“Zheglov in a skirt”: what the first woman in history was like – a police chief

“Many Leningraders meet this short elderly woman with an energetic face on the streets of the city. But if those they met knew the biography of this little woman, with what respect they would follow her with their eyes” (from the book “Deeds and People of the Leningrad Police”)

The future tamer of Ligovka was born in 1892 on the territory of modern Latvia – in the town of Bilzen, located in the Velmar district of the Livonia province. The large family lived from hand to mouth: Paulina’s father Janis Seglins was a poor peasant and, working for a German baron, received mere pennies. In 1905, when revolution broke out in Russia, Janis’s eldest sons Karl and Anton tried to correct the injustice. Both young men took part in the farm laborers’ uprising, during which, together with like-minded people, they robbed and burned rich estates, and distributed bread and valuables to the poor. Paulina, who served as a liaison in the squad, did not stand aside either.

“For a long time the rebels kept the barons and the tsarist troops in fear, but the forces were too unequal. In this struggle, Paulina’s two older brothers died – Anton was killed in the battle, and Karl was hanged” (from the book “Affairs and People of the Leningrad Police”)

The young men’s father, as a relative of the rebels, was severely beaten, but Paulina miraculously managed to escape death – the detained rebels, including her brother Karl, kept silent about the teenager’s participation in the uprising. In 1906, the land was taken away from the Senglish family, and Janis and his household moved to Riga.

Paulina began her career at the age of 14 – first she got a job at a canned fish factory, and later moved to the position of a printer in a printing house. During the same period of time, driven by a rebellious spirit, the girl joined a Marxist circle, led by Dmitry Onushonok, a famous underground worker in certain circles – he became Paulina’s husband and constant companion.

In 1917, the Onushonok family, who moved to Petrograd, found themselves in the thick of things. The baptism of fire of Paulina, who joined the Bolsheviks, took place in the summer, when she, the only woman in her husband’s detachment, took part, along with men, in the disarmament of military cyclists and scooters on Serdobolskaya Street. And in October 1917, Paulina, as part of a column of workers from the Vyborg side, participated in the storming of the Winter Palace.

A year later, the activist was among the first 120 people to join the ranks of the newly created All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK) and became an intelligence officer

“She, as a person who knew Riga well and spoke the Latvian language, was sent to the capital of Latvia captured by the Germans. The brave intelligence officer provided great assistance to the advancing units of the Red Army” (from the book “Affairs and People of the Leningrad Police”)

Having appreciated Onushonok’s merits, the leadership assigned the intelligence officer to a special department of the Cheka of the 15th Army of the Western Front, where she continued to lead the underground struggle for the Bolsheviks. In 1922, together with Dmitry, who was appointed head of the northwestern checkpoint, Paulina moved to Kignisepp. She joined the local county criminal investigation department and quickly created an extensive network of agents, actively helping the operative in solving many crimes. Onushonok stood at the origins of the creation of the pioneer and Komsomol movements and became a counselor in one of the first pioneer detachments in the country.

“After the end of the Civil War in 1922-23, the first pioneer detachment was created in Kingisepp. Children aged 10-15 years old were accepted into the pioneers. On behalf of the District Committee of the Komsomol, I was the first pioneer leader of this detachment. The local executive committee allocated a wooden house, almost completely destroyed. Pioneers with the help of Komsomol members and teachers they put it in order” (from the memoirs of Paulina Onushonok)

Paulina’s wards were not distinguished by their flexible nature – they were, as a rule, difficult teenagers, or even juvenile delinquents, who were not easy to manage. But Onushonok, who turned out to be a wonderful teacher, managed to cope: in the renovated house she organized music and literary clubs. The woman herself was actively involved in training students, who were especially fascinated by the details of the work of border guards. With the assistance of her husband, Paulina managed to organize exciting and educational excursions to border posts

“We kept in touch with the border guards, who took the children to the border on their boat, introduced them to it, explained the border service. With the help of the border guards, shooting circles were organized from local children” (from the memoirs of Paulina Onushonok)

Paulina’s successes inspired the local authorities so much that in 1924 the pioneer detachment was transformed into a base for street children and young criminals, where children from all over the Leningrad province were taken. Onushonok’s pupils, under her strict guidance, planted a vegetable garden and created a garden where they grew fruits, vegetables and herbs for their own table. Four years later, Onushonok, having been at the helm of the Kingsepp district criminal investigation department, became the first woman in the history of the USSR to head an entire police department – Kingisepp. She had to organize the most effective structure possible to combat the main evil of the border region in the form of saboteurs and smugglers. As a result, the new boss improved the work of her subordinates in such a way that in a matter of months her law enforcement unit became one of the best in the Union.

And in 1929, the authorities decided to assign even greater responsibility to Paulina – to send her to clean up the Leningrad Ligovka, notorious for its criminal lawlessness. A more dangerous and disastrous place in the Northern capital, and, perhaps, throughout the Union, could not be found. In the 20s of the last century, the area was tightly divided between numerous gangs, whose members considered themselves the rightful masters of the area at night. Outright atrocities sometimes occurred on Ligovsky Prospekt and in its environs: in 1926, in the San Galli garden, punks (“Chubarovites”) who were hunting near Chubarovsky Lane committed gang rape of 20-year-old Komsomol member Lyubov Belova, who was then sold to anyone for 20 kopecks. According to the victim, about 30 people abused her over the course of four hours that terrible night. The culprits were caught and tried – seven of the instigators received capital punishment and were shot, the rest went to Solovki.

Even during the court hearings, participants in the process received calls from strangers who threatened terror and a series of attacks on law enforcement officers and civilians. Soon after this, several Leningrad women were raped, guards were attacked, and the warehouses of the October Railway and the Kooperator plant were burned. Law enforcement officers were able to figure out that Ligovsky bandit Dubinin and members of the “Union of Soviet Hooligans” that he created were behind all this. All of them were detained and sent to camps. But this rabble was only a drop in the ocean of the perpetrators of League lawlessness – Paulina had to deal with the dead contingent. A conversation with Onushonok before her new appointment was conducted in Smolny by the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee of the CPSU (b) Sergei Kirov

“He took me into his office and invited me to sit down. And I seemed to be intimidated: Kirov himself! He laughs: “And also the police,” he says. I looked into his kind eyes and felt good” (from the memoirs of Paulina Onushonok)

Heading the 11th police department of the Northern capital, which was in charge of the entire area adjacent to Ligovsky Prospekt with Volkova Village, Kupchino and the villages of Ryleevo and Nikolaevsky located on the lands of the Udarnik state farm, Onushonok set to work. First of all, she decided to take measures to employ homeless people, for whom she tried to organize jobs and rooms in dormitories. And she fought seasoned criminals the old fashioned way – with tried and tested KGB methods of creating a network of informants and personally infiltrating the criminal environment. Dressed in rags, in the evenings, under the guise of a beggar, she went on a raid to the most dangerous places in Leningrad – she visited the station, wandered into flophouses and brothels.

“The Liga thugs of the late 20s had permanent bases in shelters. Even armed policemen did not dare to look there alone” (from the book “Deeds and People of the Leningrad Police”)

But Onushonok was not afraid: she also appeared in the most dangerous place in Ligovka – the intersection of Dnepropetrovskaya Street and Chubarova Lane. None of the bandits was embarrassed by the presence of the tramp when discussing plans for their crimes, but Paulina listened carefully to their conversations and remembered all the details. Returning to the department, she began developing operations to apprehend robbers and thieves red-handed. Most of them ended successfully. Only six months passed, and Ligovka was transformed – almost all the criminals fled, went to colonies or were shot, resisting arrest.

“In a short time, the lush, noisy Ligovka turned into a comfortable workers’ boulevard – and this is your enormous merit” (from a letter from workers of the Anisimov factory to Paulina Onushonok)

As a reward for her efforts, Onushenok was presented with a personalized Mauser and was awarded the sign “Honorary Worker of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia.”

Another misfortune of that time was the increase in the number of orphans and street children, for whom there were not enough places in orphanages – in Leningrad institutions, designed for 800 places, there were about 3 thousand pupils. It is not surprising that the guys who found themselves in such conditions preferred the street, where they settled in attics, basements and abandoned buildings, as well as in city dumps. They obtained food in all sorts of ways, often criminally: along with adult gangs, children’s and teenage gangs were created, whose members knew each other only by nicknames. Some of the members of the groups lived in the city dormitory of the proletariat located at Ligovsky Prospekt, 10 – this is where the word “Gopniks” came from. In an effort to imitate the venerable robbers, juvenile criminals posed a serious threat to the lives and safety of ordinary Leningraders. Paulina’s enormous contribution to solving this problem was her initiative to open police children’s rooms. And they were not intended to punish juvenile criminals, but primarily for their re-education. Toys and books were waiting for the children who got there; they tried in every possible way to interest them in classes in schools and clubs, organized trips to pioneer camps, and found jobs for those who were older.

Onushonok loved children very much, but she and Dmitry did not have any children of their own. This did not stop the couple from becoming parents to six adopted children, whose upbringing Paulina managed to combine with her intense and dangerous work. In 1933, Onushonok received a high and rare award for women of that time – the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. At the award ceremony, which took place in the Kremlin, Paulina plunged the People’s Commissar of Heavy Industry and prominent functionary Sergo Ordzhonikidze into a state of shock. He was eager to meet the “legendary comrade Onushonok” and, seeing Paulina in front of him, was quite surprised.

“How? Are you a woman? What a fine fellow you are!” (member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Sergo Ordzhonikidze)

By the way, despite her image of the “Iron Lady,” among her acquaintances and friends, Onushonok was known as a gentle and caring person who could give sensible advice in any situation. Paulina retired with the rank of police colonel. Having grown old and buried her husband, she expressed a desire to move to the boarding house of old Bolsheviks located on the Petrograd side. The police legend passed away on May 5, 1982 at the age of 91. She became the prototype for police officer Paulina Martynovna Ivanenok in the detective series “Excellent Students” released in 2017.