Books on Russian Mafia

Investigating The Russian Mafia
by Joseph D. Serio
Paperback from Carolina Academic Press
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Career Criminal: My Life in the Russian Mob | Until the Day I Died
by Gary "Gunz" Govich
Paperback from iUniverse
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Expelled: A Journalist's Descent into the Russian Mafia State
by Luke Harding
Hardcover from Palgrave Macmillan
Book Published: 2012-05-22
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Mafia State
by Luke Harding
Hardcover from Guardian
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld
by Misha Glenny
Paperback from Vintage
Book Published: 2009-04-07
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The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy
by Federico Varese
Paperback from Oxford University Press, USA
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Red Mafiya
by Robert I. Friedman
Mass Market Paperback from Berkley
Book Published: 2002-10-01
The Russian Mafia in America: With one hundred illustrations
by Laura M. Radanko
Paperback from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Brotherhood
by Igor Groysman
Paperback from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya
by Stephen Handelman
This riveting book is the first comprehensive investigation into the organized crime and corruption that plague post-Communist Russia and sabotage its attempts at revolution and reform. Handelman, Moscow bureau chief for The Toronto Star from 1987 to 1992, has based his book on interviews with more than 150 Russians--mobsters, police, political crusaders, former KGB agents, new millionaires, and ordinary citizens. Amazon.com
Paperback: 408 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.06 x 9.21 x 6.11
Yale Univ Pr; ISBN: 0300063865; (April )
Russian Mafia in America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime
by James O. Finckenauer, Elin J. Waring
Paperback: 320 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.97 x 8.94 x 5.98
Northeastern University Press; ISBN: 1555535089; (November )
Bandits, Gangsters and the Mafia: Russia, the Baltic States and the CIS Since 1991
by Martin McCauley
The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy
by Federico Varese
Hardcover: 320 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.53 x 9.00 x 5.94
Oxford University Press; ISBN: 019829736X; (September )
Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier
by Matthew Brzezinski
If Michael Lewis (The New New Thing, Liar's Poker) or P.J. O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell, Parliament of Whores) had spent the 1990s in Moscow, they might have produced a book like Casino Moscow--a dizzying first-person account of the wild east and its shotgun wedding with capitalism. It begins with Matthew Brzezinski as a rookie reporter getting beaten and nearly killed by a pair of Ukrainian thugs; the rest of the book is a white-knuckle tour through a place where the line separating entrepreneurs and criminals is often impossible to discern. Brzezinski worked in the Moscow bureau of the Wall Street Journal. If his name sounds familiar, that's because he's the nephew of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor. He is an ideal guide: sometimes it takes a fish-out-of-water foreigner to see the things a jaded native cannot. (Comparing the author to Alexis de Tocqueville or Gunnar Myrdal is a stretch, but it's the same idea.) Brzezinski also writes with great humor and amazing panache. Describing the parking lot of a high-class bank, he writes that it "resembled a well-stocked Mercedes dealership that specialized only in armored, navy blue 600-series sedans, or shestotki, as the top-of-the-line models were affectionately known--as in 'My shestotka's just been blown up, can I borrow yours?'" Gangsters, prostitutes, and Western investors fill these pages, all of them coming to life courtesy of Brzezinski's narrative skill. Despite the title, Casino Moscow isn't just about Moscow--some of the best sections cover other parts of Russia: "It was heartbreaking that St. Petersburg had been so mistreated. Yet even in its state of decay, I still preferred its shabby elegance to Moscow's new-money makeover. In St. Petersburg you lived for the past; Moscow lived only for the day." At the edge of Siberia, on the Pacific coast, is Vladivostok--"five time zones ahead of the Russian capital, but a decade behind." The book is a fast-paced adventure story--and a must for readers interested in Russia as well as fans of modern-day gonzo journalism. Brzezinski is a writer to watch. --John Miller - Amazon.com

Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism
by Paul Klebnikov
Paul Klebnikov tells the incredible story of Boris Berezovsky, a one-time Russian car dealer who assembled a huge--and illicit--fortune after the collapse of Communism. "This individual had risen out of nowhere to become the richest businessman in Russia and one of the most powerful individuals in the country," writes Klebnikov, a respected reporter for Forbes. "This is a story of corruption so profound that many readers might have trouble believing it." Yet Godfather of the Kremlin is a careful work of journalism in which Klebnikov documents the business dealings of a man who once bragged to the Financial Times that he and six other men controlled half of the Russian economy and rigged Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996. Berezovsky survived both an assassination attempt and a murder investigation, and paved the way to power for Vladimir Putin. He and the other crony capitalists of post-Soviet Russia like to rationalize their deeds, writes Klebnikov: "Whenever I asked Russia's business magnates about the orgy of crime produced by the market reforms, they invariably excused it by pointing to the robber barons of American capitalism. Russia's bandit capitalism was no different from American capitalism in the late nineteenth century, they argued." Yet nothing could be further from the truth: Carnegie, Rockefeller, and their peers transformed the United States into an economic superpower. Berezovsky, on the other hand, has "produced no benefit to Russia's consumers, industries, or treasury." It's not that he didn't have an opportunity. To pick one example among many, he took over Aeroflot when it had a monopoly position in a booming market. But the company barely grew, and instead experienced myriad problems. Berezovsky controlled many businesses, but he was a lousy business manager; his only authentic success--as an auto dealer--depended on collusion. His real skill is shady dealmaking, especially with corrupt government officials. That's the way to success in modern Russia, as this well-told but troubling book reveals. --John J. Miller - Amazon.com
Paperback from Harvest Books

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Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia
by Danzig Baldayev, Sergey Vasiliev, Damon Murray
Hardcover from Steidl

Red Scorpion, The: The True Story of a Ruthless Russian Mob Boss's Dramatic Redemption
by Rami Kivisalo, Marko Joensuu
Paperback from Chosen
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Russian Prison Tattoos: Codes of Authority, Domination, and Struggle
by Alix Lambert
Paperback from Schiffer Publishing
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Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State
by David Satter
Paperback from Yale University Press
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Russian Mafia In America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime
by James O. Finckenauer, Elin J. Waring
Paperback from Northeastern
In The Presence of Evil
by Autumn Jordon
Paperback from The Wild Rose Press-Crimson Rose Line
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Her Russian Billionaire
by Theodora Taylor
Paperback from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume II
by Danzig Baldaev
Hardcover from Fuel Publishing
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Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume III
by Danzig Baldaev
Hardcover from FUEL Publishing
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Russian Organized Crime and Corruption: Putin's Challenge
by William H. Webster (Editor), et al
Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America
by Robert I. Friedman
Amid his efforts to expose the Russian mob, Robert I. Friedman learned from the FBI that "the most brilliant and savage Russian mob organization in the world" had put a $100,000 price on his head. Reading Red Mafiya, it's not hard to see why: this is a brave book about a troubling subject. Friedman, a freelance journalist, describes the research behind it: "I ventured into the Russians' gaudy strip clubs in Miami Beach; paid surprise visits to their well-kept suburban homes in Denver; interviewed hit men and godfathers in an array of federal lockups; and traveled halfway around the world trying to make sense of their tangled criminal webs, which have ensnared everyone from titans of finance and the heads of government to entire state security services." Their racket involves heroin smuggling, weapons trafficking, mass extortion, and casino operation, among other activities. "Blending financial sophistication with bone-crunching violence, the Russian mob has become the FBI's most formidable criminal adversary, creating an international criminal colossus that has surpassed the Colombian cartels, the Japanese Yakuzas, the Chinese triads, and the Italian Mafia in wealth and weaponry," writes Friedman. They've even penetrated professional hockey, as Friedman shows in an eye-opening chapter ("Federal authorities have come to fear that the NHL is now so compromised by Russian gangsters that the integrity of the game itself may be in jeopardy").
Red Mafiya benefits from a breezy narrative in detailing a master criminal operation whose influence on the United States is growing rapidly. Russian mobsters already have siphoned off millions of dollars in foreign aid meant to prop up their country's economy--and they may have a more direct impact on American national security concerns in the years ahead: "The Russian mob virtually controls their nuclear-tipped former superpower," writes Friedman. Now, there's a scary thought. Lifting the Iron Curtain seems to have been a mixed blessing: it let freedom in, and organized crime out. --John J. Miller - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 288 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.16 x 9.59 x 6.45
Little Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316294748;
Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering : A Handbook for Law Enforcement Officers, Auditors, and Financial investigator
by James R. Richards
Hardcover: 344 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.95 x 9.58 x 6.44
CRC Press; ISBN: 0849328063; (October 20, )
Transnational Crime in the Americas
by Tom Farer (Editor)
Paperback: 320 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.70 x 9.04 x 6.07
Routledge; ISBN: 0415923018;

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