The Soviet period of history is considered a time with virtually no organized crime. However, it was precisely during this period, and during its most rigid and closed segment - the late Stalin period - that the activities of a criminal organization occurred that had no analogues either before or after. Under the constant supervision of omnipresent authorities, a group of comrades earned huge money for 11 years, pretending to be a military unit.
Born fugitive
Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko was born in the village of Novye Sokoly, Kyiv province of the Russian Empire in 1912 into the family of a wealthy peasant who already had six children, as well as two mills. Apparently, Kolya was not too attached to his family, since at the age of 14 he ran away from home and went to Minsk. True, some researchers see in this act the first manifestation of the phenomenal instincts of a criminal prodigy, since soon after his departure his father was dispossessed and arrested.
In the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, Pavlenko began working as a road builder, choosing a profession for the rest of his life. It was then that he falsified documents for the first time, attributing four years to himself (which is why many biographers subsequently began to date his birth to 1908). This helped him to enter the Polytechnic Institute ahead of time, where he studied the same road business. However, the educational process lasted only two courses: Pavlenko ran away again, again avoiding problems with the authorities who began to investigate his social origin.
He showed up only five years later, in 1935, when he was arrested in the city of Efremov, Tula Region, for theft of socialist property. Three years earlier, Stalin’s infamous “three ears of corn” law had been passed, and Pavlenko was in for big trouble, but he managed to get out of it by becoming an NKVD informant and writing denunciations against two of his colleagues. Those were repressed as “Trotskyists,” and he was recommended for work at Glavvoenstroy - a very privileged place where only a select few ended up.
The Fraud and the War
It was in Glavvoenstroi, successfully moving up the career ladder, that the swindler met the war.
As a specialist in military construction, he was appointed assistant engineer of the 2nd Rifle Corps, which fought on the Western Front. However, Pavlenko did not like defending his homeland, and four months later, when his unit retreated to the Vyazma area, he forged documents and went on a fake business trip, taking with him a sergeant-driver in a service truck. So the fellow travelers reached Kalinin (present-day Tver), where the protagonist’s relatives lived, and lay low.
Thinking over his further actions (and, taking into account desertion in wartime, there was something to think about), Pavlenko eventually came to the main idea of his life. It is reported that this happened at a drinking party in Klin, near Moscow, where the former colleagues of the swindler in construction organizations gathered - people who were also not deprived of dubious talents. One of them, woodcarver Ludwig Rudnichenko, right during the feast, as a joke, cut out an official seal and stamps from the sole of a rubber boot, on which was written “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front No. 5.” At this moment, the puzzle in Pavlenko’s head was completely formed.
With only a stolen army truck at his disposal, as well as several horses and carts and several personnel, the fraudster organized no less than his own military unit. For a bribe of food, a circulation of fake documents was printed at the Kalinin printing house, military uniforms were purchased at the market and in a local garment factory, and the personnel were divided into fake “soldiers” and “officers.”
All that was left was to find enough labor. Pavlenko brilliantly solved this problem by agreeing with the city’s military commissar to send to his unit military personnel who had lagged behind their units or had just been discharged from the hospital. Apparently, there was a bribe involved - a way of doing business, which the main character subsequently used to the maximum.
Soon the first construction contract was concluded - with the head of the local evacuation point, military doctor Bidenko. In exchange for free services, he agreed to provide UVSR with everything necessary. Other city orders followed, for which the organization opened an account in the State Bank. And after the Kalinin Front was disbanded, Pavlenko managed to attach it to the rear of the 4th Air Army for the purpose of building airfields. To do this, the talented leader agreed with a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov. Thus, the stage of formation was completed, the structure was legalized and, moreover, invested with important functions in the defeat of the invaders. It was autumn 1942.
While others were fighting
In the three years that passed before the Victory, Pavlenko’s part achieved real prosperity. On the territory of the Soviet Union alone, under the agreements, it received about a million rubles, and its number reached two hundred. Together with the rapidly advancing army, “UVSR” (or “USR”, or “UVR” - there were several names) reached Germany itself, where it was engaged in outright robberies. At the same time, in order to avoid suspicion, Pavlenko sometimes punished the “looters” in his unit. Once, as follows from the case materials, he shot three people, and did it personally.
The valiant “construction department” ended the war in Stuttgart, Germany. In order to remove all the property “accumulated” during this time, Pavlenko managed to negotiate with the military commandant of the city about the allocation of a train of 30 (!) cars. They carried a wide variety of goods: from cars and cattle to accordions and sewing machines. It was sold out along the way, in Poland and Belarus, and was finally sold in the native markets of the Kalinin and Tula regions
The unit itself returned home along with the loot. At the same time, the enterprising boss obtained as many as 230 (!) units of awards for his subordinates. Pavlenko did not offend himself by pinning four orders (of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, the Red Star and the Red Banner of Battle) and medals on his chest
Looking for new adventures
Upon returning to their homeland, the unit settled on the territory of the Shchekinsky district of the Tula region. For this, Pavlenko gave the regional military commissar a car. In 1946, when all the property was sold, the commander decided to disband his valiant unit. With the help of the same military commissar, all participants were “demobilized” and also generously rewarded. Privates and sergeants received 7-12 thousand rubles each, officers - 15-25. Pavlenko paid himself 90 thousand. The legendary swindler could not be accused of being tight-fisted.
With the proceeds, Pavlenko bought himself two houses - in the Kalinin and Kharkov regions - as well as 4 (!) Pobeda cars, after which he lived a peaceful life with his wife and daughter. He again took up the construction business, organizing an artel called “Plandorstroy”. This, it would seem, is the end of the fairy tale.
But soon the restless gut called to go on the road again. In 1948, together with his new mistress Nadezhda Tyutyunnik - a former saleswoman who served two years for embezzlement - Pavlenko left Kalinin, taking with him 400 thousand rubles from the artel funds. For this he was put on the all-Union wanted list, which, however, did not prevent the implementation of his further plans.
The lovers moved to Western Ukraine, to the glorious city of Lviv, where the great schemer summoned his accomplices. There the reincarnation of the “construction department” took place. The same craftsman Rudnichenko made seals and stamps, document forms were printed again, and everything started according to the old pattern. But on a much larger scale.
In just four years of its activity in its new incarnation, the organization concluded 64 agreements for a total amount of 38 million 717 thousand 600 rubles. Accounts were opened in 21 branches of the State Bank, from which 25 million rubles were withdrawn. The activities of the “administration” were carried out on the territory of six union republics: Ukrainian, Moldavian, Belarusian and three Baltic. Pavlenko moved in high circles, appearing at ceremonial events and parades next to government officials. Its part was no different from the real one: it was armed, lived according to the rules and had an exemplary appearance. In 1951, the swindler awarded himself the title of “Colonel”.
The work of the “company” was carried out according to strictly capitalist principles: Pavlenko paid hired specialists salaries three to four times higher than the state ones. He was incredibly generous with bribes, as well as with treats, always paying for luxurious dinners with the right people in restaurants, and surprising them with the amounts that he left on the table.
In order to discourage excessive curiosity, Pavlenko used another effective technique. He always hinted that civil engineering was just the tip of the iceberg, but in fact he and his comrades were carrying out orders from mysterious and powerful “authorities.” And he didn’t say which ones exactly, which created an even stronger impression.
The collapse of “Colonel” Pavlenko
And yet, one terrible day for Pavlenko, his well-functioning scheme failed. In part - either for greater credibility, or for fraudulent reasons - government loan bonds were distributed, and one of the workers did not receive them, after which he sent a letter of complaint to Marshal K. E. Voroshilov. The case unexpectedly got under way, and investigators from the military prosecutor's office, where it was sent, found out with great surprise that the military unit indicated in the letter was not on the lists of either the Ministry of Defense or the special services.
Work was carried out to establish the location of the unit's headquarters. It turned out to be difficult, but in the end it turned out that he was in Chisinau. After this, Pavlenko was put under surveillance, and soon the entire criminal network was shut down at once. This happened on November 14, 1952. 400 people were detained, including Pavlenko’s closest assistant Konstantinov (aka Konstantiner), who headed the structure’s own counterintelligence (!). He revealed to the operatives the possible location of the boss. Pavlenko was arrested at a safe house in Chisinau on November 23 along with his mistress. A general's shoulder straps were found next to him - apparently, another “promotion” was being prepared.
“We just built as best we could”
The investigation lasted for two years. During this time, Stalin managed to die and Khrushchev came to power. Finally, in November 1954, the trial began. He walked for another five months. Pavlenko and his associates were accused of anti-Soviet agitation, but no evidence of this was found. The main accused himself said the following: “We did not carry out anti-Soviet activities, we simply built as best we could, and we knew how to build well.” And it was hard to argue with that. All work undertaken by Pavlenko’s unit was carried out conscientiously. Yes, at the same time, attributions and appropriation of state property were practiced, but the swindler had nothing against the Soviet government itself.
However, the court still sentenced 40-year-old Pavlenko to death, accusing him of undermining state industry for counter-revolutionary purposes. Considering that all the other defendants in the case received only prison sentences ranging from 5 to 20 years, we can safely assume that they decided to shoot the legendary criminal not at all for encroaching on the gains of the revolution, which was not the case. And for the fact that he proved that even in the system of total control established under Stalin and considered almost the standard of iron order, there was so much chaos and loopholes for corruption that one person could avoid punishment for 11 years. At the same time, not hiding from the authorities, but developing vigorous activity in full view and becoming a respectable member of society.
Top Secret: The Case of the Fake Military Unit October 28th, 2011
In 1942, the USSR waged fierce battles with the enemy in all military directions.
There was also unrest in the rear; the NKVD and SMERSH, other military intelligence services, and all military propaganda called on the people to be vigilant. Who would have thought that in this harsh time, permeated with general suspicion, in the rear of the Soviet state, a whole network of swindlers dressed in military uniform operated brazenly and with impunity. 
The fake military unit was created by Red Army deserter Captain Pavlenko, a man of extraordinary talent and adventurous character. After spending several months at the front, Nikolai Pavlenko fled from the front and settled in the rear, getting a job as chairman of a construction artel in Tver using forged documents.
He knew the construction business well - he studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering, and did his internship at Glavvoenstroi, where he carefully studied the entire bureaucratic mechanism. Among the workers of the artel there was a previously convicted swindler who specialized in the production of seals, stamps and false documents. In 1942, Pavlenko came up with the idea - using false documents, to create a military unit - Military Construction Works Directorate No. 5.
So Nikolai Pavlenko became a fake military engineer of the 3rd rank, a major, in military terminology. Soon other “soldiers” appeared. The swindler awarded officer ranks to his accomplices. But to carry out the criminal plan, labor was required - soldiers and sergeants. To fill his own unit with human reserves, Pavlenko sent fake letters to surrounding hospitals, demanding that the wounded and those lagging behind their military echelons be sent directly to his unit. They did not hesitate to take deserters. Thus, the military unit became overgrown with people, many of whom did not even suspect that they were serving in the “fake” troops.
The scammers ordered all the forms, certificates, and military IDs from the printing house, paying large bribes. Military uniforms were obtained in a warehouse, officers' uniforms were sewn in a military studio. But it was not enough to have a uniform and people; it was necessary to provide them with work in order to hide behind it for their dark deeds. And Pavlenko, using his extraordinary talent as a diplomat, began to negotiate with military organizations, obtaining contracts for the construction of road facilities.
They believed him unconditionally. The swindler’s sociability worked wonders; he won over the secretaries of high offices, and bottles of expensive vintage cognac and boxes of American chocolates drowned the hearts of any commanding staff. But the fake directorate could not exist on its own - and Pavlenko achieved the incredible by bribing the leadership of the 12th RAB (air base area), his “Directorate” joined the army aviation unit as a construction support service. The combined arms emblems on soldiers' shoulder straps were replaced by aviation wings, and Pavlenko became a “lieutenant colonel” with unlimited influence.
By that time, his “unit” already numbered about two hundred people. Together with the aviators, Pavlenko’s Directorate crossed the Soviet border and began operating in Poland and Germany. In addition to construction work, the soldiers of Pavlenko’s gang did not hesitate to rob civilians - for which the stern “commander” shot two marauders in front of the line. Pavlenko knew that any alarm signal could bring down the entire organization, but the office, the backbone of which consisted of criminals and deserters, was gradually disintegrating.
Meanwhile, the scams continued. For a bribe, Pavlenko received from military representatives of the USSR Ministry of Defense an entire train (30 wagons) of various products, which he then resold profitably, pocketing the money for himself. Using false documents about military exploits, the fake lieutenant colonel obtained more than 230 state awards for his unit for his accomplices, not forgetting to reward himself. So Pavlenko awarded himself two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and military medals.
After the war, when counterintelligence began to take a closer look at the scoundrel builders, Pavlenko hastily reorganized the false military command, demobilizing unsuspecting soldiers and officers.
And he himself, from people close to himself, created the civil artel “Plandorstroy”, collecting contracts for the restoration of cities and villages that suffered from the Nazi occupiers. But it turned out that you couldn’t make much money on civil contracts, and Pavlenko, taking with him a cash register of 300 thousand rubles, fled.
A brilliant “military past” demanded new exploits. In 1948, Pavlenko found his “counterintelligence” chief, Yuri Konstantiner, lightly awarded him the rank of “major” and created a new military organization, which he called “Military Construction Directorate No. 10 (UVS-10).”
A young and charming colonel, a medal bearer, appeared in civilian organizations in a military uniform with shoulder straps and made a strong impression on the leadership of city organizations with his confident manners, ability to easily establish contacts and large bribes, which he gave at the conclusion of each transaction. Using fictitious accounts, UVS-10 opened current accounts and construction sites. Pavlenko paid ordinary “soldiers” mere pennies, huge amounts of money went into his pocket and the pockets of his accomplices. In addition, huge amounts of money were spent on bribes to high-ranking officials. Pavlenko’s organization created many construction sites; Pavlenko’s members operated in the center of Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Moldova.
With the money he earned, the fraudster purchased more than 40 trucks and cars, graders, horses and other vehicles. Under the guise of protecting construction sites from Bandera, Colonel Pavlenko received 25 rifles, 8 machine guns, 18 pistols from the regional departments of the MGB, and armed the guards at his headquarters, which he did not register anywhere. The organization grew, but discipline in the wild army left much to be desired. The Pavlenkovites drank, became rowdy, and began shooting each other. The “officers” did not hesitate to deceive their subordinates.
Such behavior of the “Soviet officers” played into the hands of Estonian and Ukrainian nationalists, who said: People, look, here they are, the occupiers of our long-suffering land, hiding behind shoulder straps, sowing lawlessness and terror!
Civilian construction workers of the military administration also complained - the authorities collected money from them for a war loan, but the bonds were not issued. All this did not go unnoticed. Signals poured into the surrounding departments of the MGB and were transmitted higher up the chain of command.
Pavlenko’s army was destroyed by another drunken brawl of his “officers.” The police arrested two drunk construction officers who staged a pogrom in a restaurant in Chisinau, the prosecutor's office sent a request to Moscow, from where they returned a stunning answer: such a military unit does not exist. The USSR Ministry of State Security got involved in the case, the investigation was headed by a man with an ominous reputation, General Semyon Tsvigun, who instilled fear in bribe-takers and scammers.
The security officers decided that the “military unit” was a carefully disguised sabotage unit of foreign intelligence. But after an unsuccessful attempt to infiltrate the unit or convert its employees, a decision was made to cover the entire network at once. And on November 14, 1952, troops of the USSR Ministry of State Security blocked the military bases of the “fake” Directorate, headquarters and other units of Pavlenko and arrested about 400 people.
Those arrested also included patrons and high-ranking friends of Pavlenko - the Minister of Food Industry K. Tsurkan, his deputies Azariev and Kudyukin, the first secretary of the Tiraspol State Committee of the Communist Party (b) M V. Lykhvar, several managers of industrial banks, the secretary of the Balti State Committee of the Communist Party (b) M L. Rachinsky and many others. Two and a half years of investigation resulted in dozens of volumes of criminal case. The damage from Pavlenko’s activities was calculated - it amounted to 38 million 717 thousand 600 Soviet rubles. It was noted that Pavlenko’s employees actually built roads and road facilities of excellent quality.
At the trial, the failed general said: “I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization.” And he further stated. “I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will contribute to the organization of work...”
However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment - execution, and sixteen of his “officers” were sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years.
The case and the verdict were classified as “Top Secret”. The Soviet authorities could not admit that in the very heart of the European part of the Soviet socialist state nested an entire secret network of swindlers and thieves in army uniform.
One of the most amazing adventurers of the Stalin era. During the war he created his own military unit.
Kolya Pavlenko, the son of a miller from the village of Novye Sokoly, was perhaps the most savvy among his seven sisters and brothers. Without waiting for his father to be dispossessed, in 1928 the sixteen-year-old teenager left home for the city. To get a job, he added four years to his age. Subsequently, Pavlenko more than once used this method in forged documents: he changed the year and place of birth. He entered the Institute of Civil Engineering, but after studying for two years, he dropped out. NKVD employees, a certain Curzon and Sakhno, involved him “in the development of materials against the Trotskyists Volkov and Afanasyev” and, as “conscious” and “devoted,” recommended him to a serious organization - Glavvoenstroy. With two courses at the institute, young Pavlenko successfully coped with the work of a foreman, senior foreman, and construction site manager. Even then, Nikolai Maksimovich had mastered the method of postscripts well, learned to “work” with documents and, most importantly, realized that under the roof of the military department one could warm one’s hands well...
June 1941 I met Nikolai Pavlenko in the uniform of a 1st rank military technician with a “sleeper” in his buttonhole. The rifle corps in which he served retreated to the east with heavy fighting. In October, Pavlenko forged a travel document (he was allegedly sent to search for an airfield unit), took his faithful driver, Sergeant Shcheglov, with him, and they both disappeared.
Having safely passed the posts of the detachments, Pavlenko and his accomplice reached Kalinin (now Tver). Here he had relatives who knew him from his previous work in a construction team. It would seem that it would be better for a deserter to lie low, “lay low,” acquire forged documents that would exempt him from conscription, and hide in a quiet office. But Pavlenko planned the incredible, especially considering the climate of general suspicion during the war - to create his own military unit.
Thirty-year-old Pavlenko began by preparing a documentary base for the “military” unit. In March 1942, in the dinner party of the first “fighters”, who were Pavlenko’s closest relatives and his friends who had evaded conscription, a professional swindler L. RUD Nichenko appeared. In front of the astonished spectators, in just an hour, using a simple tool, he cut out from a rubber sole an official seal and stamps with the inscription “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front (UVSR-5”). Forms, product certificates, travel certificates and other documents were printed in a printing house for a bribe with food. The uniforms were purchased at the bazaars. Contacts were established with some employees of the Volodarsky garment factory and the Kalinin Regional Industrial Cooperation. Pavlenko made “officers” out of the trusted people, and initially assigned himself the title of military engineer of the 3rd rank. Through official letters - on letterhead with a seal - the commander of "UVSR-5" ensured that from the military commandant's office of the city, ordinary soldiers who had lagged behind their unit or were discharged from the hospital after being wounded were sent to him for further service.
The new military unit, under contract agreements with various organizations that did not suspect anything about the true origin of UVSR-5, began to carry out road construction work. Pavlenko personally divided all cash receipts under such agreements among his officers and spent only a small part on food for the unsuspecting “ordinary personnel.”
However, the case required more reliable cover. A young, energetic, intelligent-looking military engineer of the 3rd rank inspired confidence in those around him. Having promised the head of one of the evacuation points, doctor 1st rank Bidenko, to repair the buildings for free, Pavlenko obtained his consent to take UVSR-5 under his protection and even enroll the soldiers in all types of allowances at the evacuation point.
After the liquidation of the Kalinin Front, part of Pavlenko moved under the wing of the 12th RAB (aircraft base area), where his people were also enrolled in all types of allowances. He carried out this operation for a large bribe in the fall of 1942, bribing a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov.
Pavlenko’s unit, which changed the sign to “UVR-5,” moved after the advancing Soviet troops, maintaining a safe distance from the front line. On the way to the USSR border, Pavlenko’s people earned about a million rubles under contracts. To increase the volume of work performed, replenishment was required. Then Pavlenko began to recruit soldiers who had lagged behind their units. “You’re a deserter! You need to be judged! You’ll be shot!” Pavlenko shouted at the soldier who had committed a crime. But then, replacing his anger with mercy, he added: “Okay, so be it, I forgive you. Stay in my unit...”
The chief of staff of UVR, M. Zavada, said: “People were recruited, as a rule, from those who had lagged behind military units... Drivers were taken along with the car... When they approached the Soviet state border, there were more than two hundred people in UVR. Half of them are deserters and persons hiding from conscription into the active army."
Pavlenko’s unit followed the Soviet troops throughout Poland and ended its “combat” journey near Berlin. Here the “builders” began outright robbery of the local population. Honest soldiers who did not suspect anything about the criminal nature of the UVR could complain to their superiors, so Pavlenko shot the two most zealous ones, demonstrating determination in the fight against the “looters.” By the end of the war, part of Pavlenko turned into an armed gang, dressed in the uniform of Soviet military personnel. After the victory, the strengthened and insolent commander of the "UVR", with the help of deception and large bribes, established connections with the military representatives of the Department of Clothing and Cargo Supply of the USSR Ministry of Defense, as well as with representatives of the temporary military commandant's office of Stuttgart and received at his disposal a railway train of thirty cars. In addition to tens of tons of flour, sugar, cereals and hundreds of heads of livestock, it transported ten trucks, five tractors, several cars and other equipment. The gang returned to their homeland with rich booty, orders and medals. Based on fictitious documents about the imaginary exploits of UVR fighters, Pavlenko received over 230 awards, which he distributed to his most distinguished comrades. He awarded himself two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and medals.
Upon returning to Kalinin, Pavlenko immediately demobilized everyone who knew nothing about the criminal nature of the unit. After selling the loot, he paid each of his “soldiers” from 7 to 12 thousand rubles, the “officers” - from 15 to 25 thousand, and kept 90 thousand rubles for himself.
Leaving some of the removed equipment in Kalinin, Pavlenko created and headed the civil construction artel "Plandorstroy". But under his leadership there were no longer any accomplices - they had dispersed to different cities, and without them it was difficult to carry out the business on a grand scale. At the beginning of 1948, he contacted his closest assistant Yu. Konstantiner, after which, having stolen 300 thousand artel funds, he disappeared. Soon other “officers” came to Lvov at his call, and the craftsman Rudnichenko also arrived, who quickly made seals and stamps. This is how UVS-1 (Military Construction Directorate) appeared with many construction branches in the western regions of the country.
From 1948 to 1952, UVS-1, using forged documents, concluded sixty-four contracts in the amount of 38,717,600 rubles. Almost half of the contracts were carried out through the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry. On behalf of his “military unit,” Pavlenko opened current accounts in twenty-one branches of the State Bank, through which he received more than 25 million rubles from fictitious accounts. Having a lot of money, Pavlenko considered himself invulnerable. He had an unerring instinct for corrupt officials. The plump and impressive colonel (he assigned this title to himself in 1951) gave a bribe even for solving a trivial issue. He belonged to local authorities. He was respected and taken into account. Pavlenko selected his security through local MGB agencies, which carefully checked candidates for lack of connection with Bandera.
On November 5, 1952, the investigative unit for particularly important cases of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office received a criminal case initiated by the military prosecutor's office of the Carpathian Military District about the fictitious organization "UVS-1", headed by engineer-colonel Pavlenko Nikolai Maksimovich. And this was during the reign of Stalin, when an atmosphere of general suspicion reigned! Only chance helped expose Pavlenko.
After the war, campaigns were held to subscribe to government loans. To create the appearance of a real military unit, Pavlenko and his “officers” bought bonds on the “black market” and distributed them among unsuspecting civilians. So, one of them, having received bonds for a smaller amount than he paid, wrote a complaint to the military prosecutor's office, accusing Pavlenko of disrupting a campaign of national importance.
A GVP employee sent a request to the Ministry of Defense to find out where Colonel Pavlenko’s military construction unit is located. Soon the answer came: the requested part was not listed on the ministry’s lists. A request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state security agencies received a similar response. The check was continued, and in a short time it was possible to find out that UVS-1 existed completely legally. Moreover, it had an extensive branched structure: construction sites and sites subordinate to UVS-1 were located in Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. The headquarters of the unit, located in Chisinau, was no different from the present: there was a unit banner with shift sentries near it, and an operational duty officer, heads of various services, and armed guards in the form of privates and sergeants of the Soviet Army, who did not allow any outsiders into the territory under the pretext of the secrecy of the object.
The unit commander, “Colonel” Pavlenko, also turned out to be a real person. A strong, fit, intelligent-looking man with glasses, he not only did not hide from strangers, but also showed off on holidays in the stands and on the podium next to the “fathers” of the city. The operation to liquidate the mysterious organization was carefully prepared. It was decided to take the UVS-1 headquarters and all its units scattered throughout the western regions of the country on the same day, November 14, 1952. Taken by surprise, Pavlenko’s “fighters” did not offer armed resistance. As a result of the operation, more than 300 people were detained, including about 50 so-called officers, sergeants and privates. The “Colonel” himself and his right-hand man, “Chief of Counterintelligence Major” Yu. Konstantiner, were arrested.
During the liquidation of the fictitious military construction unit, 3 light machine guns, 8 machine guns, 25 rifles and carbines, 18 pistols, 5 grenades, over 3 thousand live cartridges, 62 trucks and 6 cars, 4 tractors, 3 excavators and a bulldozer were discovered and seized , round seals and stamps, tens of thousands of different forms, many fake ID cards and registration certificates...
To investigate the case, a team was created of responsible employees of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, led by V. Markalyants, L. Lavrentyev and experienced military investigators from the periphery. But even highly qualified professionals took two and a half years (including the trial) to completely restore the criminal portrait of Pavlenko and the active accomplices of the enterprise he conceived.
Alexander Tikhonovich Lyadov, one of the investigators involved in the Pavlenko case, said: “It was a top-secret case. In 1952, I worked as a senior investigator at the prosecutor’s office of the Central District of Railways. After interrogating those arrested and witnesses, we handed over the protocols to the senior group, and the briefcases with the case were sealed. During the investigation, I had to go to the Rivne region. In the city of Zdolbunov, Pavlenko’s “military unit” was building access roads to the restored cement and brick factories. I must say, he built it very well. He invited outside specialists, and paid three to four times in cash. more than at a state-owned enterprise. He came to check the work himself. If he found any shortcomings, he would not leave until they were corrected. After rolling out the completed track, he gave the workers a few barrels of beer and a snack for free, and personally presented a bonus to the locomotive driver and his assistant, here in public. At that time, many workers received 300-500 rubles a month, and Pavlenko could pay a hundred for a newspaper. But I didn’t tell anyone about this, they wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Or this episode. During the interrogation of one head of the main department, I asked a question: did you know that Pavlenko gives expensive gifts to officials and their wives? Didn't that make you suspicious? He answers angrily: “Well, how could it have occurred to me that Pavlenko is a swindler, if during the festive parade he stands on the podium next to the regional leadership, who praises him for his work and sets him up as an example to business executives...”
“We’re sitting in a restaurant,” continues the head of the main department, “I’m mentally calculating how much I’ll have to pay. And Pavlenko, as if reading my thoughts, declares: “I’m paying!” How much do you get? Two thousand, no more?” I spontaneously blurted out: “How much are you?” He laughed and so casually: “Ten thousand... We do this civilian work, by the way, but our main work is secret” - here I speak and bit, did not dare to ask further..."
Indeed, it was difficult to suspect Pavlenko of a criminal. A successful, respectable man, drives a Pobeda...
On the day of Pavlenko’s arrest, during a search in his apartment, among other things, general’s shoulder straps were found.
At the trial, the failed general said: “I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization.” And he further stated: “I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will contribute to the organization of work...” However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment , and sixteen of his “officers” - to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years.
Knowledge to the masses!
The case of a fake military unit, criminal number 1 in the USSR Nikolai Pavlenko. The largest scam of Soviet times, which lasted 11 years and caused 38 million rubles in damage.
Nikolai Pavlenko is one of the most amazing adventurers of the Stalin era. During the war he created his own military unit.
Kolya Pavlenko, the son of a miller from the village of Novye Sokoly, was perhaps the most savvy among his seven sisters and brothers. Without waiting for his father to be dispossessed, in 1928 the sixteen-year-old teenager left home for the city. He added four years to his age to get a job. Subsequently, Pavlenko more than once used this method in forged documents: he changed the year and place of birth. He entered the Institute of Civil Engineering, but after studying for two years, he dropped out.
NKVD employees, a certain Curzon and Sakhno, involved him “in the development of materials against the Trotskyists Volkov and Afanasyev” and, as “conscious” and “devoted,” recommended him to a serious organization - Glavvoenstroy. With two courses at the institute, young Pavlenko successfully coped with the work of a foreman, senior foreman, and construction site manager. Even then, Nikolai Maksimovich had mastered the method of postscripts well, learned to “work” with documents and, most importantly, realized that under the roof of the military department one could warm one’s hands well
June 1941 Nikolai Pavlenko was greeted in the uniform of a military technician of the 1st rank with a "sleeper" in his buttonhole. The rifle corps in which he served was retreating to the east with heavy fighting. In October, Pavlenko forged a travel document (he was allegedly sent to search for an airfield unit ), took with him his faithful driver, Sergeant Shcheglov, and they both disappeared.
Having safely passed the posts of the detachments, Pavlenko and his accomplice reached Kalinin (now Tver). Here he had relatives who knew him from his previous work in a construction team. It would seem that it would be better for a deserter to lie low, “lay low,” acquire forged documents that would exempt him from conscription, and hide in a quiet office. But Pavlenko planned the incredible, especially considering the climate of general suspicion during the war—to create his own military unit.
Thirty-year-old Pavlenko began by preparing a documentary base for the “military” unit. In March 1942, in the table company of the first “fighters”, who were Pavlenko’s closest relatives and his friends who had evaded conscription into the army, the professional swindler L. Rudnichenko showed up. In front of the astonished spectators, in just an hour, using a simple tool, he cut out an official seal and stamps from a rubber sole with the inscription “Military construction site of the Kalinin Front” (“UVSR-5”).
Forms, product certificates, travel certificates and other documents were printed in the printing house for a bribe of products. Uniforms were purchased at bazaars. Contacts were established with some employees of the Volodarsky garment factory and the Kalinin regional industrial cooperation. Pavlenko made “officers” out of trusted people, and to begin with, he awarded himself the title of military engineer of the 3rd rank. Using fabricated official letters - on stamped forms - the commander of "UVSR-5" ensured that from the city's military commandant's office, ordinary soldiers who had lagged behind their unit or were discharged from the hospital after being wounded were sent to him for further service.
The new military unit, under contract agreements with various organizations that did not suspect anything about the true origin of UVSR-5, began to carry out road construction work. Pavlenko personally divided all cash receipts under such agreements among his officers and spent only a small part on food for the unsuspecting “ordinary personnel.”
However, the case required more reliable cover. A young, energetic, intelligent-looking military engineer of the 3rd rank inspired confidence in those around him. Having promised the head of one of the evacuation centers, doctor 1st rank Biden-ko, to repair the buildings for free, Pavlenko obtained his consent to take UVSR-5 under his protection and even enroll the soldiers in all types of allowances at the evacuation point.
After the liquidation of the Kalinin Front, part of Pavlenko moved under the wing of the 12th RAB (aircraft base area), where his people were also enrolled in all types of allowances. He carried out this operation for a large bribe in the fall of 1942, bribing a certain Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov.
Pavlenko’s unit, which changed the sign to “UVR-5,” moved after the advancing Soviet troops, maintaining a safe distance from the front line. On the way to the USSR border, Pavlenko’s people earned about a million rubles under contracts. To increase the volume of work performed, replenishment was required. Then Pavlenko began to recruit soldiers who had lagged behind their units. “You’re a deserter! You need to be judged! You’ll be shot!” Pavlenko shouted at the soldier who had committed a crime. But then, replacing his anger with mercy, he added: “Okay, so be it, I forgive you. Stay in my unit...” Chief of Staff “UVR” M Zavada said: “People were recruited, as a rule, from those who had lagged behind military units... Drivers were taken along with the car... When they approached the Soviet state border, there were more than two hundred people in “UVR”. Half of them - deserters and persons hiding from conscription into the active army."
Pavlenko’s unit followed the Soviet troops throughout Poland and ended its “combat” journey near Berlin. Here the “builders” began outright robbery of the local population. Honest soldiers who did not suspect anything about the criminal nature of the UVR could complain to their superiors, so Pavlenko shot the two most zealous ones, demonstrating determination in the fight against the “looters.” By the end of the war, part of Pavlenko turned into an armed gang, dressed in the uniform of Soviet military personnel.
After the victory, the UVR commander, who had gained strength and became insolent, with the help of deception and large bribes, established connections with the military representatives of the Department of Clothing and Cargo Supply of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, as well as with representatives of the temporary military commandant's office of Stuttgart and received at his disposal a railway train of thirty cars, in addition to dozens tons of flour, sugar, cereals and hundreds of heads of livestock; ten trucks, five tractors, several cars and other equipment were transported on it. The gang returned to their homeland with rich booty, orders and medals. Based on fictitious documents about the imaginary exploits of UVR fighters, Pavlenko received over 230 awards, which he distributed to his most distinguished comrades. He awarded himself two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, the Order of the Red Star, and medals.
Upon returning to Kalinin, Pavlenko immediately demobilized everyone who knew nothing about the criminal nature of the unit. After selling the loot, he paid each of his “soldiers” from 7 to 12 thousand rubles, the “officers” - from 15 to 25 thousand, and kept 90 thousand rubles for himself.
Leaving some of the removed equipment in Kalinin, Pavlenko created and headed the civil construction artel "Plandorstroy". But under his leadership there were no longer any accomplices - they had dispersed to different cities, and without them it was difficult to carry out the business on a grand scale. At the beginning of 1948, he contacted his closest assistant Yu. Konstantiner, after which, having stolen 300 thousand artel funds, he disappeared. Soon other “officers” came to Lvov at his call, and the craftsman Rudnichenko also arrived, who quickly made seals and stamps. This is how UVS-1 (Military Construction Directorate) appeared with many construction branches in the western regions of the country.
From 1948 to 1952, UVS-1, using forged documents, concluded sixty-four contracts in the amount of 38,717,600 rubles. Almost half of the contracts were carried out through the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry. On behalf of his “military unit,” Pavlenko opened current accounts in twenty-one branches of the State Bank, through which he received more than 25 million rubles from fictitious accounts.
Having a lot of money, Pavlenko considered himself invulnerable. He had an unerring instinct for corrupt officials. The plump and impressive colonel (he assigned this title to himself in 1951) gave a bribe even for solving a trivial issue. He belonged to local authorities. He was respected and taken into account. Pavlenko selected his security through local MGB agencies, which carefully checked candidates for lack of connection with Bandera.
On November 5, 1952, the investigative unit for particularly important cases of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office received a criminal case initiated by the military prosecutor's office of the Carpathian Military District about the fictitious organization "UVS-1", headed by engineer-colonel Pavlenko Nikolai Maksimovich. And this was during the reign of Stalin, when an atmosphere of general suspicion reigned! Only chance helped expose Pavlenko.
After the war, campaigns were held to subscribe to government loans. To create the appearance of a real military unit, Pavlenko and his “officers” bought bonds on the “black market” and distributed them among unsuspecting civilians. So, one of them, having received bonds for a smaller amount than he paid, wrote a complaint to the military prosecutor's office, accusing Pavlenko of disrupting a campaign of national importance.
A GVP employee sent a request to the Ministry of Defense to find out where Colonel Pavlenko’s military construction unit is located. Soon the answer came: the requested part was not listed on the ministry’s lists. A request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and state security agencies received a similar response.
The check was continued, and in a short time it was possible to find out that UVS-1 existed completely legally. Moreover, it had an extensive branched structure: construction sites and sites subordinate to UVS-1
were located in Moldova, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. The headquarters of the unit, located in Chisinau, was no different from the present: there was a unit banner with shift sentries near it, and an operational duty officer, heads of various services, and armed guards in the form of privates and sergeants of the Soviet Army, who did not allow any outsiders into the territory under the pretext of the secrecy of the object.
The unit commander, “Colonel” Pavlenko, also turned out to be a real person. A strong, fit, intelligent-looking man with glasses, he not only did not hide from strangers, but also showed off on holidays in the stands and on the podium next to the “fathers” of the city.
The operation to liquidate the mysterious organization was carefully prepared. It was decided to take the UVS-1 headquarters and all its units scattered throughout the western regions of the country on the same day, November 14, 1952. Taken by surprise, Pavlenko’s “fighters” did not offer armed resistance. As a result of the operation, more than 300 people were detained, including about 50 so-called officers, sergeants and privates. The “Colonel” himself and his right-hand man, “Chief of Counterintelligence Major” Yu. Konstantiner, were arrested.
During the liquidation of the fictitious military construction unit, 3 light machine guns, 8 machine guns, 25 rifles and carbines, 18 pistols, 5 grenades, over 3 thousand live cartridges, 62 trucks and 6 cars, 4 tractors, 3 excavators and a bulldozer were discovered and seized , round seals and stamps, tens of thousands of different forms, many fake ID cards and registration certificates...
To investigate the case, a team was created of responsible employees of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, led by V. Markalyants, L. Lavrentyev and experienced military investigators from the periphery. But even highly qualified professionals took two and a half years (including the trial) to completely restore the criminal portrait of Pavlenko and the active accomplices of the enterprise he conceived.
Alexander Tikhonovich Lyadov, one of the investigators involved in the Pavlenko case, said: “It was a top-secret case. In 1952, I worked as a senior investigator at the prosecutor’s office of the Central District of Railways. After interrogating those arrested and witnesses, we handed over the protocols to the senior group, and the briefcases with the case were sealed. During the investigation, I had to go to the Rivne region. In the city of Zdolbunov, Pavlenko’s “military unit” was building access roads to the restored cement and brick factories. I must say, he did an excellent job. He invited outside specialists, and paid three to four times more in cash. , than at a state-owned enterprise. He came to check the work himself. If he found any shortcomings, he would not leave until they were corrected. After rolling out the completed track, he gave the workers a few barrels of beer and a snack for free, and personally presented a bonus to the locomotive driver and his assistant, here in public. At that time, many workers received 300-500 rubles a month, and Pavlenko could pay a hundred for a newspaper. But I didn’t tell anyone about this, they wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Or this episode. During the interrogation of one head of the main department, I asked a question: did you know that Pavlenko gives expensive gifts to officials and their wives? Didn't that make you suspicious? He answers angrily: “Well, how could it have occurred to me that Pavlenko is a swindler, if during the festive parade he stands on the podium next to the regional leadership, who praises him for his work and sets him up as an example to business executives...”
“We’re sitting in a restaurant,” continues the head of the main department, “I’m mentally calculating how much I’ll have to pay. And Pavlenko, as if reading my thoughts, declares: “I’m paying!” How much do you get? Two thousand, no more?” I spontaneously blurted out: “How much are you?” He laughed and so casually: “Ten thousand... We do this civilian work, by the way, but our main work is secret” - here I bit my tongue , did not dare to ask further.
Indeed, it was difficult to suspect Pavlenko of a criminal. A successful, respectable man, drives a Pobeda...
On the day of Pavlenko’s arrest, during a search in his apartment, among other things, general’s shoulder straps were found.
At the trial, the failed general said: “I never set out to create an anti-Soviet organization.” And he further stated. “I assure the court that Pavlenko can still be useful and he will make his contribution to the organization of work...” However, the verdict of the tribunal of the Moscow Military District on April 4, 1955 was harsh: “Colonel” Pavlenko was sentenced to capital punishment, and sixteen of his "officers" - to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 25 years.
Nikolay Pavlenko. Photo from the site voen-sud.ru
The regular army is considered one of the main types of bureaucracy in human history, and sociologists consider the organization of military service to be a model for the effective administration and coordination of huge numbers of people. But it was precisely in this environment of total accounting of every military unit in the USSR that an incident occurred that had no analogues in the world: from 1942 to 1952, the People's Commissariat of Defense, the General Staff, the headquarters of several fronts and military districts did not suspect the existence of a fictitious military construction unit formed by a deserter with the forward assistant chief of engineering service of the 2nd Rifle Corps Nikolai Pavlenko.
From 1942 to 1952, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, the headquarters of several fronts and military districts did not suspect the existence of a fictitious military unit formed by a deserter. The question still remains open as to how this could happen in conditions of total accounting of each unit.
Pavlenko was born in 1908 in the village of Novye Sokoly, Ivankovsky district, Kyiv region, where his father owned several mills. In 1930, the Soviet authorities “dispossessed” the wealthy family and exiled them to Siberia. Two years earlier, Pavlenko left his parents' home and thereby avoided the fate of his loved ones. For several years he worked in Belarus as a road builder at Glavdortrans, after which he entered the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute. At the same time, Pavlenko hid his origins from a repressed family. When, after a request from institute personnel officers to the Ivankovsky district, the threat of exposure loomed over the second-year student, he hastily left Minsk in an unknown direction.
In 1935, Pavlenko showed up in the city of Efremov, Tula Region, where he became a foreman in a road construction organization. But after some time he was detained on suspicion of regular additions and theft of building materials. In the pre-trial detention center, he came to the attention of the NKVD state security officers. They suggested that the defendant “help the authorities in exposing the anti-Soviet conspiracy” in the regional construction department. He agreed and gave “testimony” about the counter-revolutionary activities of the institution’s engineers, Volkov and Afanasyev. After this, Pavlenko was released and helped to get a job at one of the Glavvoenstroi enterprises. In his new job, Pavlenko, who has extensive experience in road work, was initially appointed as a foreman, soon he became a senior foreman, and then he was entrusted with the position of construction site manager. Of course, the team did not know about his role as an NKVD informant.
On the fifth day of the war, June 27, 1941, the chief military officer Pavlenko, mobilized into the army, was appointed assistant chief of the engineering service of the 2nd Rifle Corps in the Western Special Military District. During heavy defensive battles near Minsk and further retreat, the corps suffered huge losses and on July 24, 1941, the bloodless units were withdrawn to the Gzhatsk area (now the city of Gagarin, Smolensk region). Pavlenko received a new appointment in the spring of 1942: to the airfield construction department of the headquarters of the emerging 1st Air Army of the Western Front. But Pavlenko left his previous duty station and did not arrive at the new one. The truck with the driver Shchegolev disappeared along with him.
And soon Pavlenko and Shchegolev appeared in the city of Kalinin (now Tver). At one time, after escaping from the Minsk Polytechnic Institute, the former student spent some time in the regional center and worked in the local artel “Plandorstroy”. He managed to acquire numerous acquaintances here, and some of them have now been restored. In addition, former artel members in the city of Klin have been found Kalinin region and Solnechnogorsk near Moscow, Pavlenko shared with his most trusted friends and acquaintances his plan - to create a fictitious military construction organization and, under its cover, take government contracts and make good money from this. The idea seemed impossible to Pavlenko’s accomplices, but he began to implement it without hesitation. .
The name for the “military unit” - the Military Construction Directorate (MDC) - was invented by Pavlenko himself. In those days, the “management” consisted of several people, a car stolen by Pavlenko and Shchegolev, and a couple of horses and carts. First of all, Pavlenko began to acquire fake anniversary paraphernalia - round seals, corner stamps and various forms. Several thousand forms were produced clandestinely in a city printing house for a certain fee. Variable seals with the inscriptions “Directorate of Military Construction”, “Directorate of Military Works”, “Site of Military Construction Works”, as well as stamps were skillfully cut out by the swindler Ludwig Rudnichenko, who joined Pavlenko. Subsequently, he participated in the production of fake passports, service IDs and other documents. It was not difficult to outfit the accomplices to whom Pavlenko “assigned” officer and sergeant ranks: the local flea market was flooded with uniforms. Contacts were also established with some employees of the Volodarsky garment factory and the Kalinin regional industrial cooperation. An empty building on a quiet street was adapted for the “headquarters”.
The legalization of Pavlenkovites as part of the Red Army went surprisingly smoothly. When Pavlenko made a risky attempt to appear at the regional military commissariat with a request to send non-combatant soldiers discharged from hospital No. 425 FEP-165 (front-line evacuation point) after recovery to serve in the UVS, the military commissar without any pretense signed the statement prepared by the “chief of the UVS” and certified by a fake seal. Soon, soldiers and sergeants who actually served in the Red Army began to appear in the self-proclaimed department. And from the city’s military commandant’s office, military personnel who lagged behind their units were sent to the UVS “for further service.”
The UVS concluded the first contract for construction work with the same evacuation point. Here, there was a bribe to the head of the point, military doctor Bidenko. It was possible to receive orders for road and construction work from the civil authorities of the war-ravaged city. The money was transferred to a UVS account opened at a local branch of the State Bank on the basis of fictitious documents. They went to feed the rank and file and pay the "officers", and the lion's share went into the pockets of Pavlenko and his associates. At the same time, the so-called head of the Internal Affairs Directorate did not skimp on bribing officials of the military and civil administration.
Towards the end of 1942, Pavlenko increasingly began to think about the future fate of the “management”. He understood that it was easier for a military construction organization not listed on the lists of units of the USSR Armed Forces to get lost at the front than in the rear. On the other hand, Pavlenko did not want his “army” to be in close proximity to the front line. But the enterprising “colonel” was already forming far-reaching plans in his head related to the emerging turning point in the course of the war in favor of the USSR, and he successfully resolved the dilemma that arose. In the fall of 1942, when the Kalinin Front was disbanded, Pavlenko managed to achieve the “attachment” of the Air Force (now the Military Works Directorate) to the 12th Air Base Area (RAB) - the rear structure of the 3rd Air Army. And field airfields, as you know, were set up at a distance from the front line and were constantly moved after the advancing ground troops. On the way to the USSR border, Pavlenko’s people earned about a million rubles in the liberated areas under agreements.
The Pavlenkovites, whose number had already reached 300 people by the end of the war, advanced after the air army to East Prussia. The department, equipped with a fleet of construction equipment and vehicles, was engaged in the equipment of runways, shelters for aircraft and dugouts for pilots, and access roads. They worked conscientiously: Pavlenko strictly controlled the quality of work. But there was another side to the activities of the Pavlenkovites, most of whom were criminals, deserters, and persons hiding from mobilization, gathered under the flag of a fictitious military unit.
As the investigation into the criminal case of Pavlenko and his closest assistants would later establish, at the final stage of the war in Poland and Germany, under the legend of collecting captured weapons (fake orders and certificates were used), Pavlenko’s men were engaged in property robbery. In total, as we were able to establish, about 80 horses, at least 50 heads of cattle, a large number of pigs, about 20 trucks and cars, up to 20 tractors and tractor-trailers, as well as a large number of electric motors, motorcycles and bicycles were taken from the German population , radios and accordions, sewing machines, carpets, hunting weapons, flour, sugar and cereals. Part of the loot was immediately sold in neighboring areas for gold jewelry and other valuables. When information about the atrocities of Pavlenko’s men began to leak outside the UVS, Pavlenko staged a show “trial” of the three looters. At the trial, he tried to interpret this fact in his favor. “In order to strengthen discipline, on my orders,” he said, “Koptev, Mikhailov and another one were shot - I don’t remember his last name...”
But in court it was proven that the robberies were carried out on the instructions of Pavlenko. He also organized the export of material assets to the USSR. The “Colonel” managed to negotiate with representatives of the Department of Clothing and Cargo Supply of the Red Army and the Soviet military commandant’s office of the city of Stuttgart on the allocation of a train of 30 railway cars - supposedly for the return of “unit personnel” with construction equipment to their homeland. In fact, a whole herd of cows, a herd of horses, several cars, 10 trucks, 5 tractors, motorcycles and other equipment, and a large number of bags of sugar, cereals and flour were loaded into the heated vehicles. On the way home, several captured trucks and tractors, 12 cows, and about 20 horses were sold in Poland and Belarus. Pavlenkovites preferred gold as a unit of account. The sale of the loot continued in populated areas of the Kalinin region and Tula region.
The stolen goods were also used to bribe officials. Thus, the Tula regional military commander Rizhnev was “given” a captured passenger car for his assistance in placing the “unit” in the Shchekinsky district. When almost all the property exported from Germany was sold, Pavlenko decided to “demobilize” the personnel and liquidate the Air Force. In 1946, in a solemn ceremony, he distributed cash bonuses to all his subordinates (about 3 million rubles had accumulated in the organization’s account by that time, and Pavlenko kept more than half a million in cash), in addition, many received part of the “trophy” property. Then the “father commander” presented government awards. Back in Germany, as recalled by Sergei Gromov, senior investigator for particularly important cases under the USSR Prosecutor General, who took part in the investigation of this unique criminal case, Pavlenko drew up award certificates for almost all participants in the false military organization, and the head of the air base area, Lieutenant Colonel Tsyplakov, with whom he "Colonel" developed a mutually beneficial relationship, procured from the higher command more than two hundred orders and medals for airfield builders. Pavlenko awarded himself three orders.
By that time, Pavlenko had already started a family, purchased a house in Kalinin and returned to the Plandorstroy artel, where he was unanimously elected leader. But the irrepressible nature of the businessman prevented him from sitting still: in 1948, he decided to return his brainchild - a military construction organization - to life in peaceful conditions.
In the fall of 1952, the reception office of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Klim Voroshilov received a letter from the city of Lvov from a certain Efremenko, who, according to him, works as a civilian “at the construction site of the Military Construction Directorate No. 1.” He complained that the managers collected money from civilian employees to purchase government loan bonds, but issued the bonds themselves for a smaller amount. The letter was sent for verification to the military prosecutor's office of the Carpathian Military District. The fact of fraud with valuable liquid securities was confirmed, but an audit showed that the military construction organization headed by engineer-Colonel Nikolai Maksimovich Pavlenko was not listed in the district’s troops, which investigators reported to the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office.
The Main Military Prosecutor's Office, in turn, asked the Ministry of Defense for information about the deployment and subordination of the military construction unit, called the UVS. A discouraging answer came from the ministry: there is no such organization in the Armed Forces. There was an assumption that a particularly secret military facility was being built on the territory of the border military district, but the Ministry of State Security officially assured the prosecutor’s office that they had nothing to do with the said construction organization. And the response from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the request of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office stated that citizen Pavlenko Nikolai Maksimovich was listed on the All-Union wanted list on suspicion of theft in 1948 from the cash register of the Kalinin artel "Plandorstroy" of 339,326 rubles.
After the interrogation of workers and employees of the Lvov "UVS-1 construction site" and the seizure of all documents, the location of the "headquarters" of the fictitious military unit was established - the capital of the Moldavian SSR, Kishinev, and then - construction sites in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The headquarters in Chisinau was no different from the headquarters of military units of the Armed Forces. Gates with red stars, guard duty, post No. 1 at the “unit banner”, carrying out combat training and political studies according to the daily schedule. During the operation in Chisinau, 9 machine guns, 21 carbines, 3 light machine guns, 19 pistols and revolvers, 5 grenades and more than 3,000 cartridges, 13 round seals and stamps, many false passports, service IDs, and forms were seized.
Weapons and ammunition seized during a search at UVS. Photo from the site voen-sud.ru Chekists and operatives from law enforcement agencies of these republics took part in the detention of the organizers and participants of the scam, the scale of which was astounding, and the prosecutor's offices of many regions of the USSR and departmental supervisory authorities were involved in the investigation. In total, during November 14, 1952, more than 300 people were detained throughout the country, of which about 50 were so-called officers, sergeants and privates. Pavlenko, who lay low, was arrested on November 23. In the criminal case there is a verbal portrait of the “colonel” made by one of the arrested: “He is of average height, a plump figure, almost fat, wears glasses with black trim, gray hair, shaved head, brown eyes, large belly.” The arrest warrant for Pavlenko No. 97 was signed by the Deputy Minister of State Security of the Moldavian SSR, GB Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Tsvigun, in the future - Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the USSR. During a search in Pavlenko’s office, they found brand new shoulder straps of a major general, a title he intended to “assign” to himself in the near future.
The UVS fleet consisted of 32 cars, 6 tractors, 2 excavators. The criminal case began to be replenished with materials classified “Top Secret”, which listed dozens of “enterprises and organizations that entered into economic relations with the UVS-1 construction sites.” Among them are the Lvovugol and Zapadshakhtostroy trusts, the Zolochiv mine management of the Ministry of Coal Industry of Ukraine, SMU-2 of the Belkhladstroy trust of the Ministry of Meat and Dairy Industry of Belarus, the Chisinau Winery Gratiesti, the Tiraspol Winery, UNR-193 of the Ministry of Construction of Mechanical Engineering Enterprises and many other customers.
It was established that in total, criminals concluded 64 agreements with government agencies and departments for a total amount of more than 38 million rubles during the period from 1948 to 1952 alone. UVS-1 accounts were opened in the 21st branch of the State Bank of the USSR, through which more than 25 million rubles were cashed. Most of this money ended up in the pockets of Pavlenko and his accomplices.
The investigation also established that on the territory of the Moldavian SSR, the Pavlenko group involved in its activities the Minister of Food Industry Tsurkan and his deputies Azaryev and Kudyukin, the first secretary of the Tiraspol city party committee Lykhvar, the secretary of the Balti city committee Rachinsky (their cases were considered at a meeting of the Bureau of the Communist Party of Moldova: deputy ministers were fired, party functionaries got off with reprimands). Among those who were drawn into the orbit of criminal activity by Pavlenko, the case also includes representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, military commissars and military representatives of enterprises, officials of banking institutions and commanders of military units.
The investigation into criminal case No. 0098-53, which swelled to 146 volumes, lasted for 2 years; the indictment was transferred to the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District. The trial, which began on November 10, 1954, took 5 months. During this time, two lawyers of the main defendant in the case were taken to the hospital with a heart attack. Pavlenko and his closest accomplices (17 people in total) were charged with crimes under Articles 58-7 (undermining the economic power of the state), 58-10 (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and 58-1 (counter-revolutionary activities) of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, but under the last two articles the court acquitted Pavlenko.
The announcement of the verdict lasted several weeks and ended on April 4, 1955 . It stated, in particular, that “both due to the gravity of the crimes committed and his insincerity before the court, defendant Pavlenko does not deserve leniency, and no mitigating circumstances are seen in his case.” Pavlenko, based on the totality of the crimes committed, was sentenced to capital punishment - execution, with confiscation of his personal property. The remaining defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for terms ranging from 5 to 20 years with loss of rights and confiscation of property. Civilian employees who were not privy to the true background of the UVS were not subject to criminal prosecution.
In accordance with the law in force at that time, the verdict against all those convicted under Article 58-7 was final and was not subject to cassation appeal.
The Pavlenko family, how remembered his daughter Alla received a death notice with a dash in the “Cause of Death” column. The daughter always remembers her father in bright colors, but his son Oleg invariably refused to discuss this topic.
At the trial, Pavlenko pleaded not guilty to undermining the economic power of the state. “I did a lot for the Victory...” he said. This point of view divides and economist Mark Massarsky, who in 2009 said: “I think that if you make an economic verdict, then it should be: “Not guilty!” Retired military judge Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev took a more balanced approach to assessing Pavlenko’s activities, who, without denying, that the UVS built a lot and well, drew attention to the serious ordinary crimes committed by Pavlenko: “Of course, he is a criminal from the point of view of the law.”
The question of why the ten-year existence of a fictitious military unit became possible still remains open. Military expert, former state security officer Dmitry Okunev believes that Pavlenko is an NKVD agent, and draws attention to the fact that the construction detachment received small arms precisely with the permission of the state security authorities under the pretext of protecting the road workers of the UVS in Western Ukraine from attacks by Bandera. Other researchers of this story claim that Pavlenko was able to convince others that the construction of roads was a cover, the main, strategic activity of his Air Force was strictly classified. This version was supposed to be supported by the presence of a “special department” in the department, headed by Yuri Konstantiner, Pavlenko’s brother-in-law.
