User:KingRice27/Russian Mafia

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Organized crime in the Russian Empire, as it was known in the early years, began during the Imperial Period, 1721-1917. In the early years, the Mafia established itself through forms of banditry and thievery but over time it leaked into the prison system and began to evolve. The early criminal heads were commonly known as thieves-in-law and were derived from leaders of prison groups where they operated under the same honor codes that were established while in the forced prison camps. During these years most of the population were poverty-stricken pheasants and criminals who stole from government entities and divided profits among the people. This earned a lot of the early criminals to be compared to the likes of Robin Hood while being viewed as protectors of the poor, often even becoming local folk heroes... Over the next couple hundred years, the Organized crime groups operated in various size pockets but after WWII and the death of Joseph Stalin, in 1953, more gangs emerged as the Black Market began to prosper. The Mafia became so entrenched in the Black market and other criminal activity that by 1990 it led to the FBI director said that the Russian mafia posed the greatest threat to the National Security of the United States.

Origins
When the Bolshevik Revolution came around in 1917, the Thieves' World was alive and active. Vladimir Lenin attempted to wipe them out, but failed, and the criminals survived into Joseph Stalin's reign.[1]

Russian organized crime is also unique in that it does not possess a clearly defined, top-down hierarchy. Unlike the Italian mafias, with their "capofamiglia" or the "Chinese triads" with their “mountain masters,” the Russian Mafia structural ranking does not include irreplaceable leaders. It would be impossible to take down a few “heads '' of the Red Mafia in order to topple the entire organization because they simply do not exist. This gives ROC an invaluable strategic advantage over those attempting to dismantle it.

The main difference between Russian and Italian mafia is that Italian mafia uses murders and thefts as the main methods of violence. The Russian mafia groups use extortion, credit card fraud, murder, kidnap, and fuel frauds (Friedman 2000, p. 160-161).

1917–1991: Soviet era

=== From Article: During Stalin's reign as ruler, millions of people were sent to gulags (Soviet labor camps), where powerful criminals worked their way up to become vorami v zakone ("thieves-in-law"). These criminal elite often conveyed their status through complicated tattoos, symbols still used by Russian mobsters.[1] ===

=== After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, Stalin was recruiting 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. Those who chose not to fight in the war referred to the traitors as suka ("bitch"), and the traitors 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.[2][3][1]. Not adding ===

=== ADD: While Hitler’s invasion of Russia during WWII caused countless casualties on the battlefield, it also led to one of more violent periods in the history of Russian organized crime. In 1941, as the German army approached, Stalin desperately looked for ways to bolster the Russian army’s numbers. Turning to the seemingly endless supply of able-bodied men overflowing the gulags and prison system, Stalin promised the vor a chance to win back their freedom by defending Russia against the imminent attack. Joining the army to fight for Stalin (cooperating with the government) was a flagrant violation of the criminal code of honor, yet for many, this offer was too tempting to refuse. Thousands of prisoners signed up to defend against the Nazi threat and regain their freedom; that freedom, however, proved to be only momentary. Following the conclusion of the war in 1945, Stalin reneged on his initial promise, throwing the vor soldiers right back into the gulags that they had so desperately tried to escape. This marked the beginning of what would be known as the “Suki Wars.” Though the prison system had never been a particularly safe haven to begin with, the return to the gulags was a death sentence for the vor who had fought in the Red Army. To the vory v zakone, cooperating with the government was tantamount to treason; therefore, the thieves who had remained in prison saw the actions of the thieves-turned-soldiers as the ultimate betrayal. These “traitors,” called suki, were systematically slaughtered in the gulags as a punishment for their treachery and cowardice. The prison guards did nothing to stop the massacre, and in fact often encouraged the violence, as they viewed it was a quick and cost-effective method for thinning the criminal ranks within the prison system. It is unknown just how many suki were killed during this extermination process, but in 1953, eight million prisoners were finally released. By then, the culture of the Russian criminal underworld had been irreparably altered—no longer did a criminal need to abide by the antiquated rules of the old “Thieves’ World.” ===

1992–2000: Growth and internationalization

In the 1990s in Russia, as well as in other post-Soviet countries, vast deposits of natural resources and businesses that the state had owned for decades were privatised. Former Soviet bureaucrats, factory directors, aggressive businessmen and criminal organizations used insider deals, bribery and simple brute force in order to grab lucrative assets. Businesses began building their own private armies of security agents, bodyguards and commercial spies. They often simply bought the people and weapons of the former Soviet state, or even those of the current Russian police. Russia's new capitalists spent millions of dollars for protection, buying armor-plated cars, bomb sensors, hidden cameras, bulletproof vests, anti-wiretapping gear, weapons, recruiting veterans of the Afghan and Chechen wars as their bodyguards. However, almost every business in Russia, from curbside vendors to huge oil and gas companies, made payments to the organized crime for protection ("krysha"). Businessmen said that they needed the "krysha" because the laws and the court system were not functioning properly in Russia. The only way for them to enforce a contract was to turn to a criminal "krysha". They also used it to intimidate competitors, enforce contracts, collect debts or take over new markets. It was also becoming increasingly common for Russian businesses to turn to the "red krysha" (the corrupt police who doubled as a paid protection racket). Contract killings were common.[1]

'''ADD: The discussion notes that Russian mobsters now operate in more than 50 countries around the world. Their background in a totalitarian country with widespread corruption has resulted in their development of a unique business acumen. Thirty Russian crime syndicates operate in at least 17 cities in the United States. The Red Mafiya is the most brilliant and savage Russian mob organization in the world; the Russian mob virtually controls Russia. In addition, both the Bush and the Clinton Administrations have unwittingly facilitated the Russian mob and the untrammeled corruption of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.'''

'''In early 1993, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported there were over 5,000 organized crime groups operating in Russia. These groups had an estimated 100,000 members with a leadership of 18,000. Although Russian authorities have currently identified over 5,000 criminal groups in that country, Russian officials believe that only approximately 300 of those have some identifiable structure.11 Organized crime groups in Russia are not nearly as structured as those in the U.S., such as the LCN.'''

References:
https://web.stanford.edu/group/sias/cgi-bin/smunc/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Russia-BG-Final.pdf

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/red-mafiya-how-russian-mob-has-invaded-america

https://crimereads.com/writing-about-the-russian-mob-the-brutal-and-the-absurd

https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/rusorg3.htm

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bandit

Joseph Stalin

https://voegelinview.com/russian-empire-1721-1917/