По понятиям
By Their Own Rules
B2 · Upper Intermediate · non-fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story
An upper-intermediate documentary reader on Russian organised crime — and a deliberate argument with its own myth. Why this criminal world grew out of the labour camps rather than the slums, what the thief-in-law's code actually demanded, how tattoos worked as documents, why a 1979 meeting in Kislovodsk changed everything, and how the racket of the nineties ended up wearing a suit.
Characters
- The thief in law (Вор в законе) — A status, not a job
- The common fund (Общак) — The money that held it together
- The roof (Крыша) — Protection, sold by the month
- Article 210.1 (Статья 210.1) — The state's answer, 2019
Vocabulary from this story
- преступность — crime
- вор — thief
- закон — law
- кодекс — code
- статус — status
- сходка — gathering
- общак — common fund
- иерархия — hierarchy
- авторитет — boss
- бригада — crew
- группировка — gang
- крыша — protection