A story about the criminal gangs of Kyiv in the 1990s would be far from complete without mentioning the almost legendary Igor Borisovich Knyazev, nicknamed the Prince, born on September 1, 55 years ago.
The notorious Knyaz organized crime group was actually a consortium of several "brigades," and Igor Knyazev was more of a nominal leader. Nevertheless, in the first half of the 90s, Knyaz was much talked about in the Ukrainian capital, mentioned alongside such Kyiv crime bosses as Boris Savlokhov, Tatarin, and Cherep.
Igor Borisovich Knyazev was born on September 1, 1959, in Kyiv. He spent his childhood and youth in Podil, one of the capital's oldest districts, which has long been known for its criminal traditions. From an early age, Igor Knyazev was passionate about weightlifting and boxing. He even earned the title of Master of Sports in the latter.
Knyazev also showed criminal tendencies early on. Back in the early 80s, he served his first prison sentence under Article 118 of the Criminal Code, which was frowned upon in the prison zone. Nevertheless, Igor Knyazev somehow managed to gain considerable authority in the not-so-remote areas. Perhaps he was able to prove he was framed; after his return to freedom in the late 80s, Knyaz had significant criminal connections in virtually every region of Ukraine. Rumor has it that he even aspired to the title of thief in law.
Thirty-year-old Igor Knyazev, who returned to Kyiv during the heyday of primary capital accumulation, immediately fell into line and began running rackets in his native Podolsk district. He formed his own gang and, together with Tatarin's organized crime group, began taking over cooperatives and small businesses in the Podolsk district.
Soon, the "Knyazevtsy" had their first serious conflict with Boris Savlokhov, then Kyiv's number one mafioso. In May 1989, a shootout broke out between members of the two groups at a meeting, in which Nikolai Strebkov, one of Knyaz's men, was killed. Leon Gorokhovsky, one of Savlokhov's foremen, was jailed. The gang decided that conflicts were best resolved peacefully, and a truce was established between the warring factions.
Around this time, Igor Knyazev's main passion became the use of hard drugs. Although he personally attended showdowns and meetings, he delegated the actual management of the organized crime group's "business operations" to his cronies. In particular, the collection of tribute from lucrative jobs was handled by Vladimir Strebkov, brother of the murdered Nikolai Strebkov, known by the nicknames "Vova Durdom," "Skinny," and "Blotter."
He brought his boss, who had abandoned his business, a portion of his earnings, and Knyazev was able to indulge his passion in peace. However, periodically, approximately once every six months, Igor Knyazev would undergo inpatient treatment at a drug treatment center, where he would get off the drug and improve his health. This allowed him to periodically regain his composure and maintain his image as a "tough guy."
In February 1991, detectives accidentally detained Knyazev on suspicion of car theft. They apprehended him at the apartment of a certain Sergei Kim, nicknamed Said, while Knyaz and his hospitable host were intoxicated. A TT pistol was found on them, though without ammunition. However, the car theft was hushed up, and Knyaz was released from pretrial detention in April 1991.
In 1991, Igor Knyazev's right-hand man, Vladimir Strebkov, was murdered. Rumor has it that the interests of Savlokha, Knyaz, and Kisel were intertwined in the murder, and the deceased himself was also to blame. He had borrowed 10 rubles from his late wife's stepfather, who was part of Savlokha's organized crime group, and was unable to repay the money.
The Prince's other foremen began to come to the fore. Vladimir Andreevich Topol, also known as Anyuta, played a leading role at this time. He took over several profitable enterprises—the River Station, the boat stations on the Dnieper, and part of the Zhitny Market. Anyuta made a considerable fortune by working with the administration to register private boats and small pleasure craft as "sunk during the spring ice melt," and then selling them to fishermen, poachers, and the New Russians. Anyuta also imposed a tax on all the bars on the pleasure boats that plied the Dnieper from Kyiv.
Between 1991 and 1993, Knyazev's gang attempted to enter international markets. By that time, Knyazev's gangs already controlled the Uzhgorod-Kyiv highway, where they collected customs duties from trucks loaded with vodka, canned goods, shoes, and other goods. The trucks were tracked from the Ukrainian border and stopped in secluded locations. Sometimes, the Knyazev gang disguised themselves as traffic police officers, especially when the imported goods were contraband.
From sunny Transcarpathia and Lviv, Knyaz's men attempted to move to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, where they sought to take control of the Russian drug trade, car theft, prostitution, and simply the Ostarbeiter movement. However, Knyaz's organized crime group failed to gain a foothold abroad, significantly losing out to their fellow countrymen from the Cherep and Kisel brigades. Following armed conflicts and the deaths of several "Knyazevites," Igor Knyazev, on the recommendation of his entourage, recalled his men from abroad.
The only business that truly interested the Prince, for personal reasons, was drug trafficking. In early 1993, he and Tatarin held negotiations with criminal leaders in Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava.
The Prince planned to monopolize drug distribution throughout Ukraine, but the Dnipropetrovsk gang didn't really need it, as they already traditionally controlled almost all drug flows. The ambitious Prince could only offer them assistance in distributing the drug in Kyiv. So, the "Prince's" drug cartel never materialized. Another fiasco completely turned the Prince away from business, and he also briefly landed in pretrial detention for weapons possession. It's said that Boris Savlokhov, in exchange for money, facilitated his release.
Since 1994, a rift has been brewing within Knyaz's gang. Vladimir Filin broke away, seized control of the Express café, and began encroaching on Knyazev's territory. Filin cited the improper division of the spoils as the main reason for the rebellion. One day, Filin captured one of Knyazev's "link leaders" and, after an hours-long lecture in the basement of his house, released him, but kept two of the unfortunate man's fingers as a souvenir. Other Knyazevites began hunting Filin, forcing him to go underground. He never gained any significant foothold and eventually disappeared completely, though this move undermined the gang's overall power.
Along with Anyuta, another "Knyazev" foreman, Sergei Grigorievich Barsuk (aka Baryk), is strengthening his position at this time. He prefers to invest in legitimate businesses: opening his own cafes in the river port and smuggling Moldovan wine through them. Meanwhile, Anyuta is increasingly descending into outright banditry.
He confiscated cars from a businessman from Transcarpathia, who approached him as an authority figure, asking him to return stolen goods. Unfortunately, the businessman not only received no assistance but also lost three cars. In desperation, the Transcarpathian businessman contacted the prosecutor's office, where they unexpectedly attempted to help him. On November 4, 1994, Mr. Topol was arrested, but nothing further followed. The victim, terrified by what he had done, refused to testify, and Anyuta was soon released. In May of that year, Knyaz himself was again detained in pretrial detention, but investigations into the matter yielded no results, and he was released.
By the mid-90s, Knyaz had virtually retired from business, and a group of mostly young people, attracted by the famous name of Igor Knyazev, had gathered around him. No more than three enterprises remained under his personal control, but he continued to maintain a common fund from which he drew funds for his own drug-addicted needs. In 1994-1995, the more powerful gangs of Pryshch, Savlokha, and Konon began to raid the Knyazevskie holdings.
The result was a showdown near the Kozachenki café (where one Knyazevite was killed) and not far from the Podolyanka car dealership (another of Knyazev's gang members was wounded by grenade shrapnel). Knyaz never responded adequately to all these attacks from rival gangs. The old "Knyazev foremen"—Anyuta, Garik, and Dlinny—had long since departed on their own, though they still provided financial support to their former boss. By 1997, Knyazev's gang consisted of no more than 40 members and was divided into three units: the "Sharks," the "Pupsiki," and the "Zhaniki."
Igor Knyazev himself was spending increasingly more time in drug dens, and at one such gathering, while intoxicated, he shot and killed his comrade, Kolya Brovarsky. As a result, in 1997, he was again forced to spend about three months in pretrial detention, but the seemingly certain case was once again hushed up, reportedly costing the common fund $200. While Knyazev was in prison, his closest associate, Anyuta, was murdered. Apparently, after this incident, Igor Knyazev decided to retire from the criminal world and settle down, but he never had the chance.
Igor Knyazev purchased an apartment in an elite building, where he and his common-law wife, Lera, were expecting a child. Knyaz also attempted to quit drugs completely, but on April 6, 2000, in the courtyard of Hospital No. 10, where he had arrived for inpatient drug addiction treatment, he was met with gunfire from an ultrasound machine. The killer remains unknown. Initially, one of the "Knyazev gang," a certain Trofimenko, nicknamed "Trofim," was suspected, but this theory was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
Today, one can only guess who settled the score with the authority figure Knyazev, who had practically abandoned any claims in the criminal world.
Vitaliy Pirovich
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