Mafia in the Soviet Union | AskHistorians Archive Observer

I wrote (part of) my MA dissertation on organised crime in ex-Soviet countries, so I can answer your question.

Okay, before I start, I should say that technically "Mafia" refers to the Sicilian organised crime gang... but their fame has caused people to refer to other organised crime gangs as "Mafias" and certainly in Russia today people do often talk about "the Mafiya" to refer to organised criminals.

The first major criminal organisation grew up in the Gulags, as essentially a powerful prison gang. It was called the Vor-v-Zakone, which translates as something like "thieves-with-a-code". They had a strict set of rules, that most significantly, banned any cooperation with the guards. It also banned drinking alchahol, though it's not very clear how much they actually obeyed the rule. They often refused to do labour. They stole, raped other prisoners (while condemning homosexuals), killed those who opposed them, all the stuff you expect from a prison gang. They also had a complex system of prison tattoos. A cat meant you were a thief, "only shooting will redeem me" and pictures of saints and communist leaders were very common. Dots on the hand showed how many years the thief had been in prison. And so forth. They not only operated in prison (where they'd started) but also outside, upon release. Released Vory would work with other Vory as gangs of thieves.

(One note: I'm referring to the whole group as Vory. Actually, Vory were the fully initiated members. Think of it like the Mafia's "Made Men." The ordinary followers were just underlings, while those who'd proven themselves were "crowned" as Vory, by other Vory.)

Now, during WW2, with the desperate need for soldiers, many prisoners were allowed to go and fight. Of course, the Vory had sworn not to cooperate with the government, but some went anyway, for patriotism or just as a chance to get out of prison for a while. When they returned, having defeated the Germans, rather than being praised they found the Vory who stayed behind referred to them as "Suka" - bitches. They wouldn't accept them back as Vory. So, the Suka ganged together and fought the Vory in a gang war across the Gulag system. The guards sided completely with the Suka (as they were organised criminals who were willing to work with the guards, so the guards thought they were useful), and often seized improvised weapons from Vory while ignoring the Suka. By the 1950s, the Vory were simply gone, having all either been murdered or absorbed into the Suka.

But, to many criminals, the Vory became romantic figures. Heroically resisting the government, working together with honour, having all those cool tattoos. So, the Suka (hardly, after all, a complimentary name) essentially became the Vory. Also, as the Gulag system was somewhat reduced after Stalin, they became more significant outside prison.

But it was in the 70s that the Vory became not just feared, but actually rich and powerful, as they allied with a much more powerful group: the Communist nomenklatura.

In the 70s, corruption was rife in the Soviet Union. This both was exacerbated by, and exacerbated, the production problems of the planned economy. A lot of factories simply did not get enough of what they needed, and so "the fixer" became the most important worker in a factory: someone who could acquire parts. In addition, a flourishing black market grew for a wide variety of products, mostly ordinary (medicine, food, cars). Though of course, it also included prostitutes. Some of this was was taken from legitimate factories, but others were produced in secret factories producing exclusively for the black market. In running this black market, the two most important groups were the organised criminals, led by the Vory, and corrupt communist officials.

It's important to reiterate at this point that the Vory were not a unified organisation like the Mafia you might see on TV. They were simply the leading figures in an Underworld culture. It's a little bit like the Yakuza in Japan: a Yakuza boss is a figure that people in Japan would recognise as an important criminal boss, they probably have tattoos, if their underlings fail they're expected to cut off a pinkie, but it's not like all Yakuza work together as part of one giant organisation (this isn't a perfect example, as the Yakuza were and are organised into a more formalised set of individual gangs than the Vory were). An important and influential criminal would be recognised by other Vories as a powerful figure, get tattoos, and be "crowned". It should be said, however, that back in the prisons, it was still a much stricter system, with a very definite seperation between Vories and their followers, and other criminals. It is also important to say though, that while different Vories might each lead their own gang of thieves, they didn't fight that much. The Russian underworld at this time was mostly about running the black market under the noses of the police, with the cooperation of corrupt officials, corrupt police, and corrupt members of the KGB. It wasn't about shooting each other over territory.

Now, we then get to the 80s and Perestroika. Gorbachev allowed people to set up small companies. But that requires money and investment, and in a Communist country, who's been able to build up large amounts of money that's sitting around? Criminals, and their corrupt partners in the Nomenklatura. It's estimated that 90% of the new companies were started with dirty money.

Then, we have the collapse of the Soviet Union. Suddenly, all the factories and state companies are falling apart and available to snap up. At the same time, drugs from Central Asia are available, and people have money to buy it, and are in collapsing social conditions.

It's here that we begin to see the dissolution of the Vory as a criminal culture. For the Vory, crime was about stealing and selling things on the black market. Money laundering through banks, fraudulent money transfers, setting up shell companies to hide assets, and most significantly, selling drugs, were just not things most of the older Vory really knew how to do. So we have a new generation of bosses, who aren't interested in Vory traditions, and have probably never served time. These were generally just referred to as Authorities. So, as crime changed, the traditional Vory were simply left behind. And in the underworld of the early 90s, that often meant dying in a brutal gang was over territory, fought with military-grade equipment.

Now, in the modern day, they still sort of exist as part of Russia's criminal culture, but there isn't such a divide between Vory and non-Vory. Modern crime is just too fluid. But many Russian criminals have Vory-esque tattoos, and may use the title Vory v Zakone... or not. Of course, it's a bit difficult for outsiders to understand exactly what's going on in a criminal underworld, so my understanding of modern crime in former Soviet countries is likely less accurate than the more historical periods.

I don't have the sources on hand, but I can find them if you want to read them.