Bitch wars in the USSR. Thieves and war

Irreconcilable leaders of the world of thieves: Tariel Oniani/"Taro" (in handcuffs) and Aslan Usoyan/"Grandfather Hasan"
Gogi Chikovani - the oldest thief in law
Khuseyn Akhmadov/"Hussein the Blind"
Vladimir Volkov/"Volchok"
Sergey Timofeev/Sylvester. Killed 09/13/1994
Vyacheslav Ivankov/"Yaponchik". Mortally wounded 07/28/2009
In Spain, thief in law “Shakro Molodoy” was accused of “organizing a criminal community and laundering criminal proceeds”
Meeting at top level: From left to right: Dzhemal Khachidze/“Dzhemal”, Aslan Usoyan/“Grandfather Hassan” and Zakhary Kalashov/“Shakro-Young” (far right)

There is another bloody thieves' feud going on in Russia - a war of "thieves in law" with each other. The winner will take the throne of the thieves' emperor and will control the "Russian mafia" throughout the world

The first thieves' war began when the "blatars" mobilized during the Great War began to return to places of detention. Patriotic War(second half of the 1940s). Some of them received medals, and one thief was even a Hero Soviet Union became. Once in civilian life, the thieves returned to their usual craft. In the camps, old friends presented them with complaints: if you are a thief, you should not serve in the army, and if you served, that means you are a “bitch” and according to the “concepts”, thieves’ rules, you deserve to die. Then these wars were called “bitch.”
The second thieves' war took place under Khrushchev (50s). The Soviet government decided to reforge the thieves with their own hands, taking advantage of the fact that according to the laws criminal world A thief should not do certain things in the zone, for example, clean the toilet. Thieves were taken to special zone“White Swan”, where there was no one to force to do menial work - only thieves and security. The thief had no choice but to force another thief to carry out the bucket. And they began to kill each other and start camp riots. They were shot, crushed by tanks...
“In the practice of the Soviet camp system, thieves’ wars were one of the most significant ways to eradicate this caste. Sometimes such confrontations were provoked by the thieves themselves, sometimes special conditions were created for this at the initiative of the country’s leadership,” said Anatoly Zhoglo, police colonel, veteran of the Main Directorate for Organized Crime and Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The first salvos of the third thieves' war rang out in 1991, after the authorities of the Chechen criminal community, declaring that “they would take over the country anyway,” refused to participate in the division of the territory of the USSR. (In 1988, the so-called “gangway” took place in Dagomys, at which the thieves divided the “areas of responsibility” among themselves.)
The confrontation first took place at the level of shootouts and mutual imprisonments with the help of corrupt “cops” or “committee members.” Then the Slavic authorities decided to declare war on the Caucasians. The main initiator is considered to be Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed “Sylvester,” but behind this leader of the Solntsevskaya and Orekhovskaya gangs were the thieves Dzhem and Sliva. The difficulty was to establish the habitats of the leaders of the Caucasian groups. In the spring of 1991, Sylvester almost managed to solve this problem. A day was set when the leaders of the Caucasian criminals, according to Sylvester’s plan, were to be simultaneously liquidated, but information about this plan was “accidentally” leaked to the media...
In 1998, even more serious volleys of the third thieves thundered. Thieves' blood was shed abundantly due to... default. Most of the common fund turned out to be invested in instantly depreciated GKO notes. (The thieves were not original and followed the example of our major government officials.) When the crisis broke out, at a meeting in Odessa, the thieves were going to ask awkward questions the main custodian of the thieves' common fund - the elderly Aslan Usoyan, nicknamed "Grandfather Hasan". But before the gathering had time to begin, Ukrainian fighters against organized crime appeared. Six months later, in one of the roadside eateries on the Moscow Ring Road, unknown persons killed a Georgian thief in law, who was responsible for the security of that “meeting.” And the questions to “Ded Hasan” disappeared by themselves.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two to three hundred Slavic thieves are currently “working” in Russia. Total number The “legitimate” thieves’ caste exceeds two thousand, most of whom are Georgian thieves. The latter settled in Russia after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili introduced severe criminal penalties only for self-recognition of the title of “thief in law” (up to 10 years with confiscation of property).

Thieves' morals
“Even before the revolution, the institution of thieves in law began to form on Russian territory,” recall veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. - Then such people called themselves vagabonds or Ivans, who did not remember their kinship. Around those times, shortly before the Bolsheviks came to power, a code of thieves was formed - the so-called “concepts”. A thief must not marry, have property, and must not obey any state power, and even more so cooperate with the zone administration. A thief must monitor the collection of funds for the common fund and never give up the title of thief. After Khrushchev's bloodshed in the White Swan, the thieves made concessions for themselves, for example, they allowed themselves to get married. And they acquired property like nouveau riche.
Today, the “thieves’ vertical” resembles the structure of the Soviet nomenklatura. Instead of meetings of the Politburo there is a thieves’ “gangway”, the decisions of which are binding (sometimes on pain of death). Instead of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank there is a thieves' common fund. Instead of the army - “infantry”, ordinary gangsters. The role of the KGB is performed by corrupt officials and employees of state security agencies.
“In matters of security, there has been such close interpenetration that now the party in power has begun to be called the party of thieves and swindlers. Although many of the deputies have not even been seated yet,” police veterans conclude.
One of the thieves of the old formation presented an “inside” view of my question about morals: “...No, I have never seen the thieves’ code and did not sign it in blood. Old inmates told me that this code was invented by the famous “Sonka the Golden Hand”. She also came up with the common fund idea - to hand over part of the loot to a common fund in order to hire lawyers and “warm up” them in the zone. Large sums were collected there. Because of this common fund, they devoured her - they handed her over to the police, but they didn’t help in prison, and she disappeared...
According to historian Alexei Mukhin, since the mid-1980s, KGB officers of the USSR entered into authorized contact with representatives of the thieves' world in all thieves' prisons - Vladimir, Tulun (Irkutsk), "White Swan" and others. The outcome of this action is unknown, but after these conversations the KGB seized almost all incriminating documents on the thieves from the GULAG archives and, apparently, compiled its own file cabinet.
According to archival data, more than 70% of convicted thieves in law collaborated with the authorities in one form or another. These documents posed a considerable danger to their authority in the criminal environment. Thus, the KGB was able to find an opportunity to manipulate criminal authorities, and only during the serious upheavals that the all-powerful Committee experienced did the criminal community again become uncontrollable. According to one version, in order to regain control over the criminal underworld, the special services are eliminating thieves under the guise of the third thieves' war.

The smell of blood
Four thieves stood at the origins of this war: Tariel Oniani (“Taro”), Aslan Usoyan (“Grandfather Hasan”), Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”) and Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”). A series of thieves’ gatherings took place in Russia and abroad, some were organized by Tariel Oniani, others by Aslan Usoyan. The main “agenda” of each of them was ways to achieve leadership.
Aslan Usoyan, a Kurd, born in Tbilisi in 1937, was the holder of the largest thieves' common fund in Russia. Preferred to live in Krasnodar region. According to operational data, he does not call his opponent an enemy, but on the contrary, says that Oniani is “a talented businessman with great connections" He was the initiator of convening a number of thieves’ “gangways”, the main issues of which were the confrontation with Oniani and the money for Olympic construction in Sochi.
Tariel Oniani was born in 1952. He received his first conviction for robbery at the age of 17, and was convicted eight times in total. Listed among the top three largest authorities underworld former USSR. More than once he gathered gatherings of thieves to sentence “Grandfather Hassan.” As a rule, they were dispersed by special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At one of these meetings, which was held on the ship, as a result of a special operation, more than 50 crime bosses were detained, including 39 thieves in law. Among them were Tariel Oniani himself, Jamal Khachidze and Roland Gegechkori (“Hat”).
In 2005, Spain put Tariel on the wanted list on charges of organizing a criminal group and money laundering. To capture him, the Spanish police carried out a large-scale special operation “Wasp” in 2006, but the crime boss managed to leave the country, and his daughter and several of his closest associates were imprisoned. But most importantly, as a result of this action, Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”) was arrested.
Oniani sent his people to one of the elders of the thieves’ world, Gogi Chikovani.
“Thieves must not drink their own blood! This plays into the hands of the cops!” - said then 83-year-old thief in law Gogi Chikovani, one of the oldest thieves in law in the post-Soviet space.
They didn't listen to him. After a number of thieves’ “summits”, both those that took place and those dispersed by the police, the body of Kutaisi thief Malkhaz Mindadze was found in the capital of Greece with two bullet wounds. One of Taro's assistants was also killed there. According to some reports, the murder of Mindadze is revenge for the murder of one of Shakro-Young’s friends.
The thief in law “Yaponchik” did not interfere in the fight between these people. He didn't intervene until a sniper shot him.
Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”) was born in 1940 in Moscow. Also known as “Glory to the Japanese”, “Grandfather”, “Assyrian son-in-law”, “Ivanets”. Committed thefts. At the end of the 1960s, he began to “work” with “Mongol” (Gennady Karkov), who extorted money from trade workers and “guild workers”. They were taken outside the city and forced to dig graves to get money and valuables. In the late 1980s, Ivankov was in prison. In 1991, at the request of a group of famous politicians and major cultural figures (doctor Svyatoslav Fedorov, singer Joseph Kobzon, human rights activist Sergei Kovalev), the thief in law was released early. Then “Jap” managed to move to the USA (under the guise of a cameraman for the film crew of the famous film director Rolan Bykov).
FBI agents monitored Ivankov and collected evidence of his criminal activities in the United States. An American court sent “Jap” to jail for 10 years for racketeering. After serving time in a foreign land, Ivankov was extradited to Russia. Since then, he has never even come close to the thieves' gatherings that took place in the territory of the former USSR, which were crushed by fighters against organized crime.
“Don’t touch Grandfather,” people close to him said, “he now writes fairy tales for children. Let him die in peace, he doesn’t feel well anyway...”
...The Jap was shot on the evening of July 28, 2009 from a Gazelle cargo truck with a covered body, in which a window was cut out for targeted shooting. In a truck parked across the street from the Thai Elephant restaurant, they found two sniper rifles. The “honorable” thief in law was 69 years old.

How the thieves' commander was killed
Two snipers on one target at once is a unique phenomenon. With an aiming range of up to a kilometer, shooting from 150 meters - and one sniper would be enough. It is possible that the abandoned rifles are a distraction factor. During the investigation, it turned out that the bullet was filed crosswise in order to cause maximum damage to the body.
By official version, Ivankov was allegedly going to resolve a dispute between criminal groups over the gambling business. Representatives of criminal circles reported then that Ivankov almost constantly lived and worked in Moscow. He spent the daytime hours in the office of one of the companies that belonged to his friends, on Khoroshevskoye Shosse, not far from the Polezhaevskaya metro station. And in fact, he composed children's fairy tales.
But, firstly, “Yap” at the wake of “Skif” (a thief in law killed shortly before the assassination attempt on Ivankov) gave his word to take revenge on the killers. Secondly, a week before the assassination attempt, “Yaponchik” had a serious conversation with representatives of the Georgian thieves’ diaspora, during which Ivankov was going to “break” a bottle of champagne on someone’s head.
Operatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs shared this idea with me: “Think about it, who could drive a Gazelle stolen from the region, with two SVDs on board, through almost all of Moscow with impunity, past all the checkpoints? Know clearly where to shoot, at whom, and get away with impunity. And throw some more trunks, but they are worth a lot! Think about who really controlled the gambling business in the country? Thieves in law? It’s funny, this is last year’s snow!”
After the attempt on Ivankov’s life, a “malyava”, allegedly signed by “Yaponchik”, “Ded Khasan”, “Shakro-Young” and thirty other thieves, caused a stir in the criminal world. (“Malyava” is a note outlining the decision of the thieves’ “Politburo”, which is distributed through illegal means throughout all correctional institutions.) The authors of the “malyava” called on every “honest tramp” to kill Tariel Oniani, to whom they applied in the epistle dirty word to "b".
“Now not a single man will sit in the same cell with Oniani, because he will simply have to kill him, which means that he will have to impose on himself another sentence and the sentence of those people who stand for Oniani,” this is how one of the representatives commented on the contents of the letter to me the top of the criminal world.
Rhetorical question: could Vyacheslav Ivankov, being in a coma after the assassination attempt, become the author of the “malyava”, under which his signature is the first? Another signatory, Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”), was in a Spanish prison. One of the representatives of the criminal world told me: “In principle, other thieves could sign for Ivankov and Kalashov. Conceptually, this is possible. Until now, none of the thieves have withdrawn their signature on the little one.”
Four years ago each of warring parties sent her representatives to the elderly thief Gogi Chikovani in Tbilisi. At the same time, Gogi told NTV correspondent Maxim Gladky about his attitude to the thieves’ war. We are publishing fragments of the conversation that were not aired.
“Correspondent: Ivankov, they say, took the position of one of the conflicting parties. Do you have a desire to go to Russia to prevent the thieves' war?
Gogi Chikovani: No, that’s impossible. Tariel’s brother came to see me... I advised: “Stop it.” I even said, “Don’t think that you will win, because when you win, your defeat will begin.” They didn't understand. I say: “The second party, which is in conflict with “Jap”, she won’t come! Even thief in law Tariel gathered, but no one answered, and everything fell silent.
It is useless to talk about preventing war between thieves' clans. They are because big money they quarrel... And they don’t like Georgian thieves even here in Georgia. They are no longer in the villages or regions. They went to Russia or further. I'm the only thief in law here who is free.
I can't reconcile them. Frankly, they are no longer thieves, they are businessmen. I had people say interesting things. About the “gangway” in the summer on Pirogovka, on a boat. Come on, idiots! One conflicting party was there on board, and the other was not. This is vile. And I told the thieves that what they were up to was similar to what happened in 1947. Then there was real war between the crooked bitch thieves and us. And so they killed us, we killed them. I’ve served 27 years in prison in my life and I don’t envy those who followed my path.”
On the evening of September 16, 2010, an assassination attempt was made on Aslan Usoyan on Tverskaya Street in Moscow. He received three gunshot wounds to the stomach. Two 7.62 mm cartridges and a homemade automatic rifle were found at the crime scene. In many ways it repeated the assassination attempt on “Yaponchik”. But “Grandfather Hasan” survived.
Aslan Usoyan was hit by one bullet, 7.62 caliber, fired, according to a preliminary version, from Chinese equivalent Kalashnikov. The bullet is not poisoned, without a cross-shaped notch. The media immediately connected this attempt with the name of Oniani. Through his lawyer, Taro, who was in prison, categorically rejected such assumptions. However, after Ivankov’s death, he also expressed extreme regret over the loss of such a person and even asked the investigation to let him go to the cemetery to lay a wreath to his ally.
In March 2011 Russian authorities Oniani was extradited to Spain at the request of the law enforcement agencies of that country...

Rearguard of "Ded Hasan"
Another heavy loss of the fighting forces of “Ded Hasan” was the death of Andrei Selvyan, nicknamed “Andrei Sukhumsky”. He was born in the foothills of Sukhum, was a farce, and in 1986 he was convicted in Tuapse (Krasnodar Territory). When he was freed, he became leader of the organized crime group, which, according to investigators, included Ashot Elekchan, Ishkhon Mochkalyan, Yusif Osipov, Sergey Evrushyan. They took control of a number of markets and commercial structures in the Moscow region, Krasnodar Territory and Leningrad region. Then he met Aslan Usoyan.
In 1994, Selvyan in the Krasnodar Territory received another sentence for extortion, but despite this, he managed to remain free. He was sent to a penal colony in Ust-Labinsk to serve his sentence. According to the documents, it was stated that he was in it, but in fact the “authority” lived in Moscow.
Despite his criminal past, Selvyan was the deputy head of two Moscow private security companies. According to operatives, he was personally involved in protecting Usoyan, and on the day of the assassination attempt, it was Andrei who was driving the jeep that brought “Hasan” to the crime scene.
Now “Sukhumsky” himself became a target for killers: he was killed by unknown assailants in Moscow, on Volochaevskaya Street, in the entrance of the house where Andrei lived. The criminal hid the PM in a paper bag. He shot the security officer twice in the back, and when he tried to get his service pistol, he finished him off with a “control” in the head. The boss was still alive when the ambulance came for him, but died on the way to the hospital.
A bag with a bullet hole and eight spent 9mm cartridges were found at the scene. The deceased had with him a license for a pistol from the private security company SMERSH, a telephone, 50 thousand rubles and about 7 thousand dollars.
““Grandfather Hasan” instructed Selvyan to sort out conflict situations, and also be responsible for the safety of thieves’ gangs,” said fighters against organized crime from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. “Andrei Sukhumsky managed to hold one of these meetings in Krasnaya Polyana, next to the current government residence.”
Recently, law enforcement officers put two thieves in law on bunks: Vladimir Volkov (“Volchok”) and Khusein Akhmadov (“Husein Blind”). “Volchok” was detained by employees of the criminal investigation department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Adygea. During a personal search, 0.6 g of methadone was found and confiscated from him. “Blind” in Moscow was found with 3 grams of heroin, as well as a homemade dagger with a blade 40 centimeters long, recognized as a bladed weapon. According to Akhmadov, the dagger was made for him as a gift by some camp craftsman.
Both thieves were part of Usoyan’s circle of friends. "Volchok" was looking over the Krasnodar region, where in last years lived "Grandfather Hasan". And “Hussein the Blind” is one of the few Chechen thieves in law who is friendly with Usoyan.

The price of victory is world domination?
- What do thieves divide among themselves specifically? - I asked one of the representatives of the criminal generals.
- The same as always, power. After all, after the crisis of 1998, when half of the common fund almost collapsed, no one asked “Ded Hassan” where the money went and who would compensate. And Tarot, obviously, insisted on explanations. In general, word by word, everyone began to form their own thieves around themselves...
- That’s why we went to Chikovani?
- Chikovani is old already. I just needed his name. Those who are 50-60 years old gain strength. And they are not dividing specific plants and factories. Thieves are very rarely friends with each other, but “suit” obliges them to respect each other. But if a thief wants to kill another, he must do it with a knife. And then there are some snipers... I do not rule out that the special services are eliminating the thieves one by one, taking advantage of the quarrel between Oniani and Usoyan. Look at how often the murders happen. They killed one, paused for two or three months, then another, paused again. This is how committee members worked under Khrushchev.
- Why such a pause?
- So that the thieves get confused in the “misunderstandings”, squabble with each other, forget, calm down, relax.
- If you estimate the amount of funds, the palaces in our zones should be cleaner than in Rublyovka?
- There are palaces, only thieves build them for themselves.
- I have heard that state security maintains close contacts with thieves...
- “Shakro-Young” tried to get into the aluminum business when, according to security operatives, Deripaska came there. During the negotiations, the thief was simply hit on the head with an ashtray and thrown out. And there was no response from him, and no repeated attempts to get involved in this matter.
The Spanish special services tried to isolate “Shakro-Young” from any contacts with the outside world, even arresting his lawyers. And in the Shakro empire there are not only notorious casinos, there are powerful industrial enterprises and some banks that are now under threat.
Other thieves also have banks, but each of the clans planning to fight has its own methods of protecting criminal financial flows. It would be ridiculous for thieves not to take advantage of a situation where the government is allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to prevent a financial crisis. And, pushing each other with their elbows, they strove for this “trough”, wanting first of all to insure their financial institutions. That's all thieves' romance...
- And after the events of 1998 and the war of thieves, did “Grandfather Hassan” leave the “common fund” or did he stay?
“I don’t know,” the thief’s colleague answered honestly, “I’ve been out of work for a long time.” Each team could create their own. Or it was crushed.
- That is, it is possible that new leader will become the new custodian?
- This may be the case. The most important thing here is to figure out who is behind the assassination attempt. “Grandfather Hassan,” if he survives, will sort it out...
-What will be the outcome of this massacre?
- “Grandfather Hassan” probably knows who ordered it. And I don't envy this man. It seems that this is the same “third force”, that is, the intelligence services. Usoyan was too openly interested in the Sochi Olympics. You'll see, in three months someone else will be removed from the top.
And in the end, only one will remain - either Usoyan or Oniani. The authority of the winner will spread to all territories controlled by thieves, not only in former USSR, but also in the world. That's what it's all about... Let's wait and see...
- Wouldn’t Usoyan want to retire after such upheavals?
- He must take revenge, otherwise he is no longer a thief. Then his own kents will devour him. The rules are, God forbid you stumble...

The West is preparing for defense...
It is noteworthy that the thieves' war spilled out beyond the camps and even beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union. The interests of the thieves spread to the UK, Spain, Ukraine and Poland, Israel, the Baltic states and Hungary. The now deceased "Jem" and "Poodle" controlled Germany and Switzerland; "Turbinka" and "Strela" - South Korea and the Philippines; "Yuldash" - Pakistan; "Plum" (deceased) - Canada; “Jap” (deceased) - USA; “Matvey” - Greece; "Petrik" - Germany and France; "Karo" - Turkey.
One of the versions, which was voiced at one time by US intelligence services, suggests that mass exodus thieves in law from the collapsed USSR to capitalist countries - a secret and clearly planned action by the KGB. This version was based on the theory that organized crime was created in the Soviet Union precisely on the initiative of thieves in law associated with state security officers. And the latter, being thrown into the West, will begin to spread the tentacles of the Russian mafia into an alien economy and thus undermine the foundations of capitalism.
The report “Russian Organized Crime” (ROC) added fuel to the fire. The authors of this 94-page brochure include such renowned experts as former directors US CIA James Woolsey, William Webster and Robert Gates, Senators Patrick Leahy, William Roth and John Kyl, former boss Pentagon Intelligence Agency Harry Soyster.
“Russian organized crime not only threatens the credibility of Russian statehood, but is seen by citizens as an alternative to state power,” argues James Woolsey in this study.
The theory of “thieves’ landing on the West” arose largely thanks to the opinion of some experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a number of means mass media. In reality, everything is much more prosaic and chaotic. Yes, some groups in the West were created by thieves, but they did not seek to form “armed bandit forces” numbering thousands of bayonets. This contradicted at least the elementary rules of conspiracy. It should be taken into account that the massive, if you can call it that, migration of thieves abroad was caused either by a series of serious shootings, of which there were many in Russia in 1993-94, or by persecution by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“In the West, our thieves were “packed” right away, an opportunity was found,” says Anatoly Zhoglo. - There's another one the legislative framework, other methods and forms of work of intelligence services. When the presence of a thieving spirit is even slightly felt there, they will burn it out with a hot iron.
Again, operational work. Just imagine, if every fifth adult man in our country has a previous conviction, then “informing” is a “bummer” for our citizen. And in Japan, for example, officially every third citizen is a police informant. In the same States, “Yaponchik” was “packed” right away...”
So, after talking with crime bosses, listening to comments from law enforcement officials, researching hundreds of facts and documentary evidence, I come to the conclusion: the third thieves’ war has ethnic overtones. Georgian thieves in law, led by Tariel Oniani (“Taro”), fight the multinational forces of Aslan Usoyan (“Grandfather Hasan”). Russian and foreign intelligence services are actively trying to control the fighting. The winner, or rather the survivor, in this war, the thief in law, will receive thieves' plots scattered throughout the world as a trophy, and will become the first thieves' emperor.

There is a saying that in the USSR half of the country was in prison, half was guarding. Therefore, the wars of thieves of the old and new formations, “bitch wars,” were not a private affair of criminals; most of the population were drawn into them.

What is a thief's move

“Thieves in law”, “thieves in law” were the top of the criminal world of the Soviet Union. The formation of this community has been going on since the late 20s of the twentieth century, but some researchers trace the genealogy of thieves to the Russian Ofeni.

The "thieves' move" presupposed a special way of life. Thieves were a special caste with their own laws. A real thief could not have a family, under no circumstances could he cooperate with the authorities, could not have private property and luxury goods. Everything that was mined went to the common fund, which was supervised main responsibility"thieves in law" Their attitude towards money should have been easy. The principle formulated by the hero of the comedy “Gentlemen of Fortune” “Stole - drank - went to prison” was quite consistent with reality.

For thieves, the zone has always been a second home, and given the fact that, according to thieves’ concepts, it was not customary for thieves to have a home, it was the first. In the zone, thieves were not allowed to cooperate with the authorities; they could not work. Even hitting the rail at the request of the “guard” was considered a sign that the thief was “pissing off.” The offense of the offender was sorted out at a meeting, punished, and in some cases could even be killed. Thieves were the real kings of the "underworld". Even though they were forbidden to cooperate with the authorities, they kept control of all processes in the zone. For the time being.

Necessary thieves

It must be said that the thieves' system was even necessary Soviet power. It was a convenient form of self-organization camp life. The thieves did not work, but at the same time they had enough power and influence to keep life under their thumb.
What the thieves and the authorities had in common was that the thieves’ community was initially formed as a party cell. “Delegates” and “secretaries” were chosen by voting at meetings; for “newcomers” two recommendations from other thieves were needed.
The Soviet government, as long as it was beneficial to it, even treated thieves with sympathy. Which is not surprising - many revolutionaries, the first members of the party, themselves went through prison.

The situation began to change in pre-war years, when the principled non-participation of thieves in camp work reduced production standards. The thieves' position became precarious.

Breaking concepts

The event that radically changed the world of thieves was the Great Patriotic War. Repeat offenders were not taken to the front, but those convicted on minor charges could try to “atone with blood.” In 1942 - 1943, by special resolutions State Committee More than 157 thousand went to the front former prisoners. In total, during the war years, the Gulag transferred almost a million people to the front, 975 thousand.

After the war, many of the thieves who fought at the front returned to the camps. The zone did not accept them; the old-law thieves considered all those who collaborated with the state to be traitors, “suckers.” During the war years, prison supplies, already very meager, were cut significantly. It is logical that the “bitches” returned to the camps, where the thieves, who did not retreat from the “thieves’ move,” were very angry with them. The foundations that had been established since the late 20s were destroyed, and a long era of so-called “bitch wars” began.

The thieves who returned from the front, among whom were many respected thieves, initially counted on peace and understanding from the “legalists,” but the thieves did not accept the “warriors” back. Realizing that the law could no longer be changed, the “bitches” realized that they needed to pass their own law. In 1948, while being transported to the Vanino port, it was announced. Then the real full-scale “bitch war” began, knives and weapons were collected throughout Kolyma.

The world of thieves loves theatricality. To transition to the new thieves' law, a ritual was invented - kissing the knife. The one who kissed the knife lost all rights in the world of thieves and forever became a “bitch.” Refuseniks were killed, but not simply, but before their death they were also “trailed” - beaten and crushed under metal doors.

During the "bitch wars" a third thieves' community was also formed - "lawlessness". They treated both old thieves and “bitches” with equal hatred. The bitch wars significantly thinned out the thieves' community and split it. Aggression was initiated both from within and from without. By pitting the thieves against each other, the authorities quite successfully solved their problems.

Who's coming towards us with a knife...

The split among the thieves continued. The so-called “Polish thieves” appeared, who voluntarily left the “thieves’ path”; the thieves of the old format also perceived them as “tied up”. Those who moved away from the “old law” but did not join the “Polish thieves” stood apart. These thieves created their own clans in prisons and in the zone. However, they were few in number, weak and had little power. These included “anarchists”, “belted crowbars”, “red caps”, “cast iron women”.

You need to understand that “bitch wars” were not a local phenomenon limited to prison and camp walls. This confrontation, which lasted from the late forties to the mid-50s, affected the entire Union. It was especially pronounced in the eastern and northern regions. Geologist Sergei Potapov, who was passing through Yakutsk on a shift in 1954, recalled: “I remember how the people at the station suddenly suddenly became quiet. Some kind of anxious anticipation hung in the air. Then I saw a crowd walking along the platform. People nearby began to whisper: "Thieves." People walked along the canvas, chose someone from the crowd, raised their heads, looked. Apparently, they were looking for someone. Later I found out that here in full there is a war going on old and new thieves."

There were no winners in the “bitch wars,” but the authorities, one might say, have successfully put an end to the old “thieves’ move.” By the end of the fifties, only 3% of the old thieves of the 30s remained in the USSR. This was also facilitated by the opening of special prisons (“White Swan”), where thieves had to work.

In 1980, the EPKT (single cell-type premises) was created in this prison, which earned itself a bad reputation among thieves of all stripes. Repeat offenders from all over the country (about 4.5 thousand) were sent to the EPKT; 130 thieves in law were “unthrown” here. In order for the large-scale extermination of thieves to stop, they had to pass new laws.

“At night, Bandera’s men entered the barracks and took out two bandits. Then they realized that they would be killed.” In the late 1940s, so-called “bitch wars” broke out in the Gulag camps. Ukrainian political prisoners, the “Banderaites,” also found themselves at the center of the criminal “showdowns.”

“When I was free, I heard only black words about Bandera’s followers,” writes the poet Anatoly Berger in his memoirs “Etap.” In 1969-1974, he served a sentence for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” in Mordovia. “Probably, such words are not false: they had enough murders and cruelty.” But in the camp these people made a strong impression. Their faces were not the same as those of the policemen. These faces glowed and breathed with conviction and faith. There were no informers among them. While in prison for the same 25 years, they endured the heavy punishment with dignity. Jews in the camp were treated friendly. And in general, among the Banderaites there were many educated people who knew European languages. They firmly believed in their destiny, in the future independence of Ukraine, in the rightness of their cause.”

During the Great Patriotic War, about a million prisoners were mobilized into the Red Army. The thieves in law also had to take up arms, although their “code” prohibited any cooperation with the authorities. When, a few years later, repeat offenders returned to the “zone,” problems began with those who did not leave it. This is how a division arose into “chesnyag” - those who adhered to the “thieves’ law”, and “bitches” - traitors. The so-called bitch wars began in the camps.

Mikhail Bakanchuk during his exile in Norilsk, 1956. Arrested in 1947 for collaboration with the OUN security service. Imprisoned for 25 years. For opposing camp brigades, the sentence was increased by five years. “BUR, a high-security barracks, was my frequent hotel,” he writes in his memoirs. Amnestied in 1956 with a ban on returning to Western Ukraine. Now Bakanchuk is 85. Lives in Ternopil

“And one day, a thief accidentally got into that zone with a convoy, and his enemies, bitches, recognized him,” describes the author of the memoirs “The Fourth Dimension” Avraham Shifrin. “We saw through the barbed wire how a brutal crowd first beat him and then tried to burn him at the stake. The unfortunate man shouted to us: “Guys!” Tell people that I died as a thief!“ All this bacchanalia was accompanied by shooting into the air from towers. Then the guards took this thief and took him away, but it is unlikely that he survived.”

Constant conflicts forced the leadership to distinguish between two criminal groups. At first they were separated into different cells. Later - even after different camps. Thus, in BerLAG in Kolyma, the “chesnyagi” served their sentences mainly in the territory of the northern administration, and the “bitches” - in the western one. During transfers, the convoy asked the thieves what color they were.

At the end of the 1940s, another noticeable group appeared in the camps - Ukrainian political prisoners, “Banderaites”.

“They were also different from everyone else,” recalls the Jew Anatoly Radygin in the book “Life in Mordovian concentration camps up close.” In 1974 it was published in Munich in Ukrainian. “When suddenly a fit and neat man, calm and taciturn, shaven, in a clean shirt and polished shoes, in carefully ironed prison clothes, approached the picking mass, one could almost without error guess his nationality, party affiliation and the banner under which he fought.”

The camps were under full control criminality. Often, under the cover of the administration, the “thieves” had bladed weapons, which they aimed at various kinds“counter”, including “Bandera’s”.

Women from Western Ukraine in a camp in the village of Chernovskie Kopi, near Chita, January 17, 1950

“The majority of the camp population were Western Ukrainians, mostly peasant women,” writes translator Maya Ulanovskaya in the book “The History of a Family.” — This, at first glance, gray camp mass left behind brightest memory. Their songs rang throughout the camp. They sang in the barracks, they sang at work - if it was a job like mica production - they sang in chorus, with several voices. Epic songs about Cossack glory, sad ones - in captivity, in an abandoned family, and Bandera's - always tragic, about death in an unequal struggle."

“The thieves in law tried to keep the rest of the prisoners in complete subordination,” writes Valery Ronkin in the book “December is replaced by January.” — A colleague also talked about how they sent them to the zone where the law of thieves reigned big stage Banderaites. They went to the boss and tried to negotiate with the thieves so that they would not touch the politicians. But the next day, a politician was demonstratively killed, who did not want to share the parcel with the thieves. After another murder, Bandera’s men set fire to the thieves’ barracks, having previously boarded up its doors. Those who jumped out of the windows were thrown back. Since then, the thieves’ power in the zone has ended.”

On February 21, 1948, a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, according to which “special camps” - “Osoblagi” - were created for political prisoners. Their appearance significantly changed the balance of power. Here the “Banderaites”, if they did not constitute the majority, could form large cohesive groups.

“Conflicts between the warring camps of ‘thieves’ and ‘bitches’ were very beneficial to us,” recalls Transcarpathian Vasyl Rogach in his memoirs “Happiness in the Struggle.” — After such “showdowns,” some were put in BUR (high-security barracks - A), others were sent to a prison camp. And in the residential area there was a calm for some time - robberies, thefts, and dangerous fights stopped. Later we even tried to provoke these conflicts. AND for a long time We were successful in them.”

Rogach served his sentence in the RechLAG camps near Vorkuta. The administration decided to bring two hundred criminals here to put the “Banderaites” in their place.

- Shut up, Bandera bitch! “We’ll soon break off your horns,” Chernobrov’s authority rushed at the Ukrainian, who was playing the mandolin in the barracks in the evening.

- There’s no point in thinking - it will be late in the morning. An entire barrack is being vacated and prepared for thieves, his fellow countrymen decided after a short meeting.

An hour later, Chernobrov went to the toilet and never returned. When the rest of the “thieves” were brought in in the morning, they learned that their “chieftain” had been killed. They refused to live in the same barracks with Ukrainians. The next day they were taken to an unknown direction.

Miroslav Simchich, who served his sentence at a mine in Butugychak, 500 kilometers north of Magadan, recalls: “In the camp, the administration, with the help of henchmen, is committing outrages, especially to the Ukrainian convicts from the contractor Bubnovsky. The entire camp, a huge column of slaves, is on the move. They shout out the numbers of the convicts. Tsymbalyuk left the column using his number and went to the contractor. Before Bubnovsky had time to come to his senses, he was lying with a split head. Tsymbalyuk gave the ax to the guard and went to the security unit for a new 25 years.”

“I don’t know where or how, but for us it started with the arrival of the Dubovsky stage - mainly Western Ukrainians, sheep,” he writes about resistance to criminals in the novel “The Gulag Archipelago.” “They did a lot everywhere for this whole movement, and they even started a lot.” The Dubov stage brought to us the bacillus of rebellion. Young, strong guys, taken straight from the partisan path, they looked around in Dubovka, were horrified by this hibernation and slavery - and reached for the knife.

“Enforcement of the death sentence by thieves”, drawing by Dantsig Baldaev (1925-2005). 58 relatives of Baldaev died in the dungeons of the NKVD. He was brought up in an orphanage. Despite this, he worked for a third of a century in the internal affairs bodies and rose to the rank of major. Researched prison tattoos. His series “The Gulag in Drawings” is one of the most complete drawn histories of Soviet camps.

Solzhenitsyn also coined the term “rubilovka.” This is what he called the cleansing of the camps from the administration’s servants - cruel brigadiers and “secret employees.” In StepLAG in Kazakhstan it took place at the same time - at 5.00, when the guards were just opening the barracks.

StepLAG prisoner Mikhail Korol describes in the book “Odyssey of a Scout”: “At night, Bandera’s men entered the barracks and took out two bandits. They realized that they would be killed. One ran away, and the second was so maimed that he remained lying in place. And Bandera’s men went on duty and reported: “Go, pick up the thieves.” We killed him." The next day, the leader of the Banderaites was arrested, taken to guard duty and to prison. Bandera’s men caught up with the cart and recaptured theirs.”

“In this terrible sport, the prisoners’ ears heard the underground gong of justice,” adds Solzhenitsyn.

“The merciless terror of the MGB was resisted, as far as possible, only by the Banderaites - the Ukrainian rebels of Stepan Bandera,” recalls Hungarian Irani Bela. “For several months they behaved very quietly, and then they got their bearings and began to act. They were good workers and everywhere they won the trust of the camp management and the friendship of the brigade members. Everyone was struck by an unprecedented series of murders of people who were suspected of informing on their comrades. They couldn’t catch the culprits, and this confused the political officer.”

The composure with which the destruction of the “sexts” took place sowed terrible panic. Many begged management for help. They asked to be taken into custody or swore to stop the “dirty deeds.”

Such work required great internal discipline. The Jew David Tsifrinovich-Takser in his book “The Land of Limonia” describes that the “Bandera” cook was afraid to pour himself a thicker portion than others. And the Ukrainian, who carried sugar for the whole brigade, could not resist and tried a little, was forced to walk from barracks to barracks with a sign “I stole sugar from my comrades.” The Ukrainians refused the guards' proposal to lock him up in the BUR, a high-security barracks. In the camp they could administer justice themselves.

“The Banderas who run this camp,” writes Tsifrinovich-Takser, “not only do they pray to their God, they also organized holidays for both Jews and Muslims. They put people on the lookout to warn if the warden is nearby.”

In subsequent decades, the criminal element viewed political prisoners with surprise and often respect. Miroslav Simcic, after serving 25 years, continued to serve time - now under the article “camp banditry”. He served his next sentence among criminals: “Unexpectedly for them and for myself, I became an “authority” for thieves in the cell. They often argued among themselves, and I, as a prison “long-liver,” was asked to judge.”

“Bandera’s people are not crests. crests live in the Poltava region"

“Behind a similar story,” Daniil Shumuk called the book of his memoirs. He served only 42 years in prison. He received his first sentence when Galicia belonged to Poland - for participation in the communist underground. The next one is in, for the fight in the ranks. The book contains the following dialogue:

- Guys, who took the soap from the toilet?! - asked the orderly when he entered the room.

“We have no Estonians and no Baltic people at all, so we have no one to eat soap,” answered the Russian.

- Indeed, these Estonians are some kind of bad people. As long as he works, he works one for ten, and when he ends up in the hospital, he drinks this soap until he dies,” said the Belarusian.

“Estonians shorten their torment and abuse with soap, while Russians and Belarusians cut off their fingers and remain crippled for life,” the Uzbek added.

- What do crests do? - the Russian asked ironically.

- What do crests do? In our brigade, one very calm and polite little Russian climbed out of the pit and said: “I won’t go into the pit again!” The foreman approached him and asked: “Aren’t you going?” - and hit him in the face. The Little Russian silently grabbed his face with his hands and walked away. The foreman lit a cigarette and sat down near the pit. And the Little Russian took a pickaxe, quietly approached and hit this foreman so hard that he flew straight into the pit, and they pulled him out of the pit, already dead. That's what these crests do.

“So it wasn’t a crest who did it, but a Westerner, Bandera,” answered the Russian.

— Is Westerner, Bandera a nationality? - asked the Uzbek.

- The devil knows who they are. But these are not crests. crests live in the Poltava region,” answered the Russian.

203,000 people were expelled from Western Ukraine in the years 1944-1952. Such data are indicated in the resolution of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee “On the political and economic situation western regions Ukrainian SSR" dated MAY 26, 1953.

"Thieves in Law" appeared in the first decades of Soviet power. At first their existence was justified, then the authorities began to deal with them and pit them against each other.

Sympathizers

Since the time of the reforms of Peter I, the underworld in Russian Empire became more and more influential, specializations appeared, and by the end of the 19th century the caste system of the gangster world was already formed. The revolution and the Civil War brought fundamental changes to the system of the thieves' world.

Many of those who had previously followed the “path of thieves” found themselves among the “sympathizers” of Bolshevism. By helping the “reds,” they could take revenge on the hated tsarist regime. Georgy Kotovsky came out of the criminals, even the legendary thief Mishka Yaponchik was the commander of the Red Army, and Koba, the future Joseph Stalin, did not shy away from connections with criminals.

After finishing Civil War many Red commanders with criminal records were never able to unlearn their old habits. New power, which defended its legitimacy in every possible way, such elements were no longer needed. For this reason, they were simply liquidated, purges were carried out. Then the world of thieves realized that flirting with politics is much more dangerous than stealing. And the thieves decided to remain with their previous interests.

The formation of thieves' concepts began to take shape in the form in which it passed through the twentieth century, in the late 20s - early 30s. Several factors contributed to this.

Firstly, the fall in world grain prices led to the fact that the second export raw material became timber, which, unlike grain, must not only be collected, but felled, and felled not in the most greenhouse conditions (one of the reasons for the emergence of the Gulag).

Secondly, collectivization, which stimulated an increase in crime. These factors came together, and the country was faced with a phenomenon about which today they like to speak with the saying “half the country was sitting, half the country was guarding.” A huge number of people who found themselves behind bars, long sentences, “long stages” - all this contributed to the fact that the camp turned into a separate biosphere, the organization of a hostel in which required not only external, but also internal management. Thieves became such elements of internal power.

Kings of the zones

It is significant that the system of thieves’ society itself was from the very beginning a direct copy of the system of organizing party power. “Delegates” and “secretaries” were chosen by voting at meetings; for neophytes, two recommendations from other thieves were needed. The most important thing was to maintain discipline, to follow the thieves' laws: not to start a family, not to work, not to accumulate wealth (donate everything to the common fund), not to have an apartment (to live on a "raspberry").

As Varlam Shalamov writes in “Essays on the Criminal World”: “A thief steals, drinks, walks, debauchs, plays cards, deceives fraters, does not work either outside or in prison, destroys renegades with bloody reprisals and participates in “rules”, producing important questions underground life."

The thieves became a kind of “kings” of the entire camp country. Despite the fact that they were legally prohibited from cooperating with the administration, they controlled all the processes that took place in the zone. For state system This order of self-organization was even convenient.

We read from the same Shalamov: “Thieves are considered by the authorities. Blatari are the masters of life and death in the camp. They are always well-fed, they know how to “get it” when everyone else is hungry. The thief does not work, gets drunk, even in the camp, and the peasant guy is forced “to plow.” The thieves force him to “plow” - that’s how they cleverly adapted.”

Thieves and war

During the war, some of the thieves “reforged” and went to serve. Political prisoners were not taken into penal battalions and companies, but representatives of crime convicted of minor crimes could try to “atone with blood” and were sent to penal companies.

However, it must be said that the thieves were not distinguished by great consciousness and patriotism; many of them deserted and found their livelihood through robbery, theft and speculation.

In 1942, at the height of the war, a massive raid on thieves was even carried out at the Tishinsky market in Moscow. The country, which repelled the fascist threat, was forced to fight internal enemy represented by thieves.

The arrest of the Pavlenko gang in 1952 caused great resonance. In 1941, Pavlenko deserted, with the help of friends he “put together” a community, which, under the guise of military construction work, was engaged in looting, robberies, and executions. The backbone of the organization consisted of criminals whom Pavlenko dressed as military uniform and gave them ranks and medals using fake award sheets. Pavlenko made himself a “colonel”; during his arrest, general’s shoulder straps were found on him.

Bitch Wars

After the war, many of the thieves who fought at the front returned to the camps. The zone did not accept them; the old-law thieves considered all those who collaborated with the state to be traitors, “suckers.” What can we say if, according to the thieves’ law, even someone who hit the rail at the request of the “boss” was considered a “trick.”

The thugs who returned from the front were prepared for the fact that they would not be accepted. In 1948, during the transfer to the Vanino port, a “new law” was announced. A real war began, bloody and long, knives and weapons were collected throughout Kolyma.

The world of thieves loves theatricality. To transition to the new thieves' law, a ritual was invented - kissing the knife. The one who kissed the knife lost all rights in the world of thieves and forever became a “bitch.” Refuseniks were killed, but not simply, but before their death they were also “trailed” - beaten and crushed under metal doors.
During the "bitch wars" a third thieves' community was also formed - "lawlessness". They treated both old thieves and “bitches” with equal hatred.
The bitch wars significantly thinned out the thieves' community and split it. Aggression was initiated both from within and from without. By pitting the thieves against each other, the authorities quite successfully solved their problems.

White Swan

The decisive initiative of the authorities to split and destroy the thieves was the creation of a separate prison for thieves - the White Swan. It was built back in 1938, but until 1955 not only criminals, but also “political” prisoners were kept here. In 1955, the “political” ones were transferred to a colony located in Mordovia, and “White Swan” became a real “jar of spiders.”
Thieves, as we already know, are prohibited from working, but who will work in a colony if there is no one there except thieves? There were constant riots and uprisings inside the colony, which were harshly suppressed.

In 1980, the EPKT (a single cell-type room) was created in the White Swan, which earned itself a bad reputation among thieves of all stripes. Repeat offenders from all over the country (about 4.5 thousand) were sent to the EPKT; 130 thieves in law were “unthrown” here.

It was very effective measure fight against thieves. Anatoly Zhoglo, police colonel, veteran of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, gave the following comment on this method of correcting thieves: “In the practice of the Soviet camp system, thieves’ wars were one of the most significant ways to eradicate this caste. Sometimes such confrontations were provoked by the thieves themselves, sometimes special conditions were created for this on the initiative of leadership of the country."

The second thieves' war took place under Khrushchev (50s). The Soviet government decided to reforge the thieves with their own hands, taking advantage of the fact that according to the laws of the criminal world, a thief should not do certain things in the zone, for example, clean the toilet. The thieves were taken to a special zone, the White Swan, where there was no one to force them to do menial work - only thieves and security. The thief had no choice but to force another thief to carry out the bucket. And they began to kill each other and start camp riots. They were shot, crushed by tanks...

“In the practice of the Soviet camp system, thieves’ wars were one of the most significant ways to eradicate this caste. Sometimes such confrontations were provoked by the thieves themselves, sometimes special conditions were created for this at the initiative of the country’s leadership,” said Anatoly Zhoglo, police colonel, veteran of the Main Directorate for Organized Crime and Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The first salvos of the third thieves' war rang out in 1991, after the authorities of the Chechen criminal community, declaring that “they would take over the country anyway,” refused to participate in the division of the territory of the USSR. (In 1988, the so-called “gangway” took place in Dagomys, at which the thieves divided the “areas of responsibility” among themselves.)

The confrontation first took place at the level of shootouts and mutual imprisonments with the help of corrupt “cops” or “committee members.” Then the Slavic authorities decided to declare war on the Caucasians. The main initiator is considered to be Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed "", but behind this leader of the Solntsevskaya and Orekhovskaya gangs were the thieves Dzhem and Sliva. The difficulty was to establish the habitats of the leaders of the Caucasian groups. In the spring of 1991, Sylvester almost managed to solve this problem. A day was set when the leaders of the Caucasian criminals, according to Sylvester’s plan, were to be simultaneously liquidated, but information about this plan was “accidentally” leaked to the media...

In 1998, even more serious volleys of the third thieves thundered. Thieves' blood was shed abundantly due to... default. Most of the common fund turned out to be invested in instantly depreciated GKO notes. (The thieves were not original and followed the example of our major government officials.) When the crisis broke out, at a meeting in Odessa, the thieves were going to ask uncomfortable questions to the main custodian of the thieves' common fund - the elderly Aslan Usoyan, nicknamed "Grandfather Hasan." But before the gathering had time to begin, Ukrainian fighters against organized crime appeared. Six months later, in one of the roadside eateries on the Moscow Ring Road, unknown persons killed a Georgian thief in law, who was responsible for the security of that “meeting.” And the questions to “Ded Hasan” disappeared by themselves.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two to three hundred Slavic thieves are currently “working” in Russia. The total number of the “legal” thieves’ caste exceeds two thousand, most of whom are Georgian thieves. The latter settled in Russia after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili introduced severe criminal penalties only for self-recognition of the title of “thief in law” (up to 10 years with confiscation of property).

Thieves' morals

Irreconcilable leaders of the world of thieves: Tariel Oniani/"Taro" (in handcuffs) and Aslan Usoyan/"Grandfather Hasan"

Gogi Chikovani - the oldest thief in law

Shakro-young

Khuseyn Akhmadov/"Hussein the Blind"

Sergey Timofeev/Sylvester. Killed 09/13/1994

Vyacheslav Ivankov/"Yaponchik". Mortally wounded 07/28/2009

In Spain, thief in law “Shakro Molodoy” was accused of “organizing a criminal community and laundering criminal proceeds”

Summit: From left to right, Dzhemal Khachidze/“Dzhemal”, Aslan Usoyan/“Grandfather Hassan” and Zakhary Kalashov/“Shakro-Young” (far right)

“Even before the revolution, the institution of thieves in law began to form on Russian territory,” recall veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. - Then such people called themselves vagabonds or Ivans, who did not remember their kinship. Around those times, shortly before the Bolsheviks came to power, a code of thieves was formed - the so-called “concepts”. A thief must not marry, have property, and must not submit to any government authority, much less cooperate with the zone administration. A thief must monitor the collection of funds for the common fund and never give up the title of thief. After Khrushchev's bloodshed in the White Swan, the thieves made concessions for themselves, for example, they allowed themselves to get married. And they acquired property like nouveau riche.

Today, the “thieves’ vertical” resembles the structure of the Soviet nomenklatura. Instead of Politburo meetings, there is a gang of thieves, whose decisions are binding (sometimes on pain of death). Instead of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, there is a thieves' common fund. Instead of the army - “infantry”, ordinary gangsters. The role of the KGB is performed by corrupt officials and employees of state security agencies.

“In matters of security, there has been such close interpenetration that now the party in power has begun to be called the party of thieves and swindlers. Although many of the deputies have not even been seated yet,” police veterans conclude.

One of the thieves of the old formation presented an “inside” view of my question about morals: “...No, I have never seen the thieves’ code and did not sign it in blood. The old inmates told me that this code was invented by the famous “Sonka the Golden Hand”. She also came up with the common fund idea - to hand over part of the loot to a common fund in order to hire lawyers and “warm up” them in the zone. Large sums were collected there. Because of this common fund, they devoured her - they handed her over to the police, but they didn’t help in prison, and she disappeared...

According to historian Alexei Mukhin, since the mid-1980s, USSR KGB officers entered into authorized contact with representatives of the world of thieves in all thieves' prisons - Vladimir, Tulun (Irkutsk), "White Swan" and others. The outcome of this action is unknown, but after these conversations the KGB seized almost all incriminating documents on the thieves from the GULAG archives and, apparently, compiled its own file cabinet.

According to archival data, more than 70% of convicted thieves in law collaborated with the authorities in one form or another. These documents posed a considerable danger to their authority in the criminal environment. Thus, the KGB was able to find an opportunity to manipulate criminal authorities, and only during the serious upheavals that the all-powerful Committee experienced did the criminal community again become uncontrollable. According to one version, in order to regain control over the criminal underworld, the special services are eliminating thieves under the guise of the third thieves' war.

The smell of blood

Four thieves stood at the origins of this war: Tariel Oniani (“Taro”), Aslan Usoyan (“Grandfather Hasan”), Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”) and Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”). A series of thieves’ gatherings took place in Russia and abroad, some were organized by Tariel Oniani, others by Aslan Usoyan. The main “agenda” of each of them was ways to achieve leadership.

Aslan Usoyan, a Kurd, born in Tbilisi in 1937, was the holder of the largest thieves' common fund in Russia. He preferred to live in the Krasnodar region. According to operational data, he does not call his opponent an enemy, but on the contrary, says that Oniani is “a talented businessman with great connections.” He was the initiator of convening a number of thieves’ gangs, the main issues of which were the confrontation with Oniani and the money for Olympic construction in Sochi.

Tariel Oniani was born in 1952. He received his first conviction for robbery at the age of 17, and was convicted eight times in total. He was listed in the top three of the largest authorities in the criminal world of the former USSR. More than once he gathered gatherings of thieves to sentence “Grandfather Hassan.” As a rule, they were dispersed by special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. . Among them were Tariel Oniani himself, Jamal Khachidze and Roland Gegechkori (“Hat”).

In 2005, Spain put Tariel on the wanted list on charges of organizing a criminal group and money laundering. To capture him, the Spanish police carried out a large-scale special operation “Wasp” in 2006, but the crime boss managed to leave the country, and his daughter and several of his closest associates were imprisoned. But most importantly, as a result of this action, Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”) was arrested.

Oniani sent his people to one of the elders of the thieves’ world, Gogi Chikovani.

“Thieves must not drink their own blood! This plays into the hands of the cops!” - said then 83-year-old thief in law Gogi Chikovani, one of the oldest thieves in law in the post-Soviet space.

They didn't listen to him. After a number of thieves’ “summits”, both those that took place and those dispersed by the police, the body of Kutaisi thief Malkhaz Mindadze was found in the capital of Greece with two bullet wounds. One of Taro's assistants was also killed there. According to some reports, the murder of Mindadze is revenge for the murder of one of Shakro-Young’s friends.

The thief in law “Yaponchik” did not interfere in the fight between these people. He didn't intervene until a sniper shot him.

FBI agents monitored Ivankov and collected evidence of his criminal activities in the United States. An American court sent “Jap” to jail for 10 years for racketeering. After serving time in a foreign land, Ivankov was extradited to Russia. Since then, he has never even come close to the thieves' gatherings that took place in the territory of the former USSR, which were crushed by fighters against organized crime.

“Don’t touch Grandfather,” people close to him said, “he now writes fairy tales for children. Let him die in peace, he doesn’t feel well anyway...”

...The Jap was shot on the evening of July 28, 2009 from a Gazelle cargo truck with a covered body, in which a window was cut out for targeted shooting. Two sniper rifles were found in a truck parked across the street from the Thai Elephant restaurant. The “honorable” thief in law was 69 years old.

How the thieves' commander was killed

Two snipers on one target at once is a unique phenomenon. With an aiming range of up to a kilometer, shooting from 150 meters - and one sniper would be enough. It is possible that the abandoned rifles are a distraction factor. During the investigation, it turned out that the bullet was filed crosswise in order to cause maximum damage to the body.

According to the official version, Ivankov was allegedly going to resolve a dispute between criminal groups over the gambling business. Representatives of criminal circles reported then that Ivankov almost constantly lived and worked in Moscow. He spent the daytime hours in the office of one of the companies that belonged to his friends, on Khoroshevskoye Shosse, not far from the Polezhaevskaya metro station. And in fact, he composed children's fairy tales.

But, firstly, “Yap” at the wake of “Skif” (a thief in law killed shortly before the assassination attempt on Ivankov) gave his word to take revenge on the killers. Secondly, a week before the assassination attempt, “Yaponchik” had a serious conversation with representatives of the Georgian thieves’ diaspora, during which Ivankov was going to “break” a bottle of champagne on someone’s head.

Operatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs shared this idea with me: “Think about it, who could drive a Gazelle stolen from the region, with two SVDs on board, through almost all of Moscow with impunity, past all the checkpoints? Know clearly where to shoot, at whom, and get away with impunity. And throw some more trunks, but they are worth a lot! Think about who really controlled the gambling business in the country? Thieves in law? It’s funny, this is last year’s snow!”

After the attempt on Ivankov’s life, a “malyava”, allegedly signed by “Yaponchik”, “Ded Khasan”, “Shakro-Young” and thirty other thieves, caused a stir in the criminal world. (“Malyava” is a note outlining the decision of the thieves’ “Politburo”, which is distributed through illegal means throughout all correctional institutions.) The authors of the “malyava” called on every “honest tramp” to kill Tariel Oniani, to whom in the epistle they used a dirty word with a “b” .

“Now not a single man will sit in the same cell with Oniani, because he will simply have to kill him, which means that he will have to impose on himself another sentence and the sentence of those people who stand behind Oniani,” this is how one of the representatives commented on the contents of the letter to me the top of the criminal world.

Rhetorical question: could Vyacheslav Ivankov, being in a coma after the assassination attempt, become the author of the “malyava”, under which his signature is the first? Another signatory, Zakhary Kalashov (“Shakro-Young”), was in a Spanish prison. One of the representatives of the criminal world told me: “In principle, other thieves could sign for Ivankov and Kalashov. Conceptually, this is possible. Until now, none of the thieves have withdrawn their signature on the little one.”

Four years ago, each of the warring parties sent representatives to the elderly thief Gogi Chikovani in Tbilisi. At the same time, Gogi told NTV correspondent Maxim Gladky about his attitude to the thieves’ war. We are publishing fragments of the conversation that were not aired.

“Correspondent: Ivankov, they say, took the position of one of the conflicting parties. Do you have a desire to go to Russia to prevent the thieves' war?

Gogi Chikovani: No, that’s impossible. Tariel’s brother came to see me... I advised: “Stop it.” I even said, “Don’t think that you will win, because when you win, your defeat will begin.” They didn't understand. I say: “The second party, which is in conflict with “Jap”, she won’t come! Even thief in law Tariel gathered, but no one answered, and everything fell silent.

It is useless to talk about preventing war between thieves' clans. They quarrel over big money... And they don’t like Georgian thieves even here in Georgia. They are no longer in the villages or regions. They went to Russia or further. I'm the only thief in law here who is free.

I can't reconcile them. Frankly, they are no longer thieves, they are businessmen. I had people say interesting things. About the “gangway” in the summer on Pirogovka, on a boat. Come on, idiots! One conflicting party was there on board, and the other was not. This is vile. And I told the thieves that what they were up to was similar to what happened in 1947. Then there was a real war between the crooked thieves and us. And so they killed us, we killed them. I’ve served 27 years in prison in my life and I don’t envy those who followed my path.”

On the evening of September 16, 2010, an assassination attempt was made on Aslan Usoyan on Tverskaya Street in Moscow. He received three gunshot wounds to the stomach. Two 7.62 mm cartridges and a homemade automatic rifle were found at the crime scene. In many ways it repeated the assassination attempt on “Yaponchik”. But “Grandfather Hasan” survived.

Aslan Usoyan was hit by one bullet, 7.62 caliber, fired, according to a preliminary version, from a Chinese analogue of the Kalashnikov. The bullet is not poisoned, without a cross-shaped notch. The media immediately connected this attempt with the name of Oniani. Through his lawyer, Taro, who was in prison, categorically rejected such assumptions. However, after Ivankov’s death, he also expressed extreme regret over the loss of such a person and even asked the investigation to let him go to the cemetery to lay a wreath to his ally.

In March 2011, Russian authorities extradited Oniani to Spain at the request of law enforcement agencies of that country...

Rearguard of "Ded Hasan"

Another heavy loss of the fighting forces of “Ded Hasan” was the death of Andrei Selvyan, nicknamed “Andrei Sukhumsky” (See “Thieves in Law” shot “SMERSH”).

He was born in the foothills of Sukhum, was a farce, and in 1986 he was convicted in Tuapse (Krasnodar Territory). When he was released, he became the leader of an organized crime group, which, according to operatives, included Ashot Elekchan, Ishkhon Mochkalyan, Yusif Osipov, Sergey Evrushyan. They took control of a number of markets and commercial structures in the Moscow region, Krasnodar Territory and Leningrad Region. Then he met Aslan Usoyan.

In 1994, Selvyan in the Krasnodar Territory received another sentence for extortion, but despite this, he managed to remain free. He was sent to a penal colony in Ust-Labinsk to serve his sentence. According to the documents, it was stated that he was in it, but in fact the “authority” lived in Moscow.

Despite his criminal past, Selvyan was the deputy head of two Moscow private security companies. According to operatives, he was personally involved in protecting Usoyan, and on the day of the assassination attempt, it was Andrei who was driving the jeep that brought “Hasan” to the crime scene.

Now “Sukhumsky” himself became a target for killers: he was killed by unknown assailants in Moscow, on Volochaevskaya Street, in the entrance of the house where Andrei lived. The criminal hid the PM in a paper bag. He shot the security officer twice in the back, and when he tried to get his service pistol, he finished him off with a “control” in the head. The boss was still alive when the ambulance came for him, but died on the way to the hospital.

A bag with a bullet hole and eight spent 9mm cartridges were found at the scene. The deceased had with him a license for a pistol from the private security company SMERSH, a telephone, 50 thousand rubles and about 7 thousand dollars.

““Grandfather Hasan” instructed Selvyan to resolve conflict situations, and also to be responsible for the safety of thieves’ gangs,” said fighters against organized crime from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. “Andrei Sukhumsky managed to hold one of these meetings in Krasnaya Polyana, next to the current government residence.”

Recently, law enforcement officers put two thieves in law on bunks: Vladimir Volkov (“Volchok”) and Khusein Akhmadov (“Husein Slepoy.” See Chechen thief in law Khusein Slepoy detained in Moscow). “Volchok” was detained by employees of the criminal investigation department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. in the Republic of Adygea. During a personal search, 0.6 g of methadone was found and confiscated from him. “Blind” in Moscow was found with 3 grams of heroin, as well as a home-made dagger with a blade 40 centimeters long, recognized as a bladed weapon. According to Akhmadov, the dagger made for him as a gift by some camp craftsman.

Both thieves were part of Usoyan’s circle of friends. “Volchok” was the watchdog for the Krasnodar region, where “Grandfather Hasan” lived in recent years. And “Hussein the Blind” is one of the few Chechen thieves in law who is friendly with Usoyan.

The price of victory is world domination?

– What do thieves divide among themselves specifically? – I asked one of the representatives of the criminal generals.

– The same as always, power. After all, after the crisis of 1998, when half of the common fund almost collapsed, no one asked “Ded Hassan” where the money went and who would compensate. And Tarot, obviously, insisted on explanations. In general, word by word, everyone began to form their own thieves around themselves...

– That’s why you went to Chikovani?

- Chikovani is already old. I just needed his name. Those who are 50-60 years old gain strength. And they are not dividing specific plants and factories. Thieves are very rarely friends with each other, but “suit” obliges them to respect each other. But if a thief wants to kill another, he must do it with a knife. And then there are some snipers... I do not rule out that the special services are eliminating the thieves one by one, taking advantage of the quarrel between Oniani and Usoyan. Look at how often the murders happen. They killed one, paused for two or three months, then another, paused again. This is how committee members worked under Khrushchev.

– Why such a pause?

– So that the thieves get confused in the “misunderstandings”, squabble with each other, forget, calm down, relax.

– If you estimate the amount of funds, the palaces in our zones should be cleaner than in Rublyovka?

“There are palaces, only thieves build them for themselves.”

– I have heard that state security maintains close contacts with thieves...

– “Shakro-Young” tried to get into the aluminum business when, according to security operatives, Deripaska came there. During the negotiations, the thief was simply hit on the head with an ashtray and thrown out. And there was no response from him, and no repeated attempts to get involved in this matter.

The Spanish special services tried to isolate “Shakro-Young” from any contacts with the outside world, even arresting his lawyers. And in the Shakro empire there are not only notorious casinos, there are powerful industrial enterprises and some banks that are now under threat.

Other thieves also have banks, but each of the clans planning to fight has its own methods of protecting criminal financial flows. It would be ridiculous for thieves not to take advantage of a situation where the government is allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to prevent a financial crisis. And, pushing each other with their elbows, they strove for this “trough”, wanting, first of all, to insure their financial institutions. That's all thieves' romance...

– And after the events of 1998 and the outbreak of the thieves’ war, did “Grandfather Hasan” leave the “common fund” or did he stay?

“I don’t know,” the thief’s colleague answered honestly, “I’ve been out of work for a long time.” Each team could create their own. Or it was crushed.

– So, it’s possible that the new leader will also become the new guardian?

– This may be the case. The most important thing here is to figure out who is behind the assassination attempt. “Grandfather Hassan,” if he survives, will sort it out...

– What will be the outcome of this massacre?

- “Grandfather Hassan” probably knows who ordered it. And I don't envy this man. It seems that this is the same “third force”, that is, the intelligence services. Usoyan was too openly interested in the Sochi Olympics. You'll see, in three months someone else will be removed from the top.

And in the end, only one will remain - either Usoyan or Oniani. The authority of the winner will spread to all territories controlled by thieves not only in the former USSR, but throughout the world. That's what it's all about... Let's wait and see...

– Wouldn’t Usoyan want to retire after such upheavals?

- He must take revenge, otherwise he is no longer a thief. Then his own kents will devour him. The rules are, God forbid you stumble...

The West is preparing for defense...

It is noteworthy that the thieves' war spilled out beyond the camps and even beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union. The interests of the thieves spread to the UK, Spain, Ukraine and Poland, Israel, the Baltic states and Hungary. The now deceased "Jem" and "Poodle" controlled Germany and Switzerland; "Turbinka" and "Strela" - South Korea and the Philippines; "Yuldash" - Pakistan; “Plum” (deceased) – Canada; “Jap” (deceased) – USA; “Matvey” – Greece; "Petrik" - Germany and France; "Karo" - Turkey.

One of the versions, which was voiced at one time by the US intelligence services, suggests that the mass exodus of thieves in law from the collapsed USSR to capitalist countries is a secret and clearly planned action by the KGB. This version was based on the theory that organized crime was created in the Soviet Union precisely on the initiative of thieves in law associated with state security officers. And the latter, being thrown into the West, will begin to spread the tentacles of the Russian mafia into an alien economy and thus undermine the foundations of capitalism.

The report “Russian Organized Crime” (ROC) added fuel to the fire. The authors of this 94-page brochure include such well-known experts as former US CIA Directors James Woolsey, William Webster and Robert Gates, Senators Patrick Leahy, William Roth and John Kyl, and former Pentagon Intelligence Chief Harry Soyster.

“Russian organized crime not only threatens the authority of Russian statehood, but is seen by citizens as an alternative to state power,” James Woolsey argues in this study.

The theory of a “thieves’ landing on the West” arose largely thanks to the opinion of some experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a number of media outlets. In reality, everything is much more prosaic and chaotic. Yes, some groups in the West were created by thieves, but they did not seek to form “armed bandit forces” numbering thousands of bayonets. This contradicted at least the elementary rules of conspiracy. It should be taken into account that the massive, if you can call it that, migration of thieves abroad was caused either by a series of serious shootings, of which there were many in Russia in 1993-94, or by persecution by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“In the West, our thieves were immediately “packed” and an opportunity was found,” says Anatoly Zhoglo. – There is a different legislative framework, different methods and forms of work of the special services. When the presence of a thieving spirit is even slightly felt there, they will burn it out with a hot iron.

Again, operational work. Just imagine, if every fifth adult man in our country has a previous conviction, then “informing” is a “bummer” for our citizens. And in Japan, for example, officially every third citizen is a police informant. In the same States, “Yaponchik” was “packed” right away...”

So, after talking with crime bosses, listening to comments from law enforcement officers, and examining hundreds of facts and documentary evidence, I come to the conclusion: the third thieves’ war has an ethnic overtones. Georgian thieves in law, led by Tariel Oniani (“Taro”), fight the multinational forces of Aslan Usoyan (“Grandfather Hasan”). Russian and foreign intelligence services are actively trying to control the fighting. The winner, or rather the survivor, in this war, the thief in law, will receive thieves' plots scattered throughout the world as a trophy, and will become the first thieves' emperor.