Download or read book Thieves in Law written by Paul Bolan and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organized crime in Russia began in the imperial period of the Tsars, but it was not until the Soviet era that vory v zakone ("thieves-in-law") emerged as leaders of prison groups in gulags, and their honor code became more defined. After World War II, the death of Joseph Stalin, and the fall of the Soviet Union, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market, exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics, and at its highest point, even controlling as much as two-thirds of the Russian economy.