Great

For a non-fiction book, this book keeps you engaged even with the amount of information being delivered. Also, the author jumps around in historical timelines but doesn’t loose you. The narrator is very easy to listen to, and has a clear voice that is not annoying. He is a great pick who seems to be able translate and understand the Russian language, but doesn’t overwhelm you with too many new foreign words.

The book is not politically bias so ignore the communist’s review. He/she is looking for fiction because lets remember the communist never believes communism has ever been tried.

The book however, gives historical, cultural, and contextual information which allows you to see the view from the mafia’s thought process. That’s it! Also this book does not glorify the mafia. The author is simply giving a historical account, and there is much to tell.

8 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Insightful, Informative, & Brilliantly Written

Mark Galeotti vividly illustrates his expertise on Russian Organized Crime and Post-Soviet Politics. Galeotti’s ability to communicate and organize this subject matter into a highly enjoyable narrative is truly impressive and pleasure to read!

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Not everyone who carries a knife is a cook.

"If Lenin had shot more criminals and hired fewer, we might have seen a very different Soviet Union."
- Soviet police officer, 1991, quoted in The Vory by Mark Galeotti

- Russian proverb

A nice survey and history of the Vory V Zakone "thief within the code". The best part of this Yale published and well researched book is the history of how the Russian mafia developed in parallel with the Soviet Union and Russia and changed and adapted to fit the new realities. I also enjoyed the sections that dealt with the language, rituals, and tattoos of the Vory. The book loses a bit of velocity as it tries to describe the different facets of the Russian organized crime's ecosystem (Georgian, Chechen, street vor to vor-broker). But still, these sections were necessary to understand that the Russian organized crime has multiple models of control, multiple levels of partnership, etc. It is difficult to even (from both epistemological and ontological perspective) understand exactly what controlled by organized crime means in Russia. The corruption and the cooperation of the state and businesses is so extensive that getting a firm idea of how much Russia is a mafia state seems hard to bite into.

Anyway, this is a fascinating read and helpful in understanding Modern Russia and how figures like Stalin, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin contributed to the current corruption in Russia. It is also useful to understanding how Putin uses organized crime to support the Russian state (and his personal power) and the current conflict with Ukraine and Russia's desire to "Make Russia Great Again." It is also, in a minor way, also helpful to a degree in understanding the relationship Trump has with Ukraine and Russia (both officially and unofficially), although not much is directly said about Trump's ties with Russian money in this book.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Excellent

An excellent book by the most thoughtful Russia-watcher of our time. Galeotti avoids the distorting Russophobia and hyperbole that's in vogue in the Trump era.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Social Studies You Aren't Supposed To Know

This is valid social studies and part of human history. The human plight and capability. Very well documented and reader-friendly. Fascinating. Wherever you are parked in the world, this culture is likely within hours of you whether you recognize it or not. You don't have to be from N.Y.C. to grow up connected to some form of it. While we sit around America worrying if we might have "post-traumatic stress disorder", "ADD", "Chemical imbalances", this nation rose up from the gulags in Siberia against impossible odds of surviving. Men, women, and children. They have become a formidable and unkillable extroverted force. Seemingly inoculated against all social barriers and suppression. Shapeshifters that have one step into a magicality born from an enforced exile into the supernatural as the only room left with oxygen. This book is a journalistic masterpiece. Thank You Mark Galeotti. Standing Ovation! A labor of love.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

A must read to understand Russia today

To understand Russia today you must understand the deep complexity of Russian history. This work presents a perspective not found in a college Poli-Sci course.

Great those in the know and those not

Great book from a lifelong student of Russia! If you’re already steeped in Russian history, there is a lot of fascinating detail to add color to your understanding of the Vory. If it’s all knew to you, this will provide great context to today’s events that is interesting to hear!

A pure masterpiece

A brilliant and extensively detailed book that captures the many way crime in Russia has infected both society, business and politics. This book is about much more than merely one single crime syndicate, as Russian organized crime does not really resemble that of the Sicilian or Japanese mafia. Furthermore, I’d like to hightlight the narrator of this book, who not only has a captivating voice, but who actually pronounces Russian names and words correctly - he calls USSR’s last premier «Garbatsjof» instead of «Gorbachev», and says «Bariis» instead of «Boris» Yeltsin.

Overt Bias

The author pauses the book several times to talk about how much he hates Communism and it gets very annoying. Normally I wouldn't mind reading a book about Communism, but if the author wanted to write a book about his political opinions then he should have written that book instead.

The most irritating part was when he started talking about the growth of the Vory. This should have been the best part of the book, but it became clear to me here, that the author was unwilling or unable to write this chapter without more than half of it being dedicated to their hatred of the USSR.

If you're into commie-bashing or if you don't mind reading an author with obvious political bias, then go ahead and get this book. The subject matter is very interesting and the writing and performance are about average.

11 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Very good, not great

Narration was good. Info was good. Not as entertaining or bloody as I expected, though.