The Russian Mafia (
Russian: русская мафия; russkaya mafiya) or
Bratva (brothers, brotherhood), is a term used to refer to the collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former
Soviet Union. Although not a singular criminal organization, most of the individual groups share similar goals and organizational structures[citation needed] that define them as part of the loose overall association.
Organized crime in Russia began in the imperial period of the Tsars, but it was not until the
Soviet era that vory v zakone ("thieves-in-law") emerged as leaders of prison groups in gulags (
Soviet prison labor camps), and their honor code became more defined. After
World War II, the death of
Joseph Stalin, and the fall of the Soviet Union, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market, exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics, and at its highest
point, even controlling as much as two-thirds of the
Russian economy.[citation needed]
Louis Freeh, former director of the
FBI, once said that the
Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to
U.S. national security in the mid-1990s.[2]
In modern times, there are as many as 6,
000 different groups with more than
200 of them having a global reach.
Criminals of these various groups are either former prison members corrupt Communist officials and business leaders, people with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences and leaders. However, the existence of such groups has been debated In
December 2009,
Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian
National Central Bureau of
Interpol, stated "Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former
Russians exists abroad", while in
August 2010,
Alain Bauer, a
French criminologist, said that it "is one of the best structured criminal organizations in
Europe, with a quasi-military operation."
The Russian mafia can be traced back to
Russia's imperial period, which began in the 1700s, in the form of banditry and thievery. Most of the population were peasants in poverty at the time, and criminals who stole from government entities and divided profits among the people earned
Robin Hood-like status, being viewed as protectors of the poor and becoming folk heroes.
In time, the Vorovskoy Mir (
Thieves' World) emerged as these criminals grouped and started their own code of conduct that was based on strict loyalty with one another and opposition against the government. When the
Bolshevik Revolution came around in
1917, the Thieves' World was alive and active.
Vladimir Lenin attempted to wipe them out after being robbed by a gang of highwaymen (who also performed an attempted rape), but failed[clarification needed], and the criminals survived into Joseph Stalin's reign
During
Stalin's reign as ruler, millions of criminals were sent to gulags (Soviet labor camps), where powerful criminals worked their way up to become vory v zakone ("thieves-in-law"). These criminal elite often conveyed their status through complicated tattoos, symbols still used by Russian mobsters.
After
Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II,
Stalin was desperate for more men to fight for the nation, offering prisoners freedom if they joined the army. Many flocked to help out in the war, but this act betrayed codes of the Thieves' World that one must not ally with the government. When the war was over, however, Stalin sent them back to prison.[citation needed] Those who refused to fight in the war referred to the traitors as suka ("bitch"), and the latter landed at the bottom of the "hierarchy".
Outcast, the suki separated from the others and formed their own groups and power bases by collaborating with prison officials, eventually gaining the luxury of comfortable positions. Bitterness between the groups erupted into a series of
Bitch Wars from
1945 to
1953 with many killed every day. The prison officials encouraged the violence, seeing it as a way to rid the prisons of criminals.
After the death of Stalin, around eight million inmates were released from gulags. Those that survived the imprisonment and Bitch Wars became a new breed of criminal, no longer bound to the laws of the old Thieves' World. They adopted an "every-man-for-himself" attitude that meant cooperating with the government if necessary. As corruption spread throughout the
Soviet government, the criminal underworld began to flourish.[citation needed] This corruption was common during the
Brezhnev era, and the nomenklatura (the power elite of the country, usually corrupt officials) ran the country along with criminal bosses.
- published: 23 Feb 2016
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