49ers |
Non-political prisoners convicted under Article 49 of the Soviet Criminal Code |
58ers |
Political prisoners convicted under Article 58 of the Soviet Criminal Code |
apelsin |
‘Orange’, modern term for vor v zakone (see below) assumed to have bought his title |
artel |
Tsarist-era artisans’ cooperative |
avtoritet |
‘Authority’, new-generation crime boss |
besprizornik |
Homeless child |
blat |
Favours, pull |
blatar |
See blatnoi |
blatnaya muzyka |
‘Thieves’ music’, criminal slang |
blatnoi |
Traditionalist thief, also urka, blatar, urkagan |
bratva |
Brotherhood |
brigada |
‘Brigade’, organised crime group |
brigadir |
‘Brigadier’, local lieutenant of a gang boss |
byk |
‘Bull’, a heavy |
bytovik |
‘Everyday-lifer’, petty criminal generally forced into crime by need |
Chekist |
Slang for a political police officer (from the Cheka, the first Bolshevik force) |
chestnyaga |
‘The honest’, unconverted, traditionalist thief |
etap |
Prisoner transfer between camps |
fartsovshchik |
Black marketeer |
fenya |
Criminal slang, also ofenya, blatnaya muzyka |
frayer |
Outsider, non-criminal |
FSB |
Federal Security Service |
gruppirovka |
Crime group |
Gulag |
Labour camp (from acronym for Main Directorate of Camps) |
KGB |
Committee of State Security (Soviet political police) |
klichka |
Criminal nickname |
kodlo |
Early criminal gang |
krysha |
‘Roof’, protection |
ksiva |
Slip of paper, note |
lavrushnik |
‘Bay leaf’, disparaging Slavic criminal term for Georgians |
militsiya |
‘Militia’, Soviet police |
MVD |
Ministry of Internal Affairs |
nalevo |
‘To the left’, through the black market |
oboroten |
‘Werewolf’, corrupt police officer |
obshchak |
Common gang funds |
ofenya |
See fenya |
pakhan |
Senior criminal |
patsan |
Prospective member of the thieves |
ponyatiya |
‘Understandings’, informal gang code of behaviour |
razborka |
Violent settling of scores |
shestyorka |
‘Sixer’, gofer or hanger-on |
skhodka |
Gangster meeting, a ‘sit-down’ |
smotryashchy |
Watcher, overseer |
strelka |
‘Arrow’, gangster meeting specifically to resolve a dispute |
suchya voina |
‘Bitches’ war’, Gulag struggle amongst criminals in the late 1940s and early 1950s |
suka |
‘Bitch’, criminal abandoning the traditional code |
tolkach |
Fixer |
torpedo |
‘Torpedo’, hit man |
tsekhovik |
Black-market entrepreneur |
urka |
See blatnoi |
urkagan |
See blatnoi |
varyag |
‘Varangian’ (‘Viking’), term for gangsters from Moscow and European Russia used by criminals in other Russian regions |
vor |
Thief |
vor v zakone |
‘Thief in law’, thief within the code |
vorovskoi mir |
‘Thieves’ world’, traditional criminal culture |
voyenshchina |
‘Soldiery’, Gulag prisoners who had been in the Red Army |
yama |
Slum |
zek |
Gulag prisoner |