Comrade Criminal.

Comrade Criminal. Steve Handelman (New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : Yale University Yale University,at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was Press, 1995) 379pp.Reviewed by David Jones David Jones is a common name, particularly in Wales, and there have been several well-known individuals with this name. Variations include Dave Jones and Davy Jones. The collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to promise a new age forRussia. With much fanfare in the Western press, privatization privatization:see nationalization. privatizationTransfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned plans wereunveiled and Russian stores were flooded with previously unavailablewestern goods. There was a genuine sense of euphoria throughout Russiathat, at long last, Russians would finally join the rest of Europe inprosperity and freedom. Four years later, the vast majority of Russianshave neither, and their hopes have been replaced by the age-old cynicismthat has permeated this land throughout history.The old communist apparatchiki still wield indiscrimiate powerdespite the death and repudiation of the Communist party Communist party, in ChinaCommunist party,in China, ruling party of the world's most populous nation since 1949 and most important Communist party in the world since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. . Organizedcrime has taken over vast swathes of the Russian economy and entirecities have become battlegrounds for competing crime families. Now,instead of printing ebullient stories of Russians attaining newfreedoms, the western press is filled with horror stories of immensecorruption, drugs and stolen military hardware. What happened to"the Second Russian Revolution" How have crime and corruptionbecome so entrenched in the new Russia?Stephen Handelman's new book, Comrade Criminal, gives aninsider's view into Russia's tainted new order. The book isbased on interviews conducted with representatives of every aspect ofRussian society, from ordinary citizens and bitter police chiefs to newmillionaires and gangsters. Starting with a brief overview ofRussia's criminal history, Comrade Criminal develops into apoignant account of a fizzled revolution. Mr. Handelman'sinterviews are written in an engaging, very readable style whichalternately amuse and disgust the reader, but they each provide insightinto Russia's dire condition.Organized criminal life is not a new phenomena in Russia. Thevorovskoi mir, or "the thieves' world," has a traditionthat dates back the tsarist era of crime and intimidation. In many waysthese criminals are similar to the Sicilian mafia Noun 1. Sicilian Mafia - a secret terrorist group in Sicily; originally opposed tyranny but evolved into a criminal organization in the middle of the 19th centuryMaffia, Mafia in their strict socialcodes, their aversion to any cooperation with the government and theirrule of silence. These unlawful clans flourished even under the harshconditions of Stalin's terror, becoming the lords of the gulag thatAlexander Solzhinytsen described in The Gulag Archi pelago. Yet eventhese battle-hardened gangs are suffering from the new type of mafia.Devoid of ritual and honor, the new gangsters are slowly edging theirolder colleagues out of the picture and creating a complete new criminalphenomeon.Handelman describers how the new criminal class emerged as aconsequence of the scarcities and uncertainties of the planned economy planned economyn → econom��a planificadaplanned economyn → ��conomie planifi��eplanned economyn → .Factory managers needed men who could obtain rare spare parts or knewsomeone who was willing to barter some needed commodity for vodka. Thesefacilitators eventually began to create a network of connections thatwas vital, and secretly profitable, for factory managers. Thus the newcriminal class, the avtoritet, was created by the socialist systemitself. As the Soviet system collapsed, the factory managers looted theCommunist party treasury and spontaneously privatized their factories,and, with the backing of avtoritet muscle and connections, formed theirown fiefdoms. Now the old Communist hacks are firmly in control of localgovernment and the factories, while the mafia controls commerce andkeeps potential upstarts from challenging the new social order.This, according to Mr. Handelman, is the reason why the new Russianmafia is so invincible: because it has actually merged with the localgovernment and industry The government cannot rid Russia of organizedcrime because the government and organized crime are now the sameorganization. The apparatchiki and the new mafia formed such a naturaland strong alliance that as the Soviet Union collapsed, they succeededin seizing for themselves the prize spoils of the Soviet economy. As Mr.Handelman's interviews show, the implications of this seizure forRussian democracy and economic development are disastrous.Handelman shows time and time again examples of the new Russiangangster-capitalism. The unholy alliance of ex-communist managers andthugs has infiltrate every aspect of the Russian economy Theapparatchiki funnel state funds into their own businesses, bilk bilk?tr.v. bilked, bilk��ing, bilks1. a. To defraud, cheat, or swindle: made millions bilking wealthy clients on art sales.b. thestate of its property and raid what is left of the Communistparty's treasury in order to build up monopolies, and they do nottake kindly to competing businesses. Honest businessmen are chased outof the market with threatened or real acts of violence, while thegovernment takes no action. The reason for the government'sinaction is disheartening for democrats; the real political and economicpower in Russia lies with gangster-bureau-crats, most of whom aredirectly directly to the old communist order. Comrade Criminal is not abook for an in-depth, technical analysis of the problem of organizedcrime in Russia. For those who are not familiar with Russia, it providesa succinct backround and a grim but accurate portrait of theprivatization process. It could be helpful reading for those in thebusiness community considering the pros and cons of investment in theformer Soviet Union. For readers more acquainted with the peculiaraffairs of Russia, Comrade Criminal adds a personal aspect to all theessays and articles investigating the privatization and democratization de��moc��ra��tize?tr.v. de��moc��ra��tized, de��moc��ra��tiz��ing, de��moc��ra��tiz��esTo make democratic.de��moc process.One of the few drawbacks of Comrade Criminal is the relativeuniformity of opinion demostrated by people interviewed. Whether thisexpresses a widely shared opinion throughout Russia about the emergenceof organized crime and its connections to the old regime, or it simplyshows a careful editing job, is unclear. Each chapter provides yetanother example of corruption in a different region or in a differentsector of the economy, and each time the story is so similar that itleaves the reader wondering whether the grey, communist homogeneity ofthe past has simply been replaced by an equally homogenous homogenous - homogeneous andoppressive gangserstate. Mr. Handelman would most certainly say yes.David Jones is a first-year student in the Economic and PoliticalDevelopment Program at Columbia University's School ofInternational and Public Affairs.