![]() Organized crime has existed in Russia since Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, but it really exploded with Soviet collapse, when newly unemployed military men (and others with the right skill set for this sort of thing) found themselves suddenly unable to find work. Actual career criminals tend to see them as useful idiots, but there is evidence that the Mafiya has started to recruit from their ranks. A relatively recent development is the "AUE" subculture, which consists mostly of underage gopniki who still aren't in the Mafiya but pretend they are and really want to join. They're not in the Mafiya - they're just interested in petty crime and beating the crap out of rival gopniki. These are also distinct from the gopnik, or Russian Gang Banger, note A noted Canadian-American essayist/commentator of Russian Jewish descent by the name of Adam Gopnik was simultaneously amused, horrified, and mystified to find this out who's basically just the garden-variety petty criminal youth from the Wrong Side of the Tracks. This led to a long-standing taboo (since abandoned) of accepting people who once wore a uniform into the Mafiya and led to the bloody " Suchyi Voyny" ("Bitch Wars") in The Gulag between the end of WWII in 1945 and the death of Stalin in 1953 (at which point changes in the Gulag led to the separation of the avtomatchiks from the more traditional vory). "machine-gunner"), who left prison to fight in World War II and found themselves back in prison after the war - even they were considered a kind of suka. These are the enemies of any Mafiya members, and that's why you should never ever call any Russian criminal a bitch. "bitch") is any former member of the Mafiya who tries to reform and aid the law. In modern times, these people are more associated with government graft than the Mafiya proper (in this case, the term reshala, lit. Unlike The Don of an Italian Mob, a tolkach doesn't directly command lesser bros, but he knows many people who do. "pusher", possibly an outdated term) is a nonviolent crook with big connections, who uses these connections to help people for a price. there's no Capo equivalent in the Mafiya, there's just really powerful vory v zakone), and this also traditionally allowed the Mafiya to operate in smaller, more independent groups, which made it unlikely for the whole network to collapse if one group gets taken down. The Communist influence in the organization means that this is the highest rank ( i.e. But nowadays, that code and those traditions are a thing of the past, and one can simply pay one's way to becoming a vor v zakone (usually by a large endowment to the " obshchak", the underground mutual help fund-cum-expense account). This code included a requirement that a vor v zakone have a criminal record, in keeping with the old proverb that a thief's home is the prison, and there was also an elaborate "coronation" ritual by which one formally became a vor v zakone. Traditionally, vory v zakone lived by an ascetic code of conduct that forbade having a family or large living expenses. "thief in law") is a high-ranking Mafiya member, like an Italian "wiseguy". Usually an old, crusty, experienced bro who proved to be smart enough to survive and outlive his peers. "authority") is a "middle manager" of the Bratva. ![]() They may be recruited from the population of petty street Gangbangers called gopniki. These are stereotyped as extremely stupid and sometimes tastelessly flamboyant. "little bro") is a low-ranking Mafiya soldier. But there are a lot of different terms for these guys, all with their own distinctions: Members are called tolkachi ("pushers") or bratki ("bros"). They're known outside of Russia as the Organizatsiya ("The Organization") and within Russia as the Bratva ("The Brotherhood"). ![]() The thinking is that because they had to operate in the Soviet Union, The New Russia or some other former Soviet countries, they are by definition stronger than your average mobster. Russian mobsters engage in all the same activities as Italian mobsters but are typically depicted as much more openly ruthless, sadistic, brutal, and vicious - in other words, totally lacking the veneer of class and sophistication that many depictions of the Italian Mafia have built up around the organization. OK, it's a little more complicated than that.
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