Criminals, Nazis, and Islamists - Competition for Power in Former Soviet Union Prisons

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 Voryalso 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 f