In the life of every state there are several layers of society. Russia is no exception. One of these "unofficial" layers is the thieves' community. This informal and illegal organization is a kind of state within a state.
Thieves' concepts and laws were transferred to the USSR from pre-revolutionary Russia. However, over time, they changed several times.
The community lives in accordance with an unwritten set of rules that strictly regulate the life of the underworld. Thieves' concepts and laws describe in detail the rights and obligations of thieves, the way they behave. These rules change over time.
According to an unwritten rule that has existed for many years, the whole world for thieves is divided into strangers and their own. The thieves' law applies only to their own, it's a kind of corporate rules. Strangers may not obey the law. They are generally needed solely so that their own can survive at their expense.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, the thieves' law has been gradually modified. It applies to all prisoners, but gives significantconcessions to the thieves' community.
So, for example, a thief in law until the 80s was obliged to lead a clearly asocial lifestyle. A thief in law is a leader of criminals, a person occupying the highest level of the thieves' hierarchy, dedicated. He had to go to jail many times. He was forbidden to marry, work, communicate with any representatives of the law.
Today these rules hardly apply. Until the 60s, the thieves' community was international, united. After the 80s, it broke up into groups on a territorial basis, thieves' laws and concepts have changed.
Nevertheless, today the world of thieves successfully competes with civilized business and even surpasses it in many ways.
The thieves' law must be observed by all members of the community. It is not just invented: it is formed from thieves' orders. This is the name of the new rules that can be adopted in disputes and new situations that have not taken place before.
Like any society, the thieves' organization has not only its own laws, but also its own language (slang, Fenya). Its purpose is the same as that of any language of declassed elements: to identify one's own, to transmit information in a practically encrypted form, incomprehensible to others.
The thieves' law does not oblige members of the community to use it. However, owning it is taken for granted.
Thieves' Law has had some positives for a long time. Thieves in law carefully monitored the "correctness" of their members. There were certaininstallations, it was strictly defined what could and could not be done. The organization was ruled by law and order, to which all its members were subject.
Today, the thieves' law can no longer ensure complete obedience. In criminal gangs, people appeared who do not recognize any (neither thieves nor state) laws (the so-called scumbags). Often there are conflicts between territorial groups, and a person who has never been in prison can become a thief in law.
Together, this indicates the degradation of the thieves' community.
