An international criminal, the owner of incredible criminal talent, Nikolai Gerasimovich Savin spent 25 years behind bars. He lived a long life full of scams and scandals, and his name for several decades did not leave the pages of Russian and world publications.
early years
It is known that Savin was an inventor worse than the famous baron Munchausen. Therefore, the biography told by himself can hardly be taken for the truth. It is known that Nikolai was born in 1855 in the family of a retired lieutenant. The young man received his education. Savin fled to their Moscow lyceum, after he was carved with rods for pranks, and then was expelled from the Lyceum of St. Petersburg.
The young man found his calling in the Horse Guards. Rampant life was to his liking. However, after several high-profile scandals, he was transferred to the Grodno Hussar Regiment. In 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War, Nicholas showed courage and was wounded. He could have become a good officer, but love for scams prevented him. Once Savin set fire to his own house to get insurance, for which he was dismissed from the army. Three years earlier, his name appeared in the trial of the theft of diamonds from the mother of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich.
Abroad
At the end of 1881, Savin went to Paris, where he declared himself a political emigrant. In numerous newspaper interviews, he said that money from stolen diamonds was intended for revolutionary purposes. Soon, Nikolai became popular, he easily parted with money in expensive restaurants and at the gaming table. However, here there were some scandals. When they stopped letting him in the casino, he began to scandal at the entrance, was going to undress naked and scream that they had robbed him. After a small compensation, the conflict was settled. In restaurants, the scammer ordered expensive dishes, and when it came time to pay the bill, he threw a cockroach for dessert. To a dubious reputation, a fight with a policeman was added. To avoid prison, Savin went on a trip to Europe.
Nikolay visited Prussia, Belgium and Holland. He managed to marry several times and squander the fortunes of his companions. He was surprisingly daring, arrogant and lucky. The swindler managed to enter into confidence in the Minister of Military Affairs of Italy and conclude an agreement with him for the supply of horses. Having received an advance of several million, the fraudster hid. European police searched him everywhere, fearing arrest Savin went overseas.
America recognized him under the name of Count de Toulouse-Lautrec Savin. Criminal luck accompanied him here. Nikolai turned a scam with contracts for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, bought land in Cuba and even managed to get a new family. Soon, taking his wife's money, he returned to Europe, from where he was deported to Russia.
Links and shoots
In 1891, in Moscow, the fraudster was convicted immediately of 4 high-profile crimes. The exile in the Tomsk region did not last long, the offender escaped and again ended up in Europe. In Bulgaria, Nikolai introduced himself as a count and made useful contacts with officials. The country was fighting for the royal chair, the gullible prime minister nominated Savin to the post of head of state. These plans were prevented from being realized by a small detail - a hairdresser who had previously worked in St. Petersburg recognized a fraudster. So the swindler was back at home. A trial followed and a new link from which he fled, but was caught and sent to a settlement in Krasnoyarsk. Even in exile, Nikolai continued his career. One newspaper published an article about how he fraudulently sold 5, 000 buckets of alcohol to a local rich man from a non-existent factory.
How the Winter Palace was served
Savin collected stories from his criminal life in the book "From Peter the Great to Nicholas the Insignificant." It is difficult to determine which of them is true and what is fiction, but in 1911 the author was arrested for possession of manuscripts that offended Majesty.
Soon the February Revolution of 1917 broke out, the convict acquired the status of a political prisoner and was released. Almost immediately, the fraudster almost sold the building of the Winter Palace. Nicholas served as the head of the palace guard, and when the guest, a respectable American, proposed to buy the building, he agreed, introducing himself as its owner. On the appointed day, Savin received 2 suitcases of money from a foreigner in exchange for a fake deed of purchase. The deception was revealed only the next day, when the new owner arrived with the workers to dismantle the building and transport it to America.
