The Criminal World. Essays from the World of Professional Criminals

The book analyzes in detail the methods and techniques used by experienced criminals—starting with pickpockets and burglars, and moving on to fraudsters and horse thieves. The author reveals different “criminal professions,” their specialized language, techniques, and even a distinctive “ethics.” Special emphasis is placed on well-known individuals such as Son’ka the Golden Hand, whose schemes became part of criminal folklore.

Grigory Naumovich Bre itman (1873–1949) was a writer and journalist known under the pseudonym Gr. Nevolin. He worked as a publisher and editor of the Kyiv newspaper “Latest News.” He was interested in the study of criminal topics, investigated the criminal world, thieves’ slang, “blatnaya” music, and wrote stories about crimes. In 1919 he emigrated to Germany, where from 1921 to 1924 he edited the Berlin newspaper “Vremya” (“Time”). From 1925, Bre itman lived in the United States, where he worked at the New York newspaper “Russkiy Golos” (“Russian Voice”), and from 1930 he led the editorial office of the Chicago newspaper “Rassvet” (“Dawn”).