History Channel - Organized Crime - Russian Mafia






With the fall of communism, a rapacious new gangster class arose from out of the former Soviet Republics and became criminal millionaires. The Red Mafiya, which seized power with staggering speed in the post-Soviet free-market free-for-all, can be traced back centuries to the Thieves World--a secret criminal culture with a strict code of conduct based on loyalty and opposition to the government. We cover the Redfellas evolution--from roots in Imperial Russia to shocking global reach today