A timely look at a widespread yet largely uninvestigated area of Russian life. Chapters include: consideration of the history and basis in culture for the organization of crime in Russia; the actions ofgr to the USA; and the development of modern sophistications of exchange and networking that currently blight privatization. Diverse perspectives, including comparative, structural and ethnic frameworks, give unprecedented national and international insights into a pervasive element of modern Russia.

Contents: Criminal Foundations: Criminal Russia: the traditions behind the headlines, Mark Galeotti; The society of the Vory-v-Zakone, 1930s - 1950s, Frederico Varese; 'Thieves' in the USSR - a social phenomenon, Yuri Glazov; Corruption in the Soviet system, Steven J Staats; The cultural bases of Soviet Georgia's 2nd economy, Gerald Mars and Yochanan Altman. What is the 'Mafiya'?: Crime and the Soviet Union: early glimpses of the true story, W.E. Butler; Thieves professing the code: the traditional role of the Vory-v-Zakone in Russia's criminal world and adaptations to a new social reality, Joseph D. Serio and Vyacheslav Razinkin; The Russian 'mafiya', Stephen Handelman; Primitive capitalist accumulation: Russia as a racket, Robert J. Kelly, Rufus Schatzberg and Patrick J. Ryan; Russian organized crime: its history, structure and function, Joseph L. Albini, R.E. Rogers, Victor Shabalin, Valery Kutushev, Vladimir Moiseev and Julie Anderson; Is Sicily the future of Russia?: private protection and the rise of the Russian mafia, Frederico Varese. Assessments: Organized crime in the west and in the former USSR: an attempted comparison, Alexander S. Nikiforov; Post-Soviet organized crime: implications for economic, social and political development, Louise I. Shelley; Organized crime in Russia today, Alena V. Ledeneva; Shunning tradition: ethnic organized crime in the former Soviet Union, Russian organized crime and the Russian economy, Joseph Serio. Privatizatsiya and Kriminalizatsiya: how organized crime is hijacking privatization, Svetlana P. Glinkina; Practices of exchange and networking in Russia, Alena V. Ledeneva; Violent entrepreneurship in post-Communist Russia, Vadim Volkov; The mafiya and the new Russia, Mark Galeotti. Global Russian Organized Crime: The sexy Russian mafia, Lydia S. Rosner; Hysteria, complacency and Russian organized crime, Phil Williams; Russian émigré crime in the United States: organized crime or crime that is organized?, James Finkenauer and Elin Waring; Inside the Russian Mafia, Mark Galeotti; Name index.