Overview
The story of small-time gangsters rising from obscurity to the top is a familar one ("Scarface" and "The Godfather II," both fact-based accounts, come to mind as classics), but the unfamiliar setting and engaging detail of "Batya" make this admittedly rough-edged book compelling and fascinating.Batya: The Russian Godfather," brings to life a world that most of us luckily will never encounter: a city run by corrupt cops and Mafiosi; nights punctuated by the screams of street fights and drive-by shootings; and an economy ruled by dishonesty and crime.
But for Russians living in Moscow after the fall of Communism this world is real. And despite its dark surface, there's a romanticism to the wild, post-Soviet Russia envoked in this engrossing, real-life story set in early 1990s Moscow.
The result is a strikingly original work, not quite a novel, not quite a work of non-fiction, not quite a memoir. More than anything, it's a rough snapshot of a bizarre subculture in a bizarre place and time in which everything was up for grabs.The author's rugged, imperfect prose captures the harshness of 1990s Moscow-its streets, stores, night clubs and brothels- and they write with a knowing pen about the Machiavellian thought processes of ruthless con men and criminals.
"Batya" focuses on one group that made a bold bid for success in the midst of that chaos, and briefly beat out rival Chechen and Russian mafia groups for supremacy in the heart of Moscow. At the height of their influence, the group had police and government officials securely in its pocket through bribery and arm-twisting. But their rise to power began modestly.
The reader becomes a fly on the wall as Alex and Arthur, the two flawed heroes of the book, weave through the Moscow underground, and Russian businessmen, entertain prized clients at a high-class brothel, and brawl with thugs outside of a night club.
Under Alex's resourceful leadership, they mount a series of small cons, and later gradually, using brains and intimidation, they muscle out rival gangs to dominate the multi-million dollar market for cigarettes, liquor, and other high-demand delicacies in luxury-starved Moscow.
Dan Carlin, Desert Post Weekly. May 12, 2005