Maria Tarnovskaya: the most dangerous “black widow” of the Russian Empire. "Black Widow" by Patrizia Reggiani
A fashionable attribute of restaurants and parties, it quietly migrates into the home environment of hookah lovers.
Relaxing with the help of a ready-made smoking device will not be difficult. But how to prepare it for use at home is a question that often arises. Let's solve this problem by considering in this article the basic steps of correct and effective use hookah
How to assemble a hookah - components
- The flask is located at the bottom of the hookah. It is designed to be filled with water, milk or alcohol.
- The shaft is the basis of the product. From it the central rod goes into the water.
- Seals – gasket material for sealing.
- Valves are devices for the hose for blowing out the hookah.
- The tobacco container is a bowl located at the top of the hookah.
How to assemble a hookah - preparing the hookah for use
- Fill the flask with water. The liquid should cover the main rod no more than 2-2.5 cm.
- We put ice. Cooled smoke acquires a more pleasant taste.
- We install the hookah shaft. We secure the seal tightly so that there is not the slightest space at the junction of the flask and the shaft.
- Cover the top of the shaft with a saucer.
- Place the cup on the very top of the product. Using gaskets we seal the space at the joints.
- We insert the hose, not forgetting about the seals.
- We check the tightness of the assembled device by taking a test breath through the hose. If the surface of the liquid becomes covered with bubbles, the hose becomes tense, which means the installation was completed correctly. Otherwise, it is necessary to double check that the seals are installed thoroughly.
How to assemble a hookah - refueling
- Place 2-3 layers of thin foil in a tobacco container.
- Place the prepared smoking mixture on top, leaving about 2-3 mm of free space on top.
- We loosen the tobacco to improve ventilation.
- Cover tightly with a layer of foil and make small holes in it.
- Place a piece of lit coal along the edges and in the center of the resulting lid.
- Before you start your favorite full process pleasure, press the coal to the center with tongs and light it several times with deep breaths.
- If upon visual observation there is smoke in the flask and the taste of tobacco is felt in the mouth, the hookah is installed and plugged correctly.
- It is necessary to wash the device systematically after each use.
- For effective cleansing We use dishwasher brushes and special detergents in the device shafts.
- We wash the glass rod with clean, warm water.
We wash the hose unless this is prohibited by the operating instructions for the item included with purchase. Otherwise, it is enough to blow it out with your mouth to remove small contaminants.
So, to get true pleasure at home, it is not so difficult to assemble a hookah yourself. The main thing is to clearly and step by step follow each step of the proposed instructions. And, of course, choose the right smoking mixture in terms of quality and flavor.
Instructions
To start using, pour water into the flask. There should be enough water so that it covers the metal tube connecting the flask with the upper part by 2 - 5 cm. Instead of water, you can use milk, absinthe, or add a little wine to the water.
Now insert the top of the hookah into the flask. If you have a glass one, don't forget to use a rubber gasket for a tight seal. If the bulb is metal, screw the top to the bottom tightly.
Using special tongs, take a pinch of tobacco (about a teaspoon) and place it in the bowl. If you are making a hookah using wine or absinthe, give preference to unflavored types of tobacco.
Place pre-lit charcoal or compressed charcoal tablets on the foil.
Now all you have to do is smoke a hookah. Take the mouthpiece and draw in air as hard as you can. If you feel the taste of tobacco, it means the hookah is lit. Now you can join everyone and enjoy a wonderful vacation.
note
After you've finished smoking your hookah, don't forget to clean it. Disassemble the top and bottom parts, shake out the remaining tobacco, and wash the flask. If you prepared a hookah using absinthe or wine, you should never drink the alcohol used.
Sources:
- How to smoke hookah
- how to use a hookah
Hookah with juice enhances the taste of fruity tobacco. Don't combine different tastes. For example, coffee tobacco will only get worse if the flask apple juice. Multifruit juice works well for fruit tobacco.
Milk hookah is soft. Milk has a lot of heat, and the smoke, passing through it, loses its bitterness. Dilute milk with water in a ratio of 1:3, otherwise foam will appear from heating, which will contaminate the hookah.
Choose the tobacco flavor you want. Fill the cup (chilim) with tobacco. Do not place the tobacco in one layer; break it into small lumps. Fill the cup so that there is 2-3 mm left to the edge, otherwise the tobacco may burn when smoking.
Take special hookah foil or chocolate foil. Fold it in two layers and cover the cup with it, pressing the edges tightly. Make small holes in the foil, leaving a distance of 2-3 mm between them.
Assemble the hookah by inserting the flask with liquid into the shaft. Place a cup on the shaft and connect the hose. Using special tongs, take the charcoal and heat it, holding it over a cup. Place the hot coal on the foil and light the hookah.
Wash your hookah thoroughly after use.
If you add ice cubes to the flask with liquid, the smoke will be softer.
The aroma of coffee tobacco can be enhanced by adding a pinch of instant coffee or cocoa to the flask with liquid. Citrus aromas of tobacco are complemented by pieces of zest.
Hookah is a less harmful and hazardous to human health alternative to smoking, which allows you to enjoy inhaling smoke. The design of a hookah is quite simple; such devices are sold in special stores for use at home. If you follow a few simple rules, then using a hookah at home will be safe.
Safety when working with hookah
If all preparation rules are followed, it is safe, but in some cases, frivolous smokers forget to follow the instructions. For example, one of the most important stages of preparing for smoking is filling the flask with liquid - water, wine or milk. It's hard for experienced hobbyists to forget about this, but many beginners get so caught up in lighting the coals and filling the bowl with tobacco that they forget to pour in the liquid that serves to cool the smoke. As a result, when inhaled, caustic, very hot and unpleasant smoke enters the mouth, which can cause burns to sensitive mucous membranes.
The ideal amount of water is two to three centimeters above the bottom of the tube that is inside.
Lighting a hookah involves fire, so you need to be careful while using it. Tobacco is lit using coals, which are very dangerous when hot and can cause burns or damage furniture or floors. Hold the coals only with special tongs, and if you fail to hold the coal and it starts to fall to the floor, then just let it fall, do not try to grab it with your hands. Once the coals are on the bowl, do not move the hookah.
The most dangerous situation, which can happen when using a hookah at home, like this: if the design does not have an air valve (which should not be the case in high-quality devices) or the ball bearing is stuck in, and the smoker begins to blow strongly into the pipe, then water, smoke, hot air can suddenly shoot upwards, causing hot coals to fly into different sides and can burn others. Therefore, if you want to blow smoke out using a backdraft, you need to blow softly at first, and if nothing works, you need to check the valve. It is advisable to exhale into the hookah after every ten puffs to reduce the percentage of harmful gas in the smoke.
When covering a bowl of tobacco with foil, do not allow it to touch the tobacco, otherwise the smoke will have an acrid taste and become hazardous to health.
Harm to health from hookah
Even if the hookah is prepared correctly and all the rules for its use are followed, smoking it is human, although to a lesser extent than smoking regular cigarettes. Smoke contains nicotine and other toxic substances, while hookah is often used for a long time, as a result, more substances enter the body in one cigarette. Therefore, there is no need to put a lot of stress on your body by inhaling smoke from a hookah for several hours. Long-term smoking can lead to headaches, nausea, and in some cases severe poisoning with caustic substances.
Be sure to ventilate the room in which you smoke hookah. It has been proven that even if a person is just in the room with a hookah, it harms the body.
Hookah is usually smoked in a group, and many infectious diseases can be transmitted through the tip - hepatitis B, tuberculosis.
Black Widow is deadly poisonous spider, the females of which devour the males immediately after copulation. It was under this nickname that the most merciless killer and adventurer of the second half of the last century appeared in the files of Interpol and the FBI. Maria Berger, aka Louise Monroe, aka Irma Koch, aka Maria von Steffenberg, aka Elsa Gruen, aka Claudia Ramirez, also known by the nickname "Black Widow", was wanted by Interpol, the CIA, the FBI, SURTU, Intelligent Service and etc. During her life she changed great amount names and nationalities. But for the longest time - the first 18 years - she was a Soviet citizen, Maria Berger.
Maria was born in 1956 in Moscow and was the only child in the family. Her father, Alexander Berger, was a doctor of science and headed a department at an academic research institute, which Soviet times meant the complete financial well-being of the family. Mother taught at a university. Maria was very beautiful: a brunette with huge gray eyes, aristocratic profile and marvelous figure. In addition, the girl was also talented. She graduated from music school at State Conservatory, learned English, French and German.
When Masha was 14 years old, her parents died in an accident. The orphan was taken in by his mother’s sister Clara, a 28-year-old cellist. Clara led a bohemian lifestyle, was distinguished by her unconventional sexual orientation. Almost immediately, the aunt and niece began sleeping in the same bed. By the age of fifteen, Maria was significantly ahead of her peers in knowledge of life. She led a completely bohemian lifestyle, was a regular at fashionable artistic parties, smoked freely, and loved to have a drink. Moreover, already in at a young age she became addicted to cocaine.
First murder.
When Masha left for Israel, she decided to say goodbye to the artist Tofik Bayramov, who painted her portrait. An aging womanizer slipped sleeping pills into the girl’s coffee and raped her. Waking up, Masha found a straight razor in the bathroom and stabbed the man. After that, she calmly packed her things and went to the airport.
However, an unpleasant surprise awaits her in Israel - emergency service in the army for dangerous area Syrian border. Somehow, Maria gets fake documents in the name of a French woman, Louise Moreau, and flies to Paris. But even there she was in for a lot of trouble: choking with disgust, she worked on a panel, served as a dishwasher and a cleaner. Finally, luck smiled on the girl, and she was invited to play the piano in a cafe. There Maria met her second love - second-rate actress Anna Gro. Here she also became friends with members of leftist terrorist groups.
"Career"
The Black Widow's career began with a failed robbery of a Parisian bank. Of all the terrorists and hostages, she was the only one saved during the assault. Having played a tearful scene in front of the bank clerk and taking advantage of her beauty, the girl moved the simpleton to pity. He showed her a secret exit, and as “gratitude,” Maria shot the clerk and disappeared.
Then Maria wanders around Europe - Munich, Milan, Amsterdam, Stockholm. Along with the names of the countries, Berger's names also change: Maria von Steffenberg, Jesse Simmons, Lucia Malerba, Elsa Gruen, Elvira Rojas and a dozen others. She just as easily changed her hair color and hairstyle, the outline of her lips and cheekbones, her manners and accent, remaining, however, invariably seductive. In the 80s, the Black Widow operated in Nicaragua, leading a terrorist group that was responsible for a dozen murders of members of the Samos administration.
When FBI agent Melville Storm contacted Black Widow, she was already Escobar’s confidant (the head of the Colombian concern, the main supplier of cocaine throughout the world). It seems that Storm managed to convince her that it was in her interests to work for American authorities, otherwise she would simply disappear without a trace. But the Americans did not take into account the fatal charm of the Black Widow - 40-year-old agent Storm fell in love with Maria, like many before him.
Black Widow became a double agent, turning one over to another.
Over 5 years of terrorist activity, Maria acquired great authority. According to Interpol, during this period she took part in 16 terrorist attacks and expropriations. A reward of 100 thousand dollars was offered for the capture of Maria Berger. As a result, the Black Widow and her lover from the FBI were allegedly released in peace, but on the way their Opel’s brakes failed and it fell into the abyss.
In February, former Russian State Duma deputies Maria Maksakova, also a famous opera singer, and her husband Denis Voronenkov emigrated to Ukraine. After leaving their homeland, the couple criticized the policies of the Russian government, the annexation of Crimea and Russian-Ukrainian relations. After emigration, Maksakova was fired from Russian Academy music named after the Gnessins, and Voronenkov was put on the federal wanted list - he was suspected of fraud on an especially large scale.
On March 23, Denis Voronenkov was shot dead in the center of Kyiv. Killer Pavel Parshov, who was wanted, died on operating table— the deputy’s bodyguard managed to shoot him several times.
The artist does not want to think about who could have been the organizer of the crime; she is going to focus on raising her 11-month-old son Ivan. Maria regrets that the child she shares with Voronenkov will not remember her father, “kind, deep, intelligent, understanding, forgiving,” as the widow describes him.
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At the same time, the artist’s mother, 76-year-old actress Lyudmila Maksakova, spoke harshly about the death of her son-in-law, whom she always disliked. “Thank God that in the end the person who was so mean was killed,” the woman told reporters on the day of the assassination attempt on the politician.
After her husband’s funeral, Maria admitted to Moskovsky Komsomolets that she would disown her mother if she did not apologize for speaking about her murdered husband.
Larisa Chernikova
The fate of the star of the 90s developed in the spirit of the criminal era. The wife of businessman Andrei Chernikov, who was involved in metals, recorded albums with her husband’s money, but three years after the wedding, the singer became a widow: 27-year-old Chernikov was shot. Chernikova was only 21 years old at that time.
“The husband was found with a bullet in his head in the cemetery, at the grave of his father. The police ruled it a suicide and immediately closed the case. I still can’t understand: how could a right-handed person shoot himself in the left temple? — Larisa said in an interview with the magazine “Caravan of Stories”. “I had nothing left: an apartment, a dacha, a car - everything had to be paid for the so-called debts. I returned to my mother with one small suitcase.”
After the death of her husband, the singer was harassed by bandits: they came to her home, demanding to repay her husband’s debts, and one day they took her and her mother into the forest, threatening her with violence. Chernikova asked producer Alexander Tolmatsky for protection, and he agreed to take the widow under guardianship under the condition of working for himself. During the years of collaboration with Tolmatsky Sr., Chernikova recorded the song “Who...”, dedicated to her murdered husband.
Larisa’s second husband was an American, whom the singer met on the Internet. Larisa confessed to her second husband only on her first wedding anniversary that she was a popular pop singer in her homeland. Now in the States former singer raises a son, works on his own farm and provides the services of a naturopathic doctor.
Irina Krug
Personal archive
His second wife Irina lived in marriage with the famous chansonnier Mikhail Krug for only a year, having managed to give birth to a son, Alexander, from the musician. In the summer of 2002, unknown persons killed Krug in his own home; baby Sasha was about a month old at the time. According to the current version of the murder, Krug was attacked for the purpose of a banal but poorly planned robbery, and then their “colleagues” dealt with the bandits out of fear of revenge from crime bosses for the death of the musician. Four years after the tragedy, Irina married again and gave birth to a second son. Now Irina is known in the world of chanson as the successor of her husband’s work: the widow of Krug sings popular music, romances and, of course, chanson.
Nicole Kuznetsova
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The finalist of the 16th season of the “Battle of Psychics”, the bright witch Nicole Kuznetsova, already in the first episode of the show admitted that she is a widow crime boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed Yaponchik. The witch was not married to the famous thief (there is no evidence of their connection), but she assures that she gave birth to her son Zhora precisely from the star underworld. Nicole says that she has known Ivankov since childhood. According to Kuznetsova, she warned him about the danger of assassination (Yaponchik was shot at in July 2009, two months later he died in the hospital), but he did not listen to her.
"Black Widow" by Patricia Reggiani
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The heroine of this big story became a widow of her own free will. Maurizio Gucci, 45, grandson of the founder of the House of Guccio Gucci, was shot dead in March 1995 in the center of Milan. At first, suspicion fell on the Italian mafia, but the person who ordered the murder turned out to be... the deceived wife of the heir, Patrizia Reggiani, whom Maurizio cheated on with a young girl! Patricia was afraid that, having married his mistress, the cheater would leave her two daughters without an inheritance. The woman was sentenced to 29 years in prison. Already in prison, the widow was offered to “cut off her sentence” by doing community service, to which she replied: “I’d rather be idle in prison than work in freedom. I’ve never done this and I don’t intend to.” But still, in 2013, Patricia Reggiani was released early.
The era, of course, leaves its mark on everything: on the characters of people, actions and phenomena. Even for crimes. In the era of modernity, which we in Russia also call “ silver age", even criminal cases sometimes had a taste of decadence and were distinguished by a special, almost poetic chic.
Here is just one picture of the morals of that time: spring 1910, Venice. A lady in mourning, under a black veil, floats in a black gondola, accompanied by carabinieri. From the crowd crowded on narrow sidewalks and humpbacked bridges, curses are heard and roses fly. She is indifferent to both, silently and arrogantly looks at dark water channels. When the gondola docks, it will rest on the carabinieri's arm and slide easily into the courthouse. To take a place in the dock, in a steel cage.
This - femme fatale, “black angel”, “black widow” (as they called her in the press!) Kiev resident Maria Tarnovskaya.
What brought the thirty-three-year-old aristocrat from Russian Empire to the dock in Venice?
To answer this question, we need to start from the very beginning, from the time when in 1877 a daughter was born into the family of Count Nicholas O’Rourke, who was named Maria. The beginning of her life was also quite in the spirit of decadence - her father was a descendant of an ancient dynasty of Irish kings. His ancestors settled in Russia back in the 17th century, but by the time of Mary’s birth, all that remained of the family’s former splendor were legends about the greatness of the family and stories about the O’Rourkes’ honest service to the Russian sovereigns.
Maria grew up beautiful. She was slender and blue-eyed, had a Titian-like hair color, but even more than her beauty, her disposition captivated her fans. Maria was a brave and decisive young lady, and her manners had a palpable aroma of depravity. It is no coincidence that at the Poltava Institute of Noble Maidens, from which she graduated at the age of 17, she was nicknamed “demivierzhka.” This French word means “semi-virgin”; this is the name given to girls who, while maintaining physical virginity, have already known much of what is called carnal love.
At the age of 18, Maria secretly married Vasily Tarnovsky, the son of a famous and very rich industrialist. Secretly, because the parents of both the bride and groom were against this marriage. Count O'Rourke despised the nouveau riche Tarnovskys, who, in turn, believed that a girl from an impoverished family was not a match for their son, the heir to a million-dollar fortune. However, the young people presented their parents with a fait accompli.
The first years of marriage passed in a stupefyingly cheerful atmosphere. Maria Tarnovskaya adored strawberries on air, injected herself with morphine with a golden syringe, and, like all bohemians at that time, drank absinthe - alcohol infused with wormwood. In general, complete decadence. She even gave birth to her first child in a separate room in one of the Kyiv restaurants.
Everything collapsed when old Tarnovsky began to have financial troubles. The family had to limit their funds. Scandals began. And then Maria fell in love with her brother-in-law Pyotr Tarnovsky, her husband’s brother. She fell in love, broke her heart and... pushed her to commit suicide. Vasily inherited his brother’s money, and the fun could continue.
Vasily and Maria Tarnovsky went abroad, and here a serious discord began in the family. Maria became dangerously ill. And while she was lying in the hotel room, her husband indulged in carousing and fun, not caring at all about his wife. Furthermore, once she heard Vasily ask the doctor when she would die? This is probably why Maria survived. Just to spite everyone, and first of all, my husband.
Returning home, Maria, in order to take revenge, began to cheat on her husband, and so obviously that she was simply no longer accepted in decent houses. Lovers replaced each other with kaleidoscopic speed, however, there was a system in their selection: Maria Tarnovskaya started affairs exclusively with brothers, hoping that her husband would be forced to fight a duel with one of them. And then he will either leave her as a widow or go to hard labor. Both options suited her equally. These hopes, however, were not destined to come true. Vasily had to fight, once he even slightly wounded his opponent, but the jury acquitted him.
In parallel with her novels, Maria arranged her material affairs. One of her lovers insured his life for a large sum in favor of Maria, and then committed suicide, to which our fatal beauty pushed him.
Finally, she divorced her husband. The divorce case was handled by the famous lawyer Prilukov. He fell in love with Maria, abandoned his family, stole clients' money and went abroad with her. The couple rushed off to Algeria, because only exotic countries can serve as a real backdrop for decadent passion!
Soon Prilukov’s money ran out, and Maria again had to think about replenishing the budget. Unfortunately, a wealthy widower, Count Komarovsky, was vacationing in Algeria at that time. Of course, he fell in love with Maria, and, of course, succumbing to her persuasion, he insured his life in her favor. The poor fellow, apparently, did not even realize that in this way he was signing his own death warrant.
Komarovsky intended to marry Maria. Returning to Russia, he introduced her to his relatives, and went to Venice to buy a palazzo worthy of his queen.
At this time, Nikolai Naumov appears in Maria’s life. A nobleman, a relative of Turgenev, Nikolai was a decadent to the core: he wrote gloomy poems about death and drank absinthe.
Nikolai became not just the “black widow’s” lover, but her sexual slave. She subjected him to sophisticated abuse and even torture: she extinguished cigarettes on his skin, lashed him with a whip. Nikolai was delighted with this.
It is this unfortunate young man Maria Tarnovskaya prepared as a murder weapon. She told him that Komarovsky was stalking and insulting her. Of course, the young man went to Italy, to Venice, to kill Komarovsky there. Immediately after the murder, Naumov had to hide in Switzerland.
Maria, who arrived in Venice a few days later, hoped to receive insurance and at the same time get rid of her annoying admirer.
However, things didn't go quite as planned. Naumov appeared at Komarovsky's palace and shot at him with the melodramatic words: “You should not marry the countess!” However, the old man did not die immediately, and Naumov was unable to escape. An investigation began, during which Naumov learned about the insurance and that Maria Tarnovskaya and Prilukov eventually hoped to get their hands on the money. And then he admitted that the murder was provoked by her, the femme fatale, the “black widow.”
So three subjects of the Russian Empire ended up in the dock in Venice: Tarnovskaya, Prilukov and Naumov.
The most incredible rumors circulated about Maria Tarnovskaya in Venice. They said that fourteen men committed suicide because of their love for her. The carabinieri guarding her in prison were changed daily, fearing that they might fall under her spell and cause her to escape. The court hearings on this trial were filled with a full audience; even the famous theaters had never seen such a full house.
Tarnovskaya was sentenced to 8 years; her unlucky fans were given shorter sentences. However, the “black widow” did not serve her entire sentence. Once free in 1915, she married an American officer, whom she very quickly replaced with a millionaire from Argentina.
Having moved to Latin America, Maria finally calmed down. She died in 1944, in the status of a venerable mother of the family, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.