Two sides of lawlessness

About how they differ and what is common in the zones of the "red" and "black"

IK-7, which contains Mikhail Khodorkovsky

It is customary to divide lawlessness in the Russian zones into “red” and “black”. Both are based on the close interaction of the administration and bandits, pursuing their own, most often purely selfish interests. Such in the "black zones", as a rule, are revenues from drug trafficking, and in the "red" - from extortion. However, there are also enough exceptions.

The methods of exposure to variety do not shine - beating of varying degrees of intensity and severity. The prisoners themselves, secretly encouraged by the administration, beat most often. However, employees also like to "be made up."

For parole and there you have to pay.

The previous ideas that in the “Black Zone” criminal authorities that confront the administration are refueling everyone - they have not corresponded to reality for a long time. The differences are mostly purely “aesthetic”: in “red” areas there are more external discipline, in “black” - unspoken “rules” and “ideologies”. In the "red" administration-in sight, in "black"-acts from behind crime.

For the past few years, the situation is gradually changing: “red” and “black” lawlessness give way to the usual lawlessness of “bureaucratic”. There are less and less physical violence, more and more pieces of paper, regulations, election enforcement. That is, the law is still “not dogma”, but at least cripple less.

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In prison, Vyacheslav began to cooperate with the administration, and as a person a person was entrusted with my "adaptation"

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Vyacheslav-Bright Blue Steppysh is 35–40 years old. He has been sitting for a long time - since 2002. He was a member of the local cruel gang, but they did not prove participation in the murders and, having knocked out most of the teeth, gave the deadline for extortion. In prison, Vyacheslav began to cooperate with the administration, and as a person a person was entrusted with my “adaptation”. The standard procedure for setting the newly arrived did not work expected - you can’t beat, I know the laws better, it doesn’t shine for me ... In general, in a couple of days we moved to heart conversations.

My own text for such cases has long been worked out, but listening to a typical “red” was interesting. In his words, an undisguised, frank hatred of people who broke his life sounded. Both to the bandits and to power.

He spoke about his camp past reluctantly, but in general truthfully.

- Bel?

- Now, you see for yourself, everything is on “please”, but before ... I beat ... how do you refuse? They call, they say: "We must be fried." You won’t become - it is “stretched out” in a schizo.

- Did you like to beat?

- Of course not. I can build without whipping, but they don’t understand, they say “cotton”. Although many people like it. Power...

- But what about the problems in the will? After all, they can meet.

- They can. And they meet. Not everyone, of course. They are taken out of the camp on the bakery. Directly to the train. But then they still find. Only here they begin to think about it a couple of months before the release. Stupid ...

Vyacheslav sighs heavily, clenching and unclenching fists with pounded knuckles. The conversation clearly does not give him joy. A year later - to freedom yourself.

And I involuntarily think about thousands of people similar to my interlocutor, although outwardly very decent ministers of the current regime, who will also have to grit their teeth in the night in the night, understanding: their time has passed, and in lawlessness - two sides ...

Photos: Sana Sanych, Vasily Popov/The New Times