Download or read book Violent Entrepreneurs written by Vadim Volkov and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-08 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the economic uses of violence and coercion in Russia in the 1990s through interviews with members of criminal groups, heads of protection companies, law enforcement employees and businesspeople. It also uses journalistic and anecdotal evidence. It shows that violence has played a crucial role in creating the institutions of a new market economy, and describes the competition among so-called violence-managing agencies which have multiplied with the liberal reforms of the early 1990s. Examples of these organizations include criminal groups, private security services, private protection companies, and informal protective agencies associated with the state. The book also examines the organizational bases of violence-prone groups in sports clubs (particularly martial arts clubs), associations for veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war, ethnic gangs, and regionally based social groups. Some groups wore state uniforms and others did not, but all of their members spoke and acted essentially the same and were engaged in the same activities: intimidation, protection, information gathering, dispute management, contract enforcement, and taxation. Each group controlled the same resource-organized violence.