ABSTRACT

Caucasian crime groups early on assumed a disproportionate role in first Soviet, then Russian organized crime. By the 1980s, Soviet organized crime was characterized by criminal networks led by individuals known as thieves within the law. Supposedly living according to the thieves’ code, these networks controlled most criminal activities. This chapter describes the origins of the thieves-within-the-law phenomenon, with a particular emphasis on the Georgian and other Caucasian networks. However, networks were never exclusively based on ethnicity and opportunism was a major reason for joining. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the thieves-within-the-law phenomenon continued to play a significant role within organized crime in the post-Soviet republics, centered on Russian as a common language.