Criminals, Nazis, and Islamists

Description

In Criminals, Nazis, and Islamists, Vera Mironova examines conflicts and cooperation between inmates in male prisons in the former Soviet Union. She begins by focusing on the earliest prisoner groups, in particular the Vory criminal organization, which began in the 1930s. The Vory were able to develop rules, norms, and unique criminal ideology to ensure their monopoly in prison internal governance. Not only did they establish control over inmates, the Vory also successfully stood up against prison authorities to make inmates life behind bars as comfortable as possible, and as a consequence ensured its own survival in power. Mironova also explains how the Vory uses different methods, from strikes to bloody riots, to put pressure on prison leadership.

The fall of Soviet Union in 1990 saw an explosion of entrepreneurial criminal organizations, and the Vory started losing their grip on prisons. This book reviews how Islamists, Neo Nazis, and other major organizations behind bars across the former Soviet Union are currently challenging the Vory and what happens when they take power inside particular prisons and have to govern themselves. By focusing on the margins of Russian life, Mironova offers a unique perspective on the social transformations impacting both the USSR and the post-Soviet space from the 1930s to the Putin era.

About the author:

Vera Mironova, PhD, is an Associate Fellow at Harvard University and is famous for her extensive in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with armed groups in active conflict zones, terrorist sleeping cells, and criminal organizations. She conducted fieldwork in numerous active conflict zones and post-conflict regions all over the world including in Syria, Iraq, Sudan, DRC Congo, and Azerbaijan.

Table of contents

Preface
Introduction
1. Theory
2. History of the Vory Criminal Organization
3. Prison Criminal Leadership
4. Lower Class of Inmates
5. Prison Criminal Law Enforcement
6. Prison Criminal Economy
7. Everyday Life Behind Bars
8. Conflict with Prison Authorities: Getting Power
9. Conflict with Prison Authorities: Losing Power
10 Problems within the Vory Criminal Organization
11. Prison Islamist Jamaats
12. Islamist Jamaat Rise to Power
13. Jamaat Conflict with the Criminal Organization
14. Vory Criminal Organization Resurgence
15. Neo-Nazis Behind Bars
Conclusion