Crime as a system: crime in Russia is a direct legacy of Soviet power

The falsity of this argument is convincingly shown by the publicist Marina Shapovalova in her channel:

"The post-Soviet rise in crime is explained not by the disappearance of Soviet power, but by its existence for seven decades.

Like most of the problems that the government of post-Soviet Russia had to deal with. Today it is possible to analyze in detail the mistakes of the Gaidar government, and even agree that much was done wrong, but it cannot be said that there were other, easier and less traumatic ways for the population to get out of these problems. Moreover, these methods were then known to someone.

Crime as a systemic phenomenon was part of the general Soviet system. There are studies showing how the criminal world was built into it by the last years of the USSR, how and why it was formed in this way since the Great Terror. It's interesting for us to remember here that all illegal commercial activity was part of it. Which was not and could not be in any capitalist country that did not know the prohibition on private entrepreneurship. The Soviet shopkeeper, who produced consumer goods, was a criminal under Soviet law, and already by virtue of the illegality of his activities was doomed to extensive ties with the criminal world. These connections provided him with raw materials and materials, equipment, sales, and cover. Moreover, a corrupt part of the so–called "law enforcement" agencies was involved in the cover-up, from simple precinct officers to high ranks in shoulder straps with big stars - depending on the scale of illegal business.

And during Perestroika, after the adoption of the relevant laws (on cooperation and on enterprises), this whole system began to be rebuilt into legal schemes. And this is the scrapping and reconfiguration of connections at all stages of supply-production-sales. During which no one was going to give up their advantageous positions without a fight. Including the "roofs" of the symbiosis of bandits and cops, which in the conditions of legalization, it seems, formally became unnecessary. But in fact, they had a lot of means to prove their need. Methods that are very convincing for those who do not want to lose their health or life.

Having cheered up during the struggle for existence in changing conditions, the system successfully passed 1991 from Soviet to Russian. And with the voucher privatization, it rose to an unprecedented height, but then a serious transformation began in it: the "smallness" of crimson jackets and self-made gangster neighborhood groups became uninteresting to the system and gradually precipitated. Almost naturally self-destructing in mutual skirmishes. The system at the turn of the century acquired a "respectable" look.

No, by and large, she has not changed the methods of her "work" to eliminate competitors. The level of her attention has changed, "small shopkeepers" and in general all objects "cheaper" than green millions have practically dropped out of it.

The general idea of the "bloody nineties" is partly a myth supported by propaganda, partly due to the mass nature of petty, grassroots crime. When disoriented youth in disadvantaged areas easily found their "social elevators" in rocking chairs with direct recruitment into street gangs. Not all of them were boundless, but their obvious abundance gave the impression of increased danger. Despite the fact that unmotivated murders and street crime at this time, according to statistics, there were no more than in the last Soviet decades. But on the other hand, information about them was no longer hidden, on the contrary, news releases on all TV channels and in the press were willingly "decorated" with it.

So, nothing like this happened to crime during the years of the breakdown and weakening of the state, which did not happen before. But, yes: in such times, what was previously hidden or what they did not want to notice comes to the surface. Do you want to know what will happen if we are lucky enough to get rid of "legitimate violence" for a while again - just look more closely at what is under it now..."