ILLUSTRATIONS

1.Khitrov marketplace, 1900s. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images.

2.Tsarist police document on Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, c. 1911. Public domain.

3.The Bolshevik militia, 1924. Public domain under Russian law.

4.Vorkuta Gulag, 1945. Photo by Laski Diffusion/Getty Images.

5.Epaulette tattoo. © Alix Lambert.

6.‘Fight Against Hooliganism!’ Author’s photo.

7.Onion domes tattoo. © Alix Lambert.

8.Afgantsy in Gardez, c. 1980–8. Photo by E. Kuvakin, licensed under Creative Commons.

9.Dzhokar Dudayev. Photo by Maher Attar/Sygma via Getty Images.

10.Grave of Vyacheslav ‘Yaponchik’ Ivankov, Vagankovskoye cemetery. Author’s photo.

11.Butyrka prison. Photo by Stanislav Kozlovskiy, licensed under Creative Commons.

12.Drugs bust, 2004. SPUTNIK/Alamy Stock Photo.

13.A believer immerses himself in the Irtysh river, Tobolsk, on Epiphany. Photo by Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images.

14.Gennady Petrov is arrested as part of ‘Operation Troika’, 2008. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.

15.Okhrana security for hire, 2014. Author’s photo.

16.Alexander Zaldostanov addresses a rally in Grozny, 2016. Photo by Dmitry Korotayev/Kommersant Photo via Getty Images.