Cadell

I'm reading The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and I am interested in the "blatnye", or "thieves". These common criminals, semi-organized, are one of the many hardships that the political prisoners must endure in the camps. They are usually the lackeys, or even partners, of the camp administration and take anything of value from the "58's". I would like to know more about their history. From a few peripheral mentions in articles online I have gathered that they existed in Russian prisons before 1917, and continued to exist after the fall of the Soviet Union. How organized were they? Was their influence limited to the prison system? I cannot seem to get my hands on any useful sources about this group.

Roughneck

I agree that the lack of material is discouraging. Clues and possible avenues of research that I noticed include...
They were noted to all have tatooed chests.
They were noted at one point to have words in their dialect that they had brought with them from outside of Russia, so this could be an ethnic group similar to the Roma?
They may be related to what is now known as the Russ. Maf., which is not an avenue I would recommend researching.

vid

That "prisoner culture" described in GULAG Archipelag was AFAIK to a big degree heir of tsarist prison, and much of it remained (but of course kept evolving) even after end of communist rule. Make sure to see this great documentary (it focuses on prisoner tattoo culture of post-communist Russia):
If you compare this with US prison documentaries, many things are so surprisingly similar. In my opinion this discredits "national" hypothesis, and puts more weight on it being natural reaction to harsh prison conditions.

sylla1

BTW, welcome to Historum, Roughneck.

Roughneck

Thanks, found it randomly while trying to find info on the blatnye.
I've actually found quite a little trove of information on the subject, but I'm not sure if it's ok to post a link or paste a quote.

I'll just say for now that the place to look is a popular online encyclopedia which starts with a W. The terms to search are "vory v zakone", "воры в законе" (if you speak russian or use google translate), and "Thieves In Law" (literal translation).

The world of russian underworld music, which was also mentioned in The Gulag Archipelago a few times, also has an article there and is called "Shanson" or "Russian Chanson".

I stumbled across all this while researching Vladimir Vysotsky, who covered some of the old thieves' songs, which is funny since I tried and failed to find this information several times prior.

Roughneck

I have fixed said online encyclopedia beginning with W so that you can now simply enter "Blatnye" to get the desired result.
The information is at your fingertips, Cadell.

Roughneck

The fellow shown at 36:48 and elsewhere in this video has stars on his shoulders, which signify "that the owner is a man of discipline, status, and tradition. Men will also receive stars when promoted to "Captain"."
It also shows later the executioner on his forearm, which indicates that he is a murderer, and/or follows The Thieves' Code.
Serious old-school Blatnye.

Thanks for the documentary, by the way, it's fascinating how little things have changed since Solzhenitsyn was in there. Still 1.5 million inmates, with 34 people to a 5 meter cell.