Behind Barbed Wire

1. The Witness of Case for Behind the Wire
2. Prisoner Camp for the Foreigners
3. 'Thieves in Law' and 'Bitches'

BEHIND BARBED WIRE


1. The Witness of the Case behind the Wire

I heard one case in the 80's on BBC radio about the Soviet Union. I heard it with interference noise, which was created by the KGB. One foreign prisoner in the Soviet Union after liberation from prison wrote a story when he returned to the west. The story was based on what he witnessed.

The administration of the prison wanted to move one group of thieves to another place. That group of thieves occupied the bathhouse. The administration used other thieves to liberate the bathhouse. They fought one against the other. They wound barbed wire around their arms and fought. That was bloody fighting. In the end one group of thieves that was located in the bathhouse ran away.

2. Prison Camp for the Foreigners

On the Russian channel of TV here in America in the year 2000 I saw the next bit of information. In Mordva (Russia) there was built a special prison for foreigners. A foreign embassy could have a connection with their criminals. The conditions for the foreign criminals were better than in the Russian prison camp.

Right now nobody writes about the situation in the Russian prison camps.

3. 'Thieves in Law' and 'Bitches'

Prisoners in the zone were always hungry. They had to work. If they worked well (performed hard the required labor) they would receive an additional piece of bread. [Americans cannot understand what it means to be hungry all the time.]

The thieves administered the affairs throughout all the zones, where there were many other prisoners. When prisoners received packages from their relatives the thieves confiscated part of the packages for themselves, etc. They lived better than other prisoners.

I was translating from Russian to English a quotation from an article by Vladimir Zucanichin. The manuscript for this article was secretly sent across the border and printed in the Parisian Russian journal 'Continent'. He wrote, "In 1974 I was imprisoned. I had been a 'spiv'*, but I did not make much money. Nevertheless the sentence was very severe.

The thieves in the prison camp were divided into several levels. One of them collaborated with the administration of the prison and entered the 'section of internal order'. That was indecent; more exactly, it was shameful. But it was possible they could redeem a prisoner before his sentence was completed or grant him additional visitation with friend or relatives, etc.

Who belonged to the highest order? The thieves, who did not have any question whether or not to be released, cooperated with the administration and entered the 'section of internal order'. There was never cooperation with administration under any circumstances, even if there was death. The majority of them spoke barbaric language and showed poor conduct and thoughts and primitive feelings. But the principle of no cooperation with the administration was the law for them. That created among them a level of aristocrats. Then there developed their name, 'thieves in law'.

Thieves, who tried to cooperate with the administration, were called 'bitches'. Possibly later 'thieves in law' ended up in 'court' and they were found guilty and were ordered to death at that time of violence. The Government benefited from that procedure. In the beginning prison zones divided the 'bitches' and 'thieves', so opposition stopped.

In the Soviet Union one time the death penalty was abolished and gangsterism arose throughout the entire country. The administration of the camps began to throw 'bitches' and 'thieves' together. They united the 'bitches' with 'thieves'. Then the guards locked the towers, and then could not see the prisoners in their zones on those days. That formed the area into a cockpit of gladiators. When the 'thieves' killed the 'bitches' (or the opposite) investigators explored who was guilty.

This was the typical dictatorship policy, especially of the communists, 'divide and conquer'.

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" *In the Soviet Union 'spivs' stood near the hotels for foreigners and bought illegally any of their clothing. Some times they bought foreign money. They gave the foreigners a better price than official foreign exchange for rubles. They also bought in the government shops clothing that were in short supply. Then they sold it all illegally to the Soviet people for a higher price.

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