The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia

Based on two decades of research, the story of the Vory—as the Russian mafia is also known—is one you probably haven’t heard before. They are Russia’s much-feared crime class, a group born early in the 1900s from Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed a unique culture identified by signature tattoos, an oath to the thieves’ code, forbidding all paid employment and cooperation with law enforcement and the state.