|
When developing a reading comprehension course in, say, French or Japanese, it is unlikely that one would feel compelled to devote an entire module to the topic of crime. In the case of Russian, however, such a focus is very much in order.
In a certain sense, Russians wrote, if not the book, at least the novel on crime - Dostoevsky's Преступление и наказание: Crime and Punishment. And not without reason. Crime has always played a central role in Russian life and society. This is not to suggest that Russians have a monopoly on crime. Some crimes are universal - murder: убийство, rape: изнасилование, robbery: разбой/ограбление, theft: кража, kidnapping: похищениe, and the like. Some crimes, however, are "national" and "historical" in nature, the result of the various political, economic and social systems to which a given people is subjected. In this sense, the Russian experience of crime has been unique.
In Tsarist Russia, beginning with Ivan the Terrible: Иван Грозный (Tsar -- 1533-84), and in the former Soviet Union, especially during the reign of Joseph Stalin (1922-53), the masses lived, for the most part, in fear of the State. Squads of OPRICHINA (Ivan's security police) and later CHEKA and KGB henchmen were sent out to beat: избивать, terrrorize: терроризировать and arrest: задерживать/арестовывать citizens. The State then tortured, tried and sentenced them to labor camps. Many were executed: inf. расстрелять. In the Soviet era, millions were executed, millions more were shipped off to the GULAG - The Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps: ГУЛаг - Главное управление исправительно-трудовых лагерей. In short, much of Russian history can be viewed as one long - albeit, sometimes interrupted - "crime against humanity," with the State playing the role of criminal: преступник and the people the role of victim: жертва.
Then there were the crimes that the people committed against the State. The Soviet Union was a country where private enterprise was virtually nonexistent and private property was strictly limited; the vast majority of goods and services belonged to the State. Consequently, when one stole something, one usually stole state property. During the Stalinist era, when the masses were contolled by secret agents and informers: sg. стукач, the theft of state property was limited. By the 1970s and '80s a good percentage of the consumer goods produced by Soviet factories, distilleries and farms never made it to state stores, and the "Black Market" черный рынок was doing as much commercial business as the State. One of the ironies of history is that it was the "workers turned petty thieves:" sg. мелкий вор who did the most to undermine the economy and thus help bring about the demise of the "workers' paradise" that was the Soviet Union.
Now Russians are experiencing crimes which were rare during the Soviet era but which have "naturally evolved" since the fall of the communism and the introduction of capitalism. When the State owned the store, no one thought to sell the store "insurance for that nice plate glass window out front." Exit the State, enter the private entrepreneur, and that same window takes on a new meaning. In short, conditions are ripe for a start-up "insurance/protection business," and the small-time racketeer/extortioner: рэкетир/вымогатель is born. Join several racketeers together and you have "organized crime:" организованная преступность. Join together several criminal gangs: криминальные банды and you have the beginnings of a "mafia:" мафия. We Americans went through this "natural evolution in crime" in the 1920s; Russians are going through it today.
Since collapse of the Soviet state, the crime rate has skyrocketed. The bulk of this increase is due to organized crime. As we shall see, according to MVD statistics, in late 1997 Russian organized crime membership was estimated to be between 60,000 and 80,000, divided among 12,000 gangs, which controlled 30 to 40 percent of the economy. Western criminologists feel that Russians are being modest in their estimates. Be that as it may, both agree that the greatest threat to Russia's social, political and economic stability and future well-being is crime. Moreover, the Russian Mafia continues to grow and expand, and has made solid inroads into Western countries, including the United States. Add to this the fact that the country's huge stockpile of nuclear weapons is under the threat of exploitation by criminals, and it becomes clear why the Russian Mentor has devoted MODULE 2 of "Developing Language Proficiency - READING" to crime. Enjoy!
-- Dr. B.B.S.
|