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The Mafiya
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The Mafia — but Russian! OK, it's a little more complicated than that. 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. 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. They're known outside of Russia as the Organizatsiya ("The Organization") and within Russia as the Bratva ("The Brotherhood"). Members are called tolkachi ("pushers") or bratki ("bros"). But there are a lot of different terms for these guys, all with their own distinctions: A bratok (lit. "bro") is a low-ranking Mafiya soldier. These are stereotyped as extremely stupid and sometimes tastelessly flamboyant. They may be recruited from the population of petty street Gangbangers called gopniki. An avtoritet (lit. "authority") is a "middle manager" of the Bratva. Usually an old, crusty, experienced bro who proved to be smart enough to survive and outlive his peers. A vor v zakone (lit. "thief in law") is a high-ranking Mafiya member, like an Italian "wiseguy". Traditionally, vory v zakone lived by an ascetic code of conduct that forbade having a family or large living expenses. 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. 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). The Communist influence in the organization means that this is the highest rank (i.e. 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. A tolkach (lit. "pusher", possibly an outdated term) is a nonviolent crook with big connections, who uses these connections to help people for a price. Unlike The Don of an Italian Mob, a tolkach doesn't directly command lesser bros, but he knows many people who do. In modern times, these people are more associated with government graft than the Mafiya proper (in this case, the term reshala, lit. "solver", is more apt). A suka or ssuchenniy (lit. "bitch") is any former member of the Mafiya who tries to reform and aid the law. These are the enemies of any Mafiya members, and that's why you should never ever call any Russian criminal a bitch. A variant is the avtomatchik (lit. "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. 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). 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. They're not in the Mafiya — they're just interested in petty crime and beating the crap out of rival gopniki. In Russian media, they frequently overlap with the Lower-Class Lout stereotype. 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. Actual career criminals tend to see them as useful idiots, but there is evidence that the Mafiya has started to recruit from their ranks. 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. They put their skills — and the newly abandoned military hardware — to use. The desperation of The New Russia also saw the Mafiya dispense with old traditions like the uniform taboo and the restrictive lifestyle of the vory v zakone as a matter of practicality — or perhaps greed, as even rule-abiding mobsters will never turn down a golden opportunity to make a lot of money. The Mafiya was totally pervasive in Russia in The '90s, to the point that Russia was sometimes called a "Mafia state" and most small and medium businessmen had to employ them for "protection". Prison gang culture was historically very important to the Mafiya, in part because no professional criminal in the Soviet Union could hope to evade imprisonment for long. Prison gangs in The Gulag were branches and schools of the Mafiya called blatnye or otritsalovo, being in prison was a requirement for being a vor v zakone, and someone with no prison history at all was limited to gopnik or bratok status. Nowadays, with a less efficient police force, guard-sponsored gangs tend to have more influence. The Mafiya retains a system of symbolic tattoos that reflect not only a member's position in the hierarchy, but also their criminal and prison history — including symbols for "snitch" and "prison sex slave", naturally applied forcibly. Various offenses against the prison gang, including not contributing to the community slush fund (and "eating alone" as an American wiseguy might put it), could be punishable by demotion of the offender to the latter status, with the tattoos being applied as a Mark of Shame. Something never seen in Western media — and even rarely in Russian media — is Fenya, an extensive and idiosyncratic Thieves' Cant that makes true Bratva dialogues indecipherable to civilians. Western productions don't use it because they have enough problems with regular Russian, and Russian productions would have to rely on Footnote Fever or assume that viewers have extensive knowledge of the criminal world — although it was so pervasive in Russia that odds are, an average Russian who was reasonably plugged in during The '90s (especially an ex-gopnik) will understand Fenya, if a bit erratically. Gopniki will try to speak Fenya as well, with varying degrees of success (and usually with a lot of needless swearing). Aside from the Bratva proper, there are also ethnic Mafiya in Russia, mostly from the Caucasus, Ukraine, and Armenia. Some of them follow the usual Bratva mold, but are even more vicious and ruthless. Some (most famously the Chechen Mafiya, who are more similar to the Sicilians in their clannish organization and insular nature) do not, and are even worse. See also Yakuza, Former Regime Personnel, The Mafia, The Triads and the Tongs, The Cartel, The Irish Mob and Red Scare. Often the Ruthless Foreign Gangsters in works set after 1991 since they are portrayed as stereotypically linked to human trafficking alongside other Eastern European criminals. Kosher Nostra also overlaps with the Mafiya since some members are of Jewish descent such as Evsei Agronnote "The Godfather" of the Russian Mafia in America and Semion Moglievichnote Considered by most of his contemporaries to be the "Bosses of all bosses" and "The most dangerous gangster in the world" by the FBI. See also Spell Our Name With A Po for their uniformed counterparts, otherwise not much different. |
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Russian_Mafia | |
The Mafiya / int_1774847 | type |
Gayborhood | |
The Mafiya / int_1774847 | comment |
And, strangely enough, West Hollywood of all places. Must've been the combination of cheap, dilapidated property, and the chance to tell your friends back home that you live in Hollywood. They share space somewhat uncomfortably with one of LA's Gayborhoods (which, come to think of it, may well have started up in West Hollywood for more or less the same reasons, although the parts that are Gayborhood are rapidly gentrifying). | |
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The Cartel | |
The Mafiya / int_51589353 | comment |
At some point before 2050, the Mafiya and the Mexican drug cartels joined forces, gaining power rivaling that of their respective governments. This received a Call-Forward in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, with Lazarus mentioning that the Russian mob practically runs Mexico in 2027. | |
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Older Than They Think | |
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Older than the Mafia: Modern scholars estimate that Cosa Nostra (The Sicilian Mafia) originated in 1812. Almost a century later than the Russian Mafia. | |
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Why We Are Bummed: Communism Fell | |
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Pick a Russian city. Any Russian city. Or any former Soviet republic or Eastern-bloc country... You can even still find a Town with a Dark Secret in a remote area of the country that is run by the Mafiya and the lawful administration is In Name Only. | |
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Older Than Radio | |
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Older Than Radio: The Vorovskoy Mir (Thieves' World) originated in the early years of Tsarist Russia. Older than the Mafia: Modern scholars estimate that Cosa Nostra (The Sicilian Mafia) originated in 1812. Almost a century later than the Russian Mafia. |
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Played for Laughs | |
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Played for Laughs in Delocated with Yvgeni Mirminsky, the vodka enthusiast assassin with an ambition for stand-up comedy. Then the next season brings in his brother Sergei and things get serious. | |
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TheSeventies | |
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Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. There's a reason it's called "Little Odessa" with Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Central Asians, and other Soviet nationalities living there. Naturally, the Bratva had a substantial presence in the neighborhood during the 1970s and 80s. And, strangely enough, West Hollywood of all places. Must've been the combination of cheap, dilapidated property, and the chance to tell your friends back home that you live in Hollywood. They share space somewhat uncomfortably with one of LA's Gayborhoods (which, come to think of it, may well have started up in West Hollywood for more or less the same reasons, although the parts that are Gayborhood are rapidly gentrifying). |
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