Russian orphanages were not known for being nurturant places. The national preference for vodka had ruined many a family in addition to causing congenital disabilities in thousands of children. Vikor Burgov and his wife Anya lived in the city of Kirov in Eastern Russia, where they struggled to make a go of it with minimal skills and education. When twin boys Spartak and Stanislav were born, they fell apart. Vodka became their reason for living, and within two years, both parents had drunk themselves to death.
The twins, who became known as Spar and Slav, went to an orphanage to live until they could be adopted. This was conventional thinking in Russia at the time, but it didn't consider who the twins were.
Within a short time, it became clear to Maga Palov, the orphanage director, that no one would adopt the twins. They hit other children, defied staff, raced around, and related to no one except each other. Occasionally a staff member would leave a door unlocked, hoping that Spar and Slav would run away. Heavy medication helped, but no one looked forward to working on the twins' ward.
An older woman came to the facility inquiring about adoption. Her only son had died in a boating accident years ago, and she had never recovered from the loss. Thinking an adoption might be a regenerative force, she inquired at the orphanage not far from her home. Maga Palov saw an opportunity in Sasha Orlov's visit. Dressing the boys in matching outfits and sedating them with large doses of valium, she presented the twins to Ms. Orlov while maintaining the boys had been ill and were taking cough medicine. To their surprise, though the boys could never be called cute or handsome, the staff thought they looked presentable.
Maybe because she had never recovered from her son's death or because she was a lonely woman in a cold city, she "fell in love" with Stan and Slav. In the following weeks, Maga told the twins, who were now nine years of age, that they needed to behave if they wanted to get out of the orphanage, and this was likely their only chance of leaving.
The adoption went through, and Sasha Orlov felt like a new woman. She bought new clothes for the boys, decorated their room, and stocked the refrigerator with child-friendly foods. Life was good! Or was it?
Within three weeks, she knew the adoption was a mistake. The boys lived in a non-stop world of eating, movement—noise, and impulse. The orphanage had a "no return" policy, and even with hired help, the new mother was at a loss.
As the months went by, the twins gradually destroyed their new home and had disciplinary problems at school resulting from stealing, defiance, and bullying. They had no friends and didn't want any except for each other. At her wit's end, Ms. Orlov developed a plan.
( to be continued)
In less than 10 years the Twins from Hell will be running 2-3 rackets raking in $12 million+ a year or be dead by 16!