Thieves in law - the highest step in the peculiar hierarchy of the criminal community in the post-Soviet space. This is a rather closed caste, and getting there is not easy enough: ideally, you need to follow a code of conduct that is mandatory for a thief, but in reality you can sometimes manage with a large sum of money.
The rules by which a professional criminal world should live, were formed by the thirties of the last century. The main one to which all prisoners must obey: the thief in prison is the master, all the rest are random passengers. Therefore, passengers pay tribute to thieves from each transmission and recognize their authority. Accordingly, thieves' law requires thieves not to offend men and not to drag them into a showdown between criminal gangs.
Thieves' law prohibits taking the last from a man: the last piece of bread, the last clothes
.However, the law was invented by thieves and is interpreted by them to their own benefit. According to numerous testimonies that passed through the Gulag, during severe hunger and severe frosts, thieves, without hesitation, took away both food and warm clothes from the "goners", i.e. in prisoners who have reached an extreme degree of physical exhaustion.
The law prohibits thieves from having a family, living at the place of registration and cooperating in any form with the authorities - to testify at interrogations, work in the camp, serve in the army, fight
This rule has long been irreversibly violated. The most famous thieves in law - Yaponchik, Taiwanchik, Ded Hassan and everyone else - are very wealthy people who own real estate not only in Russia but also abroad. They have families, and their children are well-off.
The ban on serving in the army was massively violated during the Great Patriotic War. The prisoners went to the front in penal battalions under the threat of execution or in the hope of release. In the battalion battles fought "to the first blood." After the wound, the fighter was considered atone for blood. Those who survived, for the most part, were not going to give up theft as a way of life, and after the war continued their criminal career. When they got to the camps, "honest thieves" who did not violate thieves' law declared them to be "bitches, " that is, apostates. This led to a protracted bloody "bitch war."
The division into "thieves" and "bitches" is preserved now. Thieves law requires thieves not to deal with apostates. The “bitch” can and should be killed, and informal contacts with them can cause expulsion from the thieves.
In prisons, thieves in law monitor order and resolve conflicts between prisoners. A thief in law can be killed only by the verdict of the “gangway” - a kind of court at which both the prosecutor and the accused are given the floor. Violation of this prohibition is one punishment - death.
A thief should not grab a weapon if he is not going to use it. "He grabbed the knife - hit, " otherwise you are guaranteed a contemptuous attitude and the inevitable downgrade. Another thief cannot be blamed for breaking the law if there is no iron evidence - unfounded accusations can cause serious punishment.
