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Bulgaria has closed the investigation into the murder of dissident writer Georgiy Markov, who died on September 11, 1978 in London as a result of poisoning. This crime, which allegedly occurred as a result of being stabbed by an umbrella, became one of the most mysterious in history. cold war" Although most historians agree that Markov was eliminated by the Bulgarian secret services, this has never been proven.
Events 35 years ago
On September 7, 1978, Georgy Markov was walking past a bus stop on Waterloo Bridge in London and suddenly felt a slight prick in his leg. Turning around, the Bulgarian noticed that a man was picking up an umbrella from the ground, and thought that he had been accidentally hit. By nightfall, Markov’s temperature jumped and he was hospitalized.
A few days later he died, but managed to talk about the incident with the umbrella. Doctors who performed the autopsy discovered a small platinum ball in the deceased's leg - a capsule with a diameter of less than two millimeters. As investigators subsequently suggested, it was filled with the poison ricin, which entered the body after the heat human body the special shell covering the sphere melted.
Having realized what they were dealing with, the experts remembered a similar incident that occurred shortly before Markov’s death. It's about about the assassination attempt on another Bulgarian defector - former editor State radio Vladimir Kostov. He was on the Paris metro when a shot also struck his body with a capsule containing ricin. Kostov was lucky then: he was saved by a thick woolen jacket, which prevented the capsule from penetrating deep into his skin. What exactly was used to shoot Kostov remains unknown. According to his own version, trigger could have been in the bag.
As for Markov, the injection with an umbrella is also just one of the assumptions. According to another theory, the capsule could be hidden in a device disguised as a fountain pen. One way or another, the murder of Markov and the sophisticated way in which it was carried out, and even at the height of the Cold War, had an impact on Western countries great impression. Suspicion immediately fell on Dzharzhavna sigurnost - Bulgarian committee state security, who four years later was credited with organizing the assassination attempt on John Paul II right in the Vatican. The question arises why it was necessary to use such a powerful intelligence service and eliminate a dissident who did not possess any special secret knowledge.
In his homeland, Markov gained fame primarily as a successful writer and playwright. Despite selective censorship, his works were very popular. However, popular recognition did not yet mean love from the authorities. The deterioration of relations between the writer and the Communist Party was facilitated by his refusal to work as a mouthpiece for the regime. As a result, when Markov went to Italy to visit his relative in 1969, he decided that it was not worth returning to his homeland.
Film "Umbrella Injection"
The sophisticated and even comical methods of the Bulgarian KGB impressed not only politicians. In 1980, the comedy “Injection with an Umbrella” (the working title of the film was “Injection with a Bulgarian Umbrella”) was released in France, starring Pierre Richard. In it, an unlucky actor, thinking that he was on the set of a movie, agrees to carry out a murder with the help of a poisoned umbrella. There are mafiosi in the film, hired assassins and finally intelligence agents.
It is curious that “The Umbrella Injection” was soon translated into Russian and, having cut out some scenes of violence, was repeatedly shown on the big screen in the USSR. The film became very popular: it was watched by 28.4 million Soviet viewers. So in the Union they showed a comedy that, although not directly, still made fun of the fraternal intelligence services socialist country. However, these hints were most likely incomprehensible to most of the population.
Markov became a real dissident a few years later, when, having moved to the UK and got married, he went to work on the radio. First, he got a job in the Bulgarian section of the British BBC radio station, and then at Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle. On these platforms, Markov began to actively criticize the socialist regime in Bulgaria, as well as personally the first secretary communist party Todor Zhivkov, thereby infuriating him. It was Zhivkov, according to some historians, who could have authorized the operation to eliminate Markov. Proponents of this theory point out that the attempt on his life took place exactly on the birthday of the CPB leader - September 7, which made the dissident's death a kind of gift.
Search for those responsible
For a long time there was no progress in the case of Markov’s death. Hopes for them appeared only with the fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria. Since just over ten years had passed since the crime, the documents relating to the murder were expected to lie in the archives intact. However, it turned out that this was not the case: it was announced that the dossier contained in the Bulgarian KGB on Markov, who went under the pseudonym “Strannik” (in Bulgarian “Skitnik”), was destroyed. Likewise, no documents were found about the participants in the supposed operation to eliminate him.
A case was opened regarding the destruction of evidence, and in 1992 the defendants were put on trial. However, the main suspect former deputy minister Internal Affairs Stoyan Savov did not live to see the trial: a few days before it began, he committed suicide. Another defendant, head of the first main directorate of the Bulgarian State Security Committee, Vladimir Todorov, received 10 months in prison. However, the court was unable to shed light on the case of Markov’s death: according to Todorov, the dossier on the dissident did not contain anything special.
Among other things, assumptions were made that the lack of information about Markov’s case was due to possible involvement in his murder Soviet Union. Supporters of this version are former high-ranking USSR KGB officers Oleg Gordievsky and Oleg Kalugin, who settled in the West. Thus, according to Gordievsky, who worked for British intelligence and fled the USSR in 1985, the operation was led by the KGB department, which was engaged in foreign counterintelligence. Allegedly, it was his employees who transferred ricin to their Bulgarian colleagues.
The directorate was headed by General Oleg Kalugin, who after the collapse of the USSR actively exposed the acts Soviet KGB. He, in particular, argued that both the poison and the murder weapon to eliminate Markov were provided to the Bulgarians from Moscow - with the personal permission of the then head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov. By the way, Kalugin’s revelations about the case of the Bulgarian dissident almost cost him his freedom: in 1993, he was detained at London airport on suspicion of involvement in the elimination of Markov. However, nothing could be proven, and he was released. What about the archive? Russian intelligence services, then there was no information about the presence of a dossier on the Bulgarian in it.
The first real breakthrough in the investigation of the Markov case occurred in the early 1990s, when the investigation identified a suspect in the direct execution of the murder. He turned out to be a former Bulgarian intelligence agent with the call sign “Piccadilly”. According to investigators, behind this code name the Italian Francesco Gullino, who had Danish citizenship, was hiding. In 1993, he was detained in Copenhagen, after which British and Danish police interrogated him for six hours. Gullino categorically denied involvement in the murder of the dissident, and since Sofia did not provide any documentary evidence, the former agent had to be released.
However, indirect evidence that it was Gullino who was the dissident’s killer was obtained in the 2000s by the Bulgarian journalist Hristo Hristov, who studied this story based on the archives of the special services. In his book " Double life Agent Piccadilly,” published in 2008, the journalist cited a number of facts about Gullino’s activities that seemed suspicious to him. Hristov noted that in the 1970s the agent visited London four times, from which the author concluded that Gullino came to spy on the “Wanderer.”
In 1977, Piccadilly took part in a meeting attended by senior state security officials. And immediately after the murder of Markov, Gullino unexpectedly began to receive much larger sums from the Bulgarian State Security Committee than before. In addition, the journalist noted, the agent received two departmental awards. Hristov also found it suspicious that since 1978, Gullino had never visited the British capital again.
Little is known about exactly how the fate of the former agent developed. According to journalists, Gullino, who went into antique business, constantly changes his place of residence, moving from one European country to another. He does not answer questions about cooperation with Bulgarian intelligence.
In 2007-2008, an attempt was made to conduct their own investigation by Scotland Yard. It was reported that British police traveled to Bulgaria, where they questioned about 40 witnesses, and in 2010 they even announced the imminent completion of the investigation and the publication of the name of the killer. However, this never happened.
September 11, 2013 marked exactly 35 years since Markov’s death. Since no one was ever arrested or charged, the dissident's case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. As for the poisoned umbrella, the chances of finding out whether it really existed or was just an invention of criminologists are now reduced to almost zero.
The only documented case of the use of a poison similar to the Novichok series of nerve agents was the poisoning of banker Ivan Kivelidi. The chemist, one of the creators of the substance, Vil Mirzayanov, said this in an interview with Kommersant.
"Reedus" recalls the most notorious cases of poisoning various poisons over the past centuries.
Ivan Kivelidi
The poisoning of the head of Rosbusinessbank Kivelidi in 1995 is the only documented case of the use of a poison similar to the nerve agents of the Novichok series. Such toxic substances were developed in the USSR in the 70s.
The banker had diseased kidneys, he often had seizures, Kivelidi lost consciousness. Therefore, when he fainted after being poisoned, his relatives were not surprised.
However, the next day the banker’s secretary was admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms. She had convulsions and lost consciousness. The young woman died the day after being hospitalized. A day later, Kivelidi himself died.
Law enforcement officers complained about headache and dizziness during searches in the office of the deceased, several investigators were even hospitalized. Center Specialist forensics, who performed the autopsy on the banker’s body, also died.
It was established that an employee of a secret laboratory in Shikhany, Igor Rink, through several intermediaries, sold an ampoule with a toxic substance to a member of the bank’s board of directors, Vladimir Khutsishvili. The poison was applied to the telephone receiver in Kivelidi's office.
Rink was found guilty and received suspended sentence, he was tried for abuse of power. Khutsishvili was found guilty of murdering Kivelidi and sentenced to nine years in prison.
According to chemist Vila Mirzayanov, Novichok is at least ten times stronger than all known paralytic gases. First of all, it hits nervous system a person, miosis occurs, the pupils narrow, the person begins to see poorly.
“Then convulsions begin, breathing is interrupted, in general, because the person seems to forget to breathe. Continuous convulsions and vomiting, and then death,” the BBC quotes Mirzayanov.
Alexander Litvinenko
British police said that FSB Lieutenant Colonel Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006 in London.
Litvinenko left Russia in 2000 after several criminal cases were opened against him. Two years earlier, together with a group of FSB officers, he participated in a press conference at which counterintelligence officers reported that they had allegedly received instructions to eliminate Berezovsky.
While in Great Britain, Litvinenko was engaged in human rights activities and criticized Russian authorities, co-authored with Yuri Felshtinsky the book “The FSB is Exploding Russia.”
Britain blamed ex-security officer for Litvinenko's death state protection Russia, political figure and entrepreneur Andrei Lugovoy. In 2007, the British prosecutor's office asked to extradite Lugovoi, but was refused.
On March 20, 2018, on the set of the “Let Them Talk” program, the father of the murdered man, Walter Litvinenko, with Andrei Lugovoi. The father is convinced that it was not he who poisoned his son, but the biochemist Alex Goldfarb, who was part of the close circle of the oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
Journalist Andrei Karaulov wrote on his Facebook page on Monday that Walter Litvinenko, as a victim, was not allowed to access materials about his son’s death, in particular, to the autopsy report.
“If he had told this 3 weeks ago, Skripal would definitely be alive. Where are Skripal and his daughter now? No one knows. I don't think Skripal will survive. What if, when he comes out of a coma, he speaks the same way as Litvinenko’s father? Was it by chance that on the eve of Skripal’s murder, a series about the chemical warfare agent Novichok was broadcast on British channels,” Karaulov wrote.
Georgy Markov
The poisoning of dissident writer Georgiy Markov in London in 1978 became one of the most mysterious in the history of the Cold War.
Bulgarian Markov, walking past a bus stop, felt a slight prick in his leg. He thought that he had been accidentally hit by an umbrella. In the evening, Markov’s temperature rose and he was hospitalized. A few days later he died.
During the autopsy, doctors found a capsule measuring less than two millimeters in his leg. Investigators suggested that it was filled with the poison ricin.
They recalled a similar case with another Bulgarian defector - ex-editor of State Radio Vladimir Kostov. He was on the Paris metro when a shot also struck his body with a ricin capsule. Kostov was saved by a thick woolen jacket, which prevented the capsule from penetrating deep into his skin. What exactly was used to shoot Kostov remains unknown. According to his own version, the trigger mechanism could be in the bag.
The murder of Markov in such a sophisticated way made a huge impression on Western countries. The Bulgarian KGB was suspected of his death.
New facts emerged only 20 years later: former KGB general Oleg Kalugin told how the Minister of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria and the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party Todor Zhivkov asked the head foreign intelligence The KGB will help eliminate Markov. When attempts to kill the dissident with poisoned jelly on the beach and substances slipped into food did not work, the intelligence services settled on a capsule with ricin.
Stepan Bandera
Politician, an ideologist and theoretician of Ukrainian nationalism, was poisoned in Munich in 1959.
Bandera came home for lunch. Before this, he was shopping at the market with his secretary; at the house, he released his bodyguards and went into the entrance alone. KGB agent Bogdan Stashinsky was waiting for him there. He extended his hand with a bundle of newspaper forward (there was a syringe pistol with potassium cyanide inside) and shot Bandera in the face. He screamed, neighbors looked out of their apartments, but the killer had already left the entrance.
Eyewitnesses said that the victim, whom they knew under the false name of Stepan Popel, was covered in blood and was still alive. But on the way to the hospital he died. An examination showed that death was due to potassium cyanide poisoning.
Samir Saleh Abdallah al-Suwailem (Khattab)
An international terrorist, the leader of Arab militants in Chechnya, was poisoned in 2002. How exactly this happened has not been established. There are several versions. According to one of them, Khattab was delivered a letter from a field commander, he opened the envelope and died a few seconds later.
According to Russian media, the composition was saturated with a message that was allegedly sent to Khattab from Saudi Arabia. Any contact with the letter was fatal, and the effect of the poison only intensified over time. The entire chain through which the letter was sent was doomed in advance. Sources in the FSB claimed that the letter caused the death of at least ten people and couriers close to Khattab.
According to another version, the special services managed to recruit Khattab’s personal chef. The poison was mixed not into the prepared food, but into the products in order to divert suspicion from the cook. Khattab was probably given the poison in an army ration pack. It is believed that Khattab remained on his feet for two weeks and was carried on a stretcher, and 12 other people who dined with Khattab became victims of the poison.
There were versions about poisoned alcohol and cigarettes. And according to rumors circulating in the Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus, Khattab died as a result of poisoning with expired beef stew, sold to the militants shortly before by an ensign from a Russian food warehouse.
Georgiy Ivanov Markov was a fairly famous Bulgarian writer. However, what made him truly famous was not so much his written works, but mysterious death, to which, according to some sources, the Soviet secret services had a hand.
Dissident writer
In his homeland, Markov was a very successful writer and playwright. Despite censorship, his work was very popular. However, after George refused to glorify the existing system, his relationship with the authorities worsened. They began to pin him down and pursue him.
In 1969, Markov went to Italy to visit a relative who lived there. From there the dissident writer never returned to Bulgaria. He moved to the UK and settled in London, where he married Englishwoman Annabelle Dilaik and got a job in the Bulgarian section of the BBC radio station. He also collaborated with Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle. In some programs, the journalist actively criticized the socialist regime and personally the first secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov.
Mysterious death
On September 7, 1978, Markov worked the evening shift. Due to difficulties with parking, he was forced to leave his car on the other side of the Thames. Around 7-8 pm he decided to leave the office to move the car closer to his place of work. The path lay past a bus stop on Waterloo Bridge, where a crowd of people stood. Suddenly, the journalist felt a slight prick in his leg and turned around to see a man picking up an umbrella from the ground. The owner of the umbrella immediately apologized, as it seemed to Markov, with a foreign accent. Then the stranger called a taxi and drove off.
Markov did not pay attention to this episode special attention. The next day, in the morning, he felt unwell: he began to feel sick and had a fever. It was only on the third day that the journalist was finally hospitalized. Markov managed to tell the doctors about the incident with the umbrella. The writer was convinced that he was poisoned by members of the Bulgarian secret services!
Doctors contacted the police. However, the police were no longer able to interrogate Markov: he was unconscious. On September 11, the journalist died.
Progress of the investigation
After autopsy of the remains, tissue samples were sent for examination to laboratories at Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defense. It turned out that the cause of Georgy Markov’s death was the highly toxic poison ricin, obtained from castor bean seeds, contained in a metal capsule, which was apparently implanted into the calf of the leg by injecting the victim with an umbrella with a special spring. They immediately remembered that shortly before Markov’s death, a similar incident occurred with Vladimir Kostov, who previously worked as an editor at Bulgarian radio. In a Paris metro car, someone also shot Kostov with a capsule containing ricin. But he was wearing a thick woolen jacket, thanks to which the capsule could not penetrate deep into the skin.
The "Umbrella Killer" was never found. The case was closed. However, Markov's widow Annabelle did not accept this and for many years sought the resumption of the investigation. She was sure that the Bulgarian State Security Committee was behind this story.
New circumstances opened up only after the fall of the communist regime. It turned out that the dossier on Markov, who went by the pseudonym “Strannik” (“Skitnik”) in the Bulgarian KGB, was destroyed. There were also no documents relating to the participants in the operation to eliminate the journalist.
In 1992, a trial was held of those responsible for the destruction of documentation in the Markov case. True, the main suspect, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria Stoyan Savov, committed suicide a few days before the start of the trial. The second defendant, former head of the first main directorate of the Bulgarian State Security Committee, Vladimir Todorov, was given 10 months in prison. However, at the trial, Todorov insisted that his dossier did not contain anything shedding light on Markov’s murder.
Hand of the KGB?
According to someone who emigrated to the West former general KGB of the USSR Oleg Kalugin, the sanction for the murder of Markov was given by Todor Zhivkov. In April 1991, Kalugin told a Radio Liberty correspondent that in 1978, while holding the post of head of Directorate “K” of the KGB PGU, he sent his deputy Sergei Golubev to Laboratory 12. It was there that the devices for killing Markov were made. In 1993, this information was confirmed by the former colonel of the first main directorate of the KGB of the USSR Oleg Gordievsky, who also fled to the West. He stated that Golubev, with the personal permission of the then head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, handed over poison to members of the Bulgarian special services, “which was placed in the tip of a special umbrella.”
In the 2000s, interest in the Markov case flared up with new strength. In June 2005, previously classified documents from the Bulgarian special services were published in the press, according to which the direct perpetrator of the murder was the Italian Francesco Gullino, who at that time lived in Denmark. He was a former Bulgarian intelligence agent with the call sign "Piccadilly". In 1993, Gullino was detained in Copenhagen, but after a six-hour interrogation he was released, since no evidence was found of his involvement in Markov’s murder.
On September 12, 2013, the case of Markov’s murder was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations (35 years). At that time, no one was charged.
The story of Georgy Markov formed the basis of the French film “The Umbrella Injection” (1980), main role in which Pierre Richard played. The film features killers, mafiosi and intelligence officers. By the way, the film became very popular in the USSR.
It's no secret that history is being made specific people, and sometimes even entire families supporting family traditions.
Modern largest dynasties continue to influence not only the political, financial and legal system, but also construct a new consciousness of society, determining the development of peoples and humanity as a whole for many years to come. For thousands of years, royal dynasties enjoyed special influence not only because of their royal status, but also because of their comparative highly educated, supported by an army and a vast treasury.
Let's consider the most influential and famous of them.
Windsor dynasty
Speaking of popular royal dynasties, most of us will remember the British royal family. The Windsor dynasty is one of the most popular and influential royal families of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The dynasty began with George V in 1910, changing the old name of the British dynasty from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to a new, more patriotic one - the Windsors. Despite the fact that the monarchy in Britain was abolished more than a hundred years ago, the ruling representative of the House of Windsor continues to influence both external and internal affairs. domestic policy countries.
Medici clan
The Medici clan existed from the 13th to the 18th century. The descendants of this family were not only monarchs, but also bore the title of Pope. The rise of the House of Medici was not so easy.
This family was rich, but they did not have royal blood in their veins. In the 13th century, after a series of unsuccessful conspiracies and riots, this family was removed from political life. In the mid-15th century, Cosimo de' Medici managed to bring the family back to power. Members of the Medici family often patronized many areas of the arts.
In particular, painting received special attention. It was at the instigation of the Medici that art in Florence began to actively develop, making the capital of the Florentine Republic a fashionable arts center. Approval from the Medici opened doors for artists to all the royal houses of Europe. Being close to the Vatican, as well as inter-dynastic marriages, allowed the Medici family not only to have a large treasury, but also to gain significant influence on religious, cultural and political life.
Bourbons
Bourbons. This The Royal Family comes from the famous and ancient royal family of the Capetians. The birth of the Bourbon dynasty is considered to be 1589. The reforms of the representatives of the Bourbon dynasty had major changes on political place France in the world community. In addition, numerous branches of this family made it possible for the Bourbons to dictate their terms in world politics with “impunity.” Having a large army and being closely related to almost all the rulers of neighboring countries, the culture and art of France had the opportunity to receive serious development.
Habsburgs
Representatives of the Habsburg family had family connection with all the royal courts of his time. Until the beginning of the last century, it was this dynasty that owned the vast state of Austria-Hungary. This made it possible for the Habsburgs to become not only influential, but also the richest and most protected powerful army clan.
Modern descendants of the Habsburgs do not have such a serious influence on political arena, like their ancestors, but to this day it is this royal clan Western Europe considered the most famous.
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
This Indian dynasty combines two related branches. Neither the founders of the family nor their descendants were monarchs, but they gained respect and political influence not only in India itself, but also in the world. Distinctive feature This family is wise and charismatic. The founder of the dynasty was Jawaharlal Nehru and his spiritual kinship with Mahathma Gandhi. Both of these men were influential in the Indian community.
On the world political stage, Nehru adhered to political neutrality. The authority of his judgments was so high that disputes with him could be counted on one hand. Daughter Indira Gandhi became the personification of the newly educated and wise experience of India's ancestors. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was able to show New India not only to Europe, but also to change the self-consciousness of the Hindus themselves.
The reforms and changes introduced by these royal clans determined not only the new political, social and cultural appearance of entire nations, but also the new consciousness of people for many centuries to come.
However, not all families that today enjoy significant influence in the world community are of royal blood. Some influential families of our time originate from emigrants and horse thieves, which, however, did not prevent gifted descendants from elevating their families.
Rockefellers
Today, almost every person knows the surname Rockefeller, because this surname has become synonymous with wealth and success. The triumphant march of this family began in 1839, when John Rockefeller was born.
Since childhood, little John calculated all his actions several steps ahead and could always benefit from any business. At the age of seven, the boy raised domestic animals, selling them to fellow villagers. At the age of 16, young Rockefeller got a job as an assistant in an accounting office, and a year later he became a partner of a then famous businessman. John always knew how to predict market trends, so when oil was discovered in the city where John lived, the young Rockefeller invested all his funds in black gold.
In 1879, a 40-year-old millionaire's oil company controlled 90% oil industry USA. Due to the Sherman Anti-Monopoly Act, the Standard Oil Company was fragmented into 34. Almost all modern American oil companies originate from the Rockefeller company. Thanks to a special “Rockefeller upbringing,” the descendants of the famous oilman did not reduce, but increased the family’s fortune. Most of Rockefeller's descendants occupy high-ranking government and financial positions, and the authority of the oil dynasty has not faded over the years.
Rothschilds
The Rothschilds are traditionally considered the most rich family in the world. According to official data alone, the fortune of this dynasty is estimated at $350 billion. Literally within 50 years, the Rothschild family turned from Jewish emigrants into the richest barons and lords on the planet. The founder was Amschel Mayer Rothschild, born in 1744. He later opened the first family bank in Frankfurt and later sent his 5 sons to major capitals around the world to promote his business.
The Rothschild banking business is a truly family enterprise, because only family members were invited to manage the banks. The Rothschild banks lent not only to individuals, but also to entire states; in 1818, the Rothschilds lent Prussia 5 million pounds, and a few years later, Nathan Rothschild's London Bank provided a loan to the National Bank of England. After the creation of the US Reserve Banking System, the Rothschilds are able to control the volume of dollar printing. The dexterity and adventurism with which representatives of this dynasty managed to accumulate wealth and influence excite the minds of historians and ordinary people to this day.
Pritzkers
Pritzkers - welcome to the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The Pritzker dynasty occupies one of the leading places among the richest dynasties in the world. The history of this family began about 200 years ago, when Nicholas Pritzker moved to the United States. Subsequently, Nicholas opened a law office and also began buying real estate. Nicholas's sons also continued to buy real estate and increase the family fortune.
The grandchildren of the founder of the Pritzker empire went even further and founded the world-famous Hyatt hotel chain. The Pritzker family has a significant place not only in the real estate and entertainment markets, but until recently also owned the assets of a fairly large bank.
However, this name is truly famous among architects. The Pritzker Prize is one of the landmark awards in the world of architecture.
Without a doubt, the merits of oil bankers and royalty in the history of the world cannot be underestimated, but they were not the only ones who influenced the fate of the world. I would like to draw your attention to the 2 most popular gangster families of the twentieth century.
Gambino clan
Gambino clan. The name of the clan comes from the name of the head of the clan, Carlo Gambino. In addition to their illegal activities and the influence gained through intimidation and threats, the Gambino family influenced the image of the Mafioso in the cinema of the last century. There is also a version that it was this clan and its influence in New York circles that secretly influenced the abolition of Prohibition in the USA.
Colombo mafia clan
The Colombo mafia clan became famous not only in New York, but also outside America. The authority of this family remained until the middle of the last century. Thanks to the stinginess of the clan's founder, there is still a rumor among the American population that the wealth that the clan obtained through extortion is to this day hidden under one of the many New York warehouses.
The authority of the most influential families peace is determined not only by the actions of one of the members of the clan, respect for family traditions And common cause families. This is what allows us to increase economic, political and cultural influence these clans.
14:48 4.03.2013
Happiness looks different for everyone. For some, for example, happiness is having many children in the house.
People arrange their lives in different ways. Someone becomes an adherent of a strange movement called “childfree” - free from children, some satisfy their instinct for procreation by giving birth to one child. And there are those who, once they start, can no longer stop.
L.N. Tolstoy with his wife and children. 1887
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (13 children). The Count lived his entire life with one only wife. Sofya Andreevna, who was only 18 years old when she married Lev Nikolaevich, gave birth during their long life together 13 children. Unfortunately, five died in childhood.
Charles Spencer Chaplin (10 children). The great cinematographer was officially married 4 times. Married to Lita Gray (she was 16 when Chaplin married her), two sons were born - Sydney and Charlie. Fourth and last wife Chaplina Una O'Neill bore him 8 children: three sons - Christopher, Eugene and Michael and five daughters - Geraldine, Josephine, Joanna, Victoria, Anna-Emile). The last child, Christopher, Una gave birth when his father was 72 years old.
Sting and Trudie Styler
Sting (6 children) Two children were born in the singer’s first marriage to actress Frances Tomelty. Sting and Frances' eldest son, Joe Sumner, has already become a father, making 60-year-old Sting a grandfather. In his last marriage to Trudie Styler, Sting had four children.
Ivan Okhlobystin (6 children). At the shocking Russian actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, journalist and writer, as well as a former priest, two sons - Vasily and Savva, and four daughters - Anfisa, Evdokia, Varvara and Ioanna. The mother of all Okhlobystina’s children, his wife is Oksana (nee Arbuzova), an actress who became famous after the role of Valeria “Accident” in the film “Accident - the Cop’s Daughter.”
Nikitins Boris and Lena (7 children). Boris Pavlovich and Lena Alekseevna, teachers with extensive experience. Moreover, Lena Alekseevna is a hereditary teacher. Having met, they turned out to be like-minded people on many issues. While raising children, the Nikitins developed an innovative, unique system early development children and tested it on their own seven children. Their grandchildren created a website dedicated to the Nikitin family.
Andy Garcia (5 children) Andy Garcia has been married for over twenty years. In 1982, he married Cuban immigrant Marivi Victoria Lorido and they had five children.
And of course
Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt (6 children) Of these, three are our own and three are adopted. Maddox Shivan (Cambodian), Zahara Marley (from Ethiopia), Vietnamese Pax Thien and their children - Shiloh Nouvel and twins: boy Knox Leon and girl Vivienne Marcheline.