It is amazing, but true. Many people, terrified by the growth of crime in Russia over the last few years, have actually begun to wonder: If the mafia did really, officially gain power, couldn't it bring order? Well, maybe, it would be some sort of barbaric, criminal order, but at least it would be better than this. I saw a program on Russian Television a couple of months ago devoted to a discussion of the crime problem. One of the panelists seriously proposed that we gather up all the "thieves-in-law" and try to come to an agreement with them. He suggested that they might be persuaded somehow to end their bloody conflicts.


I immediately started imagining how this fantastic proposal might some to pass. I pictured a gathering of thieves-in-law in the Kremlin, in the same hall perhaps where the Central Committee of the Communist Party used to meet. From among those present, the most authoritative would be selected to form some sort of Politburo, and they would be given control of our demoralized police. And these thieves, supported by their thugs, would settle things among themselves and settle down the whole country, which is now so badly shaken by the explosion of remote-control bombs and the crackle of automatic weapons fire.


To the average person in Russia, at least until very recently, the image of the thief-in-law has been highly romanticized, something on the order of Robin Hood. He robs from the rich (and Russians have always been bitterly envious of the rich), but himself lives humbly -- without a family, without registration or work, surviving on money from the chyornaya kassa, or black fund, that such thieves have traditionally pooled together to help bribe prison officials in order to ease the conditions of comrades behind bars.


Those who are in charge of the chyornaya kassa are the "crowned" thieves. But before a thief can be crowned, the criminal community gathers recommendations from all the camps and prisons in the country -- which, by the way, gives the Interior Ministry an excellent way of keeping track of all the major thieves-in-law in Russia. If a candidate receives enough support from these letters, he is crowned and given a special tattoo on his chest -- a heart with a dagger through the middle.


Moreover, the traditional Russian thief-in-law has a very strong code against murder. He prefers to steal and rob without bloodshed. There are strict "thieves' rules" that govern when it is acceptable to kill in order to defend one's honor or one's life. Such facts about the inner world of the Russian thief-in-law have, over time, created an almost noble image in the popular consciousness.


However, the changes that Russia has seen in the 1980s and 1990s have also affected the criminal underworld. First, a new generation of crowned thieves began to lend money out from the chyornaya kassa. At first it was just a way of increasing the community's resources. Then, they began opening their own stores and kiosks for personal profit. The next step was finding frontmen for all sorts of firms. They began to worm their people into the management of commercial banks and gradually to take control of many of them.


The other aspects of the popular myth of the thief-in-law eroded away in short order. The main crowned thieves bought huge, luxurious apartments and expensive foreign limousines. Their wives appeared around town decked out in fabulous jewels. Worst of all, they overcame their aversion to the use of violence and began dealing openly with people with whom it was previously a great dishonor to deal. They started hiring hitmen to settle just about any conflict.


The result was that criminal society split between those few who continued to abide by the traditional rules and the many new "commercial criminals." Naturally, this was more than just an ideological dispute, but a real battle for power. Moreover, it had a distinct ethnic element, since the majority of the commercial criminals were Caucasians. A thieves' congress in Kiev in 1991 resolved "to squeeze them out of Slavic territory."


Since then, this "squeezing out" has been getting increasingly violent. In 1992, five thieves-in-law were murdered; in 1993, 16. In part, the Interior Ministry explains this intensification by the fact that one of the most influential thieves, Vyacheslav Ivankov, was released after serving a long prison term and is now trying to re-establish his position in Moscow. He apparently set off the fighting between the "Russian" and the "Caucasian" societies, while himself traveling to the United States. There, he told a local Russian-language newspaper: "I have been authorized to bring order here in emigr? circles according to our rules."


There have been two assassination attempts on one of the most important figures on the "Russian" side of this dispute, the most recent in February when his car was blown up. He was not injured, but -- as is more and more often the case -- several innocent passers-by were injured. Likewise, at 8:00 one morning in April the doorbell rang at the apartment of one of the "Caucasian" leaders. As soon as his wife opened the door, machine gun fire rang out. She was killed instantly, and her husband was shot, not even having time to get out of bed.


This fighting has been accompanied by the ever-increasing penetration of the criminal world into the Russian economy. In Krasnoyarsk, for example, there are five main criminal groups, and they control all the region's banks, all the markets, 90 percent of the commercial stores and 40 percent of state-owned enterprises. The city is divided into eight zones of influence and virtually all managers and directors are appointed only with the permission of the crime bosses. Anyone who resists them is shot, as happened this summer to the director of the Krasnoyarsk Department Store -- shot down in the middle of the day in the center of the city.


While perhaps it was once possible to speak of a "thieves' order" in Russia, now all the pretenses have been stripped away: The only law remaining is the rule of brute force. All talk of restoring the "noble" traditions of Russia's Robin Hoods or of driving the foreigners out of "Slavic lands" is merely a cover for a bloody war that is actually about nothing but money and power. Recently in the Nizhgorodsky district, two "Russian" groups could not find a way to divide the area's privatized firms between them. The result was a shootout in which most members of both groups were killed.


This is why the hope of many frightened Russian citizens that somehow we can negotiate or reason with these people, or that they can bring some kind of order to the country, is naive fantasy. Institutionalizing the rule of force will not end the violence, but intensify it. There is no way for Russia to avoid resolving these problems except through the usual means: by creating effective legislation and by reforming the country's law enforcement agencies.


Igor Gamayunov is an investigative reporter for Literaturnaya Gazeta. He contributed this article to The Moscow Times.