Counterfeiting is one of the oldest criminal professions - as soon as money appeared, people immediately appeared who began to counterfeit it. Every year in Russia the number of detected fakes grows by 20-30%.
This man is still rightly considered unsurpassed master for the production of counterfeit banknotes. At one time, his criminal talent literally shocked Goznak specialists, party and police chiefs of the USSR. Today, Viktor Baranov huddles in a room in an ordinary dorm and continues to bring his unexpected inventions into reality, but now only law-abiding ones.
The Adyghe salesman had just told the police how a few minutes ago a buyer had approached him with a request to exchange twenty-five-ruble notes. Traders were asked to pay attention if someone offered quarter or fifty dollars on the market? So he converted. Yes, of course, he will show the buyer. This is the one with the briefcase.
The suspicious buyer's documents turned out to be in order: Viktor Ivanovich Baranov, a resident of Stavropol. Viktor Ivanovich had 1,925 rubles in quarter notes in his briefcase.
- So who are you? - the investigator asked him when the police brought the owner of the suspicious money to the police station.
“I am a counterfeiter,” answered the king of counterfeiters.
From point of view law enforcement, this story began in the mid-70s. By 1977, in 76 regions of the USSR, from Vilnius to Tashkent, 46 counterfeit banknotes of the fifty-ruble denomination and 415 of the twenty-five-ruble denomination were identified, which, according to experts, had a single source of origin. The exceptionally high quality of the counterfeits made counterintelligence suspect the CIA, which, of course, could easily print rubles in a factory way in the USA and then distribute them through agents to the USSR. Along with the spy version, the traditional version was also checked - it was assumed that the counterfeiters received technology directly from Goznak. More than five hundred employees of the enterprise were under round-the-clock surveillance by the KGB for almost a year, until a repeated examination established that Goznak had nothing to do with it - just someone in the country was too well versed in the process of printing money.
Counterintelligence regretfully abandoned the idea of finding American sowers scattering banknotes in the USSR, and the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs focused on searching for a group of counterfeiters within the country.
Gradually, it was possible to determine that in the south of Russia, high-quality counterfeits appear more often than in other regions. Then the circle of searches narrowed to the Stavropol region, where in three months of 1977 86 counterfeit twenty-five-ruble bills were immediately identified. And finally, thanks to the vigilance of the Adyghe seller, the first, as the security forces believed, member of the criminal group was captured.
It must be said that at the time of his arrest Baranov was... a freelance employee of the Stavropol OBKhSS. As a driver, Viktor Ivanovich took two security officers on raids to all sorts of “grain places” - senior lieutenant Alexander Nikolchenko and major Yuri Baranov (namesake - Author). And it had to happen that at the time of the arrest the senior leader was in Pyatigorsk, where he was just catching the notorious elusive counterfeiter! I found out that he was caught in Cherkessk, and received an order to deliver the captured man to Stavropol. Imagine the opera’s amazement when he saw his partner in front of him!..
“I knew that Yura and Sasha were looking for me, but I never asked them a question... I would never use our friendly relations to my advantage,” admits Baranov.
“I decided for myself a long time ago,” says Baranov, “if they catch me, I won’t twist and turn. I never lied to the police." The police did not know about this then, however, and considered Viktor Ivanovich a courier for counterfeiters, who decided to take all the blame on himself in order to shield his accomplices. Because one person cannot produce counterfeit money of such impeccable quality!
“I was taken to Stavropol as a general,” recalls Baranov. “There were two traffic police cars with flashing lights ahead.”
There he immediately led the police to his barn, where a search revealed a compact printing press, stacks of printed money and five notebooks describing many years of research. On the same day, a report was placed on the desk of Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Shchelokov, and the very next morning a group of Moscow experts flew to Stavropol.
During the investigative experiment, Viktor Ivanovich, in front of distinguished guests, created watermarks on paper, rolled letterpress and intaglio seals, cut the sheet and applied the treasury number with a numberer. By the end of the performance, there were no longer any skeptics left in the room. Everyone believed in a miracle and that the wizard needed to serve a decent amount of time.
After which, by decision of the Chief investigation department The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR added a hundred more similar cases to criminal case No. 193 regarding the discovery of counterfeit banknotes of twenty-five rubles in denomination, where it all began. In the USSR people were also sentenced to death for lesser crimes.
Vitya Baranov developed an interest in money as a child, when he began collecting a collection of old banknotes. But he came to the conclusion that he could make money himself much later... In Stavropol, where the future criminal genius studied at a regular school, he was always in good standing with the teachers. Until the fifth grade, Vitya Baranov was an excellent student, and his behavior was always exemplary. Among his favorite school subjects was drawing... The guy went to art school, painted beautiful sunsets... And best of all, he made copies of famous paintings - “Alyonushka” by Vasnetsov, “Morning in pine forest» Shishkin and others.
After seventh grade, Vitya Baranov went to Rostov-on-Don to study at a construction school. Within a year, he mastered the specialty of a parquet carpenter. He also really wanted to become a pilot. Collected with a friend at the flying club large group I started working with the same guys parachuting. Victor made several jumps. At the draft board he was told that he needed to commit two more, and he would be drafted into landing troops. But, heeding his mother’s lamentations, Baranov completed a driver’s course at DOSAAF and went to serve in a motor battalion. And he was a secretary Komsomol organization your part.
After the army, Victor worked at one time as a freight forwarder in the Stavropol regional party committee. And twice he even drove Mikhail Gorbachev home from work at night - at that time the third secretary of the Komsomol committee.
When I started making money, I was one hundred percent sure that nothing would work out. But it was interesting to test my capabilities,” recalls Stavropol “Kulibin”.
He worked on the banknotes for 12 years. During this time, I thoroughly studied as many as 12 printing specialties - from engraver to printer. For three years he “invented” the watermark himself, and for two years he “invented” intaglio printing ink. I studied textbooks for printing students, even went to Moscow, studied at Leninka rare books“in his specialty”... He had to do a lot by trial and error.
The inventor locked himself in his barn on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street in Stavropol and worked literally day and night. The fruits of this work can be seen today in the Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A whole room is occupied by Baranov’s “exhibition”, which was transported to Moscow in no less than two KamAZ trucks!
The forgery genius is especially proud of the solution he invented for removing copper oxides during etching. On this task for a long time all the printers of the world fought. Terribly labor-intensive and painstaking work! And Baranov built a reagent from four components - two poison copper, two remove its oxides. Everything about everything takes a minute or two... Goznak worked for 14 years on this etching agent, which received an unspoken name - “Baranovsky”.
The first banknote that Baranov made was a fifty-ruble note. One to one with the original in the smallest details. The only thing, out of respect for Lenin, the counterfeiter made the leader twenty years younger. And this was not noticed in any bank!
He released only a few fifty kopecks - 70 pieces. Caucasians in the markets grabbed them with their hands and asked for more. But the Stavropol resident decided to make the “quarter” - the most secure of Soviet banknotes. “If the ruble were the most difficult thing, I would do it... I wasn’t interested in money as such,” laughs Viktor Ivanovich.
Even the police admit that Baranov used his money machine very modestly. The only serious acquisition in all these years was a car. And then, according to Viktor Ivanovich, the entire amount was paid to him from honest labor savings. “I didn’t go to restaurants, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, I didn’t have girls. And there was no TV, there was only a small refrigerator. I didn’t need to - I was doing work.” All the money was spent on the production of new equipment. He did not give counterfeit bills to his family. “My wife once asked where the money came from,” Baranov recalls. - I said that I offer my inventions to factories. I didn’t give my wife a lot of money - 25, 30, 50 rubles.”
In parallel with his study of coinage, Baranov observed the behavior of sellers in the markets in order to understand how money “moves.” For example, fishmongers always take banknotes with wet hands, and meatmongers often have blood on their hands. Caucasians willingly accept new crisp banknotes. As a result, Baranov added 70 fifty dollars, after which he decided to give up on them. Tired of candy wrappers.
However, Baranov immediately lost interest in the money he made. He was not interested in wealth - he simply needed funds to implement other bold projects. He calculated that this would require about 30 thousand rubles. No sooner said than done!
But the trouble is, when Baranov took him to Crimea to change his money, bought two kilograms of tomatoes from one granny, walked away and only a few minutes later realized that he didn’t have a suitcase with him. He returned, and the old woman was like that, taking with her money for a good house...
The bungling inventor had to turn on the printing press again, which he was about to disassemble and scatter in parts into different ponds.
Baranov did not even think about counterfeiting the currency. But during one of his trips to the capital, he bought a dollar from a dealer - for his collection. Having looked at it more closely, I realized how easy it is to make money...
Baranov had no friends, because friends like to visit without knocking. For suspicious neighbors, he regularly organized a “day open doors" Curious old women who looked into the workshop had a view of the metalworking machine, the enlarger and the developing tanks - Baranov hid all the most interesting things in disassembled form under the shelves. Only a suspicious neighbor-hunter continued to believe that Baranov was pouring shot in the barn at night.
It was during the creation new party The quarter maestro made a fatal mistake. While securing the cliche to create a protective net, Baranov did not pay attention to the fact that the cliche was upside down. As a result, after printing the money, he discovered that in the place where the wave should have risen, there was a descent. Considering that no one would notice this, he decided not to reject the batch. However, in one of the banks where such a bill eventually ended up, an eagle-eyed cashier noticed the difference and raised the alarm. From that moment on, as they say in thrillers, Baranov had only a few months left to live in freedom.
“By the time of my arrest, all my equipment had been dismantled,” he says. - I was going to drive through ponds and lakes and scatter it there in parts. I didn’t throw it away only because it’s April and it’s muddy and you can’t get through it. And thank God. Otherwise, divers would have to look for these parts at the bottom of reservoirs.”
From the Stavropol pre-trial detention center, Baranov was transported to Moscow, to Butyrka. Every day he was visited by specialists, to whom, over the course of twelve investigative experiments, he demonstrated the victory of the human mind over Goznak.
The Goznak technologist wrote in his conclusion: “The counterfeit banknotes of 25 and 50 rubles produced by V. I. Baranov are externally close to genuine banknotes and are difficult to identify in circulation. That is why this counterfeit was very dangerous and could cause mistrust of the population in genuine banknotes.”
Viktor Ivanovich willingly shared his work. For twelve years he hid, and finally people appeared who were able to appreciate his talent and titanic work. The king of counterfeiters happily gave out the recipe for his solution, which etched copper several times faster than it was done in Goznak (under the name “Baranovsky solvent” it was used in production for the next 15 years). For the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Shchelokov, Baranov outlined recommendations on ten pages for improving the protection of rubles from counterfeiting... Probably, Viktor Ivanovich told the competent authorities a lot of other useful things, considering that the execution sentence was replaced with a colony, and he was given three years less than the maximum sentence . “I printed little money,” Baranov offers his explanation of the court’s humanity. - Otherwise they would have shot you. But you know what I’ll tell you: it would be better if they shot him. I wouldn’t suffer for eleven years, with my hands shaking from hunger, snow, wet feet and ten cars with concrete that need to be shoveled. Every day". In fact, Baranov printed a lot - about 30,000 rubles, but he put only a small fraction of this money into circulation, most of it remained in the barn.
Baranov served his term in a special regime colony in Dimitrovgrad Ulyanovsk region. Like a true passionary, he showed his talents there too: “I wrote for the newspaper. Once won a competition best article for all ITKs. Then they sent me a bonus - 10 rubles. And I was a director - I headed amateur performances. We had more than three hundred people in the choir, and took first place for seven years in a row.” Baranov also made the scenery for his productions, be it a Maxim machine gun or the coat of arms of the USSR, blinking lights in time with the recited poems.
In the “zone” Baranov enjoyed great authority. Contrary to local regulations, the prisoners did not give him a nickname, but called him respectfully by his first name and patronymic.
Returning to Stavropol after imprisonment in 1990, Baranov again began to invent. “The meaning of a person’s life is creative work,” he believes, waving off 11 years of age. “What was given to me, I realized, even if I had to endure a lot of suffering and serve time.”
He still had no friends, his first wife divorced him in the ninth year of imprisonment, all that was left was to invent. At the Analog plant, where he soon got a job, Baranov offered new method extension of nickel mesh in batteries. “They told me then: “Who are you? Experts from Germany came here, but they didn’t come up with anything new!” And I promised them that they would supply me with more cognac. And so it happened.”
Then Baranov opened the Franza company to produce perfumes. I made six barrels of perfume, 200 liters each. But a few years later the company closed, unable to withstand the competition with the wave of cheap foreign perfumes. “Their boxes were beautiful, but inside was bullshit.”
Baranov invented a method for cleaning potatoes from soil, stones and other inclusions. The ingenious solution is to pour everything into a container filled with salt water. The potatoes will float, the rest will sink to the bottom. I wanted to patent my invention, but was refused - I filled out the form incorrectly...
This was followed by a series of new inventions: ceramic car paint, resistant to acids and alkalis, furniture made of paper waste, water-based furniture varnish, adhesive paste, light brick, healing balm. Some of the inventions were successfully implemented, some received royalties... This is how Viktor Ivanovich lives today, modestly, but with the hope of recognition.
And at the request of a Moscow company, Viktor Ivanovich developed his own trade protection system, which is much more effective than barcodes.
Baranov never had any thoughts about going abroad. So what if they value brains more highly? He doesn't particularly value money. He needs them only to invent something new. And he also says that he will never give away the technology for making “Baranovsky” banknotes to anyone...
» belongs to the screenwriter Lily Kim, with whom the director is friends Egor Anashkin. It was she who came up with the idea of making a series about famous counterfeiter Soviet era and began writing the script. But life circumstances Things turned out so bad for Lilia that she had to leave for America without completing her work. The script was finalized by the project's creative team. The story had good potential. Yegor Anashkin initially liked the main character for his ambiguity. On the one hand, he is a villain because he is involved in crime, but on the other hand, taking into account the fact that circumstances forced him to take the criminal path, it is impossible not to sympathize with him. Main character and he himself suffers, finding himself in a hopeless situation.
Where truth ends and fiction begins
The story told in the series "Money" is based on real events, but for the most part it is still fiction. Prototype of the main character Alexey Barannikov became an inventor and artist Victor Baranov, who in the USSR was called counterfeiter No. 1. Only the main milestones were taken from his biography: he worked as a driver, and even drove Gorbachev, was an inventor and sang opera songs. The love story was entirely invented by the scriptwriters.
Representatives of the channel went to Stavropol and tried to find the house in which Baranov lived. There were no relatives left there, but the neighbors turned out to be very aggressive. “This is only the main one in the series Soviet counterfeiter such a romantic, but in reality he was not like that,” says series director Yegor Anashkin.
Approved on main role Fyodor Lavrov initially plunged headlong into biographical material, but stopped in time. “I watched a bunch of interviews with Baranov, went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs museum, talked with different people who dealt with this problem. Thank God, I had enough time and managed to dig up facts that were important to me. I even wanted to go to Stavropol, because I found information on the Internet that Baranov was still alive. But Egor (director of the series Egor Anashkin. - Note ed.) dissuaded me from this idea, explaining that ours was not a biopic, but a made-up story. At first I was tempted to go into biography. But in the end I only hired character traits and details,” recalls the actor.
“This story is not about money, but about love and the inability of a person to be happy. We tried to put heroes in front of difficult choice. For example, the heroine of Olga Dykhovichnaya works as a policeman, and it seems to her that she can never betray her Motherland under any circumstances, and therefore she has no happiness,” explains Yegor Anashkin.
Olga Dykhovichnaya in the TV series “Money”
“My heroine didn’t have a real prototype. It is quite possible that there was some kind of sympathy during the investigation, but there was definitely no love line that would lead to a change in its course. My heroine is an honest and valiant person, a fanatic, and she has no other goal in life than to achieve victory in her cause. Nina traded personal happiness for service. At some point you sympathize with her, but you understand that she has no right to risk herself and people,” shares Olga Dykhovichnaya, who plays Nina Filatova in the series.
About the hero and his ambiguity
“It seems to me that, as a character, Alexei Barannikov is, of course, worth loving. But I would not give an unambiguous assessment of this personality - whether he was a hero or a villain. The world is not divided into black and white: there are many shades. A person is also not painted with just one paint. Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to label people,” series director Yegor Anashkin explains his attitude towards the main character of “Money.”
They were looking for an actor for the main role for a long time - the casting was large-scale. “The situation was ambiguous. It seemed to us that the producers would want an actor in the series, whom viewers are accustomed to seeing in the role of a hero. And Fedya (Fedor Lavrov. - Note ed.) - he’s unprepossessing... Many in the creative team of the series believed that they would not approve his candidacy, because they needed a handsome guy for the main role. Fortunately, the channel agreed to meet us. The producers agreed with our opinion that the actor's face should match the character, and not just be beautiful. I am immensely grateful that everyone I wanted was approved,” says Yegor Anashkin.
“I can’t say that I completely justify my hero, but first of all, I look for a person in him, and not a villain and a swindler. And it is very important to distinguish Baranov from Barannikov. Concerning artistic image, then I will fight for him to the end. But I have a lot of questions for Baranov. But I take my hat off to him, because not everyone can do this. He was definitely a man of great perseverance,” says Fyodor Lavrov, who plays Alexei Barannikov.
The actor had to go through a large number of samples before it was approved, and gain seven kilograms before filming began. Lavrov recalls that while working on this role, he overeated. In addition, Baranov had luxuriant hair, but the actor could not boast of such. However, he grew his hair long to fit the look and get closer to the hairstyles of the era.
Fyodor Lavrov in the TV series “Money”
Still, despite the fact that the series is a work of fiction and mostly fiction, real prototype the main character Viktor Baranov was Starting point when creating an image on the screen. Now Fyodor Lavrov is already thin and shaved, as he is filming in another project.
How they printed money for the series
Traditionally, filming takes excerpts from documentary chronicle- footage showing the state sign. But the director of the series, Yegor Anashkin, was categorically against taking this path. Therefore, the search began for an old printing house in which the printing presses of that time were preserved. We found one, and it is still functioning, and ordered a circulation of money for the series there. A lot of banknotes were printed. In general, they spent a lot of money, but they showed the process of printing money from all sides.
Still from the TV series “Money”
As for the machines invented by Barannikov that appear in the frame, they are fake and non-functional. “In the end, our task was to make a film, not to print money,” jokes director Yegor Anashkin. The prop masters used old machines and modified them as necessary.
“There were consultants on set who helped understand the process. We immersed ourselves in everything. After all, if you don’t do this, then how can you play? Of course, I’m unlikely to be able to print five thousand at home. This requires enormous knowledge. Baranov himself spent 10 years studying the process and independently mastered 20 typographic and publishing professions in his barn in order to understand how to make paper, how to use state signs, what paints are needed, etc. But now I know some secrets and can paper to distinguish a fake,” says Fyodor Lavrov.
How the era was recreated
Part of the filming took place in Crimea. One of the main filming locations was the legendary Moscow ZIL - Open Joint-Stock Moscow Company "Plant named after I. A. Likhachev" (abbreviated as AMO ZIL. - Note ed.). All the offices that appear in the series were filmed there. “This place is fantastic! There we couldn't help but feel like we were in Chernobyl. It seemed that the people who worked at the plant were forced to leave their homes and never returned there. And since then everything has remained untouched. Under one of the tables there were women's shoes that some employee might have changed into, and there were pens, pieces of paper, certificates, badges, and personal belongings everywhere. There was a lot of furniture and telephones left,” recalls the series director.
Fyodor Lavrov and Olga Dykhovichnaya in the TV series “Money”
“One of the most powerful impressions from filming was that we found last days existence of the giant ZIL. I didn’t expect the scale of that era. Filming on ZIL was reminiscent of a film about the apocalypse. Imagine: large corridors, paper that was blown by the wind... All this, by the way, is in the series. Looking at the ruins, you understand how quickly the work of many thousands of people can depreciate,” actress Olga Dykhovichnaya shares her impressions of filming at ZIL.
But the plant where the heroine Luda works in the story is real. It is located in the Moscow region and is still functioning. This is a glass factory. The Volga that Barannikov drives is really from that time. And all the other cars that the viewer sees in the series are vintage. The actors themselves drove these cars.
When working on the image, Olga Dykhovichnaya was guided by her mother. “I remember what dresses, shoes, hairstyles she wore,” explains the actress. “I brought prescription glasses into the image because I realized that I needed an accessory that would distinguish me from the heroine.” In life, Olga does not wear glasses. The actress's costumes were made according to patterns from that era.
Fyodor Lavrov and Olga Dykhovichnaya in the TV series “Money”
Fyodor Lavrov often begs for hats after filming - like a fetish talisman. The actor already has a whole collection at home. He rarely wears these hats; for example, he might wear them to the store. Lavrov also asked the costume designers of the series “Money” to put aside for him the caps he wore for filming.
“The filming process was really difficult, because it was necessary to meet deadlines, establish relationships with partners on the set and make sure that the reproduction was truthful. But the interest outweighed. I want to express my deep gratitude to the entire film crew, because the guys worked for the idea - they worked until they fell. There was not a single person on the site who had any complaints. like this honest work You rarely see it in both cinema and theater. And if it didn’t exist, then there wouldn’t be a project,” sums up Fyodor Lavrov.
Prepared by Anna Prishchepova
Baranov Viktor is a cult personality in the criminal history of the USSR. This man was able, using exclusively his own mind and ingenuity, to organize the issuance of government banknotes in an ordinary barn High Quality. For a long time, the KGB and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs were looking for a gang of counterfeiters and did not expect to detain a genius inventor who worked without accomplices.
Victor Baranov (counterfeiter): biography of an unrecognized genius
Viktor Baranov was born in 1941; from early childhood the boy showed a special interest in paper money. When looking at banknotes, he did not think about wealth and their value, but assessed the artistic value and quality of workmanship. Victor collected a collection of old money and could spend hours sorting through his treasures. IN secondary school the boy studied well in all subjects.
At the same time, Victor was seriously interested in drawing. IN art school The boy's successes were also noted. What is noteworthy is that Viktor Baranov could not only talentedly draw something of his own, but also make a high-quality copy famous painting. It was obvious that the young artist was interested in looking at the original for a long time and diligently reproducing it.
After finishing seven classes, the young man entered a construction school in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Victor received the profession of a parquet carpenter. At that time, the young man dreamed of serving in the Airborne Forces, began attending a flying club and made several parachute jumps. These dreams were not destined to come true; on the advice of his mother, Victor completed the DOSAAF driver's course and served in an automobile battalion.
Inventors are not needed in the USSR
Baranov considers himself an inventor and researcher from birth. Coming from the army, the young man began to try to bring his creative ideas to life. Many times Victor offered his own inventions to enterprises hometown. However, each time he was met with grudging praise and polite refusal for all his efforts. In the USSR, state-owned plants and factories were focused on fulfilling plans. Despite promoting respect for inventors, few people in the country were interested in introducing innovations and modernizing production processes.
Viktor Baranov was upset by this state of affairs and such disregard for his own person. After another refusal, the inventor remembered his childhood hobby and decided to try making banknotes. As the counterfeiter would later say, he did not expect success. Victor's goal was not to make money that could be sold in shops and markets. The inventor wanted to completely master the technology for producing state banknotes.
Self-education of a counterfeiter
Majority modern people can't imagine how difficult it was to search for information before mass appearance computers and the Internet. Future specialists were taught production technologies and all the subtleties associated with them in specialized educational institutions. Specialized literature was quite difficult to purchase or find in libraries.
However, Viktor Baranov did not even think about giving up. He found a way to get into the Stavropol printing house, where he was able to observe the process of printing newspapers. To obtain information about making money, the inventor was not lazy to travel to Moscow and visit. And still, he had to try and “invent” too much personally.
After his arrest, Victor will tell you that he was able to fully study the technology in 12 years. The first money created by the counterfeiter was superior in quality to the original ones printed at Goznak. The inventor deliberately degraded the quality so that his bills looked realistic.
An exemplary family man and hardworking driver
Baranov’s creative laboratory was his barn, located in Stavropol on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street. By the time the secret of money production was revealed, Victor was working as a driver in the garage of the Stavropol district committee of the CPSU. He had a reputation as an exemplary family man. Neighbors noticed that the man spent too much time in his own barn. But no one could even think that Viktor Baranov was a counterfeiter. From time to time, the inventor "accidentally" left the doors open to prying eyes. Then the curious could observe a metalworking machine and equipment for photo printing. The most interesting exhibits were hidden under the tables.
Monetary disaster in the USSR
Viktor Baranov is a unique counterfeiter. He exchanged the money he printed with his own hands in the markets. At the same time, the inventor’s family lived modestly; there was not even a television in the house. Victor invested the income from counterfeit money in his hobby - purchasing new tools and equipment. But the inventor always gave his beloved wife only real banknotes. During all this time, the wife only once asked about the inventor’s earnings; he replied that he received money from one enterprise for the proposed project.
Government services became seriously interested in the case of counterfeit banknotes only in the mid-70s of the last century. Almost 500 counterfeit banknotes were discovered throughout the USSR. The KGB considered different versions: from the factory printing of counterfeit rubles in the USA to the cooperation of criminals with Goznak employees. The investigation was active, but counterfeits continued to appear. What is noteworthy is that often even bank employees could not distinguish them from real ones.
Unexpected revelation
On April 12, 1977, Viktor Baranov was detained while selling counterfeit banknotes. Stavropol and all surrounding cities were actively checked by employees at that time public services. A man exchanging new 25-ruble banknotes was detained at the direction of a market trader in Cherkessk. Victor had a suitcase filled with counterfeit money with him. The detainee himself proudly said: “I am a counterfeiter!” Civil service employees refused to believe that one person was capable of establishing such high-quality production of banknotes. Then the inventor-artist Viktor Baranov led investigators into his barn and began to proudly reveal production technologies.
Baranov's favorite money
The brilliant inventor began the counterfeiting with fifty-ruble bills. He produced only about 70 of them. After this, the counterfeiter (number 1 in the USSR) switched to twenty-five ruble banknotes. Baranov explains this decision by the fact that the 25 ruble banknote is the most secure of the Soviet ones. The inventor never cared about money; he was interested in the process itself and the quality of the manufactured products.
Baranov told investigators that he would begin to counterfeit 1 ruble if this bill seemed to him the most difficult. From scientific interest Victor tried to counterfeit, but he never liked the currency. “Printing dollars is like making coffee!” - the unrecognized genius philosophized, emphasizing the ease of counterfeiting foreign banknotes.
Cooperation with the investigation
During investigative experiments, Baranov demonstrated step by step the entire technology for making banknotes. The counterfeiter's talent was recognized, and one of his inventions was even introduced into own production Goznak. While awaiting trial, the inventor was not too lazy to even write recommendations for the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs on improving the protection of Soviet banknotes. The story of Viktor Baranov is notable for the very fact of the detainee’s cooperation with the investigation. The counterfeiter behaved as if he was not afraid of punishment in principle. But he could well have been sentenced to death.
Trial and verdict
At the trial, Baranov personally refused to defend himself and represented his own interests independently. The counterfeiter frankly told his own story. He also spoke about facts unknown to the investigation. For such frankness, the inventor received a sentence of imprisonment three years less than the maximum. In total, Baranov printed about 30,000 rubles, although only a small part of the funds was put into circulation. The convict was sent to a special regime colony in Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region) to serve his sentence.
Imprisonment
Viktor Baranov is a counterfeiter whose biography is unique. In prison, he instantly earned authority. In his free time from work, prisoner Baranov continued to invent and lead amateur activities. For all performances, Victor made complex scenery. While in “places not so remote,” the counterfeiter wrote articles for newspapers and even once won a creative competition. Baranov was released in 1990, once free, the inventor decided to start life with clean slate.
How does the king of counterfeiters live today?
No one was waiting for the freed Viktor Baranov; his first wife divorced him during his imprisonment. The former counterfeiter got a job at the Analogue plant. There he invented a new method for growing nickel mesh in batteries. Then Baranov tried to become an entrepreneur and founded a company producing perfume. The inventor's perfume was distinguished by its quality, but was not in demand due to the abundance of cheaper Chinese fragrances.
How was the life of Viktor Baranov? Today he is married for the second time, and together with new wife educates little son. The family lives very modestly, in a dorm room. Baranov himself continues to invent something from time to time. Among his author's developments are an innovative method of cleaning potatoes after harvesting, finishing materials, and technology for producing furniture from recycled materials. The inventor's real pride is a method of protecting goods, recognized as more effective than a barcode.
Looking at the photo gray-haired man with kind eyes, it’s hard to believe that this is the counterfeiter Viktor Baranov. The USSR often disdained the talents of its ordinary citizens. Why and in modern Russia Baranov cannot succeed and public recognition- remains a mystery. The inventor is often asked why he never thought about immigration. Victor habitually replies that he sees no point in moving abroad, since he has never been interested in money.
" How they filmed “Money” and what is true and what is fiction in the series. We figure out who came up with the idea for the project, which of the characters have prototypes and what impressions the actors had from the work.
The idea for “Money” belongs to screenwriter Liliya Kim, with whom director Yegor Anashkin is friends. It was she who came up with the idea of making a series about the most famous counterfeiter of the Soviet era and began writing the script. But Lilia’s life circumstances were such that she had to leave for America without completing her work. The script was finalized by the project's creative team.
The story had good potential. Yegor Anashkin initially liked the main character for his ambiguity. On the one hand, he is a villain because he is involved in crime, but on the other hand, taking into account the fact that circumstances forced him to take the criminal path, it is impossible not to sympathize with him. The main character himself suffers, finding himself in a hopeless situation.
Where truth ends and fiction begins The story told in the series “Money” is based on real events, but for the most part it is still fiction.
The prototype of the main character Alexei Barannikov was the inventor and artist Viktor Baranov, who in the USSR was called counterfeiter No. 1. Only the main milestones were taken from his biography: he worked as a driver, and even drove Gorbachev, was an inventor and sang opera songs. The love story was entirely invented by the scriptwriters. Fyodor Lavrov and Olga Dykhovichnaya in the TV series “Money”
Representatives of the channel went to Stavropol and tried to find the house in which Baranov lived. There were no relatives left there, but the neighbors turned out to be very aggressive.
“It’s only in the series that the main Soviet counterfeiter is such a romantic, but in reality he was not like that,” says series director Yegor Anashkin.
Fyodor Lavrov, who was approved for the main role, initially plunged headlong into the biographical material, but stopped in time. “I watched a bunch of interviews with Baranov, went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs museum, talked with different people who dealt with this problem. Thank God, I had enough time and managed to dig up facts that were important to me. I even wanted to go to Stavropol, because I found information on the Internet that Baranov was still alive. But Egor (director of the series Egor Anashkin - Ed.) dissuaded me from this idea, explaining that ours was not a biopic, but a made-up story. At first I was tempted to go into biography.
As a result, I took into work only characteristic features and details,” recalls the actor. “This story is not about money, but about love and the inability of a person to be happy. We tried to put the heroes before difficult choices.
For example, the heroine of Olga Dykhovichnaya works as a policeman, and it seems to her that she can never betray her Motherland under any circumstances, and therefore she has no happiness,” explains Yegor Anashkin. Olga Dykhovichnaya in the series “Money” “My heroine had no real prototype. It is quite possible that there was some kind of sympathy during the investigation, but there was definitely no love line that would lead to a change in its course.
My heroine is an honest and valiant person, a fanatic, and she has no other goal in life than to achieve victory in her cause. Nina traded personal happiness for service. At some point you sympathize with her, but you understand that she has no right to risk herself and people,” shares Olga Dykhovichnaya, who plays Nina Filatova in the series. About the hero and his ambiguity “It seems to me that, as a character, Alexei Barannikov is, of course, worth loving. But I would not give an unambiguous assessment of this personality - whether he was a hero or a villain.
The world is not divided into black and white: there are many shades. A person is also not painted with just one paint. Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong to label people,” series director Yegor Anashkin explains his attitude towards the main character of “Money.” Fyodor Lavrov in the TV series “Money” They were looking for an actor for the main role for a long time - the casting was large-scale.
“The situation was ambiguous. It seemed to us that the producers would want an actor in the series, whom viewers are accustomed to seeing in the role of a hero. And Fedya (Fedor Lavrov. - Ed.) - he is unprepossessing... Many in the creative group of the series believed that they would not approve his candidacy, because they needed a handsome guy for the main role. Fortunately, the channel agreed to meet us. The producers agreed with our opinion that the actor's face should match the character, and not just be beautiful. I am immensely grateful that everyone I wanted was approved,” says Yegor Anashkin. “I can’t say that I completely justify my hero, but first of all, I look for a person in him, and not a villain and a swindler.
And it is very important to distinguish Baranov from Barannikov. As for the artistic image, I will fight for it to the end. But I have a lot of questions for Baranov. But I take my hat off to him, because not everyone can do this. He was definitely a man of great perseverance,” says Fyodor Lavrov, who plays Alexei Barannikov.
The actor had to go through a large number of auditions before he was approved, and gained seven kilograms before filming began. Lavrov recalls that while working on this role, he overeated. In addition, Baranov had luxuriant hair, but the actor could not boast of such. However, he grew his hair long to fit the look and get closer to the hairstyles of the era. Fyodor Lavrov in the series “Money” Still, despite the fact that the series is a work of fiction and mostly fiction, the real prototype of the main character, Viktor Baranov, was the starting point when creating the image on the screen. Now Fyodor Lavrov is already thin and shaved, as he is filming in another project. How money was printed for the series Traditionally, excerpts from documentary chronicles are taken for filming - footage in which the state sign appears.
But the director of the series, Yegor Anashkin, was categorically against taking this path. Therefore, the search began for an old printing house in which the printing presses of that time were preserved. We found one, and it is still functioning, and ordered a circulation of money for the series there. A lot of banknotes were printed. In general, they spent a lot of money, but they showed the process of printing money from all sides. Still from the TV series “Money” As for the machines invented by Barannikov that appear in the frame, they are fake and non-functional. “In the end, our task was to make a film, not to print money,” jokes director Yegor Anashkin. The prop masters used old machines and modified them as necessary. “There were consultants on set who helped understand the process. We immersed ourselves in everything. After all, if you don’t do this, then how can you play? Of course, I’m unlikely to be able to print five thousand at home. This requires enormous knowledge. Baranov himself spent 10 years studying the process and independently mastered 20 typographic and publishing professions in his barn in order to understand how to make paper, how to use state signs, what paints are needed, etc. But now I know some secrets and can paper to distinguish a fake,” says Fyodor Lavrov. How the era was recreated Part of the filming took place in Crimea. One of the main filming locations was the legendary Moscow ZIL - Open Joint-Stock Moscow Company “Plant named after I. A. Likhachev” (abbreviated as AMO ZIL. - Ed.). All the offices that appear in the series were filmed there. “This place is fantastic! There we couldn’t shake the feeling that we were in Chernobyl (imagine - the plant in Moscow looks like Chernobyl!).
It seemed that the people who worked at the plant were forced to leave their homes and never returned there. And since then everything has remained untouched. Under one of the tables there were women's shoes that some employee might have changed into, and there were pens, pieces of paper, certificates, badges, and personal belongings everywhere. There was a lot of furniture and telephones left,” recalls the series director. Fyodor Lavrov and Olga Dykhovichnaya in the series “Money” “One of the most powerful impressions from the filming was that we saw the last days of the existence of the giant ZIL. I didn’t expect the scale of that era.
Filming on ZIL was reminiscent of a film about the apocalypse. Imagine: large corridors, paper that was blown by the wind... All this, by the way, is in the series.
Looking at the ruins, you understand how quickly the work of many thousands of people can depreciate,” (in the XV, many believe that only in Ukraine everything is terribly bad, but in Russia it’s just wildly bad!) - actress Olga Dykhovichnaya shares her impressions of filming at ZIL.
But the plant where the heroine Luda works in the story is real. It is located in the Moscow region and is still functioning. This is a glass factory. The Volga that Barannikov drives is really from that time. And all the other cars that the viewer sees in the series are vintage. The actors themselves drove these cars. When working on the image, Olga Dykhovichnaya was guided by her mother. “I remember what dresses, shoes, hairstyles she wore,” explains the actress. “I brought prescription glasses into the image because I realized that I needed an accessory that would distinguish me from the heroine.” In life, Olga does not wear glasses. The actress's costumes were made according to patterns from that era. Fyodor Lavrov and Olga Dykhovichnaya in the TV series “Money” Fyodor Lavrov often begs for hats after filming - like a fetish talisman.
The actor already has a whole collection at home. He rarely wears these hats; for example, he might wear them to the store. Lavrov also asked the costume designers of the series “Money” to put aside for him the caps he wore for filming. “The filming process was really difficult, because it was necessary to meet deadlines, establish relationships with partners on the set and make sure that the reproduction was truthful. But the interest outweighed.
I want to express my deep gratitude to the entire film crew, because the guys worked for the idea - they worked until they fell. There was not a single person on the site who had any complaints. You rarely see such honest work in both cinema and theater. And if it didn’t exist, then there wouldn’t be a project,” sums up Fyodor Lavrov.”
The film came out interesting, but it exposed the lies of the USSR and Putin’s Russian Federation today.
Viktor Baranov is a unique personality in the history of Soviet crime. He managed, single-handedly and in a makeshift way, to launch the production of counterfeit banknotes, which were extremely difficult to distinguish from the real ones. Who is he - a criminal or a brilliant artist-inventor?
Inventions that no one needs
Viktor Ivanovich Baranov was born in 1941 in Moscow, into a family of officials. Later his family moved to live in Stavropol region. The boy became interested in paper money as early as early childhood. He even began collecting a collection of antique banknotes.
Vitya studied well not only in secondary school, but also in art school. It is interesting that he not only drew talentedly, but also made high-quality copies of famous paintings.
After graduating from the seven-year school, Baranov entered the construction school in Rostov-on-Don and received the profession of a parquet carpenter. After returning from the army, he took up inventing, offering his projects to Stavropol enterprises. But factories and factories refused to implement them: no one was interested in modernizing production processes.
That’s when the idea came to Baranov’s mind to start issuing counterfeit money. He was going to do this not for the sake of enrichment, but out of love for art. He wanted to see if he could copy government banknotes so that they could not be distinguished from the original.
Printing press in a barn
To find necessary information, Victor went to Moscow to the Lenin Library. The “workshop” was set up in a shed in the yard own home. The first 50-ruble bills that Baranov printed on the machine he assembled were superior in quality to those printed at Goznak. Therefore, we had to deliberately degrade the workmanship to make them look real.
Having “issued” about 70 fifty-ruble notes, Victor took up 25-ruble banknotes. This banknote was the most secure, and Baranov was curious whether he would be able to copy it.
Not a single living soul knew about Baranov’s “hobby.” He was an exemplary family man, worked as a driver in the garage of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU, and at one time even drove Mikhail Gorbachev, who then held the post of regional committee secretary... True, the neighbors noticed that Victor spent too much time in the barn. But those who sometimes looked there could only contemplate an ordinary metalworking machine and equipment for photo printing. Baranov kept the money printing machine disassembled under the workbenches.
Victor spent only a small amount of printed banknotes - as a rule, he purchased new tools and equipment with them. His family lived quite modestly; there was not even a TV in the house. True, during all the years of “production” they made one major acquisition - they bought a Niva car.
Detention and new life
By the mid-70s, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB came to the conclusion that a gang of counterfeiters was operating in the country. About 500 counterfeit large banknotes of very high quality were seized throughout the Union. Versions have emerged: they are printed in the USA, or the attackers colluded with Goznak employees.
On April 12, 1977, Viktor Baranov was detained by police at the collective farm market in Cherkessk while trying to change a 25-ruble bill. He had 77 more such banknotes with him. When Baranov was asked who he was, he replied: “I am a counterfeiter!”
From the very beginning, Victor did not hide anything from the investigation. He willingly showed investigators his barn and described in detail the technology for producing counterfeits. At first, experts did not believe that he did everything alone. But investigative experiments confirmed: Baranov did not need accomplices.
Finally, Baranov’s talent was recognized! One of his inventions was later even introduced at Goznak. But the inventor himself ended up in Butyrka prison. By the way, while awaiting trial, he wrote recommendations for the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs on improving the protection of Soviet money.
Baranov refused to defend himself during the trial. He completely sincerely admitted to what he had done. It was established that the “inventor” printed about 30,000 rubles, but only a small part of these funds was put into circulation by him.
For cooperation with the investigation, Viktor Baranov was sentenced to a relatively mild punishment - 12 years in prison. In fact, the death penalty was imposed for producing counterfeit money on a large scale...
In 1990, Viktor Ivanovich Baranov was released from prison. Having decided to start life from scratch, the former prisoner took up entrepreneurship - he founded a perfume manufacturing company, got married again, and also continued to invent.
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