What do you think?
Rate this book
Iron Curtain Killers: "Serial Murder in Soviet Russia"
Leaders of the USSR described their environment as a "Socialist Paradise," claiming that it was entirely free of "decadent Western crimes" such as racketeering and serial murder.
Sadly, they were wrong. Dead wrong.
In fact, the Soviet Union had yet to be born on paper when its first known serial killer surfaced. He was Vasili Ivanovich Komaroff, dubbed "The Wolf of Moscow," a horse trader who, with wife Sophia, killed at least 33 victims between 1921 and 1923. The couple's efficient modus operandi involved luring male customers to their stable where Vasili plied them with vodka, slit their throats or bludgeoned them with hammers, robbed their corpses, and placed their bodies in trash bags for burial or dumping into the Moscow River.
Serial murder occurred in Russia's "Socialist Paradise” like it did everywhere else in the world and it continues unabated to the present day.
Iron Curtain Killers presents 26 cases of Russian serial killing, recorded from the 1960s into the 21st century. Law enforcement may no longer deny that such crimes occur in Russia, but as we shall see, sadly they fall short of solving many serial murder cases.
Michael Newton is author of the International Bestseller, The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Facts on File Crime Library) and over 300 more books (True Crime and Western Novels)
Sadly, they were wrong. Dead wrong.
In fact, the Soviet Union had yet to be born on paper when its first known serial killer surfaced. He was Vasili Ivanovich Komaroff, dubbed "The Wolf of Moscow," a horse trader who, with wife Sophia, killed at least 33 victims between 1921 and 1923. The couple's efficient modus operandi involved luring male customers to their stable where Vasili plied them with vodka, slit their throats or bludgeoned them with hammers, robbed their corpses, and placed their bodies in trash bags for burial or dumping into the Moscow River.
Serial murder occurred in Russia's "Socialist Paradise” like it did everywhere else in the world and it continues unabated to the present day.
Iron Curtain Killers presents 26 cases of Russian serial killing, recorded from the 1960s into the 21st century. Law enforcement may no longer deny that such crimes occur in Russia, but as we shall see, sadly they fall short of solving many serial murder cases.
Michael Newton is author of the International Bestseller, The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Facts on File Crime Library) and over 300 more books (True Crime and Western Novels)
141 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 19, 2017
30 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Michael Newton
469 books104 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
From Wikipedia:
"Michael Newton (born 1951) is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton. His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as #100, #200, and #300.
Writing under the pseudonym Lyle Brandt, Michael Newton has also become a popular writer of Western novels. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing (How to Write Action Adventure Novels). His book Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida won the Florida Historical Society's 2002 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Book in Florida History. Newton's "Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology" won the American Library Association's award for Outstanding Reference Work in 2006."
Pen names: Lyle Brandt, Don Pendleton, Jack Buchanan
Bibiliography available here.
From Wikipedia:
"Michael Newton (born 1951) is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton. His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as #100, #200, and #300.
Writing under the pseudonym Lyle Brandt, Michael Newton has also become a popular writer of Western novels. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing (How to Write Action Adventure Novels). His book Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida won the Florida Historical Society's 2002 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Book in Florida History. Newton's "Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology" won the American Library Association's award for Outstanding Reference Work in 2006."
Pen names: Lyle Brandt, Don Pendleton, Jack Buchanan
Bibiliography available here.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 3, 2018
When the Soviet Union was founded in 1922, its founders described it as a ‘socialist paradise’, free of the decadent western crimes, which, like everything else Stalin and his ilk did, was a big lie. Russia and the Soviet Union have, for instance, had serial killers since even before there was a Soviet Union, and the police there struggle to find and capture them just as much as their counterparts in the West, often under the yoke of official denial of their existence.
Iron Curtain Killers by Michael Newton and RJ Parker is a detailed account of 26 serial murder cases ranging from 1960 to the 21st century, including one case that remains unsolved to this day. This book is not for the squeamish, but it shines new light on a region that was for long under the shadow of the Iron Curtain.
I give it four stars.
Iron Curtain Killers by Michael Newton and RJ Parker is a detailed account of 26 serial murder cases ranging from 1960 to the 21st century, including one case that remains unsolved to this day. This book is not for the squeamish, but it shines new light on a region that was for long under the shadow of the Iron Curtain.
I give it four stars.
December 3, 2017
Horrifying serial killer accounts
This well-written and well-researched book provides accounts of 26 Russian serial killers who worked alone or with accomplices, with a single accomplice, or with an organized gang or with family members. The total number of victims is quite high.
I find it interesting to learn about crimes in other parts of the world, and all of these murders are undeniably vicious. The weapons are varied as well, such as hammer, baseball bat, screwdriver, knife, gun, rope, and more. Some preyed particularly on babies, children, elderly women, young boys or young girls, the homeless, alcoholics, and so forth. No one was safe.
Don't be intimidated by all of the Russian names. You don't have to be able to pronounce them aloud, so just take it in stride. The book is definitely worth the effort.
2
This well-written and well-researched book provides accounts of 26 Russian serial killers who worked alone or with accomplices, with a single accomplice, or with an organized gang or with family members. The total number of victims is quite high.
I find it interesting to learn about crimes in other parts of the world, and all of these murders are undeniably vicious. The weapons are varied as well, such as hammer, baseball bat, screwdriver, knife, gun, rope, and more. Some preyed particularly on babies, children, elderly women, young boys or young girls, the homeless, alcoholics, and so forth. No one was safe.
Don't be intimidated by all of the Russian names. You don't have to be able to pronounce them aloud, so just take it in stride. The book is definitely worth the effort.
2
December 6, 2017
I read this book via an Amazon-US KINDLE Unlimited download.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain no one knew what truly had been happening there. We’ve all been lead to believe through their unending propaganda that all had been well there, that it had been like the country in James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon”, an apparent Shangri-La. A literal paradise devoid of all ills which plagued us here; there was no dishonest and fraudulent activities such as: crime and its bosses, prostitution, and serial murders. Such things were apparently unheard of there, as they were totally forbidden there.
But, as with everything else regarding the Soviet Union, the truth had always been totally contrary to that image. Just as we’ve had serial killers for the longest period of time imaginable, the Soviet Union had been plagued by them going back to when the Tsars had ruled the country, before the Soviet Union had even been an idea.
While the author, Michael Newton, has done a fantastic job in researching and writing about the 26 serial killers described in this book from the 1960’s until this century, to show how prevalent these killers than been in the book’s introduction he mentions Vasili Komaroff and his wife who had killed 33 individuals from 1921 through 1923, and the sadistic manner in which they did it.
Being a TOP CONTRIBUTOR of this genre, I keep on getting mesmerized by the unabated manner in which serial killers are apparently allowed to exist, and the lengths they go to lure their victims in, murder them, and to finally dispose of their bodies, so they won’t get caught.
There are two things going on involving these serial killers and the Russian law enforcement entities. First, they can no longer deny the existence of these serial killers. Secondly, these entities have difficulties to solving a great deal of the serial murders which they come across.
For allowing his readers to realize that the Russians are no better off than we are when it comes to this social malady, I’ve Mr. Newton 5 STARS for his endeavor here.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain no one knew what truly had been happening there. We’ve all been lead to believe through their unending propaganda that all had been well there, that it had been like the country in James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon”, an apparent Shangri-La. A literal paradise devoid of all ills which plagued us here; there was no dishonest and fraudulent activities such as: crime and its bosses, prostitution, and serial murders. Such things were apparently unheard of there, as they were totally forbidden there.
But, as with everything else regarding the Soviet Union, the truth had always been totally contrary to that image. Just as we’ve had serial killers for the longest period of time imaginable, the Soviet Union had been plagued by them going back to when the Tsars had ruled the country, before the Soviet Union had even been an idea.
While the author, Michael Newton, has done a fantastic job in researching and writing about the 26 serial killers described in this book from the 1960’s until this century, to show how prevalent these killers than been in the book’s introduction he mentions Vasili Komaroff and his wife who had killed 33 individuals from 1921 through 1923, and the sadistic manner in which they did it.
Being a TOP CONTRIBUTOR of this genre, I keep on getting mesmerized by the unabated manner in which serial killers are apparently allowed to exist, and the lengths they go to lure their victims in, murder them, and to finally dispose of their bodies, so they won’t get caught.
There are two things going on involving these serial killers and the Russian law enforcement entities. First, they can no longer deny the existence of these serial killers. Secondly, these entities have difficulties to solving a great deal of the serial murders which they come across.
For allowing his readers to realize that the Russians are no better off than we are when it comes to this social malady, I’ve Mr. Newton 5 STARS for his endeavor here.
December 29, 2017
Excellent and fascinating book on the serial killers in the old soviet union.
The communist authorities denied the existence of serial killers throughout their tenure but once the communist regime ended it was obvious this was not the case. They denied it as a western capitalist phenomenon which the author proved wrong by some excellent research.
Very well researched and written book on serial killers although I would have liked it to be longer.
The communist authorities denied the existence of serial killers throughout their tenure but once the communist regime ended it was obvious this was not the case. They denied it as a western capitalist phenomenon which the author proved wrong by some excellent research.
Very well researched and written book on serial killers although I would have liked it to be longer.
June 7, 2018
A good little book to read
I found it a good little read to kill off some of my long dull shift , I already had knowledge about the butcher of Rostov and Slivko who are in this book but hasn't heard of the others i find it rather fascinating the nicknames given to these cruel individuals such as the alligator or the hippopotamus or Satan in a skirt .
I found it a good little read to kill off some of my long dull shift , I already had knowledge about the butcher of Rostov and Slivko who are in this book but hasn't heard of the others i find it rather fascinating the nicknames given to these cruel individuals such as the alligator or the hippopotamus or Satan in a skirt .
January 28, 2018
A book about Soviet/Russian crime is a good idea, but with 26 profiles in just over a hundred pages, you can imagine how thin these accounts are. The longest chapter concerns Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, whose crimes were profiled at length in Peter Conradi's excellent book THE RED RIPPER.
September 2, 2018
Really good read!
A nice combination of bites of Soviet serial killers whose stories may just keep you up at night. Add Michael Newton to your true crime list!
A nice combination of bites of Soviet serial killers whose stories may just keep you up at night. Add Michael Newton to your true crime list!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews