Part 1
In 2013, a blue plastic bag containing the body of a man without a head, arms or legs was discovered in one of the Amsterdam canals. Then the Dutch police were unable to identify the murdered man. This was done ten years later. The deceased was the legendary St. Petersburg antiquarian and collector Alexander Levin (Ilyich, Lenin). Back in the 70s, he began buying icons, paintings, and books, which were sometimes unique and cost a fortune. As a result, Ilyich was arrested by the KGB, but then managed to establish relations with the Committee. Levin established the export of works of art from the Soviets, after the collapse of the USSR he continued the antique business, he helped collect the collection of the entire gangster Petersburg, as well as senior officials who came from St. Petersburg. One of his partners, who disappeared shortly before Levin’s disappearance, inadvertently blurted out that in the collections of these VIPs, half of the items were fakes, which were made by icon painters, artists, and restorers from their team with Ilyich. The details of this criminal story are in the investigation of the Cheka-OGPU.
The entire shadow elite of St. Petersburg and Moscow knows who Alexander Levin was. In the 70s they started talking about him as an influential figure in the shadow world. Levin established two types of business. His brother lived in Israel and Alexandra began to offer Jews who were leaving for their historical homeland to give him money, valuables, and antiques in the USSR. In turn, his brother from Israel gave money to repatriates in this country. It’s clear that the gain was simply gigantic. And Levin began to master a different type of business – issuing “loans” at crazy interest rates – 5% per month.
Ilyich again willingly took paintings, ancient icons, and works of art as collateral. As a result, Ilyich, Lenin (he received such a nickname for his appearance) acquired unique antiques. Lenin kept some for himself, for his collection, and sent other items for sale outside the country. There was a “corridor” for this. During his vigorous activity, Levin was arrested by the KGB for currency fraud, but found a common language with the Committee. As a result, he received a minimum sentence.
By the collapse of the USSR, Levin was an underground millionaire; he and his relatives also had dozens of apartments in the center of St. Petersburg, to which were soon added warehouses and retail space throughout St. Petersburg.
In 1999, Levin was arrested in Holland and declared a smuggler. Under the guise of an ordinary book with forged documents, he tried to smuggle Gerard van Cuylen’s “Great New Maritime Atlas” of 1710 with an estimated value of 100 thousand dollars, which once belonged to Peter the Great himself. He was never able to deliver this rarity, which clearly upset the person for whom the atlas was intended. After being detained at the Amsterdam airport, Levin was handed over to the then friends of Interpol – the Russian FSB agents, who quickly gave the antique dealer a sentence. However, VIPs from the very top stood up for Ilyich, so Alexander Levin did not spend long behind bars.
To be continued…
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
