Sofya Blyuvshtein

Russian criminal adventurer of Jewish origin, known under the nickname "Sonya Golden Handle". There is no exact information about the life of Sofya (Sonya) Solomoniak-Blyuvshtein-Shtandel, since she falsified her own biography to a large extent. According to official court documents, the famous adventurer was born in the town of Povonzki in the Warsaw province in 1846. However, when baptized in the Orthodox rite in 1899, she indicated the city and place of birth in Warsaw, 1851. She was educated, knew several foreign languages. She possessed the gift of artistry and theatrical transformation. She was married several times, the last official husband was a card cheater Mikhail (Michel) Yakovlevich Bluvshtein, from whom she had two daughters. She was engaged in the organization of large-scale thefts, which became famous thanks to the adventurous component, a tendency to mystification and theatrical change of the appearance of a swindler. Among the names she used throughout her life were Rosenbad, Rubinstein, Schoolboy and Briner (or Brener) - the names of husbands. In the 1860-1870s, she was engaged in criminal activities in major Russian cities and in Europe. Repeatedly delayed by the police of different states, but without serious consequences. In 1880, she was arrested in Odessa for major fraud and transported to Moscow. After the trial in the Moscow District Court on December 10-19 of the same year, she was exiled to a settlement in the most remote places of Siberia. The deaf village of Luzhki in the Irkutsk province was identified as the place of exile. In the summer of 1885 she escaped from exile. Prior to her arrest in 1885, she committed a number of major property crimes in provincial cities of Russia. December 10, 1885 in Smolensk was captured by the police with her daughter. For major thefts and fraud, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor and forty lashes. (Hard labor was served at the discretion of the court in hard labor prisons in the European part of the Russian Empire until 1893.) On June 30, 1886, she escaped from Smolensk prison, using the services of a warder in love with her. According to some reports, shortly before her death, Sofya met and cohabited with a certain Nikolay Bogdanov, who had also served his sentences for various crimes, claimed that he severely beat her and she tried to run away from him into the forest. Sofya Blyuvshtein died of a cold in 1902, as evidenced by the report of the prison authorities, and was buried in a local cemetery in the Alexander post. Possible grave (monument) of Sonya Golden Handle. In Moscow there is a grave attributed to Sonya Golden Handle; every year different people bring flowers and coins to it, mainly criminals, trying in this way to show respect to the famous thief and get her intercession and protection.