It's sad. Slava Ivankov was the last of the last.

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Everyone knew him on Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where I grew up. You could always find him there, usually at Primorsky restaurant which was owned by Boris Nayfeld. Monya Elson was never far either.

Monya Elson with moustaches

Monia_Elson

We used to bring stolen goods to them at the restaurant all the time in the early 90's. I must of been like 13-14 years old.. Boris would buy anything. Tthey were all so cheap with their money though.. They would pull out knots of 100's and argue over 5 bux. Slava too. I guess it was just in their nature.

Then one day, boom, they were all gone, just like that.

Then in 2004 or 05, I was finishing up a bid and was transferred to a pre-release jail, which had all kinds of people with all kinds of crimes and sentences, getting ready to go home. So one could run in to someone who just finished doing 25 years. Well, I ran into an Italian cat (Allie boy) who just came from the Feds after doing 10 in there, but he owed New York state 2 years so he still had to finish that. Anyway, we started talking, he asked if I was Russian , I said yes. Then he proceeded to tell me that he was just in the feds with a few Russians, serious guys and he was great pals with them and they were together for a few years. I asked their names and he said: one, who had kind of slanted eyes, he always used to call Ivan and the other big dude, they call Biba. My jaw dropped. I though Ivan? Who the fuck is Ivan, that don't sound like an Ivan. So I asked what was Ivan's real name but he couldn't remember it or pronounce it. Then he says Ivan wrote his name and number in his address book. He showed it to me and sure enough, it said: Vyacheslav Ivankov and a number and address in Moscow. I said, Do u know who u was with? I told him, but he already had an idea that these were serious people. I mean its the feds after all.
He used to tell me how whenever a Jewish or Israeli guy would come in, Ivankov would right away slide up to them in the yard and kinda take them under his wing and do a little friendly extortion, and they knew damn well they better cough it up.

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Viacheslav Ivankov in 80th

Ivankov

ST-2. Tulun city (Irkutskaya oblast).Prison.

Temuri Gabiniya(Timur Vanskiy),
Viacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik),
Sergey Boytsov (Boets).