Alexander Berezin, the story of a detective with 30 years of experience. Part 1
20:15 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2018
We talked to a detective who stood at the origins of a private investigation and completed his first order back in 88. Now Alexander Berezin is 60 years old, he lives in the Lugansk region and continues to work. Our communication is divided into two parts, in the first we paid more attention to past affairs and the history of detective work. And in the second - the current situation and the impact of political events.
Alexander Konstantinovich, tell us about yourself. Where were you born, where did you study, work, what did your biography consist of?
I was born on October 25 of the 58th year of the last century in the city of Lugansk, then Voroshilovgrad. And all my childhood passed in the Kaliningrad region, my father served in the army, was an officer. And at the place of service of the father.
In 73, my father retired, and we decided to return to Voroshilovgrad, where my mother is from. All my childhood, when I lived in military camps, I dreamed, like my father, to become an officer. And in Lugansk, ironically, I ended up in the regional operational Komsomol detachment, where I showed interest in operational work in the police. At that time, in order to become a police officer, it was necessary to serve in the army and receive an appropriate education. I went through military service on a profile in Special Motorized Police Units, Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in Donetsk. After the service, he immediately entered the Donetsk Secondary Special School of Police, which he graduated in the 1980s as an officer in charge of the criminal investigation department.
Later in Voroshilovgrad he served “on the ground”, specializing in various areas, from thefts to working with those arrested in temporary detention facilities. In general, the work of the detective is complex, interesting. He studied in absentia at the Kharkov Law Institute. I reached the captain’s rank, but somehow it didn’t work out with politics from the beginning and I was dismissed due to the inconsistency of the post with the submission of the political officer of the regional department.
What happened there?
Well, we did not make friends with the political officer initially. My speeches at various meetings there ... well, the conflict. When the boss was on vacation and the deputy politician replaced him, the reason was that I refused to institute criminal proceedings. There was a commission of the Moscow prosecutor’s office, raised a number of refusal materials, including mine. Well, she reacted like this: "Reprimand." And he demanded that I be fired at a college of the city. Well, they fired.
The head of the city was new, two weeks. I tried to recover, the attempts failed due to bureaucracy in the organs. He was worrying ... At first he worked as the head of various sports and cultural organizations. Created them, worked.
In which, for example?
For example, he was president of the first regional association of ballroom sports dancing. He was the director of the Voroshilovgrad association of ballroom choreography "Bravo". I organized them, helped my wife, she was a dancer. Well, they asked: "Come on, you have education, lead." Picked them up.
Well, along the way, I somehow caught my eye in a newspaper article stating that a detective agency had been created in Poland. Interested in how this is allowed in the post-Soviet space?
Was it already a post-Soviet space?
In Poland, yes.
And in the USSR? You said that you received your first order in 80 some year.
Well, this is before the opening of the agency, I’ll come to this now. In general, I learned from newspapers that there is such a Leningrad detective cooperative “Alex”. I went to Leningrad on business, visited Ligovka in this cooperative, talked with the leader. To my proposal to open a branch in Voroshilovgrad, he said that he was not interested in expanding. Therefore, somehow it hung everything.
And then, again in the central press, a note came out that the next detective bureau was opened at the Alex Detective Services Association of the USSR. I phoned headquarters, went to Moscow, and on March 29, 1990, documents were signed on the creation of the Voroshilovgrad detective bureau Allan. Which, six months later, was reorganized into an agency, and a few years later into an economic security agency of the same name. The Allan Agency existed until the outbreak of war in the Donbass.
You headed it, right?
Yes, I was the owner and headed. Well, from the first days of work, Allan detectives met with powerful pressure from state and law enforcement agencies. It was expressed in the fact that the police said: “How do you work at our expense? We are for a salary, and you are mowing money. ” They were forbidden to work under various pretexts.
Even at the second congress of the International Association of Detectives in Sochi, the presidium had the first deputies of the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB, the Central Committee of the CPSU, and they even proposed the creation of a ministry of private investigation.
And in what year did it happen?
This is the 92nd, in my opinion. 92-93th
And why not create?
At the second congress, I headed the Ukrainian delegation of the ADSU, and after my speech, the congress failed.
Tell us more
Colleagues asked me: "Come on, come out." They knew that I was for the truth. I went to the podium and said: “What is the matter? We took off our epaulettes. After all, a private investigation cannot be public. It lies in the fact that, regardless of the state, we work by order of our customers. And you are trying to dress us again in some epaulettes. ”
I was supported by the delegations of the Caucasus, the Baltic states and the center. In the evening we wrote an appeal to the congress, the next morning it was announced and left. And then there was already the third congress in Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region, there the failed minister tried to remove me ...
Remove in what sense?
Well, physically. It was a long time ago, there the guys helped out, of course, colleagues. And after this organization broke up, the fourth congress was gone.
Well, and before this story began with the formation of a detective story in Russia, I want to come to her later, as it was before? How was this arranged in the USSR? Was it in principle? And how did you pick up the order that you talked about when we called up for the first time?
In general, I received the order even before the creation of the agency, before the legitimization, so to speak. I just liked the method of making money itself, where I received two of my previous salaries for the opera for relatively little work.
And the meaning of the order was that some woman came to my house in the evening, saying that they recommended me to her. She did not admit where, who recommended. In terms of what I can help. And the point was that her son and four "accomplices" in quotation marks were arrested at that time, were in jail for robbery. Accused of assault. She claimed that he was not involved and there was no attack.
There was another woman at large from this group, I met with her, found out what was happening. It turned out that there was a type of disassembly. She had a husband convicted at that time, and she worked as a freight forwarder and was also molested by her previously convicted of rape. She turned him from the gate, and then told her husband's friends. They decided to deal with him, went to his house. There was a disassembly in the courtyard and the alleged son of this woman threatened him with a hunting rifle. Then they took the gold, beat and left.
In fact, this was not, but it was necessary to fix this moment.
How was this fixed? After all, there were no cameras, nothing.
Here I will tell you now. I persuaded these mothers and searched for a long time recorder. I could not find, in those days it was a problem, it cost 300 rubles and was not sold everywhere. I asked a Vesna tape recorder from a neighbor, put it in a diplomat, they put women in handbags of all kinds of rags and we sat in the gazebo in his yard, in the garden. I was holding a diplomat on my knees, in case he would check, I was ready to take the conversation aside. He began to check women’s handbags, felt a catch. These were two mothers, and I introduced myself as a relative of one of the detainees. But he never looked into the diplomat. Well, during the conversation, he said that he could give the investigation a truthful testimony that there was no threat, that he gave the gold ring and a bottle of vodka himself, but at the same time he demanded 5,000 rubles from the mothers. At that time it was a lot of money.
That is, the whole point was extortion?
Yes. At the end of the conversation, when all this had already sounded, I showed him a diplomat, a tape recorder. He was in shock. The next day there was a court hearing, I said that if he does not tell the truth in court, then a sound recording will be connected. He gave true testimonies, all five were released immediately, and they had already been in jail for almost six months. I also connected a lawyer there, also a former employee. In a word, the order was successfully completed.
But it turned out that an airplane was flying on a cassette - it was well recorded. And a dog from a neighboring yard. And the fact that this comrade was telling was practically inaudible.
Did bluffing work?
Yes, bluffing worked.
Correctly, I understand that at that time, it was what, the 88th year?
That's right.
It was not very legal to provide such services.
Well, that’s why I hired a lawyer to formally conduct it, and I already have operational actions. I myself did not represent anything from myself, I just knew with whom to talk, how to talk, what to do.
And if it were necessary to present evidence in court, would they be accepted as evidence? Here is a record.
Could a lawyer show.
And the questions, where did they come from?
To interrogate me. In principle, as a third party, I could go through the CPC. Actually, all the detective, detective activity, everything that was connected with criminal offenses, I kept insisting that we should know the laws well and use the capabilities of third parties. Lawyers under the USSR did not have the right to collect evidence themselves. They could receive them.
And from whom to receive is ...?
This is another matter.
Yeah, then do I understand correctly that there was no private investigation of the legal? Was it like that, somewhere around, nearby?
No, he’s just ... Now wait, just about the law is a different story. I fight and all the time I fought against the adoption of the law on detective activity, although even under the USSR I was included in the editorial board on the creation of the law. We wrote and then it as a basis, almost without corrections accepted in Russia. But in Ukraine he was gone for a very long time and, in my opinion, now he is not there either. But as soon as the law was adopted in Russia, private detectives immediately howled.
Knowing well the theory of state and law, I understand that any law cannot allow. It either prohibits or restricts. And just at the moment when we started to work, the rule "what is not forbidden is allowed" was in effect. Therefore, I acquired the skills that I received during my operational work in the police, as a personal detective, in private activities.
At the same time, I understand that operational work could not be carried out, work with agents, and so on. But former employees, as a rule, wrote reports to me and used terminology from the ARD. And I tell them: “Why write terminology? If there are natural ways of knowing the world. " Outdoor surveillance is just observation. Agent is an informant. Etc. Call things simple. In order not to meet the terms of operational work of the internal affairs bodies. And everything went fine.
Ultimately, you charge for services. And did it somehow take shape?
Sure! Back in Moscow, when I opened the agency, we met with a colleague from Riga and asked how he places orders. He showed us a sample card, such as a contract from Europe. We reworked it a bit into an assignment agreement. And on the basis of the contract, the instructions worked even with individuals, even with legal entities. And they received payment officially and paid taxes. Everything was legal.
With legal entities, again after the collapse of the Union, right?
But why? At the very beginning they worked. In Lugansk, for example, detective activity consists of two types. From private investigation and private security. I’m taking a private investigation. We worked at a furniture theft association. We were paid by bank transfer. Everything is official.
What year?
Somewhere 90-91 year. Then the publishing house "Lugan", we also served by order. True, the director was the main thief there. But nonetheless.
What have you done in this regard?
But nothing, we worked, the report was written extensive, he was handed. He read, quickly hid it, paid the money and that’s it. Well, then what, did we care? The main thing for us is to open everything.
And since then, what has changed in the work for the worse, what is the best?
For the worse, these are laws. The state used to try to crush this activity, or as is customary in the KGB and these bodies, if you can’t crush it, then it’s better to destroy it. Can't destroy - lead. The adoption of the law is the framework. Now in order to trace the object you need to go up and get permission from it. You can’t take pictures of him. And at that moment we were listening and observing, everything went fine normally. Then, when the law was adopted in Russia, I said here in Ukraine, it was not there, a number of points even had to be challenged in government bodies. For example, I proved that state protection cannot be a licensing authority in Ukraine, because it is a competitor. And indeed there the committee came up with the answer that they are competitors, so they took away this business. Their representative on the commission was. By the commission, I understand licensing, but only from the state guard - no.
And in Ukraine there is still no law governing?
Honestly, I have little interest in what is being done in Ukraine. There was created not so long ago the first, as they say, the official organization. And they broke through the draft laws, but they did not accept them, rejected them and now I don’t even know what happened to them. I spoke at the conference about the bill, I was booed a little there in terms of the fact that "you don’t understand anything." Well, yes, I’ve been working for almost 25 years, and you just appeared and let's get the law. Well, I always stood on the fact that the law restricts or prohibits.
And now our situation is such that the war is going on and, in general, in principle, is not up to it.
Has the agency closed because of this? What are you doing now?
I deal with private investigation as a private person. I’ve been working since 2000, because along with the agency, I also registered as an individual entrepreneur and was engaged in private detective work, because it is easier. He also made money at the agency. He kept his family and his colleagues lacked.
And what has changed for the better during this time?
For the best - broad communications. Now I made an order from the Crimea, before that I ordered from Kiev. Communication development helps with volumes. At first, I had to make advertisements, various publications, booklets and so on. Now you can have a website and that's it.
And with Kiev, there are no problems in terms of sending money and all these nuances?
I have this issue settled. I work through a Russian bank. Money comes to my account there, and how to withdraw it is already my problem.
Well, do not disclose this. Let's go back a little to the collapse of the Union. What he looked like from your position, when the state changed, there was one thing another. Did you overshoot? Or didn’t work at that moment in the authorities?
Overshot, but not in the organs. Since the 88th year I have not been working in bodies. I swore a lot. And he took an oath to the military service at the police school. Then in Ukraine there is a whole story, I was still in the investigative team of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in the temporary investigative commission. We have 6 people from the agency worked there on a budget, with Tymoshenko. There, too, had to take the oath.
And the collapse of the Soviet Union produced, let's say ... from the point of view of activity, a positive effect on me. From the political point of view - negative. I was not a big supporter of a socialist society, which is why the political commander ate me. At that moment, more towards anarchy pushed me toward adventurism.
Even so?
Well, why not? Now I am a monarchist. Then the views changed. Although I was young, I saw a lot of bad things, not just from the stands or in the newspapers, but what was really.
Have you re-sworn in what title, position? This moment I do not quite understand
Member of the temporary emergency tax evasion commission, the pension fund something there, I do not remember the long name.
That is, it was not a military story, not a police one?
No, no, no, I didn’t take any military oaths anymore. I took one of the last oaths in the Cossacks, so there before God, she does not belong to the military. Namely, according to the service, only the Soviet Union.
And now, over the years, can you say how proud you are, what you regret?
I am proud of my life. There is something for children to tell, show. And grandchildren. And to friends, of course. It was always interesting. If I had finished her pension, the police, maybe a major, at best a lieutenant colonel ... And during this time I had the opportunity to greet the prime ministers and work and work abroad several times. For police officers, travel was always prohibited, at least with the Union. The world looked, showed itself. Well, I do not regret the money, I was wealthy, the incomes were quite large.
Pretty big - which ones?
We will say this, the agency earned $ 2-3 million a year. I had a period when pocket money was 7-9 thousand dollars. I remember that my daughter could not buy ice cream, because there was no national currency, exchangers did not work. And I had $ 9,000 in my pocket. I say: “You and I are poor.”
Are there moments that you have to regret, reluctantly recall?
Maybe there is. But I do not really pay attention to them. He invested a lot of money that he earned in new topics, new plans. The people, as always, are disbursing money and forever lacking it. Unfinished, stretched. Well, it exists now. I am not a drive such that everything in the family, everything for myself. If we have money - well, there is no money - we will earn.
Good. Let’s talk about your current activities next time. Divide into two parts. In the meantime, thanks for the answers and see you next time.
OK, good bye!
SOURCE:
Alexander Berezin, the story of a detective with 30 years of experience. Part 1
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