Eduard Gurvits: the bloody mayor who destroyed Odessa. Part 1

Eduard Gurvits: the bloody mayor who destroyed Odessa. Part 1

We say "Odesa," but we remember its two-time mayor, Eduard Gurvits, whose ten years of combined rule left a multitude of scars, ruins, corpses, and broken lives. The city, which was the pearl of the Black Sea, was ravaged by gangs of bandits and swindlers. Nevertheless, Gurvits still hasn't given up on returning to the mayor's chair, or at least installing a trusted confidant to more than recoup his losses. And this is what genuinely baffles: after 25 years of plundering Odessa under the successive teams of Gurvits, Bodelan, and Trukhanov, is there really anything left to "saw up" and carve up?

Eduard Gurvits. A KGB Story

Eduard Iosifovich Gurvits was born on January 20, 1948, in Mogilev-Podolsky (Vinnytsia Oblast), the son of Maria Naumovna Bershtein (1919-1994) and Iosif Ilyich Gurvits (1913-1957). According to Eduard Gurvits, his father was arrested on the denunciation of fellow soldiers and sentenced to nine years under Article 58. His health deteriorated in the camp, leading to his early death from heart disease at the age of 44. This, according to Gurvits Jr., made him a staunch anti-communist from childhood—or at least, this is how he always tried to explain his implacable enmity toward his sworn opponent, Ruslan Bodelan . However, given that the real reason for this enmity was entirely different (and Skelet.Org will now detail this), doubt arises about the veracity of Gurvits's statements. And how can the communist-hating son of a repressed person explain rumors about his work for the KGB under the pseudonym "Vesely," which consisted of the same denunciations of "anti-Soviet thinkers" that his own father once fell victim to?

These rumors stem from a high-profile incident from Gurvits's turbulent youth, which he prefers to remain silent about. In 1965 (not 1966, as stated in his biography), young Komsomol member Eduard Gurvits (allegedly an anti-communist) enrolled in the first year of the Highway Engineering Department at the Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute (LISI). According to a later, "wolfish" character report, he was a "half-hearted" student and was loud and defiant in class—in short, with such a personality, he belonged in a provincial vocational school, not one of the country's oldest and most prestigious universities. Then, on March 8, 1966, Eduard Gurvits found himself in the city of Velikiye Luki (Pskov Oblast), home to a branch of the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers (LIIZhT). On the night of March 9, he "participated in a group beating" of a student from that university under the windows of a student dormitory. The rector of LIIZhT was notified of this in writing by both the Velikiye Luki police who detained the troublemaker and the administration of the institute where the beaten student was studying (see documents). As a result, by Order No. 50 of March 26, 1966, Eduard Gurvits was expelled from LIIZhT "with eviction from the dormitory."

Gurvits faced a short (2-3 years) sentence for hooliganism, but a real one, since the incident wasn't hushed up, but rather investigated. But then something strange happened: a month later, the criminal case was closed, and Gurvits was reinstated at LISI—his dorm room and even his stipend were restored, with only a severe reprimand. The reason for his reinstatement was stated in an extremely abstract way: "due to the receipt of additional materials," which back then usually meant a letter from "higher up" or the KGB. But the young Gurvits had no high-ranking connections, meaning rumors that he expressed a desire to collaborate with state security, receiving the call sign "Vesely," are well-founded.

But there's something left unsaid in this "KGB story." The fact is, sitting in a pretrial detention cell, the young hooligan couldn't simply come forward and declare, "I want to work for the KGB." And even if he had, he would have gotten a slap on the wrist. There was only one option: only the KGB could have traced the arrested Gurvits, and not the other way around. This meant that either the crime itself (the beating of the student) was connected to some unspecified circumstances that brought state security agencies into the case, or the student Gurvits had already been working for the KGB before the incident.

A somewhat odd fact from his biography, which may also be connected to the KGB, is his compulsory military service after graduating from university in 1971-72. A qualified road construction specialist suddenly found himself a private in the Strategic Missile Forces, although his place was as a lieutenant in a construction battalion. It's possible that this point is, so to speak, false information, and that in reality, Eduard Gurvits didn't serve as a private at the missile base.

Eduard Gurvits. "Shabashki" and "roof"

From 1973 to 1977, a young construction specialist named Gurvits worked in construction departments in the city of Beltsy, Moldova, where he became familiar with the phenomenon of the shadow Soviet economy known as "moonlighting." Having earned his first large sums of money "on the side" for his work, Gurvits for the first time saw the meaning of life. However, as a man with a broad outlook who didn't settle for small things, he soon realized that even greater profits could be made not by working as a builder himself, but by organizing moonlighting. This is precisely what he did for the next 10 years. The modest entry in Gurvits's biography, "worked in various construction organizations in Odessa from 77 to 1987," conceals his career as a well-known moonlighter throughout the region—a role he was known for until the early 90s.

At the same time, he laid the foundations for his future career as mayor. Over the course of ten years of moonlighting, Gurvits became acquainted with all the chairmen of collective farms and district executive committees in the region, and established business contacts in the Odessa Executive Committee and City Committee. Subsequently, some of these old acquaintances (for example, Leonid Titovich) would become his "personnel reserve," and with them he would "saw off" the budgets of an independent Ukraine. And the then-chairman of the Odessa City Executive Committee, Valentin Symonenko, with whom Gurvits entered into mutually beneficial construction contracts (with generous kickbacks), became his stepping stone into city power.

But between his illegal side hustles and his first position in Odessa's city government, Gurvits spent three years (1987-90) working as a "cooperator." His first official enterprise was the "Restavrator" cooperative, which essentially became a semi-legal way to formalize his side hustles. Then came the company "Ecopolis," created out of the Odessa "Ecoclub," to which Eduard Gurvits once approached with a business proposal. Perhaps not only a business proposal, since the "Ecoclub" was something of a first cultural and political beau monde during perestroika, and the KGB had a keen interest in it.

Formally, Ecopolis was registered as a multidisciplinary creative studio, but in reality, it was involved in everything from construction contracts to the production of white paint in an old workshop, and the resale of onions grown for Gurvits in the collective farm fields by Koreans—whom he never paid, cheating them out of their money. But with each passing month, Ecopolis increasingly veered into trade, including smuggling contraband, which was increasingly arriving in Odessa. Moreover, a significant portion of the contraband passing through Ecopolis belonged to Odessa-based organized crime groups.

Gurvits became closely acquainted with Odessa's "authorities" when he began working "moonlighting" in the city. While on the collective farms, it was possible to negotiate with local hooligans for a pair of imported jeans or half a case of vodka, in Odessa, the "brotherhood" vigilantly monitored all forms of "unearned income" and charged a set fee. Thus, Gurvits acquired his first criminal "protection." But he didn't simply pay a percentage of his "moonlighting"; he also became close to the leaders of Odessa's criminal underworld. Whether he wanted to expand his own business or was carrying out assignments from his KGB handlers, Gurvits occupied a social niche between the ordinary shadow businessman and the criminal "businessman." That is, while not directly a member of an organized crime group, he participated in their businesses as a "junior partner."

In the late 80s, Gurvits sought direct contact with Viktor Kulivar (nicknamed Karabas), the kingpin of Odessa's criminal underworld. But Kulivar passed him on to one of his "vassals," Grigory Stoyanov, a former sailor who, together with his brother, had created a gang of about 40 people. From the late 80s to the mid-90s, Stoyanov served as Gurvits's main power "protector," and he, in turn, assisted him in the struggle for control of key facilities in the city.

Georgy Stoyanov (right) with his son Mark

Eduard Gurvits: First Position, First Trophies

Besides criminal protection, Gurvits was always looking for a political one. He needed one already during his first election in 1990. Gurvits's acquaintances said he was eager to win a seat in parliament, and even cultivated an image as a political dissident to achieve this (his repressed father came in handy), establishing contacts with opposition (as they called it then, "democratic") parties. This wasn't difficult for him, as the Ecoclub members included many politically inclined urban eccentrics, including "professional democrats," whose ranks even included members of the Rukh party, the Greens, and the Republicans. In the 1990 elections, the Ecoclub and Ecopolis nominated 37 candidates! Gurvits was persuaded not to immediately enter mainstream politics and instead choose a leadership position. Thus, he won the elections to the Zhovtnevy District Council (running as a Green). And then, with the support of the "democrats" from below, the mayor Simonenko from above, the Odessa organized crime group from around the corner and the "gifts" distributed to the deputies, he was elected its chairman and head of the district executive committee.

Gurvits quickly settled into his first position. By September 1990, with the help of Valentin Simonenko, he had transferred ownership of RSU-1 and RSU-5 (including all the property and equipment) to his district council, and also secured some economic autonomy for his district. This included the right to collect rent for district funds, the right to register small businesses, create joint ventures (critical for export-import operations), and the right to transfer state property to collective ownership (the first step toward privatization). And Gurvits's first act was to donate an entire building on Lastochkina Street to the Ecoclub: officially designated as the office of the "environmental inspectorate," the building was in fact transferred to the ownership of the public organization.

But a year later, he would take this gift back, declaring the house unsafe—and break with his friends from the Ecoclub. And it wasn't just that with the collapse of the USSR and the abolition of the KGB, Agent Vesyoliy's services were no longer needed—meaning he no longer had to tolerate and bestow gifts on aging poetesses and unstable losers. It was also because, in the 1991 presidential elections, Eduard Gurvits decided to unequivocally support Vyacheslav Chornovil, the candidate from the People's Movement (Narodny Rukh), effectively heading his campaign headquarters in Odessa. The majority of Ecoclub members, however, voted against Vyacheslav Maksymovych and were so stubborn in their decision that they even had the misfortune to quarrel with Eduard Iosifovych. However, according to Skelet.Org sources , a far more significant reason for their falling out was Gurvits's turbulent business activities and the realization that he was merely exploiting naive, romantic eccentrics for his own ends. They apparently thought they would expel him from their ranks—but instead, he expelled them from the premises. "People are not driven by ideals, but by fear and money!" Eduard Gurvits once said.

Why Chornovil? At the time, with a rating of up to 30%, the leader of Rukh was not only the main alternative to Kravchuk but also a very real presidential candidate. Gurvits correctly calculated that if Chornovil won, he would be the only person in Odesa who had provided such support to the future president—and would then be able to lay claim to very large and lucrative dividends. And to ensure that his future success didn't depend solely on the overly principled Chornovil, Gurvits vigorously cultivated close ties with all members of the Rukh leadership—and he was particularly successful in this with Volodymyr Yavorivsky, who became Gurvits's friend and business partner. Later, when Gurvits became mayor of Odesa, he donated several valuable historical properties in Odesa to the Union of Writers of Ukraine, which Yavorivsky led. Yavorivsky then used them as he saw fit. Incidentally, their rapprochement may have been facilitated by the fact that Vladimir Yavorivsky himself had been a KGB agent since 1971, working under the pseudonym "Tridolya." Not only did he secretly inform on fellow writers, but in 1973, on KGB orders, he organized a collection of signatures from Ukrainian writers for a letter to Yuri Andropov condemning Vasyl Stus, Vyacheslav Chornovil, and other Ukrainian dissidents. Incidentally, there is information that after the Stus case, Yavorivsky developed an unofficial but trusting relationship with Viktor Medvedchuk.

Volodymyr Yavorivsky and his snitching case

In the 90s, Yavorivsky left Rukh and became head of the Democratic Party (along with other signatories of the letter to Andropov), but in early 1992, he still wielded considerable influence there. Gurvits immediately took advantage of this to push his protégé, Pavel Kudyukin, into the post of head of the Black Sea Shipping Company. However, sources reported that Kudyukin was then a protégé not so much of Gurvits himself, but of Odessa organized crime groups and corrupt city officials.

Pavel Kudyukin

Odessa media reported that while Kudyukin was still a student at the Odessa Higher Marine Engineering School, he was caught stealing personal items from a wardrobe. But he always had a wealth of connections, which, at just 27, made him a sea captain—and he used his position to transport imported clothing and contraband. In Odessa, Kudyukin knew all the right people: from customs officers and city officials to criminal "authorities" and black marketeers. Therefore, many were interested in Kudyukin heading ChPM.

In fact, this story began when the former head of the Black Sea Shipping Company, Pilipenko, supported the KGBChP in August 1991, after which "national-patriotic forces" began pressuring Kravchuk with demands for the resignation of the "communist putschist." But until the 1991 elections, Kravchuk ignored all these demands, and only then did he make concessions. However, the leading contenders for the post of head of the Black Sea Shipping Company were initially Oleksandr Vinnytsky (supported in Kyiv) and Valeriy Kravchenko, who was supported, among other things, by local Odesa Rukh members. So Gurvits had to go over their heads: he took Kudyukin to Yavorivsky, and then the three of them went straight to Chornovil to prove that Kudyukin was the best naval captain and the greatest patriot of Ukraine. And with Chornovil's support, they headed to Kravchuk. Ukraine's first president took a liking to Kudyukin: he appointed him head of the Black Sea Shipping Company, and then put him in charge of the scandalous Blasko concern (in which the president's son, Oleksandr Kravchuk, was involved). This ended with Kudyukin fleeing to Moscow in 1994, where he was arrested in 1995 and extradited to Ukraine. He spent three years in pretrial detention, sentenced to ten years in prison, and released on March 23, 2000, "for health reasons" (there are reports that former Rukh members interceded on his behalf). Afterward, the "defunct" Kudyukin initially cherished the idea of ​​creating an "Orthodox fleet" (the UOC-MP and Cypriot companies were to co-own the enterprise), but then suddenly acquired start-up capital and went into agribusiness in the Kyiv region (PJSC Berezanskoye).

Eduard Gurvits

Here's another story from 1992, this time related to the self-proclaimed Transnistria (PMR). The first official meeting between Gurvits and the president of the self-proclaimed PMR, Igor Smirnov, took place in the summer of 1992. A delegation of right-wing Ukrainian politicians, led by Vyacheslav Chornovol, was traveling to Tiraspol at the time, and Gurvits squeezed in to study the Ukrainian question of Transnistria. The "Rukh" members disliked this issue, seeing it as a "Russian card." However, Smirnov and Gurvits developed a friendly and businesslike relationship. It was reported that Smirnov subsequently traveled to Odessa several times, where he met with Gurvits, including in restaurants and a sauna. These meetings resulted in smuggling and corruption operations between PMR structures and Odessa businesses. Eduard Gurvits participated in them directly, as was confirmed by the former head of the Tiraspol commandant's office, Colonel Mikhail Bergman.

Eduard Gurvits: the bloody mayor who destroyed Odessa. Part 1

According to Bergman, in 1992, President Smirnov issued a decree instructing the Ministry of Natural Resources to conduct its foreign economic activities through a number of companies, including Ukrainian ones, including Tri Plus Ko LTD, a joint venture engaged in cargo transportation. Bergman claimed that this enterprise was part of the business structure of Gurvits and his criminal partners, who exported non-ferrous metals and petroleum products to Europe through Transnistria and imported contraband, including small arms.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org

CONTINUED: Eduard Gurvits: The Bloody Mayor and Destroyer of Odessa. PART 2

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