The Word of the Guy. Criminal Tatarstan 1970–2010s. Supplemented Edition

If you grew up in Russia at the end of the 20th century, then street fights were part of your life. This book is about those who made violence their creed: hitting and getting hit — professionally, daily, mercilessly. These are the guys, participants in countless youth gangs that flooded the late Soviet Union. The first city where this phenomenon became truly massive was Kazan.
Robert Garaev, the author of this book, got involved with the "Nizhi," one of the local gangs, while still in high school. After 30 years, he decided to find out where the "Kazan phenomenon" came from, why hundreds of people lost their lives in the wars from neighborhood to neighborhood, what those who successfully "shared the asphalt" achieved, and how the tough days are remembered by the guys themselves, former police officers, lawyers, and ordinary residents of the city scarred by fear and hatred. This is the only book entirely composed of the voices of survivors — and those who wish to tell the truth.