Bitch Wars

The Bitch Wars or Suka Wars (Russian: Сучьи войны, romanized: Suchyi voyny or in singular: Russian: Сучья война, romanized: Suchya voyna) occurred within the Soviet labor-camp system between 1945 and around the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.

Bitch Wars
Date1945–1953
Location
Soviet gulag
Belligerents

Second World War veteran prisoners ("bitches," Russian: "suka")

Prison officials		 Thieves in Law prisoners
Casualties and losses
Many Many

Background

The Russian word suka ("сука", literally "bitch") has a different negative connotation than its English equivalent. In Russian criminal argot, it specifically refers to a person from the criminal world who had "made one's self a bitch" (Russian: ссучился, romanized: ssuchilsya) by cooperating in any way with law enforcement or with the government. Within the Soviet prison-system a historical social structure had existed since the Russian Tsarist era. One of the important tenets of the system decreed that members would not serve or collaborate with the Tsarist (or later with the Soviet) government. This rule encompassed any kind of collaboration, not only "snitching" or "ratting".[1][2]

Second World War

As the Second World War progressed, Joseph Stalin made an offer to many prisoners that in exchange for military service they would be granted a pardon or a reduction of their prison-term at the end of the war. After the war ended, many of those that had taken up this offer returned to prisons and labor camps, but were declared suki and placed on the lower end of the prisoner hierarchy. As a result, they sought to survive through collaboration with prison officials, and in return got some of the better jobs within the prison.[3]

This led to an internal prison war between them and the leaders of the Russian criminal underground, or "Thieves in Law". Many prisoners died in the Bitch War but prison authorities turned a blind eye, since prisoner deaths reduced the overall prison population (and also reduced the number of possible criminals who might return to the streets).

See also

References
  1. Varlam Shalamov, Essays on Criminal World, "Bitch War" (Shalamov's essay online (in Russian)) in: Varlam Shalamov (1998) "Complete Works" (Варлам Шаламов. Собрание сочинений в четырех томах), vol. 2, printed by publishers Vagrius and Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, ISBN 5-280-03163-1, ISBN 5-280-03162-3
  2. A. V. Kuchinsky Prison Encyclopedia, (Кучинский А.В. - Тюремная энциклопедия, a fragment online Archived 2008-04-24 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian))
  3. Varlam Shalamov, Essays on Criminal World, "Bitch War" (Shalamov's essay online (in Russian)) in: Varlam Shalamov (1998) "Complete Works" (Варлам Шаламов. Собрание сочинений в четырех томах), vol. 2, printed by publishers Vagrius and Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, ISBN 5-280-03163-1, ISBN 5-280-03162-3

Further reading
  • Александр Сидоров (2005) "Воры против сук. Подлинная история воровского братства, 1941-1991", ISBN 5-699-09276-5
  • Anton Antonov-Ovseenko, Enemy of the people, Moscow. Intellekt, 1996, Section "Bitch War", text online at the Sakharov Center website
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