One of the most striking figures in the history of the criminal underworld was Vladimir Babushkin, often described as one of the last “thieves-in-law” to receive the old-school initiation and help shape the code that many of today’s crime bosses barely remember. Altogether, he spent more than 30 years behind bars. He looked modest, even bookish, but Babushkin had a hard edge and enormous influence among career criminals.
In just about any prison camp, he quickly became the unofficial man in charge. During his life, Vladimir Petrovich Babushkin was known by several names: Vasily Stepanovich Babushkin, Vasily Petrovich Ivanov, and Chapaenok. But in the history of the criminal world, he is remembered above all as Vasya Brilliant.
The future legend of the underworld was born on May 18, 1928, in a major port city. Very little is known about his childhood, since Babushkin himself rarely talked about it. Cellmates later recalled that he said he grew up in a large family and that after him came eight younger brothers and sisters.
As a child, Babushkin lived through the hard famine years of 1932 and 1933. In his region, hunger struck again and claimed many lives. When Volodya turned 13, World War II arrived.
His father went off to war, and his mother, worn down by the strain of those years, died soon after. The orphaned children were left entirely in their grandmother’s care. But her life, too, ended in a brutal way.
In 1942, robbers broke into the elderly woman’s home and found almost nothing of value except a relatively new pair of winter boots. She flatly refused to give them up. She understood perfectly well that without warm boots, she would never make it through the winter.
The intruders killed her on the spot. Volodya Babushkin fully grasped the burden of caring for his brothers and sisters the moment the food ran out at home. Leaving the younger children to starve while he went off looking for a better life was never something he considered.
But when a street friend suggested they start picking the pockets of distracted passersby, the teenager agreed readily. Of course, part of what the boys stole regularly went to their handlers. Those handlers were seasoned thieves who had already been through the harsh school of prison camps…
