Sonya Golden Hand

Sofia Ivanovna Blyuvshtein (also spelled as Bluvstein, Bluvsztejn; better known as Sonia (Son'ka) the Golden Hand; 1846–1902), was a female con artist who lived in the Russian Empire and was eventually convicted of theft. She committed several carefully planned robberies, and was eventually captured and exiled to the Sakhalin penal colony. She became the basis of several books and films, in which she is romanticized as a Robin Hood figure, who never killed, and who stole only from the rich.

In 1890, she met Anton Chekhov, who was visiting Sakhalin during his investigations into prison reform; he subsequently described the incident in his book Sakhalin Island.

A headless statue by an unmarked grave in Moscow's Vagankovo Cemetery is used as a shrine to Sonia; worshippers, who believe Sonya to be buried there, ask for her spiritual assistance in their own crimes.

Origin Little is known of her life and origin for certain as she never provided real information about herself. She was married several times. She was born as Sheindlia-Sura Leibovna Solomoniak in 1846 (or perhaps in 1859) in Povozki in the Warsaw district.

There are two movies that are based on this story which are called Sonya Golden Hand and Sonya and the Legend Continued, which is about her younger daughter committing theft together with her mother.

Adaptations 1915 Six-episode silent melodrama, jointly directed by Iurii Iurevskii and Vladimir Kasianov, produced by Alexander Drankov 1936 in the film Desire, Marlene Dietrich plays a glamorous jewel thief whose crime mimics the Karl von Mel robbery. 2001 The first episode of the 2001 Sonka Golden Hand miniseries, which was broadcast by Rossiya the same day that Boris Yeltsin died, was watched by 29% of Russian viewers. 2006 Viktor Merezhko's novel, Son'ka—Zolotaia ruchka, published by Amfora 2007 Viktor Merezhko's TV movie series Son'ka Golden-Hands (Son'ka—Zolotaia ruchka) 2018 Golden Kamuy