Rokotov, Yan Timofeevich

The first arrest of Jan Rokotov - 1946 ^[5] . Escape during a search from your own home through the toilet window. The appearance in the house of the investigator Sheinin , whose wife was his relative. Getting money in this house, an escape to the south of the country. 1947 - wanted, arrest in the south of the country ^[5] . Sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment under Art. 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR . To which Art. 313 “For Escape from the Place of Imprisonment” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, although at the time of the first arrest he had not yet been convicted and fled from his own home ^[5] . The placement in the camp in a regime brigade, work on a logging site, constant beating for bandits and repeat offenders , which led to memory loss and a serious mental state. 1954 - review of the case. Exemption "purely", with full rehabilitation ^[5] . Restoration in the second year of the institute. Inability to fit into student life and learn. Leaving the institute, the beginning of clandestine currency trading.

Second arrest ^{[6] of} Jan Rokotov - May 1961. Together with friends - Vladislav Faibishenko, nicknamed Vladik ( Chervonchik ) and Dmitry Yakovlev, nicknamed Dim Dimych - he organized a complex system of intermediaries for buying up foreign currency and imported items from foreign tourists. Shot.

In 1961, the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Nikita Khrushchev, traveled to Berlin (GDR), where during a meeting with the German representative he was told that there was no such black market like in Moscow anywhere in the world.

Returning to Moscow, Khrushchev ordered to consider all cases of farce and currency traders. At the plenum of the Central Committee, he read out a “letter” from the workers of the Leningrad Metal Plant , “indignant at the softness of the sentence” who were serving the 8-year sentence for Rokotov, Faibishenko and Yakovlev. Khrushchev said: “These are real enemies, and you are only eight years old?” Judges themselves must be judged for such sentences! ”1960-1961 — the appearance in the newspapers of feuilleton about Rokotov, a large currency speculator. The imposition of the death sentence by direct order of N. S. Khrushchev, which was a violation of generally accepted norms of legal practice. For the sake of Rokotov’s case, the corresponding amendment to the Criminal Code, the imposition of the death penalty for currency smuggling, the review of the Rokotov’s case, although the law has no retroactive effect. It is not taken into account that Rokotov spent his youth in the camp.

The Rokotov case was reviewed, and the court sentenced a new sentence - 15 years in prison.

After a hastily issued decree “On Enhancing Criminal Responsibility for Violating the Rules of Currency Transactions”, the third review of the case took place - Rokotov, Faibishenko and Yakovlev were sentenced to death under the law adopted after the commission of the act. All cassation appeals were rejected and the sentence was carried out in Butyrka prison . The case of the first Soviet millionaires executed by personal order of Khrushchev in 1961 went down in the history of criminal law as a symbol of lawlessness and pressure on the court by the head of state. The lawlessness of the Soviet authorities caused a wave of protests around the world - an open letter to Khrushchev on this subject was written, for example, by the philosopher and public figure Bertrand Russell .

Unique to Soviet history ^[6] , during a search of Rokotov, about 1.5 million US dollars in various currencies and gold were seized, and the total turnover of their underground “company” was 20 million new rubles .

In 2003, Izvestia published the memoirs of a former intelligence officer who worked in the GDR in the 1980s. He talked about a young colleague and, in particular, about a conversation that had accidentally entered on the “Rokotov case”. A colleague then remarked: “These currency traders went on a crime, knowing that in the worst case they would serve ten years. If they knew that they would receive a “tower”, they probably would not have gone to business. The state simply deceived them. ” ^[7]

In 2013, almost fifty years after the events of the shooting of 1961 in New York ( USA ), emigrants from different countries of the world, including the former USSR , founded the Rokotov & Fainberg ^{[8] [9]} jeans manufacturing company. The author of the idea and the founder of Rokotov & Fainberg ^{[8] [10] [11]} is the film producer Vitaly Alizier . The name of the line of models is noteworthy, they are divided by numbers, the starting classic tailoring model is number 88, this is the article number of the 1960 Criminal Code of the RSFSR “Violation of the rules on foreign exchange transactions”.

In 2017, a commemorative coin was minted in America ^[12] One Rokotov, the mass of the coin is one ounce of silver of the 999th test. An interesting fact: the coin was announced on August 7, 2017, which coincides with the birthday of Yan Rokotov. On the front side of the coin depicted in the figure of a farceman in jeans and cowboy boots , the engraving on the left boot is the letter R , on the right is F , the capital letters of the company Rokotov & Fainberg ^[13] ) and the inscription is ROKOTOFF below - 1961 , 1 Oz is engraved on the left, a butterfly is engraved on the right The image of a “butterfly” has a symbolic meaning, on currency traders ’“ butterfly ”denoted the 88th article of the RSFSR Criminal Code of 1960. At the time of the opening of trading on the Rokotoff website , coins were declared at a symbolic price of US $ 33. Each subsequent coin bought added 33 US dollars. ^] One Rokotov was made by the owner of Rokotov & Fainberg , Vitaly Alizier .

In October 2018, on the TV channel Russia Culture ^[14] , the film “The Lead Thaw of the 61st. The Case of Currency Exchangers” ^{[15] was released} , which shows the story of Yan Rokotov and how his comrades managed to earn millions. What made them break the law, risking freedom and - as it turns out later - life. And also in the film they talk about the creation of the Rokotov & Fainberg brand in the United States of America and why it is so important.

In September 1977, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov sent a letter ^[16] to the organizing committee on the death penalty , in which he advocated the abolition of it in the USSR and around the world.

Excerpt from a speech in which he refers to the case of Jan Rokotov:

... "I especially want to draw your attention to the fact that in the USSR the death penalty is imposed for many crimes that have nothing to do with the attempt on human life. Many remember, for example, the case of Rokotov and Faibishenko, who were accused in 1961 of clandestine jewelry trade and illegal currency operations The Presidium of the Supreme Council then adopted a law providing for the death penalty for major property crimes when they were already sentenced to imprisonment. A new trial has taken place, and in hindsight - which violates the most important th legal principle - they were sentenced to death, and then many were convicted under this and similar laws, in particular for private entrepreneurial activity, for organizing artels, etc. In 1962, an old man was shot who made several counterfeit coins and buried them in the yard " ^[16] . Read at a symposium organized by Amnesty International in December 1977

“The instinct of entrepreneurship at Rokotov is very developed. Everyone blames him for it, but I admire him! If he found himself somewhere in a capitalist country, he would be a multimillionaire. ” ^[6]

Filshtinsky, Isaak Moiseevich Russian and Soviet historian, literary critic , orientalist , Arabist .

“These people are completely unknown to me, I know about them only from press reports. However, I am completely convinced myself, I think most people also believe that this bloody punishment cannot be justified by any moral or public considerations in the country. Their death will not replenish the reserves of the State Bank. Have mercy on them. Revenge is not a weapon of the Soviet system. ”

Leo Blue. PhD, doctor. From a letter to Khrushchev 1961. ^[6]

“Society should give an assessment to this event even after years, this is one of the most important elements of repentance. For such lawlessness, the leadership of the country must be judged posthumously, so that it would be disgraceful for others. The idea of ​​us is formed from such episodes. ”

Tosunyan, Garegin Ashotovich - Russian banker, president of the Association of Russian Banks' ^[6]

"Rokotov was the largest businessman who managed to organize the trade in foreign currency and imported clothing in the USSR, German bankers believed that he deserved the Nobel Prize."

Dolinsky, Vladimir Abramovich Honored Artist of Russia. ' ^[6]

“To the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Comrade Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich.

Dear Nikita Sergeevich! The father of a 15-year-old sentenced for help for serious crime (currency speculation) Rokotov Yan is turning to you for help. I am a communist, a pensioner, an invalid who has amputated both legs above the knee over the past two years. I would consider a harsh court decision correct if it were not for some of the circumstances that arose after the end of the trial. After almost three weeks from the date of sentencing, the Union Prosecutor's Office proposed a new review of the Rokotov case, motivating its proposal with a lenient sentence and proposes to apply the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 1, 1961, i.e. the death penalty. Yan Rokotov committed a serious crime, for which he received the highest sentence that existed during his trial. But when the question is about the death penalty of a person, even a criminal, then, as you, Comrade Khrushchev, taught and teach us, you need to know the truth about the life of the defendant before he commits a crime. Therefore, I consider it my party and father's duty to inform you of at least some of the evidence that Jan is not an inveterate criminal. When he was 3 months old, his mother died. My mother, that is, my grandmother, took a child to her, raised and raised him. In the meantime, I was seconded to work in the Far East, and then to build a gas-helium plant, in the Saratov region, etc. In the first grade of the school, trouble again happened with Yan - the girl sitting on the same desk with him accidentally pierced his eye and he was blinded by that eye. Seventeen years old - in 1945, when he was about to enter college, after graduating from high school, he was repressed and spent almost ten years in prison and camp. It was only in 1954 (before the end of the term) that he was completely rehabilitated and returned home at the age of 27, having not received any specialty or profession in the camp. After the hassle and lengthy search for work, having no specialty, he still got a job and worked until his arrest. Why did some journalists need during the trial to cover Rokotov’s childhood and youth so vicious, leading to the absurdity of the assertion that already in the third grade, that is, at the age of 9, Yan Rokotov managed to speculate 150 thousand rubles, and in the tenth grade he possessed 200 thousand rubles that he did not want to learn and remained ignorant. Indeed, from the materials of the investigation and the trial it is completely clear that Yang could not continue his studies because he spent almost 10 years in the camp without fault. But let it be on their conscience. Meanwhile, the grandmother who raised Yana could not influence him badly. She is the wife of an old Bolshevik; she received a personal pension for her daughter Tatyana, a Komsomol member who heroically died during the defense of the Soviet regime from Zelenyi gangs near Tripoli, which is well known from the history of the Komsomol. My mother raised five children, of whom two daughters are old Bolsheviks, participants in the Arsenals uprising, participants in the civil war, who until recently worked in difficult sections of communist construction. I was in the army from the very beginning of the revolution, and after demobilization for about 40 years I worked at construction sites and defense plants, from where I retired. For his work he was awarded the order and medals. The above facts indicate that the grandmother of Yana Rokotova, who raised such children, could not badly raise a grandson. It is more likely that the hard way of the camp life affected him ... Comrade Khrushchev, in your speeches you have repeatedly expressed the idea that you can believe a criminal who has realized his guilt and repented of his crime. You did this when a criminal turned to you and thanks to the trust placed in him, he embarked on the right path in life. The entire course of the trial revealed that Rokotov sincerely confessed and repented of his crime, that thanks to his sincere and sincere testimony, he helped both the investigation and the court to identify other criminals. This was noted by the prosecutor, who spoke at the trial. He felt and overestimated his wrong life, the fallacy of his life path. The court convicted Rokotov of the gravity of the crime he committed not in accordance with the article of the Criminal Code that was in force at the time of the commission of the crime, giving him the longest sentence of 15 years under the article that came out after Rokotov was arrested. Thus, the law of retroactive force has already been applied to it. Now that three weeks have already passed since the trial ... The prosecutor's office demands the death penalty by decree issued on July 1, 1961, that is, two weeks after the sentence of the Moscow City Court, which sentenced Rokotov to 15 years. Given the threat of the death penalty to Rokotov, I am obliged to turn to you and believe, and I hope in the opportunity to prevent the execution, taking into account: 1. Rokotov is not an inveterate criminal, he committed the crime for the first time. 2. During the investigation and trial, he frankly confessed and repented, realized his criminal activity and, thanks to his sincere testimony, helped the investigation and court to reveal other participants in the crime, that he did not use the money like other criminals, and did not have a car or a summer residence , did not drink, lived in a seedy little room. Therefore, as a father who has remained in old age without two legs, I ask you to take into account the above mitigating circumstances and the fact that Yan Rokotov spent ten years of youth without guilt in the camp ... Do not let the misfortune of the unjust and illegal use of the death penalty take place.

Orlikov A. L. ” ^[17]

“... We, ordinary Soviet people, employees of the Moscow Instrument Plant, kindly ask you to be merciless to these scum, miserable scum and villains, whose ugly souls are empty, and they have gained arrogance and have ceased to respect the Soviet system. They are worse than traitors, they have long been corpses, and we ask that it would be disgraceful for others to sentence all this criminal gang to capital punishment - execution, so that they wouldn’t rot the incorruptible reputation of honest Soviet people from now on, they wouldn’t breathe the same air with us and did not dare to be called citizens of the USSR ... ” ^[18]

In the literature

• The book "We are walking under the escort." The author - Filshtinsky, Isaac Moiseevich 1994 ^[19]
• The book "Moving goods on Gorky street." Written by Yuri Brokhin, published in 1975 by the Dial Press Publishing House Original title of the book Hustling on Gorky Street: sex and crime in Russia today ^[20]

Documentary Films

• News. Ru: Chronicle of a single execution. Khrushchev vs Rokotov
• TV Center. Soviet mafia. The shooting of Slanting.
• Film Lead Thaw of the 61st. The Case of Currency Exchangers
• Secret signs. Death at the dollar

Feature films

• Fartsa , 2015, Russia, television series, 8 episodes, as Yan Rokotova Evgeny Tsyganov

Over the last three years of Khrushchev’s rule, about 5 thousand people were shot for economic crimes. Article 88 of the RSFSR Criminal Code of 1960 “Violation of the rules on foreign exchange transactions” was repealed only in 1994. 1961 - Expulsion of the USSR from the International Law Union for a Long Term ^[6] .

• Jan's currency combinations were so skillfully thought out and so effective that it was rumored that in West Germany he was awarded a prize for the best financial deal of recent decades, and one of the cities made him his honorary citizen. If this is even a legend, then it alone testifies to the tribute that his financial abilities aroused in business circles ^[21] .
• At dinner in the restaurant of the National Hotel, Yang suggested to the banker to see for himself that everything ingenious is simple, and reported to the "shark of imperialism" a currency exchange scheme he developed, bypassing the USSR State Bank . After a certain amount of stamps had been credited to the RNT-23 account, foreigners arriving in Moscow would receive Soviet money from Rokotov at a rate favorable to them, and Soviet citizens traveling abroad, issuing him the same rubles, would receive the amount owed to them in hard currency abroad. Coordination and control of transactions for exchanging stamps for rubles and vice versa could be carried out either by a bank manager specially sent to the USSR or by a trade attache of the German embassy in Moscow. The banker was so excited by the operations that he was urged to empty himself from an excess of feelings. Returning from the toilet, he said that the scheme proposed by the interlocutor “is not even subject to discussion, and soon the glory of the Nobel Prize winner ” awaits him. “Glory is not needed, it is better with money,” Rokotov answered. ^[22]
• In New York, there is Rokotov Street, named after Jan Rokotov. ^{[6] [23]}
• There is still a legend that the jeans trade was featured as one of the points of accusation and in their last words they said: “But still, the best clothes are jeans!” ^[24]
• It is said that after the verdict was pronounced in the last word, Jan Rokotov said: “I ask the court to pay attention that jeans are only“ Levis ”brands, everything else is just pants” ^[25]

“Concerning the issue of building a communist society, I said that it will be built no earlier than in two thousand years, which means never. In other words, I did not believe in the idea of ​​building communism. " ^[6]

"- They still shoot me, they cannot be executed without executions," he told a journalist who had approached the dock during a break, “but at least two years I lived as a person, and not as a“ trembling creature! ” ^[21]

• The official website of the FSB of Russia. "SHOT REVERSE FORCE DOES NOT HAVE"
• Chronicle press. - New York, 1977.A. D. SAKHAROV
• Rape Themis
• “Memoirs of the Gulag and their authors” Filshtinsky I. M. “Jan Rokotov”
• Rokotov Yan Timofeevich (1928-1961) at the time of arrest - student
• Filshtinsky I. M. Jan Rokotov, memories
• Kings and cabbage
• "Scolded Themis"
• (inaccessible link) Shammers in the Soviet Union
• [1] (in English, 1st chapter)
• News. Ru: Chronicle of a single execution. Khrushchev vs Rokotov
• The official website of the American company Rokotov and Fainberg
• Shot fraudsters minted in silver
• Interesting jeans facts
• YouTube channel Video produced by jeans Rokotov and Fainberg
• The shooting of the "merchant" Jan Rokotov and company. Newspaper "Time"
• Filshtinsky I.M. Yan Rokotov // Will: Totalitarian Prisoners Journal. systems. - 1993
• "Criminal Talent" Century - Information Edition
• “Moving Goods on Gorky Street” by Yuri Brokhin, published in 1975
• A letter from father Rokotov to Khrushchev
• NIKITA Khrushchev DECIDED JEWISH QUESTION
• for jeans
• Common denominator
• Voice of America "Shot fraudsters resurrected as a brand"
• Vladimir Putin on the “Rokotov Case”