The origin of Russian gangsters

A product of the times

Dramatic changes occurred in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The disintegration of the Soviet Union left a huge vacuum in all aspects of Russian society, morality, and economic life. Russian gangs took the opportunity to fill the vacuum and control a large amount of social wealth.

In addition, there are constant conflicts between various factions in the Russian political system, which makes some officials caught in it worry about their own situation and drives them to maximize their use of their powers and obtain generous material benefits. And using corrupt officials to benefit oneself is the gang's best skill.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the living standards of the Russian people dropped sharply, but the criminals became rich overnight. As a result, psychological imbalance has led to terrible changes in values. Making money through labor has turned into getting rich by any means necessary. In the eyes of some teenagers, crime has become the best way to get rich.

Olympic Games: An opportunity for the rise of gangs

During the Soviet era, gangs were never able to exist on a large scale because the state squeezed out social space, but their soil never died out.

In 1980, Moscow hosted the Olympic Games, which inspired a fitness movement that swept across the Soviet Union. For a time, many young people gathered in sports venues to exercise. This group of people, together with those who came out of the "Gulag", later became the backbone of the Russian gang.

In many areas around Moscow, the sports groups that emerged in the fitness wave caught up with the end of Brezhnev’s rule and the era when Andropov and Chernenko came to power. . The social changes brought about by the changes in the ruling authorities became an important opportunity for them to combine and develop with the "Gulag" forces.

After Gorbachev came to power, the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of institutional and ideological relaxation. The widespread commodity economy became the economic prerequisite for the rise of gangs. Gangsters who collect protection fees have appeared in many markets. Their core members are "gulag" elements. In addition, they also include activists in the fitness trend, as well as ordinary vagrants and gangsters.

That era was an era when the power of the government was gradually weakened and it did not adapt to the new conditions of economic marketization and political liberalization. In the market, there is even a phenomenon that businessmen would rather pay protection fees to gangs than pay state taxes. Many businessmen report that gangs handle issues far more fairly and efficiently than the police and courts; and before the country has established relevant institutions, gangs have taken the lead in mastering and developing "commercial arbitration" related businesses.

Of course, as in other countries around the world, serious illegal phenomena such as large-scale fights and assassinations closely related to gangs have also slowly emerged as the political authorities gradually become weaker.

Various gangs have gradually emerged in the Russian gangs. They are often divided into Caucasian faction, Slavic faction, Central Asian faction and so on according to region. Under it, the Georgian faction, the Azerbaijani faction, the Kazakhstani faction, etc. will be specifically divided. Of course, the more detailed ones can be specific to the characters. Each big boss has his own gang, such as the "Sun Gang" and "Giant Elephant Gang" who have great influence in Moscow. The bosses all have their own nicknames that they use exclusively in the gang, such as Usoyan's "Hassan Daddy." And each of them is a "discipline gangster" in their respective gangs.

In 1988, the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs defined "the existence of organized criminal groups in Soviet society" for the first time in a report. It was also from that time that the "Organized Crime Department" appeared in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Of course, the government's crackdown on gangs did not happen overnight. Russian gangs still exist today.