The Russian Mafia Essay - 1794 Words

The Russian Mafia The Russian Mafia: Protectionism in the New Capitalist Russia The Russian Mafia has always exercised an important role in the Russian economy. The contemporary mafiosi are descendents of the seventeenth Century highwaymen and Cossack robbers. These men occasionally murdered families prior to raids preventing them from being captured. The Russia mafiosi made a point to remain aloof from the state. Mob men were actually spurned when returning home from fighting in the Great Patriotic War. The gangs begin to dominate markets such as car sales, spare parts, cigarettes, food distribution, and other markets that the Communist Party failed to provide under the Bolsheviks (Remnick196). Since the collapse of Communism and the†¦show more content†¦Most entrepreneurs purchase the protection. Then the new company pays unofficial taxes to crime groups. This guarantees that nearly all new businesses will have an affiliation with the mafia. Gustatson estimates that payments can are approxi mately twenty percent of the profit (105). This is a major form of taxation on top of what the government already commands leading many companies to tax evasion or concealing their exact value. These acts forfeit what little protection the authorities might be able to render. The mafia demands a cut of the earnings but in turn furnish more than adequate security. The mafiosi provides protection from unaffiliated criminals and rival gangs. They ensure that property is not damaged or stolen. If entrepreneurs are visited by another organization, they must only summon their own mafia group. The two gangs will settle the matter themselves (Gustatson 105). This security is an asset that the State seemingly fails to provide. The Russian Mafia has more men and weapons than the Russian law enforcement. The police force is an intently corrupt place as is much of the Russian government. Both army officers and law enforcers are frantic for cash and willing to sell weapons such as guns, grenades , and rocket launchers (Remnick 109). The Russian Mafia is able to easily locate weaponry to carry out its duties as protectorate; while, theShow MoreRelatedThe Russian Mafia1515 Words   |  7 PagesThe Russian Mafia, also known as Bratva (Brotherhood) is a collection of various organized crime groups that originated during the former Soviet Union era. It is made up of underworld leadership in which engages in providing illegal goods and services that range anywhere from drugs and weapons smuggling to gambling and human trafficking. As in the U.S, there is no universally accepted definition of organized crime in Russia. However, the Bratva shares many basic characteristics with other well-knownRead MoreRussian Mafia1601 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the most famous types of organized crime in the past and present is the Russian Mafia. This article entails the rational choice theory model with how it justifies being able to join the Russian Mafia and the business that they conduct. A rational theorist would argue that we as people are rational human beings who carefully calculated the consequences of our behaviour. We make choices based on the cost benefit analysis. The concept of the cost benefit analysis is that when we have to makeRead MoreMasculinity in the Russian Mafia1677 Words   |  7 PagesEastern Promises challenges the view of hegemonic masculinity as a a static, unified concept. By analyzing the behaviors of members of the Russian mafia, vory y zakone (thieves in law), particularly of Kirill and Nikolai, this paper will illustrate how masculinities are constructed, performed and reaffirmed in the context of the Russian mafia vory y zakone. The paper will begin by describing the main tends of masculinities theory, proposing that vory y zakone are creating oppositional masculinityRead MoreThe Italian Mob And The Russian Mafia1323 Words   |  6 PagesWhen people think of organized crime they think of the Italian mob and the Russian mafia. They are the ones that they see in movies and on television, and the ones that they hear about the most. However, they were created a couple centuries after their Asian counterparts, the Yakuza in Japan, and the Triads in China. These Asian syndicates were founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth century and consisted of merchants and other people in what was basically the middle class. They were just groupsRead MoreEssay on The Russian Mob4523 Words   |  19 PagesThe Russian Mob: Organized Crime in a Fledgling Democracy Since the late 1980’s the Russian people have experienced one of the most drastic transitions seen in the world to date, a transition from an attempt at communism to a workable capitalist system. As one would expect, this transition has not been painless and has been the impetus of many distressing problems for the Russian people. One such problem is organized crime. This paper will explore how organized crime during Soviet rule andRead MoreLaw Enforcement, US Military, and Terrorism923 Words   |  4 Pagesthe Russian Mafia, La Cosa Nostra (Italian Mafia), Yakuza, Fuk Ching, Triads, Heijin, Jao Pho, and Red Wa. According to Kristin M. Finklea in Organized Crime in the United States: Trends and Issues for Congress, the Russian Mafia currently poses the biggest threat to the United States. Unlike the Cosa Nostra, or Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia has a less structured hierarchy. Additionally, its criminal networks are based on skills needed for specific crimes (Finklea 17). The Russian Mafia is involvedRead More U.S. and Russian Relations After the Defeat of the USSR Essay1427 Words   |  6 Pages US and Russia relations after the defeat of the USSR: The end of Cold War brought new challenges to Russian life, economy and politics. Actually, the post-Cold War period opened the new opportunities for Russia. Democracy made its first steps in the country. After seventy years of communism Russian people finally got a chance to live how the want, to say what they want and to do what they want. People got a chance to choose their own leader, to vote for the Congress members. And it was very confusingRead MoreEssay about Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and Mexican Organized Crime1042 Words   |  5 Pageswould not. It is thought that the Russian Mafia has existed in Russia for several centuries. When Russia was still the Soviet Union, corruption began to develop because of the Communist era. Citizens were so desperate to pay bills, buy groceries, and more; that they began to steal from one another, as well as get into forms of organized crime. As the Soviet Union fell Russian organized crime was unleashed into the world, from Russia to the U.S and more. Russian organized crime groups commit crimesRead MoreEssay on The Boondock Saints’ Positive Deviance1348 Words   |  6 Pagesmovie The Boondock Saints provides an excellent example of positive deviance through innovation. The Social theory of deviance can easily explain the brothers’ actions. The movie can be used to study deviance as the brothers kill people who are mafia members, breaking the norms of society. Even though the acts they are committing are clearly illegal and deviant, the people of South Boston do not react in a negative way. Since the Social theory is very broad, it will be easier to look at the brother’sRead MoreBook Report on The New Ethnic Mob by William Kleinknecht Essay1470 Words   |  6 PagesBook Report on The New Ethnic Mob by William Kleinknecht The New Ethic Mob by William Kleinknecht explores how the current criminals involved in organized crime are no longer just the Italians. He could be Cuban, Chinese, Russian, African-American, Haitian, or Jamaican. These are the new breed of more sophisticated and more brutal organized criminals. In the preface of the book Kleinknecht states not to mistake this work for a case against immigration in the United

Taking a Look at Racism - 887 Words

My paper is on racism. In my paper I will be talking about who experience racism and why they experience such a thing. Also I will be talking about the fact why people are racists. I will also be talking about the percentage of American who are racists. Racism in today’s society is primarily based upon the struggles and conflicts of our past. Our ancestors past. We automatically assume that when we hear stories about events that happened in the history of our people affect us and hurt us. We are meant to learn and grow from their experiences not hold onto the hurt. Just never forget their struggles that helped us to arrive at the place we are today. There are events and people in everyone’s culture that are clearly either for or against racism that affects us today. We have slavery and the holocaust; and people like: Hitler, President Lincoln, Ghandi, and dr. martin Luther king. The struggles that were either caused or fought for brought us to where we are toda y. Racism is still very evident but has not been able to quiet progress. We have our first Afro-American president because people refuse to stand by and let history repeat itself. Racism is simply the belittling of someone’s race to make one’s own race appear to be superior. It is the main ingredient of inequality among people. In most nationalities it is considered a god given right to explore the extent of your humanities in every aspect of life without another person prohibiting you. All humansShow MoreRelatedTaking a Look at Racism1172 Words   |  5 PagesRacism has presented itself countless times throughout the history of human existence. It exists in many forms, and its consequences have proven dire several times. The definition of racism varies depending on the dictionary, but the common theme throughout all definitions is one of intolerance or hatred toward a culture. 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They judge people from different racial background, by the way look, act, and the by clothes they wea r, also individuals are targeted by the music theyRead MoreColor Blind Racism Essay781 Words   |  4 PagesColor-blind Racism As I waited in line at a grocery store I noticed that the wait was unbearably long. It’s the first of the month a man snickered to me, confused I asked him what do you mean? He replied with people receive their welfare checks today, I know you are not one of them. I told him you never know what someone is going through or what their financial situation is so you can’t pass judgement. After I said that he told me to look around and see what type of people I see. I continued toRead MoreWhy Racism Will Never End? Essay1168 Words   |  5 PagesWhy Racism will never end? Since the beginning of time, there has been racism. People are afraid of difference and are used to the ordinary. 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Critical Analysis of Shakespeares Sonnet free essay sample

In the third quatrain, he admits that, though he loves her voice, music â€Å"hath a far more pleasing sound,† and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress—unlike goddesses—walks on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, â€Å"by heav’n,† he thinks his love as rare and valuable â€Å"As any she belied with false compare†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved one’s beauty. This sonnet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous, plays an elaborate joke on the conventions of love poetry common to Shakespeare’s day, and it is so well-conceived that the joke remains funny today. Most sonnet sequences in Elizabethan England were modeled after that of Petrarch. Petrarch’s famous sonnet sequence was written as a series of love poems to an idealized and idolized mistress named Laura. In the sonnets, Petrarch praises her beauty, her worth, and her perfection using an extraordinary variety of metaphors based largely on natural beauties. In Shakespeare’s day, these metaphors had already become cliche (as, indeed, they still are today), but they were still the accepted technique for writing love poetry. The result was that poems tended to make highly idealizing comparisons between nature and the poets’ lover that were, if taken literally, completely ridiculous. My mistress’ eyes are like the sun; her lips are red as coral; her cheeks are like roses, her breasts are white as snow, her voice is like music, she is a goddess. In many ways, Shakespeare’s sonnets subvert and reverse the conventions of the Petrarchan love sequence: the idealizing love poems, for instance, are written not to a perfect woman but to an admittedly imperfect man, and the love poems to the dark lady are anything but idealizing (â€Å"My love is as a fever, longing still / For that which longer nurseth the disease† is hardly a Petrarchan conceit. ) Sonnet  130  mocks the typical Petrarchan metaphors by presenting a speaker ho seems to take them at face value, and somewhat bemusedly, decides to tell the truth. Your mistress’ eyes are like the sun? That’s strange—my mistress’ eyes aren’t at all like the sun. Your mistress’ breath smells like perfume? My mistress’ breath reeks compared to perfume. In the couplet, then, the speaker shows his full intent, which is to insist that love does not need these conceits in order to be real; and women do not need to look like flo wers or the sun in order to be beautiful. The rhetorical structure of Sonnet  130  is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, the speaker spends one line on each comparison between his mistress and something else (the sun, coral, snow, and wires—the one positive thing in the whole poem some part of his mistress  is  like. In the second and third quatrains, he expands the descriptions to occupy two lines each, so that roses/cheeks, perfume/breath, music/voice, and goddess/mistress each receive a pair of unrhymed lines. This creates the effect of an expanding and developing argument, and neatly prevents the poem—which does, after all, rely on a single kind of joke for its first twelve lines—from becoming stagnant. Shakespeares  Sonnet 130  mocks the conventions of the showy and flowery courtly sonnets in its realistic portrayal of  his mistress. The last historian sonnet 130 satirizes the concept of ideal beauty that was a convention of literature and art in general during the Elizabethan era. Influences originating with the poetry of  ancient Greece and Rome  had established a tradition of this, which continued in Europes customs of  courtly love  and in courtly poetry, and the work of poets such as  Petrarch. It was customary to praise the beauty of the object of ones affections with comparisons to beautiful things found in nature and heaven, such as stars in the night sky, the golden light of the rising sun, or red roses. [1]  The images conjured by Shakespeare were common ones that would have been well-recognized by a reader or listener of this sonnet. Shakespeare satirizes the  hyperbole  of the  allusions  used by conventional poets, which even by the Elizabethan era, had becomecliche, predictable, and uninspiring. This sonnet compares the Poet’s mistress to a number of natural beauties; each time making a point of his mistress’ obvious inadequacy in such comparisons; she cannot hope to stand up to the beauties of the natural world. The first two quatrains compare the speaker’s mistress to aspects of nature, such as snow or coral; each comparison ending unflatteringly for the istress. In the final couplet, the speaker proclaims his love for his mistress by declaring that he makes no false comparisons, the implication being that other poets do precisely that. Shakespeares sonnet aims to do the opposite, by indicating that his mistress is the ideal object of his affections because of her genuine qualities, and that she is more worthy of his love than the paramours of other poets who are more fanciful. The poetic form uses standard Shakespearean  iambic pentameter, following the AB-AB/CD-CD/EF-EF/GG  Rhyme Scheme. â€Å"This sonnet plays with poetic conventions in which, for example, the mistress’s eyes are compared with the sun, her lips with coral, and her cheeks with roses. His mistress, says the poet, is nothing like this conventional image, but is as lovely as any woman†. [2]  Here Barbara Mowat offers her opinion of the meaning behind Sonnet 130; this work simply breaks down the mold in which Sonnets had come to conform to. Shakespeare composed a sonnet which seems to parody a great many sonnets of the time. Poets like  Thomas Watson,  Michael Drayton, and  Barnabe Barnes  were all part of this sonnet craze and each wrote sonnets proclaiming love for an almost unimaginable figure;[3]  Patrick Crutwell posits that Sonnet 130 could actually be a satire of the Thomas Watson poem â€Å"Passionate Century of Love†, pointing out that the Watson poem contains all but one of the platitudes that Shakespeare is making fun of in Sonnet 130