Product Description

What is the Russian Mafia? This unique book thoroughly researches this question and challenges widely-held views. The author charts the emergence of the Russian Mafia in the context of the transition to the market, the privatization of protection and pervasive corruption. The ability of the Russian State to define property rights and protect contracts is compared to the services offered by fragments of the state apparatus, private security firms, ethnic crime groups, the Cossacks and the Mafia. Past criminal traditions, rituals and norms have been resuscitated by the Mafia of today to forge a powerful new identity and compete in a crowded market for protection. The book draws on and reports of undercover police operations, in-depth interviews conducted over several years with the victims of the Mafia, criminals and officials, and documents from the Gulag archives. It also provides a comparative study, making references to other Mafia (the Japanese Yakuza, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, American-Italian Mafia and the Hong Kong Triads).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #656973 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
Varese deserves the highest praise for a stunning book that is of the very best academic quality in terms of scholarly rigour in its treatment of Soviet and post-Russia culture. This is a thoughtful, multidisciplinary examination of a complex phenomenom. The book is rich with data and each page bursts with insight from the experiences of all those connected to mafia activity. The Russian Mafia is that rare thing in acadmia-an un-put-downable book that prompts you to seek out more knowledge on who's who in Russian Business and Russian organised crime. I enjoyed reading it immensely and have learned much from it. (The British Journal of Criminology )

Federico Varese's study of the Russian mafia is aimed primarily at students of crime rather than exclusively at Russia-watchers ... With considerable intrepidity, Varese has conducted numerous interviews (and contextualised them with scrupulous documentary research) with people who have availed themselves of the mafia's services. The resulting picture of economic and social life in Perm is instructive and sobering. (The Political Quarterly )

A work of incontestable quality ... The appearance of this work must definitely be welcome, because it marks the emergence of scientific rigor in the treatment of the Russian Mafia and calls for a multidisciplinary examination of post-Soviet society. (Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Revue d'Etudes Comparatives Est-Ouest (Paris) )

Enlightening, perceptive and superbly researched. Essential reading for anybody seriously interested in the mind and heart of contemporary Russian criminal society. (John le Carré )

In his scholarly study, Varese systematically surveys the source of the problem, inventories the origins and resources of those groups providing protection, and then describes the way the relationship works. At the core of his book is an elaborate case study of the city of Perm, where he spent months working with police records, conducting interviews, and collecting newspaper stories. (Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs )

Headlines on Russian organized crime appear regularly in the Western Press and carry alarming messages ... Now we finally have a sober, scholarly account. Unlike headline writers, Varese is cautious about the use of the term 'Mafia' ... The history of the vory-v-zakone is fascinating. (Alena Ledeneva, Times Literary Supplement )

The first comprehensive study of the Russian Mafia is by a young Italian scholar, Federico Varese. His book is an extraordinary account. (Daniele Archibugi, Il Manifesto (Rome) )

Customer Reviews

Excellent account of collective criminality
No understanding of contemporary Russian society is possible without an understanding of how the oligarchs raped the old State to secure their wealth. And no account of that process is complete without recourse to this account of the way that organized criminality supported and prompted mass theft. The oligarchs -- the kleptocracy -- had a mutually supportive relationship with organized crime, as this book demonstrates. Written with academic rigour yet accessible to the general reader this is an outstanding achievement and deserves a wide readership -- especially among the newspaper editors and politicians who fawn over the economic criminals who now dominate Russian society simply because they have lifted the collective wealth of ordinary Russians from their pockets and placed it in their own. An excellent companion to David Slatter's "Darkness at Dawn" or Chrystia Freeland's "Sale of the Century".

excellent scholarship and a good read
I was given this book by a friend and found it very interesting. It is not only a book about the 'mafia', but also the transition to the market in Russia, courts, the history of Soviet criminality and an in-depth study of a city in Central Russia. All the material is tied up in a compelling argument, which is - as far as I know - highly original and persuasive. I am not suprised that a sophisticated reader like Le Carré wrote an endorsment.

Corruption piggybacks on capitalism as Russian entrepreneurs balance profits and protection from organized crime.
Running a business in Russia is every bit as unsavory as you might imagine, according to Federico Varese's thoroughly researched look at that nation's organized (but not very organized) criminals. Even the lowliest shopkeeper faces shakedowns from drug addicts and teenage thugs, as well as bribe demands from tax collectors and police. In this chaotic climate, the protection racket thrives. Pay the right person, and not only will the shakedowns end - you might even gain a business partner and a fishing buddy. But the penalties for making the wrong move can be severe. One shopkeeper who refused to pay up was burned to death in his store. Varese offers an intricately detailed look at the realities of the Russian Mafia. His excellent reporting is undermined only by his frequently academic writing style. We recommend this guide to those who are doing business in Russia or who hope to. Caveat entrepreneur.