Review of The Vory “Russia’s Super Mafia” by Mark Galeotti

The Vory “Russia’s Super Mafia”

By: Mark Galeotti

Published in 2018 by Yale University Press

Review by Noah Genatossio

Tracing a history that goes back to Imperial Russia, through the revolution, into Red Russia and the gulag system, and then the rocky transition into the Russian Federation, Mark Galeotti explores the Russian criminal-class, mafia, gangster culture, however you wish to phrase it, but as it’s put in Russian: vory v zakone.

Historical analysis mixed with stories, and aesthetic insights into this sub-culture, make The Vory a layered read. Spanning from St. Petersberg to Odessa, to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, Mark Galeotti is able to provide both a birds-eye feel, and an on-the-ground closeness, depending on which part of the book you are in.