Berta Borodkina

Berta Borodkina
Born	Berta Naumovna Korol 6 June 1927 Bila Tserkva, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died	unknown Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Execution by shooting
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	Embezzlement
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Span of crimes	1974–1985
Country	Soviet Union
Date apprehended	1982

Berta Naumovna Borodkina (Russian: Бе́рта Нау́мовна Боро́дкина; née Korol; 1927–after 1984) was a Soviet trade person. She was the head of a trust of restaurants and canteens in Gelendzhik, honored worker of trade and public catering of the RSFSR. Borodkina had the nickname Iron Bella.

She was the second of the three women executed in Soviet Union in the period from 1960 to 1987. She was sentenced to death for systematic theft of socialist property.

Biography

Borodkina began working in the field of trade with the posts of barmaid and waitress, and was subsequently appointed to the position of director of canteen. In 1974 she was appointed director of the Gelendzhik trust of restaurants and canteens. She was arrested in 1982. According to the version of investigative authorities, in the period from 1974 to 1982, she was engaged in speculation on an especially large scale.

During the search, Borodkina found many valuable things, as well as large amounts of money. According to Anton Lopatin, senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Krasnodar Krai for media relations, resident's housing resembled museum stores, which contained numerous precious jewelry, furs, crystal products, and bedding sets that were in short supply at that time. In addition, according to the testimony of the member of the prosecutor's office of the Krasnodar Krai Vladimir Nagorny, she kept large sums of money at home, which the investigators found in the most unexpected places – in radiators and under the carpets in the rooms, rolled up banks in the basement, in the warehouses backyard bricks. The total amount seized during the search amounted to more than 500,000 roubles.

It is believed that in total during her activities she received from partners in goods and cash worth more than a million roubles. In 1984, she was sentenced to death. However it is unknown whether the sentence was executed, contrary to rumors circulating in the media. At least on July 1 1985, she was alive, because in her file there is a document with that date that her appeal was denied.

Further reading

• Алексей Викторов, Расстрел за порно, October 12, 2018