The Suka Wars

[Veritas]

Has anyone heard about this? Apparently it was a war in the gulags fought between two groups of criminals: the "sukas" and the "thieves."

The "sukas" originally volunteered to join the Red army during WWII for the promise of shorter sentences in prison and later collaborated with guard officials in the gulags to get benefits, while the "thieves" were old fashioned bandits who refused to collaborate with the government or prison officials under any circumstances. These two groups had a war to determine who would control the social order in the camps. Really interesting stuff.

Later, after Khrushchev released millions of them from gulags, they formed underground criminal networks and created an aura of political corruption in the country. The post-Soviet oligarchs and powerful Russian mafia have their origin from this movement.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*****_Wars
thevieweast.wordpress.com/tag/*****es-war/
(fill asterisks with the b word)

[OGG]

i read about it after watching a documentary on russian prison tattoos

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Indeed, fairly interesting. As is most of The Code of the old world.

[Sasha]

yeah interesting indeed, through the related suggestions at the bottom is came upon this, even better i think; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kengir_uprising

[Veritas]

wikipedia.org/wiki/Kengir uprising

Most of that article seems to come from Solzhenitsyn, who isn't exactly a good source considering his racist and nationalistic background. I don't like the way he glorifies camp inmates either as if they were innocent people with noble backgrounds and intentions.

That second source I listed painted them in a very negative fashion, and it seems a lot of these people deserved the Russian title "bandeet."


As their code prohibited submission to any state authority or engaging in ‘legitimate’ labour, the Vory refused to work in the Gulag. According to Shalamov, thieves tried to avoid work by faking illnesses, bribing or threatening the camp doctor to send them to hospital. However, they would induce physical symptoms if this failed and this often involved some form of grievous self-injury, including eating shards of glass and metal or swallowing fish hooks to tear their insides. One Vor even blinded himself with styptic powder from a pencil.[10] For this reason, many Vory boasted of their high pain tolerance. Because the camp doctors had the ability to get them out of work unpunished, the thieves often applied a code of ‘morality’ to them. Doctors were often given presents and money in exchange for helping the thieves, and it was widely known that the thieves would not steal from medical personnel.[11]

However, their relationships with other prisoners in the camps tended to be far more antagonistic. Many political prisoners have recounted their experiences with the Vory in their memoirs, stressing their brutality and ‘inhuman’ nature. During her journey aboard the S.S Dzhurma, Evgenia Ginzburg, a political prisoner, came into contact with female criminals who were ‘covered in tattoos’. These women ‘openly stole what little provisions the politicals had, whilst most of the guards refused to intervene’.[12] Elinor Lipper also encountered some particularly violent criminals whilst on a transport ship, the Dalstroi, heading to Kolyma who ‘raped the women, starved the old, and murdered any men who tried to stop them’. Again, Lipper notes that many of the guards had been bribed to turn a blind eye, and on some occasions they even encouraged the Vory.[13]

Another prisoner, Janusz Bardach, described playing cards with a group of Vory who cheated him to rob him of all of his possessions. After he confronted them they beat him, and took what little he had left, making threats if he refused to hand over future rations. Later, during his incarceration at Kolyma, Bardach also came into contact with a pickpocket, Ruchka (‘Little Hand’), who did little to no work and constantly abused him for being a political prisoner. When Bardach attempted to strike back, he was taken to the guards who threw him straight into the isolator without even questioning Ruchka.[14] In his collection of drawings from the gulag, Danzig Baldaev has illustrated the torturous treatment many of the politicals faced at the hands of the Vory, illustrating prisoners having their clothing stolen from them, and depicting the frequent abuse and gang rape of women. If another prisoner insulted the Vory they would retaliate by ‘plugging the throat’ where a spike was forced into a prisoners mouth and hammered down:

[Guardia Rossa]

I wish I'd lived in a "revolutionary Gulag", their lives appear to be better than mine!
They even have a religion and music!

[Sasha]

I wish I'd lived in a "revolutionary Gulag", their lives appear to be better than mine!
They even have a religion and music!

You sir, you are an idiot...

[Guardia Rossa]

You sir, you are an idiot...

Don't tell me you believe in bourgeois propaganda.

Point is, it is stupid to believe that as soon as the Evil Bolshevik Soviets left the Gulag, the Kingdom (Or Democratic Republic?) of God was established and everyone lived well.