The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia

by Mark Galeotti
@MarkGaleotti

The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia’s much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone

Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment.

The vory—as the Russian mafia is also known—was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed their unique culture.

Interview with the Author

New Books Network 
Mark Galeotti, “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia” (Yale UP, 2018)
6/10/19            72 min

Related books

Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929 – 1941 Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob