So they wanted to carry out a coup d'etat
A quarter of a century ago, on the eve of Easter, an emergency on an all-Russian scale occurred in the Tver region. In the city of Vyshny Volochek, tavern owner Alexander Sysoev and former chemistry teacher Evgeniy Kharlamov burst into the building of the local police department and shot the policemen on duty there. Two law enforcement officers died on the spot, their colleague died on the way to the hospital. The target of the attackers was the weapons room: friends dissatisfied with the current government decided to get pistols and grenades in order to start a new revolution. But the plans of the conspirators were not destined to come true – the raid ended in failure due to Kharlamov’s panic attack, and the rebels went on the run. Sysoev was detained three months later: he was declared insane and sent for compulsory treatment. And Kharlamov manages to hide from justice to this day. “MK” decided to remember the history of the ridiculous but bloody coup attempt
Photo: 69.rosguard.gov.ru
On the evening of April 9, 1999, four policemen took up duty at the Vyshny Volochok police department. The shift manager was Major Nikolai Ilyin – he had 24 years of service, and next year he planned to retire and get a job as a huntsman in a hunting area. Ilyin was accompanied by senior sergeant Nikolai Zhukov and two private security officers – senior Sergei Semenov and warrant officer Oleg Abramov. Semyonov was preparing to accept congratulations – on April 10 he would turn 33 years old, which he planned to celebrate in the company of his mother, wife and 9-month-old son Pavel. The clock struck midnight when two people appeared on the threshold of the department. One of the visitors was the owner of the Kolomno roadside tavern and former director of the Borovinsky state farm, Alexander Sysoev, well known to the police. He was born on July 29, 1961 in Moscow and became the second son in the family of a judge of the Kyiv People's Court of the capital and a copier at the VILS plant, a Tatar by nationality. In his free time from work, Sysoev Sr. played the trumpet in a brass band. He raised his sons in an environment of the strictest discipline and was a supporter of corporal punishment
“For informing on my brother, the informer himself was punished. For disobedience and misdeeds, he punished us with a belt or put us in a corner, but his stern voice was enough for tears to start flowing from resentment. During the execution, it was not allowed to scream or even sob – a man must endure pain in silence and not to show your suffering to others” (Alexander Sysoev)
When Alexander was 8 years old, his father died, and his mother was diagnosed with an open form of tuberculosis. She was forced to send her sons to sanatorium-forest schools that functioned like boarding schools, where the boys studied for five years. Having received a certificate, Sysoev studied at a radio-mechanical technical school as an engineer and, after serving in the internal troops division named after. Dzerzhinsky, worked as a conductor on long-distance trains. Having saved up money, in the spring of 1990, Alexander bought a house in the village of Kolomno, located in the Vyshnevolotsky district of the Tver region, on the basis of which a couple of years later he opened a hotel and tavern of the same name for guests traveling along the Moscow – St. Petersburg highway. Sysoev spent about 500 thousand dollars on this, but all the expenses paid off – things quickly went uphill. Alexander was a successful entrepreneur until 1998, when, after a trip to Israel, he became seriously interested in the ideas of monarchism and radical nationalism. For some time, Sysoev lived in Novosibirsk, where he wrote articles for the Russian National Party. Unlike the majority of like-minded people, the adept quickly moved from theory to practice: Alexander considered President Yeltsin to be the main culprit for all the troubles in the country and planned to carry out no less than a coup. In the process of preparing for the revolution, Sysoev created treatises in which he outlined his intentions and goals, as well as ways to achieve them – “Appeal to the People”, “Combat Tactics in the City”, “Volunteer Memo” and “Theory of Armed Uprising”.
“Operate in small groups of 3-4 people… It is allowed to confiscate vehicles on the roads. Subject to disarmament and stripping of traffic police, police, patrols, private security. If you try to resist, shoot on the spot” (from Alexander Sysoev’s treatise “Combat Tactics in the City” )
It was decided to start the coup in the regional center – the city of Vyshny Volochek, in connection with which Sysoev clearly outlined the list of priority enemies to be destroyed. The first place in it was occupied by the mayor Mark Khasainov, the positions below were the head of the traffic police, directors of local factories and other high-ranking officials of the city – all of them, according to Sysoev’s plan, should have staged demonstration executions. A former chemistry teacher at a local boarding school, 30-year-old Evgeniy Kharlamov, volunteered to become Sysoev’s assistant. Together with seven brothers and sisters, he grew up in the Bryansk city of Sevsk, where he worked as a veterinarian, and moved to Vyshny Volochek after marrying a local resident. However, family life did not work out: Evgeniy got divorced and temporarily lived with his friend, gynecologist Kalinin. At one time, Kharlamov was the vice-champion of Moscow in kettlebell lifting, and, having settled in the Tver region, he fell in love with arranging survival challenges for himself, disappearing for several days in the forest.
He also attracted Sysoev to temporary hermitage, who had previously successfully practiced therapeutic fasting and could already go without food for a certain period of time. The future conspirators met in the temple – both were quite religious people, often attended church and constantly carried Bibles with them. When he was a teacher, Kharlamov pestered his students with his sermons to such an extent that they went to the head teacher with complaints. Sysoev did not lag behind in terms of obsessive mentoring
“He passionately preached the Orthodox religion. And so passionately that it sometimes seemed to me that elementary extremism was hiding under the guise of aggressive Orthodoxy” (Sysoev’s former cellmate Yuri Kostromin)
In May 1995, Sysoev managed to take the post of headman of the Vyshnevolotsk branch of the Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Philaret of Moscow, and on Easter in 1998 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, for all the businessman’s piety, those around him noted some of Sysoev’s cruelty: for example, they recalled how he, for no particular reason, shot most of the cats living near the tavern. Sometimes household members also got it.
“He [Sysoev] started destroying everything around him, beating me. All the furniture in our house was broken. But he always had a pump-action shotgun at hand, and at such moments anything could happen. I grabbed Vanka [Sysoev’s son] and went to visit her parents in the village” (from the memoirs of Alexander’s second wife Ekaterina Sysoeva)
To implement the plan, the accomplices needed weapons – his Sysoev and Kharlamov decided to get it at the police department
“I found out that 50 pistols, 40 AKSU assault rifles, two OSVD rifles, grenade launcher cartridges were stored there… Having seized the weapons, we intended to free the prisoners of the KPZ – about 70 people – and force them to participate in the pogrom of the FSB building, which also contained a lot of weapons. At the same time, it was necessary to start a pogrom and set fire to court buildings, MREO traffic police, street retail outlets and shops belonging to bandits and odious figures of the city” (Alexander Sysoev)
Sysoev dreamed of creating his own Oprichnina Regiment. He hoped that the local population would be inspired by his and Kharlamov’s “feat” and would join the rebels. Having changed into uniforms taken from the security forces, the people will help block the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway and will be ready to repel any troops. The revolutionary’s further plans included an attack on Moscow and the overthrow of the current government – Sysoev planned to hang the entire political elite on Red Square. The accomplices scheduled the operation for the evening of April 9, having previously attended a service at the Epiphany Cathedral. Having arrived at the appointed hour at the three-story building of the police department in a UAZ-469 belonging to Sysoev, the accomplices saw that there were official vehicles near the entrance and a crowd of police officers. Without stopping, Sysoev drove past the building – according to his recollection, law enforcement officers noticed a suspicious car and followed it with their gaze. Leaving the UAZ near the market, Alexander and Evgeniy returned to the police department and, having bought a bottle of beer, took up an observation position.
Soon, it seemed to Sysoev that they had attracted the attention of one of the law enforcement officers, so the friends retreated and sat in the car for about half an hour. Shortly after midnight, they again decided to return to the department and, this time seeing an empty yard, parked right at the entrance. Taking a gun and a bag with tools lying in the back seat to break into the door of the weapons room, Sysoev and Kharlamov went inside. The armory where Abramov handed over the pistol was open at that moment. The appearance of uninvited armed guests greatly surprised the police. But none of them could have imagined that a minute later a tragedy would play out in the room: Sysoev, who sometimes helped the local police, was known to the law enforcement officers only on the good side. There was an awkward pause, during which Alexander thought that Ilyin, who was sitting at the control panel, did not take the visitors seriously and was grinning.
“The feeling of anger that came over me instantly suppressed my indecision, and I shot him in the chest. He remained sitting on the chair, just lowered his head. Then I shot at the cops who were falling to the floor, since it dawned on them that something was wrong with them jokes… For some reason, attention was focused on the clearly working shutter, spitting out cartridges. Then other shots were heard – it was Evgeniy who started shooting from the pistol” (Alexander Sysoev)
Ilyin and Zhukov died in the crossfire, and Semyonov, who was mortally wounded at the hands of Kharlamov, died on the way to the hospital. One of the bullets hit Abramov under the shoulder blade and went right through his right arm – the ensign survived, however, he remained disabled. He tried to detain the criminals, but the forces were not equal.
Despite the fact that there were a couple of steps left to the treasured room, the conspirators never got to the weapons. Kharlamov was suddenly overcome by panic, he grabbed Sysoev by the shoulder and ran out into the street with him. Alexander decided that they were in some danger and followed his accomplice without resistance. The criminals ran away so quickly that they even abandoned the UAZ near the building, and in the end they were afraid to return for it. Investigators who arrived at the scene of the massacre found in the cabin a map of the Tver region, a hunting rifle, six boxes with 120 Molotov cocktails, a knife, rope, an ax and a sledgehammer. Meanwhile, the accomplices reached the lake in which they drowned the weapons. According to Sysoev’s recollections, Kharlamov was hysterical, repeating over and over again “We killed them! We killed them!”
After this path The rebels dispersed: Sysoev planned to get to Moscow through the forests – he wandered through the thickets for about 100 days.
And Kharlamov rushed to Kalinin: without really explaining anything, he collected his things, after which he asked his friend for money and a bicycle. After this, the criminal’s path lay to a friend, from whom Evgeniy borrowed another 100 rubles. No one saw the killer again in Vyshny Volochyok. All the forces of the local police were sent to search for the criminals: the “Siren” plan was introduced in the territory of Tver and nearby regions. 80 mobile groups, which included about three thousand guardians of the law, were on the trail of the killers, patrols were on duty on the roads, and helicopters were taken into the air. Information on the killers was sent throughout the country and sent to Interpol. They indicated that Sysoev always carries with him a photograph of his third wife and child, and Kharlamov begins his greeting with the phrase “Peace to your home.” Several criminals on the Federal wanted list fell into the hands of the operatives, but Sysoev and Kharlamov were not among them. After some time, the search engines managed to discover the place where the criminals had been hiding for some time – a haystack near the village of Staroye, upon inspection of which they found a prayer book. However, there were no more fugitives either in the village itself or in the surrounding settlements. Along the way, the operatives visited 15 villages where relatives of the criminal duo lived, but they were unable to help the investigation.
Mindful of the ability of forest-trained killers to hide in hard-to-reach places, the police, together with the rangers, combed all the thickets, swamps and abandoned huts. The ambush near the tavern, where security forces were on duty under the guise of truckers wanting to stay, also did not produce results. By the way, it turned out that the business no longer belonged to Sysoev – before the raid on the police department, he transferred it and all the rest of his property to his wife. Soon, Kharlamov’s ex-wife Svetlana contacted the police, saying that her ex-husband had called and planned to see her son. The child who attended the kindergarten was monitored, but Evgeniy never showed up. From time to time information appeared that Alexander was hiding in different areas of Moscow, but each time he managed to escape from under the noses of law enforcement officers
“We were always literally several hours late: as soon as we arrived at the apartment, he had just moved out. Every policeman had his photograph, but they never stopped him and didn’t ask for his documents” (from the memoirs of employees of the operational search department of the capital’s Central Internal Affairs Directorate)< /p>
Finally, extremely important information arrived through operational channels – Sysoev is hiding in the village with his distant relative.
“Which one was not known. It was only reported that a power line passes through the village, on one of the supports of which a stork built a nest. Local police identified the village by signs” (from the book “Revolution Now!” by Ilya Strogoy)
A squad of Tula riot police was sent to apprehend the criminal (Sysoev himself claimed that he was subdued by the capital’s police officers) – out of fear that the Tver security forces, worried about the loss of their colleagues, might not be able to restrain themselves at the sight of the murderer. Arriving at the village of Petrovo, the special forces found and detained the shooter. During the interrogation, Sysoev asked to give him the Psalter and justified himself by saying that he did not plan to kill the policemen – they say, “he himself walked as if to death.” He was awaiting trial in the special corps of Tver Central. According to the recollections of fellow inmates, the prisoner, accustomed to comfort, with the permission of his superiors, planted indoor flowers in his cell. Sysoev was facing a long sentence and possibly life imprisonment, but during the examination, psychiatrists noticed signs of paranoid schizophrenia in him.
“I was a businessman, a big man. And suddenly at one moment I turned into an ordinary psycho” (Alexander Sysoev)
Sysoev was sent for treatment to the notorious St. Petersburg special hospital on Arsenalnaya, 9. He was imprisoned 17 years – according to the memoirs of the failed revolutionary, it was a “nightmare life.” Sysoev was released in July 2016: as of 2019, the man settled in the countryside, worked as a digger and sang in a church choir. Alexander separated from his wife: while he was in the hospital, Catherine had to pay off debts and try to save her husband’s business. She failed to do this, and the tavern and hotel passed into the hands of new owners. After some time, she gave birth to a child from another man: the new lover did not recognize her son, so the woman entered Sysoev in the “father” column.
The law enforcement officers have still not been able to find Evgeniy Kharlamov.
“They assumed that I killed him. But I didn’t do it, I couldn’t do it. And they wanted to make some kind of monster out of me” (Alexander Sysoev).
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