prisons in the European part of Russia. And already on June 30, the criminal escaped from the Smolensk prison. In 1888, she was serving another sentence in the post of Alexander.
Chekhov's meeting took place with Sofia Bluvshtein in 1890. He described her this way in his book: “… Thin, small, with gray hair and a badly wrinkled face. On the hands are shackles. On the bunk lay a fur coat made of gray sheepskin, which served as clothing and at the same time was a bed. She walked and seemed to sniff the air all the time, like a mouse in a mousetrap. Looking at her, it was hard to believe that so recently she was famous for her beauty…”
In 1898, "Sonka - the Golden Pen", having freed herself, left for Khabarovsk. In July 1899, after being baptized according to the Orthodox rite, she acquired the name Maria.
Sofya Ivanovna Bluvshtein: children
The only thing known about this lady's children is that she has three of them. The first Sura-Rivka Isaakovna was born in 1865. Her mother left her, father Isaac Rosenbad, who lived in the Warsaw province of Powazki, took care of her. How the fate of the child developed in the future is unknown.
Tabba Mikhailovna, second daughter, (named Bluvshtein) was born in 1875. She became an operetta actress in Moscow.
Blyuvshtein Mikhelina Mikhailovna is Sophia's third daughter. Year of birth - 1879, also an actress of the Moscow operetta.
Criminal Talent
Sonka did not waste herself on trifles. For each new conceived business, she prepared diligently, trying to foresee all the surprises, weighing everything to the smallest detail. For a clever swindler, there were no state borders or high fences. The young woman knew how to strike up a conversation with dexterity, she was accepted into society everywhere.
The brave thief, after every successful business, liked to relax in Marienbad, imagining herself as a baroness. Sonya has always preferred to remain an aristocrat in the criminal world. Her lovers were Peter's prominent swindlers.
She liked to "work" alone, sometimes took her assistants, even created her own gang and became a member of a club of criminals called "Jacks of Hearts".
Quotes by Sofia Blueshtein
The famous director Viktor Merezhko wrote a wonderful book, which very interestingly describes the life story of "Sonya the Golden Handle".
The following are quotes from Sofia Blueshtein.
“My dear mother… I feel so lonely, so hard without you. Papa lives with the rude and uncouth Evdokia, who, it is not clear where it came from on our heads. For this goon, the main thing is that dad steals more.”
I think He has rewarded me… I'm taking a risk. But this is the kind of life that pulls me forward with such force that I feel dizzy all the time.”
And the most important saying is known to many.
- What did you steal?
- Is it gold?
- Not only, more diamonds.
- This is nottheft. Pampering.
- What is stealing?
- Stealing is when souls are stolen.
The last years of the life of "Sonya - the Golden Hand"
As they say, in the last years of her life, Sofya Bluvshtein was in Moscow with her daughters, although they were ashamed of their unlucky mother. She could not practice her old thieving trade, as her he alth was undermined by hard labor.
But there was a case when the Moscow police discovered a rather strange robbery. In jewelry stores, the monkey snatched rings or diamonds from the hands of visitors and ran away. It was predicted that the famous Sonya brought the monkey from Odessa.
When exactly Sophia died is unknown. 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 until her death, and they also say that representatives of the criminal world brought her body to Moscow and buried it at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
No one really knows how things really were. Of course, it is clear that Sofya Blyuvshtein has definitely ended her life, but "Sonka - the Golden Pen" lives on the planet in our century.
The power of Sophia Blyuvshtein's monument
At the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow, there is the grave of the legendary thief - the swindler "Sonka - the Golden Pen". It is made of marble in the form of a sculpture - a woman without arms and a head. Time has made itself felt: the marble is cracked, the fence is torn to pieces.
It is believed that Sonya andafter death helps those who ask for it. It is always crowded near the grave, thieves come, young girls visit with the hope of helping them find a good job, and others just go on an excursion.
The folds of a dress made of stone are covered with a 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 are fresh flowers.
Sonia's life was strange, everything seemed to go the other way around in her. She became an actress not on stage, as she dreamed, but in carriages, love did not ex alt, but pulled to the bottom. You can finish the memory of "Sonya - the Golden Pen" with the following words: Sofya Bluvshtein was and remains a model of what Jews can give to the criminal scene.
