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Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State

by: David Satter
ru

0300098928  9780300098921  9780300129090 



Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State
By David Satter




Book Description:

Anticipating a new dawn of freedom and democracy after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russians could hardly have foreseen the reality of their future a decade later: a country mired in poverty and controlled at every level by organized crime. This compelling book tells the story of reform in Russia through the real experiences of individual citizens. Describing in details the birth of a new era of repression, David Satter analyzes the changes that have swept Russia and their effect on Russia's age-old way of thinking.

Through the stories of people at all levels of Russian society, Satter shows the contrast during the reform period between the desperation of the many and the insatiability of the few. Wish insights derived from more than twenty years of writing and reporting on Russia, he considers why the individual human being there has historically counted for so little. And he offers an illuminating analysis of how Russia's post-Soviet fate was decided when a new morality failed to fill the vast moral vacuum that communism left in its wake.




Summary: Social Justice Obliterated in Today's Russia
Rating: 5

David Satter has done a masterful job of exposing the horrifying, pervasive dark side of life in Russia today. The distinctions to be made between politicians, business executives, law enforcement officials and gangsters are often blurred, thanks to a virtual absence of rule of law. The average Russian citizen cannot even afford to trust the cop who walks past him down the street, lest he be shaken down then and there, or taken to jail and held until willing to pay a large bribe to be released.
The author explains that, as the Iron Curtain fell, the powers that be, who had a strong systems orientation (the Communist system was the Russians' diet for seven decades), maintained that systems orientation when they embraced capitalism. Leaders of the post-Gorbachev reform movement blindly assumed that all that was needed to introduce free market mechanisms was to ensure that all property and assets got into private hands. The huge weakness in this approach was the failure to understand the importance of first introducing rule of law. As a result, former Communist Party bigwigs and factory owners set up shadow "daughter" companies to acquire vast business empires for next to nothing; they then funneled profits into offshore bank accounts. Gangs then moved in and extorted protection money from businesses large and small... from large aluminum smelters, down to corner kiosks selling cigarettes. These gangs served as the "roof" to thousands of businesses. With cash flow drained off to Switzerland, employees of these enterprises then went weeks, if not months, without pay. Living conditions fell below even the grim levels experienced during the Second World War: malnutrition skyrocketed and life expectancy dwindled to Third World levels.
Each of the book's thirteen chapters can be read on its own, as if it were an essay. Most chapters relate the chilling, hard facts as Satter has been able to assemble them, while a couple of chapters present the author's opinions and theories on how this dreadful situation could have evolved. Together, the chapters represent a fast-moving, balanced portrayal of the civil chaos in Russia in the past fifteen years.
Chapter one relates the shameful story of the "Kursk" submarine disaster, in which over 100 Russian sailors lost their lives while British and Norwegian offers of help were turned down.
Other chapters relate additional stories in which Russian officials treat their own citizens with callous indifference. Chapter two, for example, lays out the compelling evidence that successful and attempted bombings of innocent civilians in their apartments in the 1990s were carried out not by Chechen rebels, as Russian government authorities suggested, but rather by the country's own Federal Security Service (FSB). The FSB allegedly did this to serve as a pretext for Russia's military actions in Chechnya, and to distract the populace from the myriad of banking and financial scandals that bilked thousands of citizens out of billions of rubles. Other chapters describe the slick, large-scale pyramid schemes perpetrated by financial institutions that wiped out the savings of countless people doing their best to survive in an economy that suffered from triple-digit inflation. Most Russian banks in the 90s were managed by criminal gangs.
A few chapters reveal the complex network of organized crime gangs that operate quite openly in Russian society. Entrepreneurs look upon setting up a relationship with a gang for "protection" as simply a cost of doing business. Scores of tycoons who did not satisfy the financial demands of gangs were tortured or, just as often, murdered in broad daylight in the presence of many witnesses. While some victims never saw their fate coming, others lived in constant fear, especially when they realized that even fleeing to another country was no escape from bandits who were willing to track them down anywhere.
The book goes into great detail on the trials of Canadian Doug Steele, who opened a popular and controversial bar ("The Duck") in Moscow. The bar's success attracted competing gangs, who wanted a piece of the action. Doug was nearly kidnapped, but was saved by his vigilant bodyguards.
For years, the citizens of Vladivostok went without electricity for up to 23 hours a day. Even the hospital was robbed of power; on some occasions, this cost patients on the operating table their lives. Why was the power cut off? In large part the electricity was diverted to heavy industry commandeered by organized crime. At one point Boris Yeltsin himself decreed that the one mayor who really did want to wipe out corruption in Vladivostok, Viktor Cherepkov, was not allowed to remain in power.
Some gangsters ran for office, to add political power to their business and criminal strengths. The public often excused the criminal behavior of such candidates, believing, as they were taught during the Communist era, that the transition to capitalism entailed a period of criminal activity.
One mobster became very popular, building a church, synagogue and mosque to show his humanitarian side.
One of the saddest and most unbelievable examples of the complete absence of justice for individuals involved pregnant women delivering babies in Russian hospitals, only to be told that their baby was dead at birth. The mothers were not allowed to see their allegedly dead babies, and were told that they were cremated. Meanwhile, there is ample evidence that their babies were healthy at birth, and were whisked away from their mothers for the purpose of being sold for adoption by criminal gangs.
I highly recommend this book. Satter deserves credit for having the courage to write it. Whereas I spent a week in Moscow as a naïve teenager in 1974, today, you could not pay me to visit Russia. It's too damn scary, and an individual effectively has no rights. As described in the conclusion of "Darkness at Dawn", Russia has a daunting future: a possible political shift to dictatorship, the risk of total economic collapse, and continued depopulation. It's no wonder that Russians are emigrating in great numbers.



Summary: Its all true, but not just in Russia
Rating: 4

This is an absolutely riveting book that well describes the absolute mess that Russia has been in the past 15 years. Satter sugar-coats nothing, and quite appropriately does not strive for "balance" by including any "feel-good" stories. Reading this book will of course not let you know the ordinary moments of happiness that Russians (like all people) feel, but this is because Satter is writing about the economic and political structures of Russia, which really do cause nothing but misery for the vast majority of Russians. This book is valuable precisely because it does not flinch from the darkness. It is a pure chronicle of suffering, something which may be "uncool" among writers these days but which corresponds well to the ordinary person's situation in Russia. Satter also does not make the mistake that so many Russia-watchers do; that of making a false distinction between the "good reformers" and the "bad Putin". They are all actually the same gang.

That being said, I can't give this book 5 stars because underneath the wonderful expository writing I can sense a vaguely repulsive thesis: that Russians are the way they are because of their unique "moral failings". All readers should be aware that Satter was financed by the Scaife crew. This probably makes Darkness at Dawn by far the best book ever funded by these fanatics, but I can't help but wonder if this funding came at a small cost. Why, for instance, does Satter not mention that cronyism, viciousness and lack of concern for human life hardly stops when one exits the borders of the old USSR? Why is he so reluctant to place even a smidgen of the blame on the army of Western advisors and pundits that helped to create and still apologize for the "shock treatment" reform? Do we not live in a global economy these days? Does moral responsibility cease just because we live across an ocean and don't have to stare into the faces of those victimized by our ideology? And what is all this nonsense about the "Russian Soul"? Did US Treasury officials and Washington think-tank hacks also share a cup of this mysterious "soul" when they sanctioned Gaidar's insanity? The other reviewer who noted that one should not break the mirror just because one does not like what one sees hit the nail on the head. I can imagine the Scaife cronies getting off on this bashing of the bad, bad Russians, but do they not draw any conclusions about our own country and our own culture? (Satter does mention that many Russian gangsters copied their methods and slang from Hollywood films!) I understand that the book is about Russia, but no nation is an island these days.
One final note: Vadim Volkov's "Violent Entrepeneurs" is better as a pure description of Russian Organized crime.



Summary: Excellent vignettes! Chap by Chap summary here
Rating: 4

This book is an outstanding series of vignettes (there! I used that word) but is unbalanced in that nothing positive is described. But it's good to read, like modern crime non-fiction.

Some 'favorites':

Introduction: Miss Russia 1996 is killed being at wrong place, wrong time when Russian Mafia bump off her benefactor.

Chap 1: On the Kursk, and Russian cover-up

Chap 2: Ryazan incident. WORTH THE PRICE OF THE BOOK. This is a spectacular chapter. I won't spoil it with spoilers but the circumstantial evidence is very strong that the Russian FSB (like FBI) basically planted bombs in 1999 to justify a second invasion of Chechyna. But I will give one spoiler: the Duma, on a pro-Kremlin party block vote, voted to seal the Ryazan incident and all materials used for the next 75 years and forbade an investigation of what really happened. The official explanation (which defies logic): 'The FSB was conducting an unannounced training exercise involving non-explosive materials with civilians as the target, and were caught by mistake by the local Ryazan police. The local police, despite having state of the art bomb detecting equipment and many hours of defusing actual bombs, misdiagnosed the material used in the training exercise as hexogen; in fact it was sugar. The FSB attempted to flee the area undetected after the bomb was found in accordance with training procedures, to see if they could escape" Do you think this would fly with the American people? But having visited Russia I can assure you--it works in Russia because nobody short of a suicidal or brave journalist wants to know. Patriot Games with a vengence.

Chap 3- Gaidar/Chubais and the Young Reformers. Not that interesting since better done in other books.

Chap 4 - The History of Reform - " "

Chap 5 - The Gold Seekers - on the MMM pyramid scheme and the guy that got away (senatorial immunity)

Chap 6 - The Workers--how they get shafted after management buys out their factory at 1/1000th market value in a rigged auction and then offshores the capital (leaving the factory running at a technical loss). Better covered by Klebnikov's "Godfather of the Kremlin"

Chap 7 - Law Enforcement - where crooks are cops

Chap 8 - Organized Crime - a lovely tale about two stubborn Canadians who wanted to open an ex-pat bar in Moscow. They did, after becoming managers for rival mafia gangs. But ironically they love it. Typical foreigner in Russia mindset--they love the great sex and excitement of Eastern Europe.

Chap 9 - Ulyanovsk - hunger strike claims a victim

Chap 10 - Vladivostok - the mayor, who for once is a decent person loved by the population (which generally backs anybody with power), is run out of town by a mafia.

Chap 11 - Krasnoyarsk - the infamous aluminum factory run by convicted gangster Bykov and his friends (some still on Forbes Richest 400 Russians list, and all under 40 years old, some under 30). Value add, Russian style. Read this to see what it costs to convict a mafiya member in Russia--a lot of innocent people have to first die, even die testifying. And our friend Bykov? He'll be eligible for parole soon.

Chap 12 - The value of human life - zero. Some case studies including surgery without lights (patient died); falling into a boiling hot water sinkhole (not uncommon since Moscow uses hot water to heat buildings, in fact, happens every other year). Boy and father trying to rescue him both die--slow agonizing deaths "4th degree burns". Woman trying to find her soldier son's corpse in Chechyna finds cadavers routinely appear to be mistakenly identified and buried under wrong name.

Chap 13 - Criminalization of Consciousness - on the Uralmash criminal gang, and how free beer and candy won over the hearts of the populace. Typical Russian tactic. Gang got elected to power.

Chap 14 - Conclusion



Summary: Life in Russia pales by comparison with Western standards
Rating: 5

A very well-documented book, which I think it had to be in order to convince someone like me (a California native) that life is so poor for 75% of Russians. Not poor as in "my rent just went up and the refridgerator is on the blink" but poor as in close to death, as in you collapse at work from no food and no medicine and you haven't received a paycheck in over 4 months even though you have this job and do it well.
I had no idea the quality of life is so poor there, that the establishment really protects itself, and the cops are more likely to shake you down for a bribe than arrest a crook who stole from you. Further, most all the government assets were, I'm struggling for words here, turned into cash for the corrupt people who were running them before the fall of communism. Everything the countrymen worked their lives for to build up was converted into cash, given to those with connections, and massive debt was then given back to the countrymen.
In closing, a very dark book. Perhaps a foreshadowing of what is to come in Iraq.



Summary: Darkness at Dawn
Rating: 5

Darkness at dawn
The Rise of the Russian Criminal State

Geschreven door David Satter, non-fictie, 314 bladzijden
Yale University Press/New Haven & London, 2003

Nadat David Satter in 1996 al een boek schreef over de Sovjet Unie (Age of Delirium, the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union), komt hij nu met een boek over postcommunistisch Rusland. In dit boek beschrijft Satter de opkomst en het verloop van de hervormingen -grotendeels in de tijd van het Jeltsin-bewind- aan de hand van ervaringen van `gewone' Russen.
Zoals de titel Darkness at Dawn, the Rise of the Russian Criminal State al doet vermoeden, heeft Satter weinig positiefs te melden. De hervormingen blijken namelijk hand in hand te gaan met de opkomst van de georganiseerde misdaad; de misdaad krijgt steeds meer facetten van de Russische staat in handen, met alle gevolgen van dien.

De politieke top wordt in het begin van het boek aangepakt. Zo trekt Satter direct in hoofdstuk één flink van leer (overigens terecht) tegen de manier waarop de Russische regering het drama rond de op de bodem van de Barentsz Zee liggende duikboot Koersk heeft `opgelost'.
Een nog onthutsender verhaal is in hoofdstuk twee te lezen, waarin de bomaanslagen op flatgebouwen in september 1999 behandeld worden. Satter beschrijft de poging om een flatgebouw in de stad Ryazan op te blazen. Deze aanslag werd verijdeld en er kwamen steeds meer aanwijzingen dat de bom door de Russische geheime dienst, FSB, daar was neergelegd, en niet door de Tsetsjenen, die direct de schuld kregen. Na enige ophef kwam de discussie op een laag pitje te staan en verplaatste zich naar de opnieuw begonnen oorlog in Tsjetsjenië. Deze oorlog werd gerechtvaardigd door de recente bomaanslagen in de schoenen van de Tsjetsjenen te schuiven. De enige conclusie die de objectieve lezer uit dit hoofdstuk kan trekken is dat er personen op zeer hoge posities zijn die er blijkbaar niet voor terugschrikken om honderden `eigen' burgers op te offeren om zo een inval in Tsjetsjenië te rechtvaardigen.

In het vervolg van het boek komen vooral de gevolgen van de hervormingen aan de orde. Satter vertelt hoe de Russen hun geld kwijtraken; eerst door inflatie en vervolgens door geld te beleggen in -wat later blijkt- piramidespelen. Het beeld wordt daarna steeds deprimerender: een niet functionerend en corrupt rechtsapparaat, fabrieksdirecteuren die hun werknemers niet uitbetalen, (georganiseerde) misdaad die steeds meer invloed krijgt in politiek en economie.
Het was al langer duidelijk dat het leven onder het communisme in de Sovjet Unie geen pretje was, maar de vraag rijst nu of de mensen beschreven in dit boek er sinds de val van het communisme op vooruit zijn gegaan. In dit soort slechte tijden is men toch geneigd de negatieve kanten van vroeger `weg te denken', en slechts de positievere dingen te herinneren: de Sovjet Unie dat nog een groot rijk was, de arbeiders die betaald kregen, het onderwijs en de zorg waar men niet voor hoefde te betalen, allemaal dingen die in het kapitalistische Rusland veranderd zijn. Typerend hiervoor is de bejaarde vrouw die in een brief aan haar dochter schrijft dat ze `liever was gestorven voor de val van de Sovjet Unie, zodat ze het `nieuwe' Rusland, waar iedereen aan zijn lot werd overgelaten, niet meer had hoeven meemaken'.

Om dit alles te vertellen gebruikt Satter steeds weer dezelfde structuur: hij begint bij het eind van een verhaal, waarna hij vervolgens terug gaat in de tijd en vertelt wat eraan voorafging. Dit, in combinatie met de journalistieke schrijfstijl van Satter, maakt het een zeer leesbaar boek. Naast de gebruikelijke schriftelijke bronnen gebruikt Satter vele verhalen van `gewone' Russen die hij al dan niet ontmoet heeft.

Zoals Satter het zelf zegt, heeft hij geprobeerd de opkomst van een criminele elite te beschrijven, een elite die steeds meer touwtjes in de economie en de politiek in handen krijgt, met als gevolg een verarming en demoralisatie van het overgrote deel van de bevolking. Het lukt hem goed om de lezer hiervan te overtuigen.

Zoals eerder gezegd een zeer leesbaar boek, echter niet een boek om vrolijk van te worden. Na het lezen van 256 bladzijden tekst en 30 bladzijden gevuld met noten- die namelijk ook zeer de moeite waard zijn-, is er geen enkel positief punt de revue gepasseerd. Is er dan werkelijk niets positiefs te melden? Volgens Satter niet, getuige zijn conclusie waarin hij drie thema's beschrijft die de toekomst van Rusland bedreigen: het instorten van de economie, de demografische terugval en een regime dat steeds meer dictatoriale trekjes krijgt.

Eigenlijk is er slechts één punt(je) van kritiek: Satter vertelt niet welke houding `het westen' aanneemt ten opzichte van alle ontwikkelingen. Na de val van het communisme zijn er vele westerse bedrijven, adviseurs, investeringen etc. naar Rusland gegaan, waardoor de ontwikkelingen in Rusland ook van belang zijn voor deze landen.
In een publicatie in In the National Interest van 22 januari dit jaar gaat Satter wel in op de houding van westerse landen ten opzichte van de bomaanslagen zoals beschreven in hoofdstuk twee van zijn boek. In deze publicatie schrijft hij dat het westen de verdachtmaking van de FSB negeert om een aantal redenen. Zo zou er de neiging zijn om te zeggen dat een onderzoek geen zin heeft omdat -wie er ook verantwoordelijk voor de aanslagen was- Poetin er nu voor heeft gezorgd dat er in Rusland een welkome periode van stabiliteit is aangebroken. Waarom nu weer zorgen voor onrust? Een nog belangrijkere reden is dat de leiders van Europa en Amerika de waarheid helemaal niet willen weten. Wat zullen de consequenties (moeten) zijn, als blijkt dat de Russische regering verantwoordelijk is voor het willens en wetens opblazen van haar eigen burgers? De betrekkingen tussen Rusland en `het westen' zullen zeer zeker verslechteren, en dat kan nu niemand gebruiken. Daarom leeft de gedachte dat het beter is de ogen te sluiten.