Vasya Brilliant - a famous criminal personality, spent 35 years of his life in places of detention. There are many legends about it, the authenticity of which is impossible to verify today. They say that in the 1950s he was offered to stand at the head of one of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This man became a part of prison history and was called a saint in the thieves' world.
early years
The real name of Vasya Brilliant is Vladimir Petrovich Babushkin. His biography began in the spring of 1928 in Astrakhan. Volodya's father died at the front, his mother could not bear the burdens that fell on her. The eight orphans of the parents left without parents were replaced by a grandmother.
Instead of getting an education, a 15-year-old boy began a pickpocket career. He was particularly skilled and loved to experiment. He often pulled out a purse from the victim, emptied it and managed to return it to the owner.
In 1943, the teenager was caught, but conditionally punished - due to the youth of the thief and the difficult financial situation of a large family. However, he was soon convicted again, and this young criminal, nicknamed Chapayonok, received a real term.
At the next theft of a fellow traveler on a train in 1950, the young man was caught, and the thief-recidivist was imprisoned for 10 years. This year, the criminal was last at large. From the young years until his death, Babushkin spent most of his life in places of detention, each time increasing his sentence due to disobedience to the prison authorities.
Kingpin
When Grandma first went to jail, there was a fierce struggle among prisoners in correctional institutions, called the “Bitch War”. This was a confrontation between representatives of the old thieves' law and those who were ready to take the path of correction and collaborated with the administration. The young man, who was at the height of the war, could not stay away. He quickly made a choice in favor of the old legalists and contributed to the fight against dissent. He has accounted for at least three deaths of “threaded” thieves. Once in one of the barracks, he set fire to it.
Babushkin became an authoritative criminal thanks to his own character. He had a plain-looking appearance, talked calmly and rarely used a "fenya" in conversation, in which his cellmates talked. He liked to read, especially he liked the Russian classics.
But at the same time, the criminal persistently complied with the laws of the thieves code. The role was played by the fact that he was a thief, and among thieves this work was considered especially honorable. He refused to cooperate with the guard, did not have a wife, home and savings. Thieves authorities recognized Grandma equal. At one of the gatherings, he was crowned and nicknamed Vasya Brilliant.
King of the underworld
Grandmother visited many Soviet prisons. After the Komi camps, he ended up in the Sverdlovsk region. Then the criminal was transferred to Vladimir Central, and from there to the infamous White Swan and Zlatoust. Vasya Brilliant everywhere refused to work and cursed with the guard, following the laws of the criminal world. After all, he lived like a thief, and he did not know how to think like a thief. The diamond was not afraid of anything and nobody. His position has always been clear and open. The offender tried three times to arrange an escape, but all attempts were unsuccessful and only increased the term.
Vasily communicated with prisoners simply, without "lordly" habits. He was an ascetic, and in every new place of detention he was accompanied by books. Wherever the Diamond appeared, he established justice with a firm hand. They consulted with him, sent "little ones" with a request to resolve issues in the zone or beyond. Several criminal authorities consider Grandmother "the godfather." The eminent criminal repeatedly raised prison riots with demands to improve the living conditions of prisoners.
