If you have absolutely no time for creativity, there is no time to invent drawings...
) and those who wished to “take the path of correction,” and on the other hand, “thieves in law” who professed the old rules that denied any cooperation with the authorities. Subsequently, the “bitch war” grew into a struggle between “legitimate” thieves, that is, those who adhere to the “classical” thieves’ rules, and thieves who voluntarily or by force refused to comply with them and, accordingly, joined the “bitches”.
Emergence
If the thief of his own free will agreed to accept new law, he kissed the knife and became “knocked out” forever. A.E. Levitin-Krasnov describes the following ritual: “The thieves are required to perform three symbolic actions. Firstly, he is given a rake, and he is obliged to move it two or three times along the “ban” (the forbidden area near the fence is plowed so that the traces of the fugitive are visible). Next, he is given the key to the punishment cell: he must (accompanied by a crowd of convicts) approach the punishment cell and lock the lock on the doors with his own hands. And finally, the final act: he must eat with the knotted ones. After that, he’s already screwed up, and now the thieves will cut him up.” This transition could have been more prosaic - if a thief cooperated with the regime, thereby breaking the law, he became bitch. In Shalamov’s story the following example is given: “A thief walks past the watch. The guard on duty shouts to him: “Hey, please hit the rail...”. If a thief hits the rail..., he has already broken the law, he has gotten into trouble.” Controversial cases were discussed by thieves in courts of honor called rules, where they decided whether the thief had screwed up or not.
In some camps, the war between bitches and thieves, encouraged by the leadership, took extreme forms. Thus, in the documents on the inspection of the Chaun and Chaun-Chukotsky ITL it was reported that in 1951, on the initiative of Lieutenant Colonel Varshavchik, the so-called brigade No. 21 was created in the camp department of the village of Krasnoarmeysky, in which there were patients with syphilis from the “Suki” camp group. In those cases when, during the “holding,” prisoners from the “Thieves” group did not go over to the side of the bitches (they refused to kiss the knife), they were sent to brigade 21, where they were raped and infected with syphilis. Thus, the ritual of “lowering”, if not created as part of a bitch war, was at least actively used by the administration in some camps already in the early 50s.
Results
The bloodshed reached such proportions that the old thieves were forced to change their code in order to stay alive. After numerous debates, they agreed on an exception to the rule: thieves had the right to become foremen and hairdressers in correctional labor institutions. The foreman could always feed several friends. Hairdressers had access to sharp objects - razors and scissors, which were an excellent advantage in case of a fight.
Notes
see also
- Ust-Usinsk prisoners' uprising (1942)
- Kengir prisoners' uprising (1954)
Links
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§ 4. Blood feud in the underworld or “bitch war”
A colony for repeat offenders is the village of Ponil, notorious in the crime game as the “valley of death.” Law enforcement officials and convicts still have a saying: “Whoever has not visited Ponil does not understand life.” And this is true to a large extent.
This village is located in the Northern Urals, to the nearest settlement- 150 kilometers, it is surrounded on all sides by swamps and swamps, as if nature itself had created an island for outcast people in order to increase their hardships and suffering.
It was there, as a young man, that I first heard about the “bitch war.” The end of August, the autumn sun was already rolling behind the hill. The two of us sat in the nest by the fire - me and the head of the operational department, Major Marokin. It was a hard day, and he, a senior in rank, offered me, a month after leaving school, to brew “merchant” - strong tea, but, seeing how ineptly I handled the “samovar”, he took the iron jar with tea leaves from my hands and brought it to “normal” at the stake. Then he handed me a drink that scalded my lips. It was thick and bitter, and out of habit, I choked.
“What are you doing, Friar,” the major laughed, playing along with the thug, “the chifir didn’t serve you!”
I remained silent, not knowing how to react. Marokin patted me on the shoulder:
Then I heard about it for the first time and, of course, I did not imagine that “bitches” and “thieves”, their life problems, their bloody martial arts will someday become the subject of my activities and research.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in accordance with the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 12 and November 24, 1941, various categories of prisoners were early released from places of imprisonment to be sent to the front (about 25% of the total). During 1942–1943, according to special decisions of the State Defense Committee, about 10% of convicts were released. Among the “special contingent” mobilized into the army were many “thieves.” In addition, during the war period, as a result of increased pressure from the administration, individual “thieves” were forced to start working.
All this, as is known, was considered a serious deviation from the “thieves’ law.” No one at that time could have foreseen that the war would divide the guardians of the criminal subculture into two hostile groups. But exactly what happened was something that the centuries-old history of the criminal world had never known. The resulting fairly large group of “retired thieves”, “apostates”, “bitches” began to be persecuted in every possible way by the “authorities” of the criminal environment.
Previously, a “traitor” (there were not many of them) was expelled from the “world of thieves” or other sanctions cultivated in the community were applied to him. In turn, the correctional labor camp staff isolated those persecuted in separate cells, which among those deprived of liberty began to be called “bitch boxes.”
Since the beginning of the war, the number of “bitches” has increased enormously, and over time they have formed an independent category of convicts, a kind of criminal “suit.”
Thus, the community of prisoners inevitably went beyond the balanced state, and conditions were created for an internecine mass struggle for a privileged place, which was justified by the peculiar ideological motives and the corresponding emotional state of the participants in the conflict.
Understanding the events of the “bitch war”, which the writer V. Shalamov personally witnessed, he tries to penetrate into the soul of the “thieves-thieves” and “bitches” and explain the psychology of the bloody orgy.
“The bitch war answered a dark and strong thieves’ need - voluptuous murder, quenching the thirst for blood. Episodes of the real war were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in the events of criminal life. The breathtaking reality of the bloody events greatly fascinated the leaders. Even simple pickpocketing at the cost of three months in prison or “housing hopping” is committed with a certain “creative upsurge.” They are accompanied by an incomparable, as the Blatars say, spiritual tension of the highest order, a beneficial vibration of the nerves, when the thief feels that he is living.
How many times sharper, sadistically sharper is the feeling of murder, shed blood, the fact that the enemy is the same thief - further intensifies the severity of the experience. The sense of theatricality inherent in the criminal world finds expression in this huge, multi-year bloody performance. Here everything is real and everything is a game, a terrible, deadly game. Like Heine: “The meat will be exactly meat, the blood will be human blood.”
This is how the great writer, former prisoner V. Shalamov writes about the psychological springs of the conflict between criminals. We will return to the analysis of the events of those years.
The situation in the ITL began to develop especially acutely in 1945-1946. IN post-war years The country is experiencing a significant increase in crime. Among the many reasons that caused it, one can be particularly highlighted. It consisted in the fact that some of the “thieves” who participated in the war returned to their craft and again ended up in forced labor camps.
However, their former comrades did not accept the fighters (“military”, “red caps”) into their ranks, excluding the latter’s participation in “congresses”, “gatherings”, “rules”, as they grossly violated criminal traditions and customs.
V. Shalamov describes an approximate “meeting of a front-line soldier”: “Have you been to the war? Have you picked up a rifle? This means that you are a bitch, a real bitch, and are subject to punishment according to the law. Besides, you are a coward! You didn’t have the willpower to give up the marching company - take a prison sentence or even die, but not pick up a rifle.”
Meanwhile, among the “departed” there were quite a lot of leaders and ideologists of the criminal environment of the past, who could not and did not want to come to terms with the new humiliated position to which the “true thieves” doomed them. Therefore, in the 40s. they are publishing their “new thieves’ code.” Exact date The author was unable to establish his proclamation. Thus, Jacques Rossi claims that the “law” was introduced by “bitches” at the end of the Second World War.
V. Shalamov names 1948 and describes the procedure for its distribution in forced labor camps located on the territory Far East. Other sources, as a rule, do not provide any additional information.
The authorities of the criminal community began to call the newly-minted “thieves in law” among themselves “snapped thieves” (“bitches”). Hence, researchers of the problem of criminal subculture J. Rossi, V. M. Monakhov, writer V. Shalamov called the hostile confrontation between “thieves” and “bitches,” which was usually of a violent nature, a “bitch war.”
In addition, in some correctional labor camps, “Polish thieves” declared their informal power over other prisoners. There is no information in the literature about the origins of this criminal entity. consensus. Some believe that they were former “thieves” who were mobilized into the army during the war and fought on the territory of Poland, while others consider them to be lone thieves. Still others associate the emergence of this community with Polish habitual criminals. Thus, B.F. Vodolazsky, Yu. A. Vakutin write: “In the period 1939–1940, after the annexation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus to the USSR, a new criminal group called “Polish thieves” appeared.
S.I. Kuzmin adheres to a similar position. He notes: “On the territory of the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus, Bessarabia annexed to the USSR, there were many prisons in which professional criminals served their sentences. The professional thieves, transferred from there to the Gulag system, tried to establish themselves in new conditions for them in order to take a worthy position among the convicts. Not knowing all the intricacies of the life of thieves' authorities - "godfathers" in places of detention of the USSR, they grossly violated certain norms of such behavior and antagonized local thieves. In addition, the expansion of the community of thieves as a result of the addition of newcomers from the West, who began to be called “Polish thieves,” promised many difficulties for the locals. Due to these circumstances, the thieves’ community was divided into two warring groups.”
The “Law of Polish Thieves” allowed members of their group to engage in any work while serving their sentences in correctional institutions and to cooperate with representatives of the administration of prisons. Participants in this community demonstrated more flexible tactics and greater adaptability to circumstances. Meanwhile, they also collected the “due tribute” from working prisoners, thereby forming their own corporate “common fund”, organizing “gatherings”, and brutally dealing with disobedient people.
The indicated principles of behavior of the “Polish thieves,” as is easy to see, were not much different from the innovations of the “retired thieves”; this circumstance predetermined their unification.
So, by the end of the 40s. In places of deprivation of liberty, numerous groups of convicts formed, united by new ideas that fundamentally contradicted those of the “thieves.” The changes that took place in the “thieves’ world” led to serious conflicts, since some wanted to restore their status, others did not want to give up the zone of “legalized” robbery, sphere of influence, and “hereditary” right to power. Often the fight ended in a knife fight. The “thieves” simply killed the “bitches.” The “bitches” tried to win over the “honest thieves” and force them to accept the “new faith.” This also became a custom, a norm.
The struggle took on wild forms. The newly-minted “legalists” chose the policy of “bending”, when, under the threat of a knife, ax or rope, the enemy was forced to kneel and abandon their community. For the manifestation of their own convictions, perhaps, the “thieves” had more opportunities, because they had an alternative: to renounce their “orthodoxy” and accept the “new law” introduced by the “bitches” or die; the “bitches” had no such alternative. Here is an approximate scene of that time: “When the bitches put Pushkin on an iron sheet and began to roast him over the fire, he shouted to the spectators standing at a distance: “Hey, fryera! Tell people that I’m dying as a thief!”
If the “godfather” (“centre thief”) fell into the hands of the “retired thieves,” the latter was often not killed, but neutralized through a violent act of sodomy. The “neutralized” (but not “shredded”), more often called “alone on the ice floe,” aroused understandable sympathy from the “authorities,” but was no longer allowed into their midst. The idea of the “thieves” of that time always stood above all human relations.
The hostility between the factions became permanent, and thousands of prisoners became victims.
The most violent confrontation was in the logging camps, as well as in the Dalstroy camps. This is explained by the fact that the isolation of the “bandit element” was expressed in moving him specifically to the specified ITU.
The “thieves” in the new conditions took all measures to preserve the integrity of the system of corporate rules of conduct and raise the prestige of the “thieves’ idea.” In their relationships with each other, they became more decisive and principled.
To confirm what has been said, let us turn to the documents of the criminal case. The archives of the prison in the Vladimir region preserved the testimony of participants in the thieves' trial - the “gathering” at which the sentence was pronounced and carried out on the “thief in law” who betrayed his clan. Here are fragments of the event.
“By seven o’clock in the evening, after checking, the barracks were full. Those who did not have enough space perched on the window sills, and others simply on the floor. Thieves of different specialties, ages and characters gathered at the gathering. The chairman was a godfather named Pioneer. He asked the thieves:
– Have you all gathered?
“Then bring Ushaty.”
Ushaty stood up with dignity. He spoke confidently and struck his opponents with grace:
“Before us, there were worthy thieves, more cultured, but life and people swept them away.
“It’s nothing,” Pioneer objected. – We are not going through history, but judging you. I have already heard about such dreamers who are going to turn thieves into fryers.
-Deserves death! - they shouted from the crowd. “Death,” echoed throughout the entire barracks...
The pioneer quickly stood up from his seat and gave the order to kill.
The godfather approached Ushaty, who was sitting on the floor, and said:
- Hold on, Ushaty!
He stood up, put his hands on his head and looked at the “thieves” with a thoughtful gaze. A strong blow from behind with an ax seemed to make him turn around and look who was killing him. He recognized his pupil Krasyuk. It was the meeting that instructed him to kill Ushaty, since he was his closest friend.
“Throw the body to the friars, wash the floor, pick a “man” who will take over the matter,” Pioneer ordered and went to bed.”
In forced labor camps and in freedom, “meetings,” “rules,” and “congresses” were continuously taking place. “Congresses” gathered up to 200–400 delegates. Those who betrayed the “law” were “tried” and killed, and new rules of behavior were introduced. In 1947, such a congress took place in Moscow, in Sokolniki, in 1955 - in Kazan, in 1956 - in Krasnodar.
The procedure for admitting persons to the criminal community has changed. Often the candidate was given a precondition to kill a person who had caused damage to the underworld. If among his acquaintances there was someone questionable, then his murder of such a person was a prerequisite. Strict control was established over the behavior of each “authority”, the time he spent at liberty was limited to six months, and they were prohibited from being released early from prison. “Thieves” who violated the “law” or did not follow the instructions of the leaders were persecuted at all camp points, and their fate was finally decided on a collegial basis. If a “sentence” of deprivation of life was passed, then the murder, according to custom, was committed by one of the young “thieves,” and responsibility was assigned to the “fryer” or the so-called “loader from the Kalash row.” It cost nothing for a prisoner who had a sentence of 25 years and had served 1–2 years to commit a new crime, since in fact it did not change anything for him. Moreover, until 1953, the law did not provide for an exceptional punishment in the form of the death penalty for murder in places of deprivation of liberty.
The essence of one of the characteristic trends of the period under review was also the rapprochement between the guardians of the criminal subculture and the “fryer”. It was a forced step. Groups of “thieves” during the “bitch war” needed support from other persons serving sentences. Thus, the consolidation of criminal elements was indicated, regardless of past criminal activity.
It is also characteristic that in the late 40s. The “men” found themselves in a very difficult situation in places of deprivation of liberty. Post-war period was accompanied by devastation and hunger, which could not but affect the functioning of penitentiary institutions. In addition, the increase in the number of various kinds of “authorities” in the correctional labor camp led to a sharp increase in extortions from prisoners. “Thieves” and “bitches” increased the amount of “tribute” collected from convicts. At the same time, the “men” also experienced open oppression from those at war with the “thieves.” The thugs of various communities brutally dealt with their neighbors in the brigade, beating out the required percentage with a stick, and the foremen were forced to assign it to their outfits specifically to them, the “thugs.” Disobedience and refusal to comply with the demands of “authority” led to mass violence. For example, in camp department 6 of the Kunevsky ITL of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, a group of conscientiously working prisoners refused to pay “tribute” to repeat thieves. In response to this, the criminals attacked them and severely beat them. Nine people were killed and three were wounded. Violence in the labor camp became commonplace.
Using very diverse means and methods, the “authorities” of the criminal environment sought to extend their influence to all categories of convicts, most often this was done by applying severe sanctions for deviations from the “rules and commandments of prisoners,” even the most insignificant. For example, in the Chaun-Chukotsky ITL, repeat offender thieves Abalkov and Egorov killed prisoner Moshchalkin, who lost at cards. In the Bakovsky camp, Nevzorov killed Sukharev, who lost to him at dice and did not pay his debt. In the camp department of the Kargopol ITL, Yakovlev committed suicide because he was unable to pay off his gambling debt. Similar facts occurred in almost all forced labor camps.
Having long sentences and constantly experiencing violence, bullying, and humiliating insults, prisoners lost faith in the possibility of release. Many lost faith in life itself and died from exhaustion or violence. In places of deprivation of liberty, the mortality rate of convicts has steadily increased. This trend is confirmed by our study of the personal files of convicts who died or died in Ivdellag in 1937–1956. It should be noted that the main causes of death of prisoners in 1937–1945 were: were vitamin deficiency, decline in cardiac activity, exhaustion, tuberculosis. From the mid-40s. There has been a surge in murders of convicts.
Ultimately, this led to the fact that in the first half of the 50s. In the forced labor camps of the Sakhalin region, in the Vyatka ITL and in a number of other correctional labor institutions, there were open mass protests by “men” and the “thieves” and “bitches” who joined them. The educated groups in their actions were not guided by anything other than malice; they did not put forward any slogans other than revenge and blood enmity towards “bitches” and “thieves” equally. Therefore, such prisoners began to be called “Makhnovists”, “lawlessness”, “lawlessness”. They did not recognize either the old “thieves’ law” or the new “bitch” law. “Lawlessness” didn’t care whether he was a “thief” or a “bitch”; no “rules” were made; physical violence against a person was committed only for his belonging to the “authorities”.
From the environment of “lawlessness”, groups emerged: “white fang”, “take-take”, “lokhmachi”, etc. The convicts belonging to them refused to comply with the “rules and commandments of the prisoner”. They committed robberies, extortion, robberies, and violence against all residents of places of detention. The centuries-old foundations of the “prison community” were shaken.
Law-abiding prisoners, in order to protect themselves from the arbitrariness of criminality that has reigned in the Gulag, form groups of “self-defenseists”.
Many penitentiary workers were unable to stop riots, pogroms, and arson. The situation in the forced labor camps was becoming critical. The difficult situation required special measures.
In the second half of the 50s. Comprehensive work is being carried out to neutralize the negative influence of the “authorities” of the criminal environment on other prisoners. As a result of the measures taken, crime among convicts in individual correctional labor camps for two years (1956–1958) decreased by more than 40%, escapes by 43%, and the number of mass riots and robberies by 3 times.
The gradual disintegration of criminal gang communities in places of deprivation of liberty began, which, however, was mistakenly perceived by the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs as their final destruction and the disappearance of antisocial traditions and customs.
One cannot but agree that the criminal subculture cannot be destroyed or banned overnight: it dies out only gradually, since the views, way of thinking, and habits inherited over many years and not a single generation take very deep roots in the minds of people, they can be torn out only with life.
Therefore, it is not at all by chance that the “godfathers”, isolated, as a rule, in prisons and prison departments under pre-trial detention centers, still tried to maintain relationships determined by their subculture. Moreover, the conditions of isolated existence created for the “authorities”, which undermined their former undivided dominance in the ITL, forced them to look for new forms of relationships. Accordingly, the tactics of the “thieves” begin to change, and the “law” itself changes again.
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Additions A. Zakharov
Kings and pawns
Short stories about the history and hierarchy of the criminal world, thieves' professions, thieves and fraers
Abridged version.
"Bitch War"
Even in the wild, thieves take care of the formation of their personnel. Thus, the late Far Eastern thief in law Jem (Evgeniy Vasin) created “educational” camps for street children and “difficult” teenagers. “Thieves in law”, and indeed the leaders of organized crime groups, for the most part finance various “rocking chairs”, children’s sports sections and clubs. And not only to train new “criminal” personnel, but also to ensure the loyal attitude of teenagers towards criminal authorities in general. There is also information that thieves in law are behind the informal youth movement AUE (Prisoner Way of Being United).
Those spheres of influence that traditionally were controlled by thieves in law and which feed the criminal community remain unchanged: gambling, prostitution, drugs, car service (especially roadside, like almost all roadside service structures), hotel and restaurant business, and the assets of the common funds will be equal with assets of the largest Russian banks.
Thieves in the pen
The idea of creating a new type of correctional labor institutions was proposed to Stalin in 1927 by Naftaliy Frenkel, a Turkish Jew. Soviet Union already had a camp system designed to “correct through labor,” but it was imperfect. The Soviet prisoner was viewed primarily as a criminal, and not as cheap labor.
Naftaliy Frenkel was born in Constantinople. After graduating from a commercial institute, he opened a timber trading enterprise in the Donetsk province. The company was located in Mariupol. Frenkel's commercial endeavors were a dizzying success. A few years later, he earned the first million, which was used to buy ships. The GPU remembered the enterprising timber merchant in the mid-20s and did not forget about him until his death. As long as the exchange was successful, he was free and invulnerable. When stock exchange transactions began to fade, Frenkel was arrested and sent to Lubyanka. Apparently, there the plan to build new camps and reconstruct old ones was born. To avoid Solovki, Naftaliy Aronovich decided to prove his necessity and indispensability for the young Soviet state. Frenkel was nevertheless sent to the Solovetsky Islands.
In 1929, Joseph Vissarionovich himself wanted to see Naftaliy Aronovich. A plane flies to the island and takes the inventor-innovator to Moscow. The conversation with Stalin took place behind closed doors. When the doors opened, Frenkel had special powers and unleashed his wild imagination to its full potential.
For his services in the construction of the White Sea Canal, the former Turkish citizen received a new appointment and headed the construction of BAMlag. For the most fruitful idea, Naftaliy Aronovich was awarded the Order of Lenin.
With the beginning of perestroika, in 1985-86, the camp thugs faced a new test. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB of the USSR, having announced the fight against criminals among government officials, did not forget about the criminal ranks. The renewing power suddenly “discovered” the thieves in law and opened a “second front” - it unleashed the KGB on them, which it endowed with an additional function - the fight against corruption and organized crime. Very soon, the sensitive clan of thieves discovered someone’s vigilant attention. The threat came from a new enemy, frightening with its uncertainty. These were no longer cops. The security officers got down to business with their usual energy and fire.
Thieves and power.
The fusion of criminal concepts, money and power began to occur in the Soviet Union long before its collapse. And in many ways it predetermined the processes that Russia is reaping today. Thus, in 1979, during a gathering of thieves in Kislovodsk, an “alliance” was formed between thieves in law and “tsekhoviki” (underground entrepreneurs), who undertook to pay ten percent of their income to the criminal community. In 1982, another very important meeting took place in Tbilisi, at which thieves in law gathered to discuss whether they would infiltrate power (See Lev jumped and subsequent articles).
Four years later, this issue was raised again. One of the most respected thieves in law, Vasya Brilliant, spoke out against it. He defended the provision of the thieves' law, according to which there should be no cooperation with the authorities. Georgian thieves opposed Diamond’s position. But no definite decision was made on this issue. Soon, one of the most famous thieves in law of Georgian nationality, Jaba Ioseliani, became one of the closest assistants to the future President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, and later this thief in law became the Minister of Defense of independent Georgia. Thieves in law have become so popular in Georgia that during one survey of schoolchildren, 25 percent of them indicated that they would also like to become thieves in law.
How many thieves in law are there? modern Russia (2013). How the census of thieves in law took place
Boys, sixes and lightning rods
Boys, sixes, bulls and lightning rods are the camp servants of the thief in law. They often serve lawyers in freedom, but there their services are of a different nature. In this row, the boys have the most advantageous position.
The boys include deniers who sympathize with thieves. When a thief unfreezes the zone, that is, starts mass riots, the boys serve as a striking force, inciting the men to drunkenness and sabotage. Men (or hard workers) are those who have taken the path of correction, work conscientiously and do not conflict with the ITK staff. Men most often end up with prisoners convicted for the first time, guild workers and robbers who are far from primitive criminality. The men sign up for active duty, trying to earn early release. Two powerful camps of boys and men are created in the colony. A beginner, if he is not a “professional,” must take one of the sides. During camp riots, the boys, on instructions from the authorities, do not allow men into the industrial zone, drug them with vodka (sometimes by force) and provoke them into fights.
The thieves take the most loyal and authoritative boys into their circle. Particular attention is paid to young people, from whom worthy replacements are forged. The boy may be recognized as a candidate, that is, a potential candidate for the crown of thief. Many oaths during the coronation began with the words: “I’m like a kid who wants to serve the brotherhood of thieves...”.
Guys are less organized and do not engage in mass resistance.
Sixes They serve for general services: they pass notes, collect money, carry out wet cleaning daily near the thief’s bunk, get cigarettes and alcohol, report disorder, work for the thief in the industrial zone, do laundry, and even read books out loud. In the zone, the sixes are obliged to protect the thief, playing the role of bodyguards. In the event of his unauthorized killing or mutilation, the authorities are responsible. Authorities often recruit people with experience in security activities as servants.
To get acquainted with tattoos, I advise you to visit the site “Beyond the Law”
“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 in 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 complete control of the criminals. Often, under the cover of the administration, the “thieves” had bladed weapons, which they aimed at various kinds of “counter-insurgency,” 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 a vivid memory of itself. 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 a large convoy of Banderaites was sent to them in the zone where the law of thieves reigned. 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.” “For this whole movement, they did a lot everywhere, 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. Explored 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 Bandera’s followers 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 of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR” dated MAY 26, 1953.
This is not quite a dictionary, but also not quite a list of “slang” words, of which there are so many on the Internet. Here are just some words from thieves' jargon. Words that have a different meaning in prison jargon than in the general spoken language are marked with the letter "t", professional slang of employees of correctional institutions and operational services of internal affairs bodies (UR, BEP, BOP, NON) - with the letter "s", official terms and abbreviations - the letter "o".
Authority(t) - a representative of the highest group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners.
The informal order operating in the zone is extremely authoritarian in nature, therefore the real situation that develops in the shadow life of a correctional institution, pre-trial detention center or part thereof (cell, PKT, punishment cell, etc.) is determined by the personal qualities of those in power authorities and the presence of a connection with authorities in the wild or in other correctional institutions, as well as the tactics followed by local emergency services workers. In general spoken Russian, the word authority is more often used in the meaning of “influence”, and is contrasted in meaning to the word “power”, but does not complement it. Power exists in the space of formal structures, influencing people through a system of statuses, prestige, positions, and sanctions. Authority Most obey voluntarily.
Authoritative(t) - a prisoner who has a high status in one of two groups (suits) of the informal hierarchy of prisoners: thieves and muzhiks. Not used in relation to representatives of such informal groups as goats, devils, omitted ones.
Jamb(t) - 1) Violation of rules, norms of prison law; 2) Armband of a member of the SPP or other section with the corresponding abbreviation. Most often blue;
3) Unsuccessful action or deed; 4) Cigarette or rolled-up cigarette with marijuana.
Kosyachny(t) - a person who constantly commits acts that contradict generally accepted norms in the prisoner community.
Red zone- a zone where the administration rules with the help of goats and, regardless of prison law, for example, he tries to seat those in the dining room at common tables, demands that prisoners walk in formation to and from the dining room, prohibits movement through zone, entrance to other people's barracks, etc.
In such a zone, activists have broad powers and can behave very aggressively; surveillance of each other, denunciation, and petty quibbles about the behavior and clothing of prisoners are encouraged.
Red(t) - euphemism for goat .
Circle- education broader than family or kentovka; formed most often according to the principle of fraternity.
Wing (put on wing)- a bandage on the sleeve, signifying the prisoner's entry into assets, i.e., in prison jargon, in goats.
Covered(t, s) - Prison-type ITU for those convicted of serious crimes or sent to prison by court order from ITK for systematic violations of the detention regime.
Ksiva(t) - 1) Note, letter. It is transferred illegally from cell to cell, from camp to camp, from prison to freedom and vice versa. Often contains important information about events and persons, sometimes - instructions from authorities. Xivy There are also purely personal content. Constant communication between the camps and prisons scattered throughout the country is carried out using xiv. Synonym - little one, little one;
2) Document, identity card.
Godfather(t) - operational unit employee ITU or Pre-trial detention center.
Nepotistic mutka, nepotistic weed- provocations organized in the zone by operatives to achieve their goals.
Khipezh (kipezh)- unrest, unrest, rebellion started by prisoners against the administration, or by the administration against prisoners.
Shkvarnoy(t) - the same as lowered.
Shkonka, shkonar(t) - bed. In the prison there is a bed, welded from metal pipes and strips, embedded in the floor; often two or three tiers. By number shkonok usually judged on the size and capacity of the cells.
Skin- prisoner's jacket.
Skin(t) - denunciation, report on another prisoner.
Shmon(t, s) - search.
Shnyr(t) - 1) A prisoner who has taken (sometimes under pressure from other prisoners) the responsibility of cleaning a cell, barracks, industrial premises, and performing work that prisoners are required to do in turn. For this work, he receives a certain payment from the prisoners themselves in food, smoke, and money.
2) Prisoners occupying the positions of orderlies (attendants, guards, cleaners) in certain structural units of correctional institutions (punishment isolation wards, PKT, headquarters, visiting rooms, detachments, etc.). Shnyr counts goat already by the position itself.
Banging- to spy for someone else, most often for the benefit of the administration.
Headquarters(c) - the premises of the penitentiary complex, in which the offices of the colony employees (chief, deputies, operational workers, etc.) are located. Often the medical unit is located in the same room.
Stage(t) - a room for prisoners newly arrived at the colony (transporters), where they are kept in isolation from other prisoners of the correctional facility for several days.
