Repeat thief slang. Dry hair dryer

A brief dictionary of urkagan, syavka, gopnik, skokary and other asocial elements, as well as law-abiding citizens, who sometimes use the special jargon of the penitentiary contingent in their speech, is now shortened on a whim and supplemented by concepts. May also be useful for workers law enforcement agencies.

The thieves' jargon "Fenya" came into the Russian language from the Hebrew language after ethnic (in this case Jewish) organized criminal groups and clans were formed in places where Jews lived in compact populations in the South-East of Ukraine (mainly in Odessa). The Jews spoke Hebrew and Yiddish, but the police did not understand them, since Jews did not serve in the tsarist police. Therefore, gradually these terms, incomprehensible to the police, turned into stable Russian criminal jargon. Here are some of them:

Botate - (bote) to express. (beat) expression. Fenya - (ofen) way, method. (Bituy beofen) - talk about the hairdryer - express yourself in a special way that is incomprehensible to others.

Fraer - Frej - freedom (Yiddish) Fraer - someone who has not been in prison, has no prison experience, he is also a narrow-minded person, a potential victim of deception.

Thieves. Die Blatte (Yiddish) - sheet, piece of paper, note. The one who got a job through connections, having a piece of paper from the right person.
In thieves' jargon, blatnoy is one of your own, belonging to the criminal world.

Shaher-maher. Hebrew (saher meher). “Maher” means to sell, and “shaher” means goods.

Khevra is a criminal community, a gang. Hebrew (khevra) – a company, a sustainable organization. In Russian it was transformed into the word “khavira”.

Ksiva - note. Hebrew (ktiva) - a document, something written (in the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew (t) is often changed to “s”. For example, “shabes” instead of “Shabbat”).

Clift - jacket. Hebrew (khalifa) - costume.

Raspberry (thief's) - an apartment, a room where thieves hide. From (malon) - hotel, shelter, place to stay for the night.

Hana - cessation, interruption. – Hebrew, chana – to make a stop along the way, a halt. This root is very widespread in Hebrew (hanaya - parking lot, hanut - warehouse, store). This is where the word “Taganka” comes from (tahana) - station, stop. This was the name, first unofficially and then officially, of the transit prison to which prisoners were brought from the European part of the country before being sent to Siberia.

Marviher is a highly skilled thief. marviher (Yiddish) – earning money from Hebrew. marviah - earns. Unites the classification of criminals in word formations of the Russian language (shchipach - pickpocket; window burglar, burglar - apartment thief; corner - suitcase thief; thrower - fraudster on trust, etc.).

Khipesh - Hebrew (hipus) - search, search.

Parasha - hearing or smell, depending on the context. The Hebrew word (parasha) means “a foul-smelling story, a dark matter.”

Ban - station. In Yiddish the word "ban" has the same meaning.

Garbage - Hebrew (moser). An informer, a traitor, more often a law enforcement officer. However, there is an opinion that the word “garbage” comes from the old name of the MUR - MUS (Moscow Criminal Investigation).

Malyava - Hebrew (mila baa) - the word has been sent. Letter, note.

Keif - Hebrew, Arabic - keif with the same meaning. (From the same root in the Arabic language “coffee”. When they drank it, they called keifevali. In general, Hebrew and Arabic are two Semitic languages ​​that have a lot of common roots. Whoever knows one, it is not difficult to learn the other).

Legash is a Hebrew whisperer, provocateur. Hence - cop, lay down (spread information).

Freebie - for nothing, free of charge. Hebrew halav (milk). In the 19th century, the Jews of Russia collected the so-called “dmei halav” - “milk money” for the Jews of Palestine.

Shara, on the ball - free. Hebrew (she'ar, she'arim) - remnants. What remains unsalable is left on the counter for the poor by the seller. According to Jewish tradition, it is necessary to leave an unharvested strip - shear - a remnant on the field so that the poor can collect ears of grain. This is what the Gospel parable tells about: Jesus and his disciples gathered unharvested ears of corn on the Sabbath, and this caused discontent among the Pharisees.

Loch. A greedy, distrustful target for fraud.

Slut - slut, prostitute. , (shilev) combine (several men at the same time).

To mastyrka is a fake, to mastyrka is to hide it. In Hebrew (mastir) - I hide, hide.

Hence, to steal - to steal. And - (satire) concealment. Hence satire (hidden mockery). And mystery. Ancient Greek satyrs are also from here, and not vice versa.

Nychka - Hebrew hiding place. To hide - to conceal, to hide securely. Hence the stash, to stash away.

Atas - Hebrew: (atud), or Yiddish - atus. Attention, get ready. In 90% of cases, after using the word “ATAS” comes “nix” (cm).

Nice. Stay on your toes. The person standing on the skirmish guards those committing a crime (usually theft) and warns of the appearance of law enforcement officers. Shukher comes from the Hebrew word shahor, which means “black.” The police uniform in Tsarist Russia was black.

Dictionary

At the end of the dictionary, the correspondence of the articles of the criminal codes of the former Soviet republics is stated (meaning the articles mentioned in the books of the series “Criminal Russia. Prisons and Camps”, issues 1-3) with the articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1961.
The last of the documentary materials included in the collections dates back to 1993. This dictionary does not indicate the correspondence of the articles of the “old” and “new” criminal codes of Russia.

Authority (t) - a representative of the highest group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners (see Blatnoy, thief in law). In prison jargon, the word is usually used in the plural: "authorities."
The informal order operating in the community of prisoners is extremely authoritarian in nature, therefore the real situation that develops in the shadow life of an ITU, a pre-trial detention center or part of them (cell, PKT, punishment cell, etc.) is determined by the personal characteristics of the authorities in power and the presence of connections of this institution with influential authorities in the wild or in other correctional institutions, as well as the tactics followed by local employees of the operational services. See also correct concepts, correct zone, prison law, dismantling, thieves, thieves.
It should be noted that in the general spoken Russian language, the word authority is more often used in a meaning close to the English influence (influence), and is contrasted in meaning to the word “power”, but does not complement it. Power exists in the space of formal structures, influencing people through a system of statuses, prestige, positions, and sanctions. They submit to authority voluntarily, sometimes sacrificing their own benefits and interests.
Authoritative (t) - a prisoner who has a high status in one of two groups (suits) of the informal hierarchy of prisoners: thieves and muzhiks. Not used in relation to representatives of such informal groups as goats, devils, omitted ones, etc.
Activist (c) - a prisoner who openly cooperates with the administration of the correctional facility, who has joined sections, “amateur organizations of convicts.” According to ZhR: “unlike the informer collaborating with the opera, the activist is an open collaborator, actively participating in labor competition, in propaganda work, etc.” Given the external similarity of the definitions of this term for the Gulag of the 30-50s and the forced labor system of the 60-80s, it should be taken into account that during the period described by ZhR, activists did not constitute, as at present, separate group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners (see goat).
Prisoner (t) - 1) thief in law, 2) criminal, 3) respected, authoritative prisoner.
Athlete (t) - see fighter.
Cormorant (t) - a hooligan (sometimes a person convicted under Article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The word has a contemptuous connotation; It is not customary to call authoritative, respected prisoners, even those convicted of hooliganism, cormorants.
Mess - disorder in the area (or in the cell). A mess differs from lawlessness in that lawlessness is a conscious violation by the administration or false thieves of those norms and rules that are recognized and supported by the other part of the zone (or cell), while a mess is the absence of any rules and general licentiousness, as a result of which people also suffer People.
Violation of the rules and causing, on the part of others, harm to a prisoner in unclear circumstances, when the victim himself does not offer decisive resistance and then does not seek justice, is called a rigmarole.
Huckster - speculator. Convicted of speculation or selling tea, cigarettes, “wheels” in the zone.
White Swan (t, s) is the unofficial name for prison-type institutions found in eight regional forest camp administrations. The official name of the White Swan is EPKT (see below). The First White Swan (Usolskoe forestry department, Northern Urals) is sometimes called the all-Union BUR, because “negatively minded convicts” from various regions of the USSR were collected here.
The exact origin of the name White Swan is unknown. According to one version, the first prison of this type was built on the site where there was a forest clearing with the same name (Solikamsk).
Beskovoinnik (raskovoinnik) - a prisoner who has received the right to free movement (within certain limits) outside the zone, as well as to and from work.
Mayhem (t) - lack of order, arbitrariness, lawlessness.
Lawlessness of thieves, wool - open violent violation of prison law by thieves or wool in relation to other prisoners.
Cop lawlessness - lawlessness, extreme cruelty, sadism towards prisoners on the part of the colony administration or other officials, for example: a prosecutor, an inspector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc. A proverb characterizing this type of lawlessness: “The law is the taiga, the bear is the prosecutor.”
Boundless (t) - lawless, from the point of view of the norms and rules of prison law.
Lawless man (t) - more often - a prisoner, less often - an employee of a correctional facility, committing lawlessness, arbitrariness.
Beach - the same as the devil or the chushkan - a weak-willed person who always becomes dependent on others and quickly declines. He cannot lead any line of his own and usually serves others.
Thieves (t) - a representative of the highest status group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners. Blatnoy is usually a professional criminal. In addition, he must recognize prison law, follow the correct concepts, have a “clean” past, and not work in the zone. Any, even casual, relationship to the structures of power, its political institutions (for example, membership in a party or Komsomol) forever closes the path to the “thieves’ world” for a criminal, no matter how high a criminal qualification he subsequently acquires. In the 30-50s, the path to thieves was closed to those who served in the army, who at least once went to work in the zone. Now the requirements for a candidate for thieves are softer. Even military service during internal troops It is not always considered a discreditable episode in a biography. And in some zones, thieves can go to work if it is not the work of a foreman, orderly, etc., that is, if it does not give him at least some kind of official power over the rest of the prisoners. Those who worked in the service sector in freedom, that is, were waiters or taxi drivers, cannot become thieves either. There are many other requirements for applicants for the status of a criminal. Each zone may have its own special requirements.
Blatnye - this is the real power in the correctional facility, the power that fights with the official power, that is, with the administration of the zone. In addition to power, thieves have privileges - the right not to work, the right to keep whatever they deem necessary from the common fund. The thieves also have responsibilities. The correct thieves are obliged to ensure that the zone is warmed up, that is, it receives food, tea, tobacco, vodka, drugs, and clothing through illegal means. He is also obliged to resolve disputes that arise between other prisoners, and generally not allow any clashes between them, to ensure that no one is unfairly punished, offended, or deprived. All this does not mean, of course, that for the criminal the correct order in the zone is more important than personal benefits. Often his concern for the lads is only an excuse to ensure better living conditions for himself in the zone. But there are also enough zones where thieves spend most of their time in punishment cells, PKT, and indoors, so that the gang can live peacefully and not go hungry.
Functionally, the thieves caste has played a completely different role since the beginning of the 60s than in the 30s-50s. The criminal world at that time was isolated from the bulk of prisoners and lived according to its own laws, considering the rest of the camp population as an alien part to itself, for which completely different rules applied. By the end of the 50s, the thieves essentially lost their power in the Gulag; in the early 60s, their remnants were separated from ordinary prisoners. Subsequently, a new generation of thieves arose, who are informal leaders of prisoners, represent the interests of the bulk of them and are organically included in the prison community.
There is reason to believe that another transformation is currently taking place in the prison subculture, which may lead to the emergence of a group of informal leaders of a new type. However, this issue requires serious study.
The thieves themselves prefer to use various euphemisms and synonyms for the word "blatnoy", calling themselves authorities, prisoners, tramps, tramps, swindlers, etc. Old synonyms are zhigans, people, godfathers, etc., known from classical literature about the Gulag are used much less frequently. See also prison law, thieves' law, thief, suit.
The group of thieves has its own hierarchy. In order from higher status to lower: thieves in law, brothers-in-law, authoritative thieves, boys, thieves, fighters. Other names may be used in some regions. For example, those with criminals are called fraers, simple criminals are called trump fraers. Names associated with the performance of certain functions are also used, for example: corner, looking, support, etc.
Fighter (t) - a prisoner from the circle of thieves, executing their orders to apply certain sanctions (usually violent) to other prisoners, decisions of the gang to punish (up to murder) a prisoner or an employee of the correctional facility. During a riot or uprising, the fighters are an armed group of prisoners under the command of a prisoner leader or leaders. Other names used for fighters are athletes, gladiators. A fighter may be part of the caste of thieves, but he does not enjoy the respect of other prisoners and does not have the right to vote on the gangway.
Tramp (t) - 1) thieves, 2) A prisoner who recognizes prison law, a person with correct concepts.
Bratva (t) - 1) thieves.
2) Prisoners who accept prison law.
3) Community of prisoners, a local group of prisoners, for example, everyone who is in a given cell.
Tramp (t) - the same as a tramp.
UR (t) - a high-security barracks, a room in which prisoners are locked up (sometimes in cells). Essentially, it is an internal prison of the camp, where violators of discipline, “refusers” of work, etc. are placed. BUR arose back in the 20s, and was replaced by PKT in the early 60s. However, prisoners still often call PKT BUR.
Goby - cigarette butt. When one prisoner asks another to “Stop smoking,” the ethics of correct concepts require that the request be complied with.
Watch (o) - 1) premises for on-duty supervisory personnel on the territory of the penitentiary complex.
2) Premises for correctional facility workers and internal troops guarding the colony, usually located in close proximity to the entry and exit gates for vehicles.
Vertukhay - the same as the dubak, the navel - the overseer. The word has been preserved since ancient times: it is known from descriptions of Stalin’s camps.
Adult - adult zone. “Move to adulthood” - move from a juvenile colony or cell to an adult zone or cell.
Get an apartment (t, s) - that is, take on another unsolved burglary.
Break in - give information about a person or hidden objects.
Get smashed - 1. Take a drug. 2. To be caught red-handed (B).
Freestyle, freestyle (t) - civilian employees of the colony who do not pass certification and do not have military rank(teachers, masters, drivers). Volnyashki are also called those who, not being employees of the colony, visit it officially on various business (suppliers, loaders, book stall sellers, etc.). For prisoners, freemen often act as intermediaries in various types of commercial matters (exchange, purchase, sale), which are illegal or semi-legal in nature. Illegal (uncensored) letters are usually transmitted and received through freemen, money transfers etc.
Thief, thief in law (t) - the elite of the criminal and prison world, its leaders, a kind of initiates. Thieves occupy the highest position in the informal hierarchy of prisoners. In some respects (norms, conflict resolution mechanisms, rituals operating in this community) thieves in law are somewhat reminiscent of the Sicilian mafia. However, there are also fundamental differences. The thieves, who brought their traditions from pre-revolutionary Russia to the criminal world of the USSR, led a demonstrably asocial lifestyle - they did not work, did not start families, had bright external attributes, had to serve more than one term in prison, etc. Their corporation has always been international, the most important decisions were made not individually, but at a meeting of thieves, there was a ban on any contact between thieves and law enforcement officials.
In the 40-50s, the number of thieves reached tens (possibly more) of thousands of people, and together with their entourage ("thieves") - 40-50 thousand people. By the end of the 50s - early 60s, the corporation practically ceased to exist. But unexpectedly it was revived in the early 80s, when the number of thieves in law, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, reached 500-600 people. However, now there have been some changes in the rules and laws of the thieves in law corporation. Many of the prohibitions discussed above have disappeared, in particular, the ban on contacts with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, clans and groups formed along national lines began to appear (for example, the Chechen group). However, the Russian criminal world, much more successful than civilized business, which is introducing itself into the life of the new Russian and Western societies, remains largely unknown and incomprehensible to them.
Thieves' orders (t) is usually a new rule created as a result of a dispute between prisoners or in response to a new action by prison authorities. The unwritten prison law continues to be constantly drawn up from orders.
Thieves' law (t) - a set of unwritten rules, norms, mandatory for thieves. In the 20s - 50s, the thieves' law with its correct concepts did not apply to the entire mass of prisoners, remaining a purely corporate way of organizing life. The whole world, according to the law of thieves, was divided into friends and strangers, and strangers had only the only value that their own could exist and survive at their expense.
Since the beginning of the 60s, the thieves' law, gradually being modified, has captured the bulk of prisoners within its scope of action (see prison law). Therefore, one should not extend the ideas about thieves and thieves, emerging from the classical literature about the Gulag of the 30-50s (V. Shalamov, A. Solzhenitsyn, etc.), to a later time.
VTK (o) - educational labor colony. This is a camp-type correctional facility for minors (from 14 to 18, sometimes up to 20 years old) offenders. They usually contain from 300 to 700 teenagers. On the territory of the VTK there are the same zones and functional premises as in the colony for adults (see ITK), including a room for disciplinary punishment - DIZO (disciplinary isolation ward).
According to the law, living conditions in the VTK are much better than in correctional institutions for adults. However, departments for minors in pre-trial detention centers and the military and technical complexes themselves are the most disadvantaged places from the point of view of ensuring basic human rights. Minors are not provided with protection of life, health, or personal dignity. Torture, bullying, torture, rape are an everyday reality in the VTK. Moreover, all this happens with the knowledge and even with the support of the teacher, who uses such “collective pedagogy” to maintain order, ensure the necessary indicators, and fulfill the production plan. The VTK has the highest proportion of abused people (i.e., raped and constantly used as a sexual object), which in the 70-80s reached 30% in some regions. In the 90s, the number of those admitted to the military technical complex began to decrease noticeably. In some regions, “innovations” are also noted: now teenagers are released into freedom, and when they come to the pre-trial detention center, they already know their “place” and immediately announce their status.
Since January 1, 1997, VTCs have been renamed into VK (educational colonies).
Redeem - find, track, expose someone (for example, an informer) in a zone or cell.
Break out - break out of the cell under the protection of the administration and demand transfer to another.
Vyšak (t) - capital punishment (execution); at present, the death penalty is officially called an “exceptional measure of punishment” (the name of the death penalty in one of the first Soviet documents regulating its use is “an exceptional measure social protection").
Glavpetukh (t) - informal leader in the caste of the lowered. He is the authorized representative of the omitted in contacts with the leaders of other informal groups, solves all problems that arise in the group of omitted, and participates in resolving controversial issues between the omitted and other suits. Sometimes his functions are performed by two informal leaders - dad and mom.
Gladiator - the same as a bull, a fighter, an athlete, a tank driver - a strong man who serves as an instrument for executing the plans and orders of the thieves to whom he is committed.
GOVD - city department of internal affairs.
Blue (t) - the same as the rooster, lowered. See also suits.
Gopnik - Forcibly taking something from another person.
Gop-stop - street robbery.
Greve - money and products illegally used to support prisoners.
GUIN - Main Directorate for the Execution of Punishments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The department in charge of the majority of penitentiary institutions in Russia. GUIN manages penitentiary institutions through regional departments of correctional institutions. In the republics they are formed under the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, in regions and territories under the corresponding Internal Affairs Directorates. Regional departments are now most often called UIN (Department for the Execution of Punishments), less often - OID under the Internal Affairs Directorate (or Ministry of Internal Affairs in the republics). The former name of the regional departments was SID and SR (Service for Correctional Affairs and Social Rehabilitation). The number of penitentiary institutions in the regions ranges from 10 to 50.
Former names of GUIN:
GULAG - Main Directorate of Camps (30-50s).
GUITC - Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies (late 50s).
GUITU - Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Institutions (early 60s - mid 80s).
GUID - Main Directorate for Correctional Affairs (until the end of the 80s).
GULAG - 1) Main Directorate of Camps. Name Soviet system concentration camps, which appeared back in 1930. 2) The general name of the Soviet system of mass extermination of people and suppression of all dissent (sometimes - a similar system in other totalitarian countries); the word became international after the publication in the West of A. Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago”. 3) The name used by journalists and human rights activists for the modern penitentiary system of the countries of the former USSR, which has largely retained the features of the Gulag, despite a number of significant changes that have occurred since Stalin’s times, and the repeated change of signs (see GUIN).
GUITU (o) - see GUIN.
GULITU (o) - main department of forestry technical institutions. A structural unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (since 1992 - the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation), which was in charge of the management of forestry ITU - ULITU. Unlike the regional departments of GUITU, forest departments reported directly to GULIT (“central subordination” departments). Then GULITU was renamed “Spetsles of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”. Since 1995, the management of forest ITUs became a department of the GUIN, and the disbandment of ULITU began. As of January 1, 1998, there were 122 forest correctional centers with a total prison population of 46.6 thousand people.
DCK - children's educational colony. (see "Bark beetle", VTK).
Deza - misinformation deliberately transmitted instead of truthful information.
DIZO (o) - disciplinary detention center. A cell for holding violators of the detention regime in the VTK. It differs from the punishment cell in a more lenient regime of detention. For example, the maximum term of a pre-trial detention center is ten days (in a pre-trial detention center - fifteen). From July 1, 1997, the maximum sentence for a pretrial detention center was reduced to 7 days.
Disbats are disciplinary battalions. Special military units, where, by court decision, military personnel who have committed crimes are sent (for a period of up to three years) serious crimes. These are closed penitentiary institutions.
DK (c) - children's colony.
Burglar (t) - apartment burglar.
DPNK (o) - assistant on duty to the head of the colony. ITK employee, an officer who directly monitors the situation in a specific ITK.
DPNSI (o) - assistant on duty to the head of the pre-trial detention center (SIZO). A position similar to that of the DPNK.
DTK (o) - children's labor colony. In the 30-50s - a camp for juvenile delinquents.
Fool (t) - 1) A person under investigation sent for a psychiatric examination.
2) A person under investigation who has undergone a psychiatric examination and is declared insane at the time of committing the crime (confessed fools, recognized).
3) A prisoner recognized as mentally ill after the appropriate conclusion of a commission of psychiatrists.
Dushnyak (t) - creation of especially unbearable conditions for one, several prisoners or for the entire colony in order to achieve a change in the behavior of prisoners. Dushnyak can be a cop type (created by the administration) or a prisoner type (in relation to one prisoner or a group of prisoners).
EPKT (o) - a single chamber-type room. Until July 1, 1997, the legislation provided only for PKT - structural units of specific correctional institutions, and an internal prison of a colony. EPKT is a structural subdivision not of a separate correctional institution, but of a regional department for the execution of punishments. The first EPKT was created in 1980 in Solikamsk (Usolskoye ULITU) as an experiment on the basis of the TPP (transit and forwarding point) of the same department. Among prisoners it is better known as the White Swan. In 1988, by order of the Minister of Internal Affairs A.V. Vlasov, similar institutions were created in 7 departments of GULITU. In the reorganization programs of the GUIN of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the 1994s, it was planned to create institutions of this type at 18 more regional and forest penitentiaries.
How else does EPKT differ from just PKT? When placed in a penal colony, a convict is not transferred from the penitentiary colony where he is serving his sentence, the same educator (detachment leader) works with him, he has contact only with convicts of his penitentiary colony, his postal address does not change, etc. When a prisoner is sentenced to the EPCT, he is transferred to another city, sometimes another region, and actually experiences the same thing as prisoners who are transferred from a colony to a prison-type institution (indoor). Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs explain the appearance of EPKT in forest departments by the fact that not all forest ITKs had enough premises for EPKT. In official documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the EPKT is entrusted with the following task: “Isolation of convicts who actively oppose the administration of the penitentiary institution in ensuring law and order.” Meanwhile, the law provides for prison-type institutions (indoors) to perform this task. True, the prison regime for “convicts who actively oppose...” is assigned by court decision. To be sent to the EPKT, which is almost no different from prison-type institutions, only a resolution from the head of the correctional colony is required. Thus, one of the goals of the EPCT (in the first period of their existence before being consolidated in the Penal Code of the Russian Federation in 1997) is to create opportunities for penitentiary workers to act outside the norms of the law, without any control over their actions.
There are several other tasks performed by these semi-legitimate "experimental" institutions that are not mentioned in the "program". In the secret instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, EPKT are called “preventive centers for carrying out decomposition work with negatively minded convicts.” This semi-legitimate "experimental" institute actually performs the following tasks:
1. Recruitment of agents for operational services. Those recruited are subsequently sent to various correctional institutions and placed at the disposal of operational search services in the wild.
2. Conducting operational work among convicts suspected of committing unsolved crimes, with the subsequent initiation of criminal cases.
3. Intimidation of convicts held in ordinary penitentiary institutions. The threat of being sent to the EPKT is a very effective way of influencing prisoners whose behavior for some reason does not suit the administration of the correctional facility.
It is clear that the task of uncovering offenses in the EPCT is solved outside the procedural norms established by law for ordinary investigation and inquiry. To recruit agents and solve crimes, the EPKT uses “various forms of psychological and regime influence” - this is how they are designated in the professional jargon of operas. illegal ways obtaining confessions, necessary information or changing the behavior of the target of operational work in the right direction. Such methods include not only “educational conversations,” but also press cameras, torture, and beatings. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs constantly refer to the positive effect of experiments with EPKT in terms of “improving the operational situation in the correctional facility.” These statements should be treated with caution. Firstly, during departmental assessment of the results of “experiments” conducted by the same department, quite often any given indicators are organized. Secondly, the selected evaluation criteria (the number of offenses and disciplinary violations allowed in the ITU) allow us to assess only the immediate, and not the long-term, consequences of a particular experiment. One can, for example, notice that the number of leaders of “negative groups” has constantly increased over the years of the existence of the EPKT. It is also not taken into account that as a result of the “decomposition work” society receives completely degraded people who are ready to commit the most brutal crimes.
Rogue (t) - see thieves.
Fill it up, fill it up - kill.
Darkened camera - a cell in which prisoners who decide to break out of other cells are kept.
Law (t) - a system of informal norms, rules, guidelines, sanctions against violators, conflict resolution procedures, introduction of new norms, etc., operating in a community of prisoners (prison law) or within a separate group, caste of prisoners (for example, thieves' law ).
Finish (t): objects, and especially food items touched by the detainee, are taboo for other groups of prisoners; such things are called “finished”, that is, dirty, spoiled, posing a danger to normal people.
Close (t, s) - put in a punishment cell.
Soak (t) - kill.
Zapadlo (t) - violations of prison norms, which may be different for prisoners of different groups (colors). “Not a bummer” - that is, an act in accordance with these norms.
Ban (t, s), forbidden strip (o) - a strip of earth dug up and leveled with a rake, well preserving traces of those who stepped on it; located between the fences surrounding all ITUs or industrial and residential areas. Processing the restricted area (digging, loosening, leveling the ground) is the responsibility of guarding the colony. According to the correct concepts, a prisoner who agreed to do this work (“go out on a ban”) is considered a goat (for goats and those who have been omitted, this work is not considered shameful).
“Kick them out” is one of the ways that the administration of the penitentiary institution fights against informal prison law. Currently, the work of prisoners in “security facilities” is prohibited by law. However, the administration of the colonies continues to use various methods of suppressing those who adhere to the prison law (see bedside table, SPP). Those who refuse to perform work that is shameful, from the point of view of prison law, are usually punished by being placed in a punishment cell and being put under pressure. This is also one of the ways the administration identifies denialists.
Set up a bomb - the same thing as getting dirty, finishing up, - coming into contact with the omitted, his things or place on the bunk, in other words - becoming defiled.
Correspondence student - a woman who enters into correspondence with a prisoner in absentia, without knowing him personally. Sometimes such correspondence lasts for years and - there are cases - it ends with the creation of a family. For a prisoner, this is a very important means of restoring lost connections with the outside world.
Sharpening - an iron rod, pointed at one end, a weapon used in internecine clashes and during riots.
Screw it up (t) - approximately the same as finishing, i.e. desecrate, desecrate. A “tarnished” item can sometimes be used after ritual cleansing. See also pig.
Grind (t) - the same as finishing. See shvarny.
Zek, prisoner (f, c) - prisoner, prisoners. From the outdated official abbreviation z/k ("prisoner canal soldier"), which appeared during the construction of the White Sea Canal in the 30s. Currently, the law refers to prisoners as persons under investigation, defendants, in custody, and, after the verdict enters into legal force, as convicted persons.
ZNRS (c) - a persistent violator of the detention regime.
Zone - 1) (o) Part of the ITU, fenced off from the rest of the territory. For example, residential area, industrial area, restricted area, local area, etc.
2) (t, s) General name of places of deprivation of liberty. Separate ITK. In prison slang it is used with the preposition "on". For example, go to a zone, rise to a zone, etc. The zones are divided by the prisoners themselves, depending on which of the colors occupies a dominant position in it, into: red, goat; black, thieves, thieves; peasant.
IVS (o) - temporary detention center (see KPZ).
Insulator (s, t) - the same as a punishment cell.
ITK (o) - corrective labor colony, the general name for camp-type institutions for adult convicts. Penal colonies are divided into general regime colonies (for men convicted of minor crimes for the first time, and for all women, with the exception of recognized by the court especially dangerous recidivists), enhanced regime (for men convicted of serious crimes for the first time), strict regime (for men who have already served a sentence of imprisonment, and for women recognized by the court as particularly dangerous recidivists), special regime (for men recognized especially dangerous recidivists) and colony-settlements (semi-closed institutions for those convicted for the first time for unintentional crimes or for prisoners transferred by court decision from general, enhanced and strict regime colonies). The ITC regime is assigned to the convicted person by the court. ITCs of different regimes differ in their conditions of detention.
There are also specialized ITKs (for tuberculosis patients and the disabled), forest ITKs, and ITKs for former law enforcement officers and stateless persons. The decision to send a person to a specialized correctional facility or prison hospital is made by the administration of the correctional facility or pre-trial detention center.
The regime of detention (number of parcels and transfers, visits, telephone conversations, etc.) is tightened from general to special.
Special regime prisoners are kept in locked cells (for 20-50 people), other regime prisoners are kept in dormitories (prisoners call them “barracks”). The sleeping rooms in the dormitories are designed for 20-150 people, the beds are located in two or three tiers. In addition to sleeping rooms in the dormitory, for every 150-200 people ("detachment") there are: a room for storing personal belongings; dressing room (for outerwear); room for meals (with a device for boiling water, cabinets for food); “red corner” (formerly called “Lenin’s room”), where political classes and cultural events are usually held, tables, bookshelves, a radio speaker, and a TV (if available); sometimes (in those rare cases when the penitentiary complex has a sewerage system) - a toilet. The legal norm for living space is 2 square meters. m per person. In colonies of all regimes, except for special regime, in front of the dormitory there is a small walking area enclosed by a fence ("local zone"), designed for 200-600 people. During the daytime, free from work and activities, prisoners have the right to leave the dormitory to the “local zone”. Throughout the rest of the colony, prisoners can only move in formation if they receive permission from the administration. The number of prisoners in one penitentiary colony: from 500 to 3000 (more often - in the range of 1500-2000 people).
The ITK is divided into industrial (production premises are located here) and residential zones. Between these zones there is a fence, rows of barbed wire, and between them there is a corridor, sometimes shot through by security soldiers. The residential area is, in turn, divided into a number of local zones where the dormitories are located. In addition, on the territory of the residential area there is usually a dining room, a club, a library, a school, an outpatient clinic (medical unit), sometimes a small hospital (for 10-30 people), a bathhouse, and a headquarters in which premises for administrative workers are located. In the ITC there are usually rooms for short-term (from 2 to 4 hours) and long-term (from 1 to 3 days) visits.
The penitentiary colony also has premises for disciplinary punishment: a punishment cell (punishment cell, here the period of detention of the punished person is up to 15 days) and PKT (a cell-type room, the period of detention is up to six months). Until 1988, prisoners in the punishment cell and PKT were prescribed a reduced food allowance. There were a number of other restrictions (lack of bed linen, walks, correspondence, books, smoking, parcels and packages, etc.). In Russia, some of these restrictions were abolished in 1992. However, in 1993, a reduced food standard (though not as severe as before) was reintroduced by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Since January 1, 1997, the penal colonies have been renamed to IK (Correctional Colonies).
ITK RSFSR (o) - Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR. In the former USSR, each republic had its own ITK, developed on the basis of the “Fundamentals of Correctional Labor Legislation of the USSR”. From 1.07.97. The Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation - the Penal Code of the Russian Federation - came into force.
ITU (o) - correctional labor institutions, the general name of institutions for the execution of criminal punishment. These, in addition to all types of penitentiary complexes, include military-technical complexes, medical treatment centers, prisons, and therapeutic correctional institutions. Since January 1, 1997, ITUs have been renamed IU (Correctional Institutions).
Hospital-type ITU - hospitals for prisoners in need of serious treatment or examination. Almost all regional and forest departments of prisons have their own hospitals for prisoners. Hospital-type correctional institutions have sections for prisoners of various regimes, women and minors. The content is intimate.
Gimp - violation of the rules of relations, harm to one prisoner by another or others. (See mess).
Capo (t) - 1) A prisoner who voluntarily cooperates with the administration of the correctional facility. 2) Informer, informant (B). The term originated in the concentration camps of Germany during the Third Reich.
Kentovka - the same as family, family (see).
Goat (t) - a representative of a group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners, formed on the basis of: open cooperation (in the present or past) with the administration of the correctional facility. This group emerged from the prison community in the 1960s. Unlike the activist of the 30s-50s, the status of a goat becomes almost permanent for a prisoner and accompanies him throughout his entire stay in prison.
The appearance of the goat caste is apparently connected with the reaction of the prison subculture to the penitentiary policy of the Soviet government in the early 60s.
A formal act that includes a prisoner in the caste of goats may be joining “amateur organizations of convicts,” agreeing to take a position or perform work considered shameful by correct concepts. All this is a necessary condition to receive a number of benefits from the administration, the right to occupy certain “nomenklatura” positions, to move into the category of persons “firmly on the path of correction,” and therefore to become a candidate for early release or pardon.
For the majority of prisoners, goats are traitors to the interests of the prisoner community, collaborators.
The word goat is one of the most serious insults for a prisoner who does not belong to this group. A prisoner who is so named is obliged to react immediately and harshly (to hit or even kill the offender), otherwise he risks his reputation and a decrease in status. The word goat and its derivatives (goat, goat, goat and even horned) are taboo, and they are forbidden to be used in everyday speech. For example, the game of dominoes, known by this name in the wild, is called “one hundred and one” in prison; telling another that he has something knitted from goat hair means insulting him.
It’s interesting that in the 30-50s, passive homosexuals were called goats in the camp (see ZhR).
Prisoners belonging to this group prefer to use various euphemisms when calling themselves: activist, red, “independent man,” “positive.” In a calm situation, the same euphemisms are used by other prisoners in the presence of goats.
Trump fraer - an authoritative thieves, a level in the hierarchy of thieves, immediately following the title of thief. (See Thief, thieves).
Colony - settlement, settlement - see ITK.
Counterparty (colloquially counterparty) (o) - each of the parties to the contract in relation to each other. An official term from the use of officials of the Soviet national economy (for example, a plant that supplies parts for machines assembled by prisoners, or a representative of this plant, could be designated to the camp). Today this word in colloquial speech is widely replaced by the term “business partner”.
Controller (o) - employee of the prisoner supervision service. His functions include maintaining order on the territory of the correctional facility, pre-trial detention center, conducting searches, etc.
Horse (t) - a method of illegal communication between cameras. For example, a string stretched along the outside of the prison body between the windows of the cells, fishing line passed through sewer pipes, etc. With the help of a horse, notes, small items, etc. are passed from cell to cell. Wed. with ZhR: “a small package smuggled, usually tied to a string, which is thrown out the cell window.”
bark beetle (T), special school, special vocational school (o) - penitentiary institutions for juvenile offenders of a semi-open type. Special schools contain children from 11 to 14 years old, and special vocational schools contain teenagers from 14 to 18 years old who have committed criminal or status violations (i.e. violations for which only teenagers and children are punished; adults are not subject to punishment for the same actions : truancy, bad behavior at school and in the family, appearing on the street while drunk, running away from home, etc.). All children over 14 years of age and the main part (up to 90%) under 18 years of age are placed in special institutions by decision of administrative bodies - commissions on juvenile affairs under the executive committees of local councils. In this case, children and most adolescents are practically deprived of the right to defense, their guilt is proven in the absence of a lawyer, the usual procedures for a judicial investigation are not necessary, and there is no right of appeal. The term of punishment in special institutions is arbitrary; it can be extended at the request of teachers' councils up to three years, and sometimes beyond that. It is not uncommon for a punished person to be re-educated far from home, which complicates his contacts with his family and relatives.
Special schools and special vocational schools are under the departmental affiliation of the Ministry of Education, however, in terms of conditions of detention, isolation regime, social microclimate, and the forced nature of labor, most of these institutions are not much different from VTC. Rape, torture and beatings of the majority of pupils by a group of children or teenagers enjoying the patronage of educators (the principle of Soviet pedagogy is collective education), and sometimes by the educators themselves, are also common here.
Jamb (t) - 1) Violation of rules and norms of prison law.
2) Armband of a member of the SPP or other section with the corresponding abbreviation. Most often blue.
3) Unsuccessful action or deed.
4) Cigarette or rolled-up cigarette with marijuana.
Kosyachny (t) - a person who constantly commits acts that contradict generally accepted norms in the prisoner community.
bullpen (o) - a pre-trial detention cell, a room for holding those detained at the scene of a crime, those suspected of committing a crime, etc. The period of detention in a correctional facility usually does not exceed 3 days, but can be extended to 10, and in special cases - up to 30 days. The arrested person is either released from the correctional facility or, with the sanction of the prosecutor, transferred to a pre-trial detention center. Currently, the bullpen is called a “temporary detention center” or temporary detention facility. About 4 million people pass through temporary detention facilities every year. The average daily population in 1997 was 65 thousand prisoners. However, the group of prisoners held in temporary detention facilities is not included in official statistics.
Red zone - a zone where the administration rules with the help of goats and, regardless of the prison law, for example, tries to seat those sent down in the canteen at common tables, requires that prisoners walk in formation to and from the canteen, prohibits movement around the zone, entry into other people’s barracks and etc.
In such a zone, activists have broad powers and can behave very aggressively; surveillance of each other, denunciation, and petty quibbles about the behavior and clothing of prisoners are encouraged.
Red (t) is a euphemism for the word goat.
Crosses - central prison in St. Petersburg. The name that the prison received due to the cruciform arrangement of its buildings has been borne by it since its opening (at the beginning of the 20th century).
Circle - education broader than family or kentovka; formed most often according to the principle of fraternity.
Wing (put on wing) - a bandage on the sleeve, meaning the prisoner’s entry into the active, i.e., in prison jargon, into the goats.
Covered (t, s) - prison-type correctional facilities for those convicted of serious crimes or sent to prison by court order from the correctional facility for systematic violations of the regime of detention. There are only 15 indoor ones in Russia.
Ksiva (t) - 1) Note, letter. It is transferred illegally from cell to cell, from camp to camp, from prison to freedom and vice versa. Often contains important information about events and persons, sometimes - instructions from authorities (see thieves' orders). There are also ksivs of purely personal content. Constant communication between camps and prisons scattered throughout the country is carried out using XIV. Synonym - "little one, little one."
2) Document, identity card.
Godfather (t) - employee of the operational unit of a correctional facility or pre-trial detention center. See also opera.
Nepotism mudka, nepotism weed - provocations organized in the zone by operatives to achieve their goals. They may consist in pitting various groups of prisoners against each other, in spreading incriminating rumors about zon authorities, etc., which can cause unrest in the zone and even a riot, when suppressed, undesirable persons are eliminated, etc. Smaller provocations with the same purpose (to intimidate or “neutralize” unwanted persons) are called nepotistic gadgets or jokes. They may involve planting drugs on a prisoner, for example, followed by discovery of them in his possession and corresponding sanctions against him.
Stall, stall (t, s) - 1) A store for prisoners in an ITU, purchases in which are made by bank transfer.
2) Products, smokes, etc., purchased by the prisoner officially in the ITU store. For the majority of prisoners, there are restrictions both on the amount they can spend monthly on buying a kiosk, and on the fact that they can only use money earned in a correctional facility.
Persons who are firmly on the path to correction (o) - convicts who, according to the conclusion of the relevant ITU employee, have reformed and have ceased to be criminals. In characteristics or certificates for a prisoner, two formulations are usually used: “firmly embarked on the path of correction” or “did not embark on the path of correction.” In practice, these formulations have nothing to do with the real criminality of the prisoner. “Firmly embarked on the path of correction” means that the prisoner is a collaborator, cooperates with the administration, or (less commonly) does not belong to the negative group. An activist can come to the camp for crimes committed for the fifth or tenth time, and still be considered “firmly on the path of correction.” Unfortunately, there are no corresponding statistics, but according to some estimates, recidivism among persons who have taken the path of correction is higher than the average for all prisoners.
Local (t, s), local zone (o) - this is the name given to sections of the residential area fenced off from each other, where barracks for one or two detachments are located; a measure taken to limit contact between prisoners and reduce the likelihood of mass incidents.
Local tower (o) - a tower with a cabin in which a prisoner appointed by the administration ("keykeeper") is on duty and in which there is a local telephone connecting him with supervision or headquarters. Its functions include: monitoring the general order in the residential area, reporting to the supervisory service about noticed disturbances, excesses, etc. He usually opens gates from local zones and residential zone gates from the control panel.
Withdrawal (t, s) - 1) Various, usually latent, ways of influencing a prisoner in order to force him to abandon correct concepts. In special “preventive” penitentiary institutions (for example, “White Swan”, indoor) a “negative prisoner” is usually forced to sign a statement renouncing “thieves’ ideas.” Such a statement is usually used for educational work with other prisoners, reading the “renunciation” on the local radio or in front of the line in those correctional institutions where the “broken” prisoner is known. In fact, such an action does not lead to re-education, but to the embitterment of prisoners; they know very well what methods they use to achieve the signing of these statements. See also press, press chamber, ban, bedside table, SPP, broom.
2) The state of withdrawal after stopping taking drugs or alcohol.
Health care facilities - local preventive area. This is a specially designated local zone of a correctional facility, intended, according to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for “containing malicious violators of the detention regime.” Health care facilities, they believe, make it possible to “reduce the negative impact of the more criminal part of the convicts on the bulk.” In a number of correctional institutions, prisoners placed in health care facilities are kept in cell-type premises. The creation of health care facilities in each institution is “one of the main directions” of the concept of reorganization of the penal system, developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. By 1995, health care facilities had been created in more than 300 institutions. Both subjectively and objectively, placement in a health care facility is a punishment for the convicted person. Here the isolation is much stricter, the convict’s ability to move around the colony’s territory and choose a job are limited. In practice, illegal methods of suppression are more often used here (for example, bringing in OSN fighters and mass beatings) and the so-called. "destructive ways of working with prisoners."
The current Correctional Labor Code provides for the same purposes ("containment of malicious violators of the detention regime...", etc.) punishment cells and PKT are provided; they do not need to be created, they already exist in every correctional facility. Why was it necessary to reinvent the wheel, to create outside the law something provided for by law?
The answer to this question will be easier to find if we take into account that placing a convict in a punishment cell and penitentiary cell is a type of punishment for a specific disciplinary violation committed by the convict (or a system of violations), which requires the implementation of certain procedures (drawing out a resolution, drawing up a report on the violation, obtaining explanations from the person being punished, etc.). This punishment can be appealed by the convicted person in the manner prescribed by law. In addition, the period of placement in a punishment cell and PKT is strictly limited (in a punishment cell - fifteen days at a time and two months per year, in a PKT - six months). Placement in a medical facility, since it is not provided for by law, does not require anything of the kind: neither a specific violation, nor procedural documentation. It is not limited to any specific period and cannot be appealed by the convicted person. Apparently, this is why the creation of health care facilities is considered “one of the main directions” in the proposals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. See also EPKT.
Since July 1, 1997, health care facilities have been legalized by the PEC of the Russian Federation, now they are called SUS zones (strict conditions of detention).
LTP (o) - medical and labor dispensary. A closed institution where chronic alcoholics (less often drug addicts) who have not committed any crime are kept by court order. Since 1994, institutions of this type have been disbanded in Russia.
People - in the old terminology - thieves, thieves. Nowadays it is rarely used.
Young girl(t, s) - 1) a juvenile prisoner.
2) The totality of special (correctional) institutions for juvenile offenders (special schools, special vocational schools and military technical schools), as well as the entire contingent of persons contained in them. In juvenile detention, the regime of detention, food and conditions are better than in correctional institutions for adult prisoners. However, from the point of view of preserving the life, health, and personality of the prisoner, the juvenile is the most terrible part of the Gulag. Bullying, beatings, torture, torture, rape (of some prisoners by others) are the everyday reality of this type of institution.
3) Part of a special section in a pre-trial detention center for juvenile prisoners.
Malyava - a note, a letter, in contrast to a letter of a more private nature, but in some cases the words are used interchangeably.
Mother (t) - one of the informal leaders in the caste of the lowered. Together with another leader (dad), he resolves all issues in this informal group of prisoners. Unlike dad, he deals with the economic problems of the abandoned and issues related to the sale and supply of his charges to thieves as sexual objects. Dad resolves conflicts between the abandoned, turns to authorities in the case when his charges are treated in violation of the correct concepts (for example, they do not pay for sexual services provided, etc.). The Pope is the plenipotentiary representative of the omitted in contacts with the leaders of other informal groups. More often than not, the functions of father and mother are performed by one person, the head rooster.
Suit (t) - 1) This or that group, caste in the informal hierarchy of prisoners. In the prison world, there are four main castes (in order of decreasing status): thieves (black), men (gray), goats (red), lowered (blue). Each caste has its own hierarchy within. The prison subculture is extremely conservative; vertical transitions (increasing status) are extremely difficult or even impossible. The existence of suits is recognized and taken into account by ITU employees. For example, before sending a punished prisoner to a cell in a punishment cell or PKT, the officer on duty asks about his color (prisoners of different groups are kept in different cells).
According to ZhR: “suit is a social stratum in the prison camp world.”
2) Status of a prisoner in the informal hierarchy (muzhik, thieves, etc.).
Mattress, twist through mattress - since the new regulations prohibit keeping a prisoner in a punishment cell or PTC for longer than a certain period, as well as extending this period without leaving the detention center, the administration invented this method - “twist through the mattress” (twist, unwind - and means receiving a new term without leaving the place of detention ; cm.). The prisoner is released into the zone and allowed to spend the night on his mattress, after which he is given a new sentence and again locked in the isolation ward.
Mattress - a mattress cover in which a prisoner puts his and government belongings when going to his cell or from one cell to another.
Makhnovists - see Polish thieves. The connection of this concept with the name N.I. Makhno is, presumably, accidental.
Cop (t) - employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Broom (t, s) - 1) Language. See watch the broom.
2) One of the ways to break a prisoner who adheres to correct concepts. Among the peasants and thieves, the work associated with sweeping the territory of the penal colony is considered shameful. ITU staff know that picking up a broom lowers the prisoner’s informal status, and they present him with a choice: either go out with the broom onto the parade ground (where all prisoners are lined up, and it is not at all necessary to actually sweep the area), or be sent to a punishment cell. See also stool, ban, SPP.
Mokrushnik (t) - killer.
wet business (t) - murder.
Guys (t) - 1) The general name of the large group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners. They differ from thieves in that, according to prison law, they work in the zone in regular positions, and from goats in that they do not cooperate with the administration. The men do not claim any power, they do not serve anyone, but they do not interfere in the affairs of thieves (except in cases of thieves' lawlessness). All other groups of prisoners listen to the opinion of authoritative men. The majority of men adhere to the correct concepts.
2) The general name of all prisoners, except those omitted.
Garbage - the same as a cop - a policeman.
Supervision - release of a prisoner with the condition of registering him with the police at his place of residence while free and with the obligation to report every day at a certain time to the officer supervising him. He is prohibited from leaving his place of residence after a certain set time and from being away from home, for example, late in the evening or at night. Violation of supervision rules previously entailed a court order and the imposition of a new term.
Supervision (t, s) - room for the supervisory service.
Supervision service, supervision composition (o) - a service that exercises day-to-day control over the behavior of prisoners, compliance with the regime of detention, etc. Consists of military personnel of conscript and long-term service of convoy troops. The supervisory service reports to the head of the convoy troops, and not to the head of the correctional facility.
Hitting - aggressive provocation towards a person from other people; for example, presenting some unfounded demands or accusations in order to intimidate this person or provoke him to resist, as a result it will be possible to beat him, take away some things, or draw up an order and lock him up in an isolation cell, conduct a search, etc.
mother hen (t, s) - an agent of the operative placed in the investigative cell to “split” the persons under investigation or a specific person under investigation. In addition to obtaining the necessary information about the crime committed, sometimes the task is to exert psychological pressure on a cellmate in order to persuade him to give the testimony necessary to the investigator.
Production rate - the amount of products that a prisoner must produce per unit of time (shift, month). For failure to comply with the production quota, the prisoner may be punished in one way or another. The production rate for prisoners is usually higher than in the wild. This is partly due to the fact that during the period under review the annual time balance for prisoners was significantly higher than in the wild, because prisoners had no vacation, and their working week was 48 hours (in the wild - 41). Among other punishments, prisoners who did not meet production standards could be deprived of the so-called “guarantee” - crediting the “guarantee” to their account: 10% of the monthly salary, regardless of any other circumstances (their repayment of a lawsuit , alimony payments, etc.). This procedure was changed after the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation adopted the “Law of the Russian Federation “On Amendments and Additions to the Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR, the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and the Criminal Procedure Code of the RSFSR” (June 12, 1992).
Offended (t) - a cell for prisoners who managed to “escape” (during a check, taking them out for a walk, making an appointment with the opera, etc.) from their previous cell. In prison jargon, “to escape” sounds like this: “to break out of the cell.” This action, associated with turning to the administration for help in resolving a conflict with fellow inmates, is considered, according to correct concepts, to be a jamb. Prison law prescribes turning to authorities to resolve all kinds of internal conflicts. An exception to this rule is the case of “breaking out” from the press cell (but provided that the “breaking out” prisoner resists being placed in the holding cell). Prisoners who have been expelled ("broken out") from their cells are sometimes placed in the prison.
Offended (t) - 1) A prisoner of an offense or someone who was sitting in an offense.
2) In some regions the same as omitted.
3. Euphemism for the words omitted, rooster.
1. In some zones, the pre-trial detention center is not lowered, but simply humiliated, “put on a broom,” deprived of its caste rights; he can look for excuses and satisfaction and “get” from the offenders.
Obshchak - 1) general regime ITC.
2) Multi-person (for 20-30 or more people) cell in a pre-trial detention center.
3) A group of authoritative thieves.
4) The order in which all food, tea, and smokes entering the cell are distributed equally among all prisoners (except for those who are omitted).
5) Illegal prisoner mutual aid fund. May consist of money, food, tea, smoking, things, etc. According to prison law, contributions to the common fund must be made exclusively on a voluntary basis by men and thieves. Funds from the common fund are used for general needs (for example, bribery of penitentiary correctional officers, prisoners from household services, etc.), to help prisoners who find themselves in distress: first of all, those kept in punishment cells and PKT, prisoners sent to an indoor or hospital; for beginners who do not have outside help, etc. Although the common fund is intended for prisoners who live according to the correct concepts (men and thieves), sometimes exceptions are made to this rule: some part of the money from the common fund, sent to the punishment cell and the PKT, should be distributed between the goats kept there and those sent down. In practice, many of the listed principles (voluntariness of contributions, equal rights in receiving assistance, etc.) are violated.
Supervisor of the common fund - this is, as a rule, a thieves appointed at the gangway. The overseer selects assistants for fundraising. Participation in the collection, distribution, and storage of the common fund is brutally persecuted by the administration.
Goats and lowlifes can have their own common funds.
General (t) - related to the common fund, i.e. illegal prisoner mutual aid fund.
Public - activists, members of public amateur organizations or sections. In the language of the administration it is a word with a positive connotation, in the language of prisoners who are not part of the sections it is ironic.
Social and amateur organizations - see SVP, SPP. They can be called “amateur” very conditionally, because and in the 70s and 80s, the administration used a whole arsenal of coercive means to replenish them: from bribery to threats and direct pressure. These organizations served as an indicator of the educational work of the administration with prisoners, and therefore sometimes a fantastic goal was set - to drive the entire population of the correctional institutions into them, which, in turn, caused resistance by all means, including strikes and riots. (See Prisoners' Amateur Organizations).
General mode - Penal colony for those convicted for the first time (first-time offenders) or for minor crimes. It is distinguished by a large number of diverse and often meaningless customs and rituals, as well as self-proclaimed leaders and false thieves.
OID (see GUIN).
Riot police - special purpose police detachment (special forces). Units of the Russian police created to perform particularly difficult tasks (fighting organized crime, preventing mass unrest, apprehending armed criminals, etc.).
Prisoners often call OMON special forces, created at regional prison departments to suppress riots, free hostages, etc. Since 1991, these detachments have been used for preventive purposes to intimidate prisoners in correctional institutions, where, according to the administration, a dangerous situation has developed.
OER (o) - a particularly dangerous repeat offender. See mansion.
Opera (f, s) - operational service worker.
Operational service (o) - a structural unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs engaged in the prevention and detection of offenses. Widely uses undercover methods of work. Each correctional facility or pre-trial detention center has an operational unit that must monitor the general situation in the institution, prevent crimes, all kinds of excesses, solve previously committed crimes, and collect information about the leaders of the criminal world. The operational unit has a large staff of agents among prisoners (according to some estimates, from 2 to 5% of the number of convicts): informants and provocateurs; widely uses illegal methods of influencing prisoners that cannot be controlled by supervisory authorities (pitting different groups of prisoners against each other, using thieves to intimidate other prisoners, press cameras, etc.). See, for example, "Ogonyok", 1990, ??35-36, "Diary of an Informer".
Operational search activities - activities of the police, including initial work with the offense:
going to the scene of the incident;
drawing up documents about the incident;
activities to identify those responsible for the incident (inquiry);
preparation of documents for transfer to investigators.
Lower (t, s) - 1) Lower the status in the informal hierarchy of prisoners. (Obsolete).
2) Transfer to the untouchable caste (omitted, roosters) - rape or perform a ritual associated with the transfer of a prisoner to the untouchable caste. In this case, rape-substituting rituals are often used: the prisoner is placed on a bucket with a piece of bread, doused with water from the bucket, forced to drink water from the bucket, a phallus, a towel soaked in sperm is passed over the lips, anus, etc.
Lowered (t, s) - a representative of the lowest group in the informal hierarchy of prisoners, a kind of untouchable caste. You cannot take anything from someone who is lowered, you cannot touch him, you cannot sit on his bunk, etc. The prisoners have their own separate places in the barracks, prison cell, in the dining room, their own labeled dishes, they perform the dirtiest jobs - those that other prisoners no longer have the right to undertake. They have certain identification marks and are required to report upon arrival at a place where they are not known that they are omitted, so that other prisoners, having entered into communication with them, do not lose their status. It is useless and dangerous to hide one’s status as a derelict; sooner or later his past becomes known, and then the revealed despondents are punished, beaten, and sometimes killed. It is believed that he made a mess of everyone who interacted with him and sat next to him. The status of a lifelong prisoner, say, a break in his prison career does not change him.
It is a very common misconception that only passive homosexuals fall into the omitted category. According to some estimates, there are no more than 20% of those who are voluntary homosexuals (although a person who was a passive homosexual in freedom and failed to hide it becomes rejected). Transfer to omitted is carried out, as a rule, for gross violations prison law: informing, ratting, unpaid gambling debt, lawlessness towards other prisoners. They omit press workers, goats, wool workers, those who committed shameful, from the point of view of correct concepts, crimes (rape of children, brutal rape of women, brutal unmotivated murder, indecent acts with minors, etc.), former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, soldiers of the internal troops who find themselves in an ordinary prison cell... A prisoner, feeling the seriousness of the violation he has committed, sometimes prefers to voluntarily join the caste of the lowered (say, to move his things to the corner of the barracks where the lowered live). In this case, as a rule, he is not subjected to any ritual procedures or rape.
It should be noted that in institutions for juvenile delinquents and first-time offenders, ritual-symbolic motivation in relation to those who have been neglected prevails over semantic motivation. The very distinctive features of the untouchable caste here acquire a mystical meaning separate from the objects they designate (see finish). For example, a person who has not committed any special violations of prison law (raped in a press chamber, accidentally came into unauthorized contact with someone who was sent down) falls into the caste of untouchables. This is not seen as a punishment, but as an accident that leaves a person “crippled” for life. The transfer to the omitted caste itself is often accomplished with the help of rituals (see omit), forcing one to remember the customs existing in primitive tribes.
The omitted caste appeared in the prison community in the 60s, perhaps as a reaction of the prisoner subculture to the new penitentiary policy of the authorities. The struggle for the preservation of personality in conditions when the administration of the penitentiary institution used the most cruel methods of pressure on prisoners in order to force them to commit immoral, from the point of view of traditional culture, actions, led to the invention of its informal sanction to "apostates", this is a kind of ostracism, moral expulsion from the community in conditions where real expulsion is impossible. It is also possible that punishment in the form of rape during the period of establishment of amateur organizations of convicts for the first time began to be imposed on those who became their members. Let us recall that the current name of the collaborationist caste (goats) in the 40-50s referred to passive homosexuals.
By the way, the guardians of prison law and the traditions of the prison world claim that the punishment in the form of transferring a person to the caste of the lowered according to the correct concepts is considered unacceptable. According to their version, the caste of the lowered was “invented by the cops” and introduced into the prison world with the help of press workers, wool workers, and lawless men. It must be said that the administration of the ITU very willingly uses the institute of omissions to break the recalcitrant. One of the most terrible threats for a denier is rape in a press chamber. After a rape, the opera can offer the raped a kind of gentleman's agreement: no one will know about what happened if the prisoner agrees to become his agent or sign a statement renouncing the ideas of thieves. The threat of omission is also used by investigators. It should also be added that the main suppliers to the omitted caste are institutions for juvenile offenders, first-timers and press chambers. Cases of the application of the omission sanction among repeat offenders are extremely rare and are the exception (violation of prison law) rather than the rule. The attitude towards those sent to correctional institutions among recidivists is not of such a cruel and sadistic nature as in minors and in general regime correctional institutions, although some norms that are taboo in nature, defining the “untouchability” of those rejected, remain.
Within the group of the omitted there is its own hierarchy, reminiscent of the informal hierarchy of the entire community of prisoners. It has its own informal leaders (chief roosters, fathers, mothers) with their entourage, ordinary lowlifes and roosters, who are pushed around by everyone in this group (sold as a sexual object, forced to work for themselves, raped, tortured). The informal leaders of the deported most often include former thieves who were deported for some kind of mistakes (non-payment of a gambling debt, snitching, etc.), as well as those who were raped or otherwise deported in the press chambers.
OSN - special forces squad. See riot police.
Mansion (t) - 1) Special regime correctional colony.
2) Particularly dangerous recidivist (OOR). An offender may be recognized as a criminal offense by a court decision for previous repeated convictions. Often this category includes people who do not pose a particular danger, but have more than one prison sentence in the past.
“They say to me: - Did you kill someone? - Yes, I didn’t kill anyone. I stole pears! - Why are you “especially dangerous”? - Because you climbed into the same barn many times! (Excerpt from an interview with a particularly dangerous repeat offender).
Convict (t) - a cell in a pre-trial detention center where prisoners are kept in respect of whom a court verdict has been passed, but has not yet entered into legal force.
Convicted (o) - the official name of the prisoner in respect of whom the court verdict has entered into legal force. Self-designation of prisoners in dialogue with officials (“Citizen Chief, the convicted Arab-ogly has arrived on your orders”). In the speech of prisoners, the emphasis is on the letter “y”: “convicted.”
Products, products (t) - monthly purchase by prisoners of food products in a camp store (stall) for a strictly defined amount of money.
Negative (s, t), negative convicts (o) - prisoners who, from the point of view of the administration of the correctional facility, interfere with its work, negatively influence other prisoners. All prisoners are divided by correctional facility workers and scientists from the Ministry of Internal Affairs into three groups: positive (helping them in their work), neutral (not interfering), and negative. Not only thieves, but also all those disliked by the administration (for example, those who file complaints against the administration, refuse to do “inappropriate” work for employees, etc.) fall into denial. For ways to combat denialism, see broom, stool, ban, SPP, press camera.
Squad (o) - 1) Structural unit of ITU. In the colony, prisoners are divided into groups of 100 to 200 people. There are from 2 to 5 production teams in a detachment. In the VTK, the detachments are divided into sections of 20-30 people. The detachment is usually located compactly in one room, in one local zone.
2) The room where the detachment is located (bedrooms, red corner, rooms for storing things and food, toilet, office of the detachment leader, etc.).
Otryadnik (T), squad leader (o) - an ITK employee under whose command the detachment is located.
Soldering (t) - 1) All government products (bread, sugar, gruel, etc.) provided for prisoners by law.
2) A portion of bread given to a prisoner.
Dad (t) - informal leader in the caste (omitted). See mom, chief rooster.
Parasha (t) - 1) A vessel for excrement in a cell where there is no sewage system.
2) Toilet in the cell. The place near the bucket is considered the most unprestigious. In the cells of juveniles and first-timers, there is sometimes a rule according to which the person who has been lowered must eat while sitting on the bucket (or near it).
3) Nonsense rumor, gossip.
Guys - the same as people: thieves and those close to them
Godfather (t) - the most authoritative thieves in a given community (cell, prison, colony).
kid (t) - a person who occupies a high position in the society of prisoners in general regime colonies (sometimes as a juvenile), thieves.
PVR (c) - 1) political and educational work.
2) Internal regulations - a normative document of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that determines the conditions of detention of prisoners in an ITU (PVR ITU), in a pre-trial detention center (PVR SIZO), in a temporary temporary detention facility (PVR IVS). It is this document and about 300 instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (and not the Penitentiary Committee of the RSFSR or the Penitentiary Code of the Russian Federation) that regulate life in places of detention in great detail and establish many norms and restrictions that are not even mentioned in the legislation.
PVS (o) - Presidium of the Supreme Council.
First mover (t) - a prisoner with no prison experience, arrested for the first time.
Rooster - 1) The Rooster is a passive homosexual.
2) One of the omitted synonyms, the word is a terrible insult and is taboo to an even greater extent than goat (see the corresponding article). Prisoners try not to use all derivatives of rooster (cocked, petya, cockerel, cockerel, etc.), as well as related words (chicken coop, bird, hen, comb, etc.), so as not to “get into the unknown” . This also applies to those who are omitted, who prefer to use the euphemism offended when calling themselves.
PCT (o) - a cell-type room, an internal prison of a colony in which persistent violators of the detention regime are kept. PKT cells are usually located in a separate building together with the punishment cell and are fenced off from the rest of the penitentiary colony's territory by a fence. Prisoners placed in the PCT are limited in some rights. According to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Amendments and Additions to the Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR, the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and the Criminal Procedure Code of the RSFSR” dated June 12, 1992, the total sentence of the PCT should not exceed 6 months. As of July 1, 1997, this restriction was lifted.
The former name of the PKT - BUR (maximum security barracks) - is still used among prisoners.
PMS (c) - production and mass section.
Support (t) - the second-highest status informal leader in the cell. It could also be a criminal. In the press chamber there is an assistant to the chief press operator.
Decoy - see Mother Hen.
Snow thief - a false thief, a person who declares himself a thief, but does not adhere to the correct concepts and pursues his own narrow egoistic goals.
Stripe - in the document. The red stripe on the cover of a prisoner's personal file means “prone to escape.” When such a person comes into the zone, the administration must put him under special surveillance.
Striped (t) - especially dangerous recidivist (OOR). According to the striped clothing that the OOR is required to wear. See also mansion, ITC.
Striped mode, striped zone - see Mansion.
Polish thieves - some meanings: thieves who have departed from the “correct life”; professional thieves who are not and have not been members of any groups; twisted thieves, i.e. thieves who are at enmity with thieves in law with the approval of the camp administration or under its leadership. The prison world explains the origin of the phrase “Polish thief” literally: these are the ideological descendants of thieves who came to Russia from Poland back in the days when Poland was part of the Russian Empire. According to J. Rossi (see "Handbook of the Gulag"), "the Polish thief has nothing in common with Poland." The mythology of the prison world also connects the decline of its morals with the invasion of the “Polish thieves” and their activities.
Pardon (t) - a petition for pardon or the decision of the courts on pardon itself.
Settlement, settlement (t) - colony-settlement. See ITC.
Rule (t) - analysis of the conflict between prisoners according to the law, correct concepts. According to the journal: "The trial of a comrade (in the environment of thieves)." See also disassembly.
Correct zone, prison (t) - ITU or pre-trial detention center, the shadow life of which goes in accordance with the correct concepts and prison law. The presence or absence of correct order in a particular penitentiary institution or part of it is determined by the personal qualities of the authorities who have real power. In institutions for young children or first-time children, correct order is practically impossible due to the lack of authorities with sufficient life and prison experience, as well as experience in resolving conflicts in a non-violent way. Lawlessness often flourishes here, the priority of formal norms snatched from prison law over its meaning, the prevalence of wild and meaningless rules. For example, a ban on carrying a spoon in the top pocket of a robe, putting a bitten piece of bread in a pocket, a ban on wearing red clothes, etc. It is characteristic that the general regime (ITU for first-timers) is called special by the prisoners themselves.
The lack of correct order, lawlessness in correctional institutions for repeat offenders is often associated with the activities of operational services, which prefer to support controlled authorities or to impose the power of their agents among thieves and thieves, and use the most cruel and immoral methods of dealing with correct authorities who do not succumb to pressure and do not go to cooperate with the cops. It is clear that among the controlled authorities more people with very low moral qualities and those who, demagogically using the norms of prison law, are concerned primarily with their own well-being. See correct concepts, prison law, authority, thieves, thieves.
Correct (t) - 1) Fair, honest, respected, authoritative, etc.
2) The highest degree of evaluation of a person (a good man, a criminal, a prisoner), a group of people (a good house, a zone, a prison, a family, etc.), a social phenomenon (the right order, etc.).
3) A prisoner who adheres to correct concepts.
Correct Concepts (t) - a system of informal norms and rules operating in such informal groups of prisoners as men and thieves. They are both an ethical imperative for prisoners and a means of resisting the administration of the correctional facility. They are supported, shared, and recognized by the majority of prisoners, which can be explained by their proximity to the norms, values ​​and attitudes of traditional culture. They declare, for example, an uncompromising attitude towards denunciation, proclaim the primacy of the general interest over the private, brotherhood between prisoners (see brotherhood, family), assistance to those who find themselves in difficult situations (see common fund), justice, protect prisoners from arbitrariness through prohibition to take away anything without a legal (within the framework of prison law) basis, prohibit bringing charges against a person without evidence of his offense and generally insulting him, require strict thoughtfulness and restraint in words (see watch the broom, goat, rooster). The spread of correct concepts and prison law, their support by the majority of prisoners can also be explained by the fact that the official law requires them to act immorally, from the point of view of traditional culture, (informing, betrayal, hypocrisy, obtaining personal gain by infringing on the rights of the community and most its members, etc.) See also the correct concepts, thieves, men, goats, lowered ones, prison law.
Correct order (t) - about the situation in a camp, cell, prison, where the majority of prisoners adhere to the correct concepts.
Prapora (t) - this is how prisoners’ letters may refer to not only employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the rank of “warrant officer,” but also other representatives of the administration of places of deprivation (or restriction) of freedom who directly exercise supervision.
Present (t) - bring charges of violating informal norms and rules existing in the prisoner community. The reason for the presentation may be an unexpectedly emerging incriminating fact relating to the distant past, sometimes even to the free, pre-camp life of the prisoner, as well as a circumstance that is not at all the result of a deliberate independent choice: for example, the very fact of living in Moscow or Leningrad, serving in the internal affairs troops, etc.
Presentation(t) - accusing a prisoner of any compromising acts or actions that do not comply with prison law.
Press (t, s) - “breaking off” a prisoner, a way to suppress his personality, to make him completely controllable. Sometimes the press is constant psychological pressure on the prisoner (“snake press”). See also press chamber.
Press chamber, press hut (t, s) - a cell in a temporary detention center, a pre-trial detention center, a covered cell, a PKT, a punishment cell, in which prisoners specially selected by the administration torture, torment, rape those who are put in front of them, in order to achieve something specific from them, for example, to give the necessary testimony to the investigator, find out where the common money is kept, sign a statement renouncing thieves’ ideas (see withdrawal, etc.). Press cameras still exist today.
Presser (t, s) - a prisoner who agreed to perform, on the instructions of an employee of a correctional facility or an investigator, the function of an executioner, a torturer of other prisoners in a press chamber. Usually there is a note in the presser's personal or operational file that serves as an indication to the operator that the prisoner can be used appropriately. In addition, such a mark prevents the press operator from being placed during transfer with other prisoners. Exposing the press operator is fraught with cruel reprisals for him.
Press prison (t) - a prison-type institution in which a significant part of the cells are used for the press. See White Swan, breaking, press chamber.
Priblatnenny (t) - a candidate for thieves, striving to be accepted into the group of thieves and demonstrating commitment to the correct concepts.
Confession (r) - a cell or department of a pre-trial detention center in which prisoners declared insane or mentally ill are kept. Prisoners in these cells or sections enjoy a number of benefits compared to ordinary prisoners. They are allowed to correspond, receive more packages, receive hospital meals, take longer walks, etc.
Recognized (r) - a prisoner who has been declared insane after a psychiatric examination. See also fool.
Gags, gags, grips - various ways of provoking a person in order to put him in a funny position, make him angry, spill the beans, give some information about himself and generally express himself in some way. A prisoner can be provoked both by other prisoners (see registration) and by administration employees. These are opera (nepotism) gadgets and grips. See nepotism mutka, nepotism weed.
Sweating - the same as the six, only a little higher in rank, since the six is ​​the one who serves anyone, and the one who sweats - the thieves.
Continued (t) - prison corridor.
Industrial zone (O), wetting (t) - industrial zone of the colony. The territory of the colony is divided into separate sections - zones: residential zone, industrial zone (production facilities are located here). Between these zones there is a fence, rows of barbed wire, and between them there is a corridor, sometimes shot through by security soldiers.
Registration (t) - initiation, that is, the rite of introduction of a newcomer into the prison community. Registration is most important in the cells of young children and general regime prisoners. The neophyte is asked questions, or he is put in situations that require intelligence, strong-willed mobilization, and quick decision-making. All this aims to clearly demonstrate the real inner content of the initiate’s personality, the degree of his independence, reliability, etc. The place in the informal hierarchy of prisoners depends on successful registration. And vice versa - those who fail the test often end up in the caste of untouchables, outcasts who occupy the most shameful and powerless position in the prison community. In some pre-trial detention centers, including Matrosskaya Tishina, persons aged 16 to 30 years are subject to registration, while in other places there are no age limits at all.
Rogue (t) - a thief who has departed from the thieves’ law, but unlike the bitch, has not betrayed it. Usually enjoys authority in the prison community. May be present on gangways.
Vocational school - vocational school.
Navel - aka ass, dubak, guard - warden
Five minutes (c) - a superficial, short (sometimes less than five minutes) psychiatric examination directly in a prison or courtroom. During the five-minute period, a decision is usually made: to send the person under investigation for a more thorough examination (for example, to the Serbsky Institute) or to declare the prisoner normal.
Disassembly (t) - 1) Any clarification of relations between prisoners or groups of prisoners.
2) Resolution of conflicts that arose between prisoners or groups of prisoners according to the rules provided for by the prison law or the law of thieves (in the case where the conflict arose between thieves or authoritative thieves close to them). Such a showdown, in contrast to a regular conflict (showdown 1), is sometimes called the correct one. The role of mediators or “judges” is usually played by authoritative prisoners, thieves. In serious cases, the person found guilty (the defendant) is given over to the mercy of the right one (recognized as the right person at the showdown). He can receive from the defendant as a “worthy” or as a “scoundrel” (the qualification of the defendant is the prerogative of the disassembly, which can transfer it to the right one). In the first case, the defendant must publicly admit his guilt and repent. The right one can lightly hit the defendant, but it doesn’t hurt so that he only “feels a brotherly hand.” In the second case, you can do whatever you want to the defendant, including kill him. The rightist can, following the verdict of a showdown, demand money and things from the guilty person - here he, it would seem, has complete freedom of choice. However, depending on how fair the sanction chosen by the right is, how much it corresponds to the offense, how generous and not vindictive the “winner of the case” is, those around him will form an opinion about him, which ultimately affects his status in the community. Showdowns between thieves or authoritative thieves take place according to other rules provided for by the law of thieves. For example, a thief cannot be hit even in a “brotherly” way. This sanction is clear: the thief is deprived of his title. Anyone who has been unfairly subjected to such a sanction and who has not recognized the legality of depriving him of the title of thief is obliged to kill the one who hit him.
Prison law provides the defendant with a right of appeal. If a showdown takes place, for example, in a prison cell, the defendant may ask an authority of a higher status (and sometimes the main authority of the prison) to intervene in the resolution of the showdown, or send a letter to the appropriate cell outlining the essence of the conflict and a request to intervene. According to correct concepts, such an appeal suspends the execution of the sanction.
3) A group of prisoners taking part in analyzing the conflict and making a decision.
cutting - here: reduction of term.
Promotion (t, s) - receiving a second additional term in the camp for a new crime by court decision.
Registrar - an employee of the security unit of the correctional facility, which monitors the prisoners’ compliance with the internal regulations of the correctional facility.
RMZ - mechanical repair plant.
Wet the horns - serve the entire sentence without attempting to escape.
ROP (c) - regime-operational work.
Steer - manage a zone or cell, a prison.
Ryabyi (t) - the same as the mansion, striped.
Amateur organizations of convicts (o) - official structures, organizations of prisoners created by the administration. The RSFSR Correctional Code states that these organizations are created with the “purpose of developing collectivism skills among convicts... encouraging their useful initiative, as well as using the influence of the collective on the correction and re-education of convicts.” TO similar organizations include various sections (SPP, sanitary, production, cultural and educational, etc.), as well as all kinds of “councils” (colony staff, detachment). The heads of all these sections and councils are appointed by the administration. See sections, SPP, activist, goat.
Get out - run away, leave.
Brother-in-law (t) - a candidate for the caste of thieves, who, however, has not yet been recognized at the meeting as a thief in law. Brothers-in-law occupy second place (after thieves in law) in the hierarchy of thieves.
SVP (o) - section internal order- an “amateur” organization of convicts,” whose members actively cooperate with the administration. The modern name is SPP.
Pass (t) - issue, convey; for example, inform the prison administration about an impending escape.
Donate the skin (t) - submit a report (denunciation) to the administration of the correctional facility about violation of discipline and conditions of detention to other prisoners. This report may serve as the basis for punishing the violator.
Section (t, s) - 1) living room in a barracks or, in official language, a dormitory. The section can accommodate from 20 to 200 people.
2) The generalized name of the so-called. “amateur organizations of convicts” or “self-government bodies of convicts”.
Family (t) - a group of 3-5 prisoners (sometimes more) connected by trusting relationships. Family members provide each other with help and support in everyday life, but also bear responsibility for each other.
Gray (t) is a synonym for men.
Get on wheels - to be on the run, to hide
LED And SR (o) - see GUITU, GUIN.
Pre-trial detention center (o) - pre-trial detention center. An institution intended for the detention of arrested persons in respect of whom the court verdict has not entered into legal force. In pre-trial detention centers, as a rule, there are separate cells or sections for women, minors, those arrested for the first time and repeat offenders, patients sentenced to death, as well as for prisoners being transferred to a correctional facility. The pre-trial detention center also contains convicts awaiting transfer or those left for economic work in the pre-trial detention center. The pre-trial detention center has a department for disciplinary punishment (punishment cell).
Keep an eye on the broom (t) - do not allow offensive expressions or individual swear words.
Looking (t) - In the event that there is no thief in a prison or colony, the world of thieves can send its representative there, who will ensure that the prisoners comply with the prison law and the thieves’ “orders” of the superintendent. In this case, the beholder is provided with a “mandate”, i.e. a note containing the corresponding order and which the observer presents to the authoritative thieves. If the zone is red, controlled by wool, etc., the supervisor must himself select the right prisoners as assistants and take power in the correctional facility. The watcher can be appointed as a thief, leaving for freedom or on the stage.
St. Petersburg (o) - a special psychiatric hospital. A penitentiary institution for prisoners declared insane at the time of committing a crime and having serious mental disorders, as well as for prisoners who received serious mental illness while serving their sentence. Those convicted of serious crimes and repeat offenders are sent to St. Petersburg by court decision. Persons who have committed minor crimes for the first time may be sent by court decision to regular psychiatric hospitals. In 1988, SPB were transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health.
Special contingent (c) - this is how employees of correctional facilities and pre-trial detention centers call prisoners.
Special commandant's office - a penitentiary institution for offenders “conditionally sentenced with mandatory labor” and “released on parole with mandatory labor” (i.e. prisoners of general, enhanced and strict regime penal colonies, for whom the sentence has been reduced by court decision). In the special commandant's office, the prisoner is required to live in a special dormitory and work at the enterprise indicated to him (often with harmful or difficult working conditions). Most often, those sentenced to this type of punishment are sent to regions located far from their permanent place residence.
In 1993, this type of punishment was abolished, such as sending a suspended sentence to a special commandant's office with mandatory involvement in labor.
See chemistry.
Special, special corridor, special corps (t, s) - a section of a pre-trial detention center for persons under investigation, who, on the instructions of the investigator or the officer, should be kept in conditions of stricter isolation from other prisoners, to prevent contacts with accomplices or harmful influence on other prisoners, sometimes to ensure the safety of this prisoner (see. , for example, a press operator). The cells of this department are designed for a smaller number of places (from one to 10-12) than ordinary cells, which can accommodate several dozen people.
Specially (t) - general regime ITC. It is called so because of the cruel relations between prisoners prevailing in the penitentiary colony of this regime.
Special detention center - institutions for “persons without specific place residence" or suspected of committing a crime whose identity must be established.
Special school, special vocational school (o) - see bark beetle.
SPP (o) - crime prevention section, one of the "amateur prisoner organizations" (formerly called SVP - internal order section), by enrolling in which a prisoner acquires the status of a goat. Sometimes the administration of correctional institutions forces prisoners to join the SPP forcibly. This is done by the hands of goats who torture those who refuse to write an application to join the SPP. Attempts to leave the caste of goats, as a rule, are unsuccessful. Such traitors may be placed in a cell with prisoners who adhere to prison law and supposedly “accidentally” informed of this person’s camp past. After this, the former goat (activist) may be put down or killed. These are just some of the latent ways in which the prison administration is fighting the prison law. See also broom, ban, bedside table.
Ask (t) - to punish a prisoner after a showdown for lawlessness or violation of prison law.
Go crazy, crazy thief - see Bitch.
Stand on the gate - open and close passage from one local zone to another. See Local, local tower.
Strohach (t) - strict regime penal colony.
Strict mode - see Strohach.
Bitch (t) - 1) According to ZhR: “a thief... who violated the law of thieves.” In the late 40s - early 50s, a bloody massacre took place in the camps, known as the “war of bitches and thieves” (see, for example, ZhR, as well as “Essays on the Underworld” by V. Shalamov, Don, no. 1, 1989 g., p. 99).
2) A broken thief or criminal who agreed to openly cooperate with the administration of the ITU. The “slut” who has become the goat of the thieves is, as a rule, distinguished by extreme cruelty and sadism towards other prisoners; upon release, many of the “snooched” commit savage crimes.
Rusk (t) - 1) A prisoner who uses someone else’s first and last name for the purpose of earlier release. Currently rare.
2) A prisoner posing as a criminal or even a thief (usually an agent or provocateur of an operational unit). Hiding one's past (for example, the fact of being in the caste of lowlifes or goats).
Bitch zone - a zone where screwed-up thieves rule (rule) (see bitch, thief, thieves), i.e. who entered into an alliance with the administration, which is strictly prohibited by prison law. As a rule, such thieves, trying to achieve their own goals, especially oppress prisoners and commit lawlessness.
Skhodnyak (t) - something like a permanent council of thieves in an ITU, which sorts out conflicts between prisoners, issues related to the lives of prisoners, calling strikes, preparing a riot, changing some of the norms in force among prisoners of a given ITU, appealing to thieves, thieves of others ITU or in the wild, etc. See also prison law, thieves.
Meeting of thieves (t) - a periodically assembled collegial body of thieves in law of a separate region or several regions. Makes decisions on the punishment of violators of the law of thieves, resolves disputes that arise, appoints overseers of individual prisons, accepts worthy candidates for thieves, etc. A gathering of thieves can also occur in prison institutions. To do this, thieves from different correctional facilities can use different methods to get to the prison hospital, where it is easier to arrange such a gathering. More important issues concerning, for example, clarifications in the interpretation of the law, joint actions of various groups are resolved at meetings held in the wild. See also thief, thieves' orders, thieves' law.
Sepeshniks(t) - members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Tankman - the same as a fighter, bull, gladiator, athlete. (See Fighter, Gladiator).
wheelbarrow - take note of a person’s misconduct, so that then, without punishing him specifically for this, blackmail him with the possibility of detection and punishment.
Quiet Man - a hidden informer, a lack of initiative informer or goat, not a very zealous activist.
Torpedo - 1) Bodyguard;
2) - a prisoner who carries out a death sentence passed by the gang against another prisoner. Often a torpedo is sent on this mission from one camp to another.
Hold, load into hold, hold - place in a punishment cell or PKT. The expression apparently arose because these rooms are quite often located in basements and are dark and cold.
Nightstand (t, s) - 1) A post at the entrance to the barracks, where they usually place a bedside table with various documents and a local telephone connected to the watch and headquarters. According to the official procedure, a specially appointed duty officer must be on duty near the bedside table, who is obliged to report to all correctional facility employees entering the barracks about the number of prisoners in the barracks, etc. In case of any violations of order, the duty officer must report this to the management of the ITK or DPNK by local telephone. Usually prisoners from among the goats are appointed as guards.
2) One of the ways that the administration of the penitentiary institution fights the prison law. According to correct concepts, being on duty at the bedside table (see paragraph 1 of this article) is considered unacceptable for men and thieves. Anyone who agrees to such duty automatically acquires the status of a goat. The administration sometimes begins to force all prisoners to be on duty at the bedside table in order of priority. For refusing such duty, the prisoner is severely punished by the administration and exposed to the press. This is done with a clear understanding of what such duty threatens for prisoners from among the peasants and thieves. See also prohibition, SPP, broom.
Prison law - a set of informal norms and rules operating in the prison community. Unlike the thieves' law, on the basis of which it was formed in the 60s (when there were virtually no thieves and thieves left in the correctional institutions), the prison law includes all prisoners within its scope; defines its own norms, prohibitions, taboos for each group (suit) of prisoners, regulates relations between representatives of these groups, and introduces mechanisms for resolving conflicts between prisoners. All conflicts must be resolved according to prison law through showdowns and appeals to authorities. The authorities most often are people from the thieves caste (this is another proof that the middle caste - men not only spontaneously formed into some kind of social whole, but took the thieves caste, which already had its own developed law and order, as a model).
In recent years, there is evidence of the gradual displacement of prison law by new orders based on corruption, the merging of the criminal world with the administration of penal institutions, and the power of money. According to our assessment, this trend can lead to an increase in organized crime, an increase in the proportion of violent and unrelated crimes, a real deterioration in the situation of prisoners, destabilization of the work of correctional institutions, and, to some extent, destabilization of the situation in society.
See also the correct concepts, thieves, men, goats, omitted.
Jail - 1) (t) The general name of all places of detention, also used in ordinary language.
2) (t) The general name for all prison-type institutions, including indoor and pre-trial prisons (SIZO). The prison often receives an unofficial name based on its location (Butyrki, Lefortovo, Krasnaya Presnya - in Moscow, Lukyanovka - in Kyiv, etc.).
3. (o) Prison-type institution for convicts. See Covered.
ATC - Department of Internal Affairs. Regional division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Angular (t) - thieves, who is an informal leader in a section, barracks, or a gang member appointed to this role. As a rule, it occupies an honorable lower place in the corner of the sleeping area in the barracks.
parole (o) - conditional early release from punishment. The final decision on parole is made by the visiting session of the district court at the location of the correctional institution. There are two types of parole, the first of which simply involves release with the opportunity to return to your place of residence, the second (parole with mandatory involvement in work) is associated with transfer to a special commandant's office. In 1993, the second type of punishment was abolished.
UID - Department of Correctional Affairs. See GUIN.
UITU (o) - management of ITU. A structural subdivision of the regional (regional, territorial) department of internal affairs, which is in charge of the ITUs located on its territory (except for forest ones). Currently renamed into UIN (Department for the Execution of Punishments).
Criminal Code of the RSFSR - The Criminal Code of the RSFSR, which was in force on the territory of the RSFSR, and then the Russian Federation from January 1, 1961 to December 31, 1996. Since January 1, 1997, a new criminal code has been in force in Russia - the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
ULITU - Management of forestry ITU, regional division of GULITU.
Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR - Criminal Procedure Code.
Urka - an old name for a criminal, now almost out of use.
Amplifier (t) - enhanced-regime correctional complex.
Breaking plywood (t) - breaking a person’s chest, one of the methods of torturing young children.
Get stuffed (get stuffed) - 1. Find yourself in a funny position. 2. Be caught in a crime. 3. Be compromised.
Friar (t) - According to ZhR: “A person who does not belong to the world of thieves.” Currently, the word fraer in many regions has acquired the exact opposite meaning: a prisoner close to thieves, thieves. For example, being a fraer means imitating thieves in your behavior; trump fraer - thieves. It also retains the same meaning in some words, for example, to frustrate - to make a mistake, an act that is wrong from the point of view of the prisoner (but not the free one).
The old meaning of the word fraer is now conveyed by the word "loch".
Fray (t) - see fraer.
Lb (t) - reduced food allowance under a strict prison regime, including a ration of bread weighing 400 g (per day).
Bullshit - 1) back;
2) lie.
Sweatshirt - a prisoner who behaves unworthily, most often in relation to the payment of gambling debts, for which he is always in danger of being demoted. Sometimes, having lost, he agrees on one more try, agreeing to go down if he loses: this is called “playing bullshit.”
Tail - a prisoner’s offense, for which he evades punishment, trying to move to another barracks, to another zone, where no one knows about his offense. Information about his offense usually follows the offender. " Long tail behind the bunk" - several offenses or one major one, which is hidden by the offender. Sometimes (when the offense is already known and convicted) the tail is a sentence in absentia passed in accordance with the prison law.
Hut (t) - camera.
Chemist (t) - a prisoner sent for chemistry.
Chemistry (t) is an unofficial name for one of the types of criminal punishment. Officially, it is called conditional early release (PAROL) or conditional sentence with mandatory involvement in work. This type of punishment is associated with transfer to a special commandant's office, where the prisoner is required to live in a special dormitory and work at the enterprise indicated to him. In 1992-93 this type of punishment in most countries b. The USSR was canceled due to the collapse of the economy.
Khipezh (kipezh) - unrest, unrest, rebellion started by prisoners against the administration, or by the administration against prisoners.
Master (t) - head of a prison or colony.
Khozbanda - see Household services.
Housekeeping service (o, t) - prisoners performing housekeeping work in places of deprivation of liberty (cooks, “balanders” - food distributors and others). The same name is given to prisoners who perform these duties in a pre-trial detention center and serve their sentence there in accordance with Article 16 of the Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR - “Leaving convicts in a pre-trial detention center or prison for housekeeping work.” Household servants are one of those categories of prisoners towards whom the camp community treats with a greater or lesser degree of hostility.
Businessman - a prisoner convicted of economic crimes. In the 80s there were many of them in places of detention and they formed a noticeable stratum, distinguished by their behavior. Business owners showed considerable flexibility: without denying the prison law, they often went beyond its scope, taking on business positions, i.e. becoming goats, and used their knowledge and economic experience to benefit the administration, but at the same time they tried to somehow help improve their reputation among the prisoners. See also Tsekhovik.
Colored (t) - 1) Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, sometimes - everyone who serves in the army wears shoulder straps. The same name is given to former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutors, judges, high-ranking civil servants, etc., who are kept in pre-trial detention centers and correctional facilities. They are placed in separate cells in remand prisons, and there are separate correctional centers for them, which is done to prevent reprisals against people of color by other prisoners. There are cases when an investigator extracts any testimony from people of color under the threat of being placed in a cell for ordinary prisoners. The threat of lynching most often turns out to be much worse than any criminal punishment.
2) In some regions, the word colored is used in its former (30s-50s) meaning. According to ZHR: "thieves or thief in law, urka."
Centryak (t) - thieves and their entourage.
Tsekhovik (t) - 1) An entrepreneur who used the opportunities of the state economy for personal enrichment and, as a rule, to expand “his” production. The synonym is “shadow worker”, i.e. representative of the so-called “shadow economy”.
2) Convicted of entrepreneurial activity- usually under Article 93.1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR “Theft of state or public property on an especially large scale.” In 1993, despite the legalization of private entrepreneurial and commercial activities, many “guild workers” continued to serve their sentences.
Black (t) - see thieves.
Black zone, black suit - black suit - thieves; the black zone is a zone controlled by thieves.
Crap (t) - a person occupying one of the lowest levels in the informal hierarchy of prisoners (below - only pigs and lowered ones). The devil is distinguished by his lack of consistency in his moral principles, irresponsibility in behavior and unkempt appearance.
NIS (c) - “part of the quartermaster service”, a division of the camp administration, which is responsible, among other things, for providing prisoners with clothing, shoes, bedding, etc.
Chushok (t) - a representative of a group with a low status in the informal hierarchy of prisoners (only those who are omitted are lower in status). They are forced to do dirty work, on the common fund and minors they rob, take away their things. Most often, these are people unadapted (for various reasons) to life in prison, unable to resist, stand up for themselves, and indifferent to everything. Their main distinguishing feature is neglected appearance. The word chushok is more often used among young children.
Wool, woolen (t) - 1) Prisoners who present themselves as authoritative, thieves, but in fact they are lawless, acting in their own interests or at the direction of the administration.
2) Thieves who are lawless.
SCHIZO (o) - punishment cell. The department of the correctional facility where the cells for violators of the detention regime are located. A person placed in a punishment cell is significantly limited in his rights. Until 1988, in the punishment cell there was a reduced food standard (starvation torture). In addition, all the prisoners’ clothes were taken away and they were given only a light cotton suit; they were not taken out for walks and were not given bed sheets and mattress, letters, parcels, parcels. In punishment cells, harsh conditions are usually created (cold in winter, stuffy in summer), conducive to the disease of tuberculosis. According to the Law of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of June 12, 1992, many of these restrictions were abolished. A maximum period of detention in a punishment cell has also been introduced: a single placement in a punishment cell is up to 15 days, the total sentence for a year is no more than 2 months. However, even after this, placement in a punishment cell is one of the most heavy punishments. By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? 13 of 01/15/93 in the punishment cell, PKT, and punishment cells, a reduced food standard was again introduced, which contradicts the current legislation, since the establishment of food standards is the prerogative of the government of the Russian Federation.
The punishment cell is usually combined with the PKT, forming something like an internal prison of the ITU.
In some correctional institutions (usually in forests) there is a punishment cell with access to work, i.e. During the day, the prisoner works at his usual place, and after work he returns to the punishment cell. In this case, at least at work, the punished prisoner can have a smoke break, warm up, and get help from his family. There is also a worse scenario, when prisoners in a punishment cell are taken to work in working cells located in the same building.
Shkvarnoy (t) - the same as omitted.
Shkonka, shkonar (t) - bed. In the prison there is a bed, welded from metal pipes and strips, embedded in the floor; often two or three tiers. The size and capacity of the chambers are usually judged by the number of bunks.
Skin - prisoner's jacket
Skin (t) - denunciation, report on another prisoner (see skinning).
Shmon (t, s) - search.
Shnyr (t) - 1) A prisoner who has taken (sometimes under pressure from other prisoners) the responsibility of cleaning a cell, barracks, production premises, perform work that prisoners are required to do in turns. For this work, he receives a certain payment from the prisoners themselves in food, smoke, and money.
2) Prisoners occupying the positions of orderlies (attendants, guards, cleaners) in certain structural units of correctional institutions (punishment isolation wards, PKT, headquarters, visiting rooms, detachments, etc.). Shnyr is considered a goat by his very position.
Banging - spy for someone's benefit, most often for the benefit of the administration.
Headquarters (c) - the premises of the penitentiary complex, in which the offices of the colony employees (chief, deputies, operational workers, etc.) are located. Often the medical unit is located in the same room.
Fur coat(t, s) - special relief coating on the walls of a prison cell. According to the official version, the walls are covered with fur coats to prevent prisoners from writing on the walls; another version: so that they don’t commit suicide by smashing their heads against the wall. According to the prisoners, the fur coat does not serve either purpose. But in cells with fur coats, no disinfection will destroy insects (bugs, spiders, woodlice, etc.). A fur coat mentally suppresses a person, makes his life in prison even more unbearable: the walls are prickly, you can’t lean on him or run your hand through him...
Stage (t) - a room for prisoners newly arrived at the colony (transporters), where they are kept in isolation from other prisoners of the correctional facility for several days. This time is used not only for medical checks (mainly for infectious diseases) of new arrivals, to find out their profession and qualifications, but also to identify negatively minded convicts, as well as to break those who adhere to the correct concepts. See also prohibition, press, SPP.
* * *

Today, Zonov’s phrases can often be heard everywhere: among young people who have nothing to do with the criminal world, from the lips of young mothers and elderly people, as well as from teenagers and even young children.

Why is thieves' jargon so popular now?

The reason that Zonov’s phrases are so popular in everyday life today is the romanticization of prison life. For this we need to thank thieves' chanson, films and books that show beautiful and strong personalities belonging to the criminal environment. It is in fiction and cinematographic creations that realism in depicting life in prison or after release flourishes. Therefore, Zonov’s phrases fit into the works quite organically.

Why do young people use jargon in their speech?

There are several reasons why young people actively use Zonov’s phrases in their speech.

1. Youthful nihilism that opposes " correct speech”, makes teenagers talk in a way that annoys adults.
2. The desire to appear stronger than one actually is, “cooler” than one’s peers, pushes one to “use a hairdryer” instead of the generally accepted and understandable speech.
3. Deliberate rudeness in behavior and, naturally, in conversations is a way to hide your youthful shyness and self-doubt from prying eyes. For example, with the thieves’ phrase “You will answer for the market!” the young man warns not to lie to him, otherwise the one who lies will be severely punished. It is likely that the boy will not be able to do anything for lying. But the phrase itself seems to elevate him above the one to whom it is addressed.
4. A unique mechanism of protection from unpleasant life situations is the replacement of generally accepted words with jargon. For example, if instead of the phrase “a place for detainees to stay in a police station” one uses the funny jargon “monkey house,” then this partially removes the tragedy of what is happening and distracts from the cruel reality. The insult of a “radish” (a bad person) sounds somehow not offensive at all, and even to some extent ironic. It is much more pleasant than comparison with some animals or even waste products.

About where prison vocabulary came from

The thieves' environment required a “coded” language. After all, it was not always possible to transmit messages confidentially. Using special language, understandable only to those initiated, it is possible, for example, to agree on the place and time of the crime being prepared, the number of participants, and convey some important details.

But create completely new language from scratch is a rather painstaking and complex matter. Therefore, we found the most affordable option. They used the argot of traveling merchants, who were then called Ofens, as the basis for their language. This is where the name of thieves' jargon comes from. The phrase “Speaking the language of thieves” sounds: “To talk about a hairdryer.”

The dictionary of criminal slang includes many words from Yiddish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, English and other languages.

Do creative people need to learn thieves' jargon?

Of course, this is not at all necessary. Many people have lived their lives quite happily without knowing a single word from the criminal dictionary. But for writers, journalists, screenwriters, it is simply necessary to know, at least superficially, some of the frequently used vocabulary of asocial elements. Otherwise, how to recreate realistic pictures of everyday life?

You can imagine for a moment the following episode filmed in the film: two guys decided to take a tape recorder out of the car. One of them says to his partner: “You will remain standing under the tree and make sure that no one stops me from accomplishing my plan. If something happens, signal the danger!”

After that, he set about implementing the plan. And suddenly the owner himself comes out of the entrance! Then the one who was left to watch shouts to the second: “Comrade thief, danger! We need to run away urgently!”

The situation is understandable, but the irony lies in the absurdity of the presentation of the event, since criminals would never speak so long and correctly. Most likely, the picture should look like this.

One of the thieves says to the second: “I went to work, and you remain on watch!” Short and clear. And when the owner of the car appeared, the man standing on the skiff shouted just one word: “Atas!” This will be enough to inform about approaching danger.

Law enforcement and criminal jargon

Well, these people are simply nowhere without knowledge of criminal vocabulary. Investigators, taking statements from witnesses, record what the latter heard. To understand what was discussed between the accomplices, you need to be well versed in the argot of criminal elements.

“Vaska says to the bald man with whom he sat down in the kitchen to drink: “Tomorrow we’ll go to the ears. I have one in mind sweet pepper. Don't take feathers - we don't need wet stuff! Fatty can’t say anything - he gives up, snitches on everyone... If we fail, you’ll answer for the market!”

This speech is translated as follows: “Tomorrow we will go on a robbery. I have a rich man in mind. Don't take knives - we don't need murder! Don’t tell Fatty anything, he’s completely gone bad, I think he’s reporting everyone to the authorities... If we’re caught red-handed at the crime scene, you, as the one who spilled the beans about the plans, will be punished!”

By the way, for law enforcement officials, studying a dictionary of jargon is mandatory. And in films about “cops” (police officers) and “operas” (operatives), such episodes often occur.

Some words from the criminals' dictionary

• Authority is a thief in law, a respected figure in the criminal world.
• Alberka - syringe for injections.
• Altushki, bashli, bobuli, cabbage - money.
• Poster - fat face.
• Scourge is a weak-willed person who has become dependent on stronger ones.
• Babai is an elderly man.
• The huckster is a speculator.
• Babets is an old aunt.
• Babich - shirt.
• Balagas - sugar.
• Brothers are eyes.
• Brod - street.
• Vaidon - scream.
• Vayer - newspaper.
• Vaksa - vodka.
• Jug - head.
• Chaffinch is a cowardly person.
• Rat, ratter - stealing little things from his cellmates.
• To show off is to peek.
• A puddle is a sheet.
• To twist the moon is to deceive.
• Butterflies are cartridges.
• A washer is someone who steals from drunks.
• Radish is a bad person.
• Bows, crabs, wings - hands.
• Pheasant is a deception.
• Shement - quickly.
• The skins are stolen.

Instructions

The first thing it is advisable to know is that many words that seem innocent to a person far from crime are considered a terrible insult in this environment. Even the word “muzhik” is offensive when used to describe a person occupying a higher position in the unwritten prison hierarchy. The men, as the main mass of prisoners are called: the public, not seen in anything discreditable from the point of view of thieves’ morality, but not leading a criminal lifestyle, are considered a respected caste (or, as they say in captivity, “suit”), but the thieves are higher.
It is even more unacceptable to call someone who has nothing to do with these “suits” a “goat,” “,” or a “rooster,” and a “rat” to call someone about whom there is no accurate information that he is stealing from his own people.

You should also use the word “ask” carefully. In captivity, it has only one thing - punishment for violating unwritten prison norms called “concepts”. In the meaning of “ask a question,” it is preferable to use “to be interested.”
The names of investigative actions and persons involved in a criminal case are also prohibited. The prisoner cannot be called a witness, even if he is required to confirm what he saw with his own eyes. For this case there is a word “eyewitness”.
The verb “to prove” is also unacceptable. This is proven by the investigative authorities, the main enemies of the prisoner. He “justifies”, including with the help of “eyewitnesses”.

One of the ambushes that an uninitiated person can fall into when communicating with representatives of crime is the word “offended” and all its derivatives. For this public, the word “offended” has only one meaning - belonging to the prison caste of untouchables, “roosters,” also called “omitted.”
Accordingly, to “offend” is subjected to the ritual of “omission” (often sodomy, but there are other ways: force you to kiss the toilet (“duck”, “bucket”), run your genitals over your lips, drip sperm on your face, etc.).
Admitting oneself or calling another “offended” is fraught with irreversible consequences. Therefore, a prisoner who has been offended in the generally accepted sense should be said to be “upset” or “upset.”

Very narrowly in criminal usage, “point” is also the anus. It is unacceptable to call such a well-known and popular card game in the criminal world - only “twenty-one”.

Special mention should be made about swear words. When communicating with representatives of the criminal world, it is better to forget about their existence. This is not easy, especially in the general mode, where the majority do not swear, but speak it, thereby creating problems for themselves.
“Justifying” that you mentioned someone’s abstract mother, and not the interlocutor, or a promiscuous lady as an interjection, and not his characteristic, will not be easy. The first time, most likely, they will explain and forgive, but if the incident repeats, they will “ask” in full.

You should be especially careful with the interjection starting with “b,” which simultaneously defines slutty, and its derivatives in general.
Behind bars, actions directed against ideology and punishable by death are called “b...shit”, and “b...s” are the people who commit them.
Only an authoritative criminal who has the status of “Thief” has the right to determine that an action belongs to this category (criminals write this word only with a capital , and this is a status, not a criminal specialization; someone who deals in thefts is called a “thief”). The rest - just “ask” his opinion on this matter.

One more subtlety. The decision about belonging to any “suit” has the right to be made only by the “looker” or “positioner”. This is an authoritative prisoner assigned to monitor compliance in a cell (“hut”), barracks, zone (and in that environment they say “in prison”, “in the zone”, “in the camp”) in the first case by a general decision of the criminals there, in the second - the criminal elite (“Thieves”).
If a simple prisoner knows, for example, something discrediting about a newcomer, he must inform others about it. And then it’s up to the “supervisor” or “inspector” to decide what to do with it. You yourself should not rush to conclusions regarding the “suit” of the culprit.

Video on the topic

Useful advice

Experienced inmates usually recommend that people who are far from crime and do not aspire to enter this environment simply do not bother themselves with prison and the zone. If you happen to end up in these places, where it is definitely better not to go, but to renounce them is a thankless task, everything will be explained to the beginner (“first mover”), and at first he himself will have to look closely at everything.

Sources:

• how to speak in terms of concepts

Fenya is a type of slang originally invented in Rus' by itinerant traders who wanted to hide their conversations from strangers. It is currently used by persons serving their sentences in “places not so remote.” Fenya has become an element that distinguishes those who are in any way involved in the criminal environment, people outside the law. Being such an interesting element of the language, fenya attracts many people with its etymology and simply inaccessibility to the common man. So how can you learn to express yourself correctly?

Take the sheet of basic phrases you compiled in step 1. Find the equivalent for each word of each phrase in the dictionary. Then combine these words into a single phrase. For example, the most common phrase for the so-called. foreigners (and a person entering prison for the first time is nothing more than a foreigner there), this is the phrase “do you speak jargon?” The translation is very simple - “do you use a hairdryer?” In the same way, translate each phrase and say it out loud for better memorization. This will lay the foundation for exploring feni in your mind. Examples of phrases: “push empty” - “say meaningless things”; “the suit fell like this” - “it happened that way”; “to hammer in the tanks” - “to lie, distracting attention from the essence.”

Study fenya systematically, because, as mentioned earlier, jargon is a foreign language. Repeat what you have learned every day and try to write monologues. And, of course, try to communicate with the carrier - for example, with a former criminal element. Surely he will give you a lot of valuable advice on studying feni, just be careful and don’t try to pass for one, it can be dangerous.

Sources:

• phrases on a hairdryer

It is believed that the creators of Feni were wandering street traders of Feni, who during the Middle Ages created their own specific secret language, incomprehensible to representatives of other social groups. Later, the fenya was adopted by wandering musicians, prostitutes, beggars, and representatives of the criminal environment. Nowadays, fenya is slang for the prison and criminal world. Fenya makes it possible not only to hide the meaning of what was said from other people’s ears, but also to generally distinguish “ours” from “theirs.”

Fenya, strictly speaking, is not a full-fledged language, since it does not have its own grammatical and phonetic system. However, its vocabulary is so specific that it is literally perceived as a foreign language. And in order to master this jargon, you need to spend almost as much effort as learning a foreign language. And even then, with a high degree of probability, a real native speaker of this language will “buy out the setup” - he will feel that the interlocutor is not a representative of the criminal world.

In Russia, the study of fenya began in the 19th century. First of all, law enforcement officers are interested in thieves' slang - servants of the law need to understand the language of the criminal world. But linguists do not ignore this either: many authoritative researchers devoted their works to this topic, and Vladimir Dal even called Fenya “thieves’ music.”

How to study?

Today there are many dictionaries of prison slang, most of them can be found on the Internet. Many criminal words and expressions have entered the everyday life of ordinary, even intelligent people, so the function of feni as a secret language is gradually becoming a thing of the past. However, even today fenya allows true speakers of this language to accurately identify their own.

Prisoners can be roughly divided into two categories. The first group is the “thieves”, “brothers”. These are real speakers of the prison language, for them the use of feni is natural. Often they simply do not know how to express their thoughts differently. The second group is “passengers”, that is, people who adopt fenya out of desire or necessity. Although they begin to understand Fenya quite quickly, they use it as a foreign language when the need arises to define purely prison concepts. Separately, we can single out the “thieves” - people who strive to adopt thieves’ slang in order to become one of their own in the prison world. However, the latter do not enjoy the respect of the “brothers”.

There are two ways to learn how to use a hairdryer. The first and most reliable way is to become part of the prison and criminal world. However, if you don’t want to go to great lengths for the sake of this dubious pleasure, you can learn Fenya from dictionaries.

Basically, fenya consists of distorted and twisted words of the Russian language. But many words found their way into thieves’ jargon from other languages, primarily from Yiddish and.

Fraer (from German Freiheit - freedom). In the criminal world, people are divided into their own (“thieves”) and fraers - people who have not been in prison and have no relation to thieves.

Drive empty (from Ukrainian empty - empty). The expression was adopted from the slang of Ukrainian railway workers, for whom it meant “to move an empty train.”

Shmonat (from Hebrew shmon - eight) - search. Before the revolution, searches were carried out at 8 pm.

Parasha (from Hebrew parash - horseman) - prison toilet.

Garbage (from Hebrew moser - traitor) - policeman.

Loch (from Hebrew lokhut - greedy) - a real or potential victim of a thief, swindler; gullible person.

Sources:

• How to survive and make the most of your time in prison
• Thieves' words
• About the words of thieves' jargon from Yiddish

Fenya is a type of slang originally invented in Rus' by itinerant traders who wanted to hide their conversations from strangers. It is currently used by persons serving their sentences in “places not so remote.” Fenya has become an element that distinguishes those who are in any way involved in the criminal environment, people outside the law. Being such an interesting element of the language, fenya attracts many people with its etymology and simply inaccessibility to the common man. So how can you learn to express yourself correctly?

Instructions

Write down the main words you would like to say on the hairdryer. These can be ordinary words used in life. For most of them, there is a replacement in the hairdryer. So just gather your basic vocabulary and write down these phrases on paper. It’s better to have a few of these phrases at first, and over time you will increase their number. This will make it much easier for you to memorize hairdryer phrases.

Download or buy in the store a dictionary of thieves' jargon, argot or, of course, damn it. As you can see, many names (and self-names) have been invented for the same concept, so prepare in advance for painstaking work, similar to learning a foreign language, with the only difference that you will not have to study writing and pronunciation.

Take the sheet of basic phrases you compiled in step 1. Find the equivalent for each word of each phrase in the dictionary. Then combine these words into a single phrase. For example, the most common phrase for the so-called. foreigners (and a person entering prison for the first time is nothing more than a foreigner there), this is the phrase “do you speak jargon?” The translation is very simple - “do you use a hairdryer?” In the same way, translate each phrase and say it out loud for better memorization. This will lay the foundation for exploring feni in your mind. Examples of phrases: “push empty” - “say meaningless things”; “the suit fell like this” - “it happened that way”; “to hammer in the tanks” - “to lie, distracting attention from the essence.”

Study fenya systematically, because, as mentioned earlier, jargon is a foreign language. Repeat what you have learned every day and try to write monologues. And, of course, try to communicate with the carrier - for example, with a former criminal element. Surely he will give you a lot of valuable advice on studying feni, just be careful and don’t try to pass for one, it can be dangerous.

Sources:

• phrases on a hairdryer