Customer Reviews

Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
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David Satter has done a masterful job of exposing the horrifying, pervasive dark side of life in Russia today. The distinctions to be made between politicians, business executives, law enforcement officials and gangsters are often blurred, thanks to a virtual absence of rule of law. The average Russian citizen cannot even afford to trust the cop who walks past him down the street, lest he be shaken down then and there, or taken to jail and held until willing to pay a large bribe to be released.
The author explains that, as the Iron Curtain fell, the powers that be, who had a strong systems orientation (the Communist system was the Russians' diet for seven decades), maintained that systems orientation when they embraced capitalism. Leaders of the post-Gorbachev reform movement blindly assumed that all that was needed to introduce free market mechanisms was to ensure that all property and assets got into private hands. The huge weakness in this approach was the failure to understand the importance of first introducing rule of law. As a result, former Communist Party bigwigs and factory owners set up shadow "daughter" companies to acquire vast business empires for next to nothing; they then funneled profits into offshore bank accounts. Gangs then moved in and extorted protection money from businesses large and small... from large aluminum smelters, down to corner kiosks selling cigarettes. These gangs served as the "roof" to thousands of businesses. With cash flow drained off to Switzerland, employees of these enterprises then went weeks, if not months, without pay. Living conditions fell below even the grim levels experienced during the Second World War: malnutrition skyrocketed and life expectancy dwindled to Third World levels.
Each of the book's thirteen chapters can be read on its own, as if it were an essay. Most chapters relate the chilling, hard facts as Satter has been able to assemble them, while a couple of chapters present the author's opinions and theories on how this dreadful situation could have evolved. Together, the chapters represent a fast-moving, balanced portrayal of the civil chaos in Russia in the past fifteen years.
Chapter one relates the shameful story of the "Kursk" submarine disaster, in which over 100 Russian sailors lost their lives while British and Norwegian offers of help were turned down.
Other chapters relate additional stories in which Russian officials treat their own citizens with callous indifference. Chapter two, for example, lays out the compelling evidence that successful and attempted bombings of innocent civilians in their apartments in the 1990s were carried out not by Chechen rebels, as Russian government authorities suggested, but rather by the country's own Federal Security Service (FSB). The FSB allegedly did this to serve as a pretext for Russia's military actions in Chechnya, and to distract the populace from the myriad of banking and financial scandals that bilked thousands of citizens out of billions of rubles. Other chapters describe the slick, large-scale pyramid schemes perpetrated by financial institutions that wiped out the savings of countless people doing their best to survive in an economy that suffered from triple-digit inflation. Most Russian banks in the 90s were managed by criminal gangs.
A few chapters reveal the complex network of organized crime gangs that operate quite openly in Russian society. Entrepreneurs look upon setting up a relationship with a gang for "protection" as simply a cost of doing business. Scores of tycoons who did not satisfy the financial demands of gangs were tortured or, just as often, murdered in broad daylight in the presence of many witnesses. While some victims never saw their fate coming, others lived in constant fear, especially when they realized that even fleeing to another country was no escape from bandits who were willing to track them down anywhere.
The book goes into great detail on the trials of Canadian Doug Steele, who opened a popular and controversial bar ("The Duck") in Moscow. The bar's success attracted competing gangs, who wanted a piece of the action. Doug was nearly kidnapped, but was saved by his vigilant bodyguards.
For years, the citizens of Vladivostok went without electricity for up to 23 hours a day. Even the hospital was robbed of power; on some occasions, this cost patients on the operating table their lives. Why was the power cut off? In large part the electricity was diverted to heavy industry commandeered by organized crime. At one point Boris Yeltsin himself decreed that the one mayor who really did want to wipe out corruption in Vladivostok, Viktor Cherepkov, was not allowed to remain in power.
Some gangsters ran for office, to add political power to their business and criminal strengths. The public often excused the criminal behavior of such candidates, believing, as they were taught during the Communist era, that the transition to capitalism entailed a period of criminal activity.
One mobster became very popular, building a church, synagogue and mosque to show his humanitarian side.
One of the saddest and most unbelievable examples of the complete absence of justice for individuals involved pregnant women delivering babies in Russian hospitals, only to be told that their baby was dead at birth. The mothers were not allowed to see their allegedly dead babies, and were told that they were cremated. Meanwhile, there is ample evidence that their babies were healthy at birth, and were whisked away from their mothers for the purpose of being sold for adoption by criminal gangs.
I highly recommend this book. Satter deserves credit for having the courage to write it. Whereas I spent a week in Moscow as a naïve teenager in 1974, today, you could not pay me to visit Russia. It's too damn scary, and an individual effectively has no rights. As described in the conclusion of "Darkness at Dawn", Russia has a daunting future: a possible political shift to dictatorship, the risk of total economic collapse, and continued depopulation. It's no wonder that Russians are emigrating in great numbers.

This is an absolutely riveting book that well describes the absolute mess that Russia has been in the past 15 years. Satter sugar-coats nothing, and quite appropriately does not strive for "balance" by including any "feel-good" stories. Reading this book will of course not let you know the ordinary moments of happiness that Russians (like all people) feel, but this is because Satter is writing about the economic and political structures of Russia, which really do cause nothing but misery for the vast majority of Russians. This book is valuable precisely because it does not flinch from the darkness. It is a pure chronicle of suffering, something which may be "uncool" among writers these days but which corresponds well to the ordinary person's situation in Russia. Satter also does not make the mistake that so many Russia-watchers do; that of making a false distinction between the "good reformers" and the "bad Putin". They are all actually the same gang.

That being said, I can't give this book 5 stars because underneath the wonderful expository writing I can sense a vaguely repulsive thesis: that Russians are the way they are because of their unique "moral failings". All readers should be aware that Satter was financed by the Scaife crew. This probably makes Darkness at Dawn by far the best book ever funded by these fanatics, but I can't help but wonder if this funding came at a small cost. Why, for instance, does Satter not mention that cronyism, viciousness and lack of concern for human life hardly stops when one exits the borders of the old USSR? Why is he so reluctant to place even a smidgen of the blame on the army of Western advisors and pundits that helped to create and still apologize for the "shock treatment" reform? Do we not live in a global economy these days? Does moral responsibility cease just because we live across an ocean and don't have to stare into the faces of those victimized by our ideology? And what is all this nonsense about the "Russian Soul"? Did US Treasury officials and Washington think-tank hacks also share a cup of this mysterious "soul" when they sanctioned Gaidar's insanity? The other reviewer who noted that one should not break the mirror just because one does not like what one sees hit the nail on the head. I can imagine the Scaife cronies getting off on this bashing of the bad, bad Russians, but do they not draw any conclusions about our own country and our own culture? (Satter does mention that many Russian gangsters copied their methods and slang from Hollywood films!) I understand that the book is about Russia, but no nation is an island these days.
One final note: Vadim Volkov's "Violent Entrepeneurs" is better as a pure description of Russian Organized crime.

Daid Satter is obviously one of the few American journalists who knows the Russian people and their history intimately. I was struck by his compassion for the citizens of Russia and his empathy with their complex history. He brings these people to life in Darkness at Dawn by examining every layer of society. Consequently, we learn so much about the heart of these people and their challenges to do more than merely survive.

While Satter does not paint a pretty picture of life under communism, he certainly tells a powerful story of people whose country continues to undergo major metamorphoses.

This is a wonderful book; I highly recommended that every American read it, especially those who want to learn more about our newest ally.

A very well-documented book, which I think it had to be in order to convince someone like me (a California native) that life is so poor for 75% of Russians. Not poor as in "my rent just went up and the refridgerator is on the blink" but poor as in close to death, as in you collapse at work from no food and no medicine and you haven't received a paycheck in over 4 months even though you have this job and do it well.
I had no idea the quality of life is so poor there, that the establishment really protects itself, and the cops are more likely to shake you down for a bribe than arrest a crook who stole from you. Further, most all the government assets were, I'm struggling for words here, turned into cash for the corrupt people who were running them before the fall of communism. Everything the countrymen worked their lives for to build up was converted into cash, given to those with connections, and massive debt was then given back to the countrymen.
In closing, a very dark book. Perhaps a foreshadowing of what is to come in Iraq.

This book is an outstanding series of vignettes (there! I used that word) but is unbalanced in that nothing positive is described. But it's good to read, like modern crime non-fiction.

Some 'favorites':

Introduction: Miss Russia 1996 is killed being at wrong place, wrong time when Russian Mafia bump off her benefactor.

Chap 1: On the Kursk, and Russian cover-up

Chap 2: Ryazan incident. WORTH THE PRICE OF THE BOOK. This is a spectacular chapter. I won't spoil it with spoilers but the circumstantial evidence is very strong that the Russian FSB (like FBI) basically planted bombs in 1999 to justify a second invasion of Chechyna. But I will give one spoiler: the Duma, on a pro-Kremlin party block vote, voted to seal the Ryazan incident and all materials used for the next 75 years and forbade an investigation of what really happened. The official explanation (which defies logic): 'The FSB was conducting an unannounced training exercise involving non-explosive materials with civilians as the target, and were caught by mistake by the local Ryazan police. The local police, despite having state of the art bomb detecting equipment and many hours of defusing actual bombs, misdiagnosed the material used in the training exercise as hexogen; in fact it was sugar. The FSB attempted to flee the area undetected after the bomb was found in accordance with training procedures, to see if they could escape" Do you think this would fly with the American people? But having visited Russia I can assure you--it works in Russia because nobody short of a suicidal or brave journalist wants to know. Patriot Games with a vengence.

Chap 3- Gaidar/Chubais and the Young Reformers. Not that interesting since better done in other books.

Chap 4 - The History of Reform - " "

Chap 5 - The Gold Seekers - on the MMM pyramid scheme and the guy that got away (senatorial immunity)

Chap 6 - The Workers--how they get shafted after management buys out their factory at 1/1000th market value in a rigged auction and then offshores the capital (leaving the factory running at a technical loss). Better covered by Klebnikov's "Godfather of the Kremlin"

Chap 7 - Law Enforcement - where crooks are cops

Chap 8 - Organized Crime - a lovely tale about two stubborn Canadians who wanted to open an ex-pat bar in Moscow. They did, after becoming managers for rival mafia gangs. But ironically they love it. Typical foreigner in Russia mindset--they love the great sex and excitement of Eastern Europe.

Chap 9 - Ulyanovsk - hunger strike claims a victim

Chap 10 - Vladivostok - the mayor, who for once is a decent person loved by the population (which generally backs anybody with power), is run out of town by a mafia.

Chap 11 - Krasnoyarsk - the infamous aluminum factory run by convicted gangster Bykov and his friends (some still on Forbes Richest 400 Russians list, and all under 40 years old, some under 30). Value add, Russian style. Read this to see what it costs to convict a mafiya member in Russia--a lot of innocent people have to first die, even die testifying. And our friend Bykov? He'll be eligible for parole soon.

Chap 12 - The value of human life - zero. Some case studies including surgery without lights (patient died); falling into a boiling hot water sinkhole (not uncommon since Moscow uses hot water to heat buildings, in fact, happens every other year). Boy and father trying to rescue him both die--slow agonizing deaths "4th degree burns". Woman trying to find her soldier son's corpse in Chechyna finds cadavers routinely appear to be mistakenly identified and buried under wrong name.

Chap 13 - Criminalization of Consciousness - on the Uralmash criminal gang, and how free beer and candy won over the hearts of the populace. Typical Russian tactic. Gang got elected to power.

Chap 14 - Conclusion

After reading this book, I recalled the final scene from George Orwell's Animal Farm. This was the one where the supposedly benevolent pigs who were in charge of the farm sat down with the humans, but when the other animals looked in, they could not tell the difference between them all.

In other words, I'm beginning to think that the Russians traded one system of oppression for another when they rallied behind Boris Yeltsin in August 1991. That is the impression that I get from reading "Darkness at Dawn." I have an undergraduate degree in Russian and Soviet Studies, so I knew that the Russians had a huge problem with mafias and corruption, but I had no idea that it was bad as the picture painted by the author here.

Satter tells us how bad and mobbed up the "new" Russia is with a series of anecdotes, from the tragic and avoidable deaths of the crew of the Kursk to the appalling deaths of ordinary Muscovites unlucky enough to fall into sinkholes full of scalding hot water created by defective pipes that burst.

But for me, the most disturbing story is the allegation that it was not the Chechens who were behind the series of apartment house bombings that happened in 1999, which provided the Russian government with a justification for attacking Chechnya. Satter presents evidence that suggests that it might just have been the Russian government itself that did this, in order to distract the people and more or less make Vladimir Putin's ascension to power irrevocable.

I pride myself on being profoundly skeptical of conspiracy theories. But knowing what I know about the corrupt system of government in Russia (something discussed in Handelman's "Comrade Criminal" as well), I find myself really wondering. I really, really do.

By this I mean that while Satter has done an excellent job of outlining the corrupt regime of modern Russia, he has left out an important player which shares equally in the moral miasma of modern Muscovy. A hint is provided in the rave review by Strobe Talbott, the man who said "the Soviet Union needed a wrecking ball."

Nicely excluded from Satter's otherwise gripping account is the responsibility of the West - particularly the US. When the US was shipping out carloads of advisors, from private foundations, corporations, and the US government, not a one of them counseled moderate reform, a "social market," nor social democracy. They all - to the last yuppie graduate - advocated the most radical and sweeping de-Communization, heedless of the social cost, playing right into the hands of the very corruption they now profess to find so shocking.

Not only was there an overt political agenda at work, but a naivite regarding the West itself. One need only look at Enron, the SEC, Arthur Andersen, and the US mafia to see how pervasive corruption and organized crime are in US "market democracy." The nouveau riche New Russians did not operate under the deceiving pangloss of Old Money, which naive US advisors took for granted as they dispensed their agenda under the guise of said advice.

As for Russia's lack of the rule of law, these same insider traders, profiteers, and mafiosi in the US are the first to buy politicians, judges, and to resist any law, rule, or regulation that interferes in their right to make money, no matter the social cost to fellow citizens.

In short, Russia showed the West its true face without the makeup. Don't break the mirror because you can't handle the image.

I am an American who speaks Russian and lived in Russia in 1997, part of the time discussed in this book. I must say it was fascinating to read about the time when I was there. I knew Yeltsin was corrupt but I did not realize how much. I also know quite a bit about the Russian mafia but I did not know precisely how they had been screwing the Russian people. After this book, I know.

This is an excellent read in that it shows you what has become of a country that went Capitalist without a government to regulate it. If you ever hear any folks in the US pining for a country without regulation, tell them to move to Russia. They would then see how important our government is and the effect it has when the central government chooses to allow bandits and mafiosas to go wild.

while reading the various accounts in this book of thievery, you find it breathtaking the way some people--such as the directors of factories--who refused to pay their workers for the things they produced. It just stunned and shocked me that people could be so evil. This book is full of examples of people who were evil. Many of them were later killed for their behavior. Still, I now totally understand why so many people have been selling their very souls to get out of Russia.

This is an outstanding book and the only regret that could be made about it is the lack of a conclusion or resolution. The stories of fraud and abuse keep coming and there never is a payback...

I like when authors tell the truth about what has happened in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union. David Satter was probably frustrated that his old employer, The Financial Times, watered down all the news about Russia to make things seem less bad.

The chapter on Ryazan is particularly good and enlightens the reader about how scary the Russian government really is.

Now in 2011, this book from 2003 is still entirely relevant because Russia is still controlled by the same crooks. None of the problems have been addressed, and many Westerners continue to abet this government.

Free copies of Darkness at Dawn should be given out to all these folks at the IMF, World Bank, EBRD, etc.

John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"

After reading several other books on the state of Russia, I stumbled across Mr. Satter's book. Satter gives a direct account of the state of today's Russia, from the perspective of ordinary Russians. I think that any reader will definitely be shocked by the level of corruption and deceit by almost all levels of government.

I second his acknowledgement to the Russian people!