I have met Paul (Paulo or Pavel) Lojnikov in 1993 during my first visit to Rio de Janeiro Brazil. He was by far the most interesting person I ever met in my life. He was more carioca than anyone I even known. Carioca means the person who belongs in Rio. He was born in 1922 in Harbin, China. He was born in Russian family and was very Russian even he never been in Russia. He ran away from home when he was 10 and joined the British corpus where started training in boxing. Also he was not formally educated he spoke fluent Chinese, English, Russian and Portuguese. He became a boxing Champion China and then Asia in light weight in 1940th.
He was a playboy and because he was flirting with a girl from Czechoslovakia ended up spending 5 years in solitary confinement on spy charges in Communist China. Meantime his wife and his son immigrated to the USA. He managed to escape from China and ended up in Macao (Portuguese colony at that time). He was given a choice to move anywhere in the world as a refugee. He chosen Brazil and never felt sorry. He had reason to feel sorry as he became a successful gem dealer (at one time worked supplying gem to H. Stern - brazilian jeweler who worth another story in this blog). Paul was assaulted in his house two times and one time police killed 6 assailants. So he bought a condo in Barra de Tijuca and moved. But he kept his pistol on his nightstand even there. He married 7 times. That was not a surprise as he was interested in women till the day he died. He had many fiends around the world. He had written a book “Seven year conversing with a spirit.” He believed that he was a reincarnated St. Paul and did a lot of charitable work. He never retired. He was not a saint by any means womanazing, smoking 2 packs daily and for a while drinking 1 quart of whiskey per day.
Paul died in Rio de Janeiro in 2002 and was buried in Sao Joao Batista cemetery. He use to have a website but it is down now.
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Hello, I’ve just read your blog and excited at the story about Paul Lojnikov!! I’m a Japanese student, and currently conducting research on Russian society in Shanghai in the wartime period. I got some knowledge about Lojnikov through U.S. and British primary documents, and that perfectly matches with your story!! But I didn’t know he survived in Brazil long after the war. Could you please give me more information about him? And have you read his book? I searched high and low for the book, but it seems to be no longer available. Thank you very much.
Hi, I was a friend of Paul. I have one of his books in Portuguese,"sete anos conversando com espíritos/Seven Years Conversing with Spirits" I can send you. ricfred@hotmail.com
Paulo was a close friend of our family and I was fortunate to spend a month living with Paulo in his condo in Barra de Tajuca. I was a college student at the time and interested in gem stones and minerals and he mentored me for one month. My family has many years worth of correspondence with Paul and all the amazing things he had done. He had a Japanese gentleman living with him at the time who he refered to as "Japanese". He was my guide through the city while I was there. I have lots of cool stories about Paul and the many people he had living with him.
Olá me chamo Richelle, sou filha de Paul lojnikov, interessados este é meu contato 44 99729-3363 ou richelleramostupper@gmail.com
Meu nome Jane,sou filha do Paul,meu contato é 83.986003395
My family lived in Rio in the mid 70’s and we spent a lot of time with Paul. My mother, Kay Savage edited his English version of this book. Paul went to Texas to visit us after we came back to the US. I have many childhood memories of his home in Baja de Tajuca, with the monkey and Tucan.
It’s been about 34 years since my last visit with Paulo and I still remember it fondly. I have been searching for the English version of his book online with no luck. My dad in Buffalo still has a copy along with all the deeds to his properties in Rio and the rewritten bible that Paulo worked on for many years but was never formally published. If anyone has more info on Paulo drop me an email at droconnor82@gmail.com I am still in contact with one of his local helpers Leo who would drive Paul around when needed and also help with entertaining Paul’s out of town guests.
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