Hidden Behind Homonymy: Infamy or Sanctity?

Abstract

This research focuses on the ideological sphere of criminals with the highest status in the Russian Federation. This ideological sphere was studied in literary sources of various kinds on the basis of repeatability (the existence of linguistic facts) and averaging (external and internal confrontation of sources). It is suggested that, in speech, there exist some selective overinterpretations of world religions that neglect basic elements of the traditional law-abiding picture of the world and that are directly based on literary fiction instead of the scientific literature. On the other hand, there can be some search for faith connected with the belief in spiritual knowledge from the dead, divine beings, and God.

1. Introduction

The aims and methods applied by scientists are usually predetermined by the discipline, i.e., the conceptualization of the research object and units of measurement strongly depend on the further implementation of the obtained results. The relations between religion, language, and crime imply that there should be some interdisciplinary methods and techniques that go beyond basic disciplines. Such an interdisciplinary approach demands mixed techniques, which makes the research easier ‘with the benefit of inventory’ but usually leads to terminological debates, shifting the focus of discussion from the subject at hand. At present, there are not many strictly scientific interdisciplinary studies devoted to the relations between crime, religion, and language at the macro-level for ‘vory v zakonie’ (‘thieves in law’), the criminals with the highest status in the Russian Federation, colloquially called the ‘Russian mafia’. They are compared to Mafia dons with regard to their social and criminal dangerousness. They are said to have appeared after the October Revolution of 1917, and nothing is known for sure about either their code of conduct or any sets of beliefs, as if this kind of criminal community never existed before and had nothing in common with European crime. The only reliable and widely acknowledged criterion of contemporary attribution to the criminal community/fraternity/organization in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, or other post-Soviet countries still remains the self-declaration of being a ‘vor v zakonie’. According to the statistics, in 1995, 33% of the officially recorded ‘vory v zakonie’ were Russian, 31% were Georgian, 8% were Armenian, 5% were Azerbaijani, 22% were Kurdish, Mingrelian, Abkhazian, and Kazakh, and 1% were from elsewhere (Laskowska 2006, p. 122). Their multi-nationality implies distinct cultural and religious backgrounds before they became ‘vory w zakonie’, and the ‘secret’ language they communicate in should reflect these ethnic contacts in a diachronic perspective, also with regard to generation gaps. To define their ‘secret’ language, the most appropriate term seems to be the international term ‘argot’, understood as “the language of the socially underprivileged and the underworld (thieves, beggars, the homeless, fraudsters, brigands, racketeers, professional killers and so on) […] created as an instrument of self-protection, to ensure a separation from society and to preserve professional secrets” (Walter 2018, p. 16). There should be at least two diversely oriented natural processes to be observed in an argot—its enrichment by new words and the disappearance of old ones. At the edges of such processes, there can appear a ‘semantic attraction’ that can be considered the third type of argot vocabulary enrichment and that can only be explained on the basis of convincing arguments and a rich lexicographic material, as in the work of (Berezovich and Kuchko 2017). These three processes of the enrichment of argot vocabulary are reflected in the formation of endemic terminological traditions in linguistics, the interchangeability of the international terms argot, slang, and jargon (Walter 2018, p. 14), and the different conceptualizations of the research object (Mokienko and Walter 2014). Language is a carrier of values, and speakers can reflect their attitudes to such values in speech, which implies the need to study the opposition/dichotomy of language and speech and how it can be connected with reality.

The sources on such reflections and the attitudes towards state, religion, the law-abiding picture of the world, semiotic–cultural systems, and ways of interaction in criminal activity should be analyzed carefully, not as facts but as ‘sources of information’. For example, it was reported that offenders/criminals of various nationalities elected a commission on argot formation in one of the prisons in the 1870s (Niceforo 1912, p. 100), which was rather considered a joke or one of the possibilities of argot formation (Geremek 2012, p. 235). However, such interactions between offenders of different nationalities may have taken place to some extent, and they may have been immortalized in a few or several dozens of argot words that can be traced back by both researchers and criminals. When there is no written evidence, various conclusions can be drawn. The last mention of ‘a vor who was reading a magic book’ dates back to Oshmetovka village in Saratov Governorate in 1827 (Mordovcev [1871] 1991, pp. 162–63). Reporting the results of his own contact research, Marc Galeotti described his mixed feelings and opinions: a low-level gangster commits light criminal deeds, learns by heart some loyalty oath in criminal slang and repeats it, and then follows an initiation with blood, vodka, and icons. The researcher suggests that this was strangely ahistorical, and the initiation ritual was a mixture of vory rituals (i.e., vory v zakonie) from 1930 to the 1950s and an interpretation of mafia rituals from the movies and similar ceremonies (Galeotti 2020, pp. 82–83). The aim of this study is to analyze various sources about ‘vory v zakonie’ with regard to their argot and their ways of separating themselves from society, along with probable ideological grounds of such separation that may be reflected in speech. Attention is drawn to the ways of enrichment of argot vocabulary, especially ‘semantic attraction’ leading to the formation of homonyms. Their role in the possible transmission of some ideological sphere and the involvement of various sources, including literary fiction, are discussed in detail.

2. Methods and Results

This work is a continuation of a larger study on the ideological sphere of Russian organized crime. The study was preceded by long-term field research in order to obtain the necessary information. The research was started in Kharkiv (Ukraine) in 2010–2011 and then extended to the Russian Federation and Poland. Next, to report the gathered information, the following problems had to be solved: interrogation materials, invigilation records, and argot messages from the USSR era are still classified without special permission to publish, and those from the Russian Empire have mainly been destroyed. The respondents themselves insisted on keeping their personal data secret. No ethical problems reported in (Miszewski 2007) were experienced because the researcher was not an undercover agent and never positioned himself as a criminal with the highest status, and the topic of conversations was focused entirely on the ideological sphere from the start (if one does not know, one cannot betray). All results that could have been considered seriously and possible to prove were reported exclusively in open scientific publications. However, it should be confessed that the gathered information predetermined the direction of further theoretical research.

To report the obtained information on the basis of open sources, there appeared a model for the analysis of criminal communication. This model was based on a synthesis of the ideas proposed by L. Gumilev, U. Eco, and O. Leszczak. The criminal ideology was considered a ‘discrete system’ functioning after being deprived of many elements (Gumilev [1989] 2016, p. 103), namely a ‘discrete antisystem’ as ‘an eclectic worldview with an inverse sign’ (Gumilev 1989, p. 73), ‘a systemic integrity of people with a negative worldview’ (Gumilev 1989, pp. 246–50, 254–55), an ‘anti-nation’ consisting of individuals who broke all relations with previous life. In Gumilev’s terms, such group is ‘a consortium’ made up by different individuals on the basis of ‘shared destiny’. Such consortia can be considered anti-systemic ‘deadly phantom’ when people do not tell the difference between truth and lie, being involved in the world of ‘phantasmagoria and spells’ (Gumilev [1989] 2016, p. 504). The ideology of such systemic integrity was seen, after U. Eco, as everything that a person knows, the social group to which a person belongs, systems of psychological expectations, all intellectual skills, life experiences, and moral values (see Eco 2004, pp. 136–37), which is the starting point when making decisions and the beginning of the binary code (Eco 2004, p. 83). The functional–pragmatic model of a lingua-semiotic experience proposed by O. Leszczak (2010) allowed considering the criminal discourse as a lingua-semiotic experience of a criminal used in his activity on the basis of the binary code, i.e., ideology. The principles of similarity and adjacency were applied to eliminate the problem of division of criminal discourse into forms and elements with the use of the axes of choice (selection) and combination proposed by R.O. Jakobson and modified by U. Eco. The axis of choice (selection) was applied to analyze the paradigmatics of the code of professional criminals, and the axis of combination—its syntagmatics. Within the code, semiotic–cultural, language, and speech representations were distinguished in order to study the signs ‘in praesentia’, ‘in absentia’ and ‘in potentia’ on the basis of their reproducibility, stability, and modeling in sources of various type using a scaled focus hierarchy with regard to geographical, culturological, ethnological, political–historical, ethnographical, biographical, and philological problematics proposed by L. Gumilev (Gumilev [1989] 2016, p. 367).

‘Vorovskoy Zakon’ as the criminal ideology or an ‘antisystem’ was scientifically ‘labelled’ then as a synthesis of the ideas about the Old Roman Law before Codex Justinianeus (Lex duodecim tabularum, the Insitutes by Caius, Lex Salica), Mishnah (with elements from Gemara and Kabbalah), the Eastern branch of Mithraism (Manusmriti with Bon modified by Tantrayana), the Code of Hammurabi, and the ideas of Jewish Christians (Essenes, Mandaeans, Tibetan variants of Shia Islam). From the viewpoint of obtained information, it sounded like ‘(1) Code of Hammurabi; (2) Mithraism; (3) Old Roman law; (4) Torah; (5) Laws of Manu’. The ‘Vorovskaya Idea’ (The Thieves’ Idea) may lie in the possibility to take ideas selectively from the old religious–legal systems and confront against the present law: integral parts of such ‘codex’ are legal and available; it is essential to know which books to read and what ideas to look for (Zubkow 2019a, pp. 155–56). Moreover, it was also suggested that different sources, including classical masterpieces of world literature, could have been involved in criminal discourse. This hypothesis about the existence of any ‘secret doctrine’ of the criminal organization in this form remains unproven and is not involved. For the purposes of this research, only one ‘postulate’ obtained during the contact research to be considered here as folklore material seems interesting, ‘the memory of a soul in the endless time to be awoken after reincarnation by another brother-soul’ (Zubkow 2019a, p. 153; 2019b, p. 240), which will be discussed further.

The axes of choice (selection) and combination were used to analyze the process of communication between criminals when the transferred information is encoded and the fact of such transfer should not be detected because the interlocutors expect invigilation. In such cases, the code words (nouns) are replaced by some other words that do not draw the attention of controlling systems that lead to changes in collocation, i.e., the introduction of corresponding verbs and other parts of speech to make the conversation sound natural. For example, ‘narcotics’ are ‘taken’ sounds like ‘books’ are ‘read’, etc. The change in a noun on the axis of choice (selection) leads to changes in verbs on the axis of combination with possible further word play. The matrix/backup for studied codes in speech (speech representation) was the standard language (language representation) to avoid calling spade a spade. Such approach allowed to study linguistic signs ‘in praesentia’, ‘in absentia’, and ‘in potentia’ (at word play).

The analysis of collective argot self-namings such as ‘Закoн’ (1. criminal organization, fraternity; 2. criminal code/codex), ‘закoнники’ (chivalric brothers, fraters), ‘бoсяки’ (forgotten and dead), ‘галахи’ (Halakha followers), ‘брoдяги’ (outcasts), and ‘блатные’ (initiated) ascertained that they were used by Russian-speaking and Polish-speaking criminals with the same meaning in the Russian Empire in the 19th century since Poland partly belonged to the Russian Empire and Russian was the language of intercultural communication for convicts. In Polish argot, the discussed words were found with the same formal and semantic features: ‘gałach’, ‘bosak’ (including ‘włóczęga’, i.e., ‘брoдяга’ observed in Russian), ‘blatny’, ‘Zakon’, ‘zakonnik’, and ‘w zakonie’ (Zubkow et al. 2020). Their translation into English was discussed separately (Zubkov 2020). However, it has not been proved how their ideology was connected to the Resurrection, immortality, prophesies, faith, or divine involvement because since 2021 the research was abandoned. The only point stated that time was the infamy and disgrace of Christianity, “the vory are allowed to the Paradise though the back door”. No myth or sacred story was seen that time either behind the homonymy of an argot self-naming ‘маз’ (maz) nor its connection to a motif of ‘багдадский вoр’ (the Thief of Bagdad) as presented in this research.

A myth hidden behind homonymy can be seen only when enough evidence in the form of language facts is gathered and presented. Thereafter, it would be interesting “to start from linguistic forms […] to discover what those forms accomplish in social interaction, or more generally, in the construction of everyday life” (Duranti 2009, p. 28). In case of communication between studied criminals even in the 21st century, it is not an easy task because of incomplete compositionality, i.e., the relations between linguistic signs ‘in praesentia’, ‘in absentia’, and ‘in potentia’. Moreover, the police archives from the times of the Russian Empire were destroyed because many highly positioned Bolsheviks were sentenced for criminal deeds such as ordinary theft and robbery (Chalidze 1977, p. 39). There only remained literary sources of various kind including folklore. Such data should be analyzed very carefully because “they have not come to us directly from the native speakers themselves but have rather been filtered and compiled by folklorists and anthropologists belonging mostly to the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century, and they are therefore susceptible to being influenced by the ideologies and prejudices of their time” (Santos Marinas 2025).

The old self-naming ‘маз’ (sounds ‘maz’) as ‘a leader of group of thieves/vory’ dates back to Ivan Osipov (Vanka Cain, Ivan the Cain) (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, p. 180). Despite being compared to a ‘Russian Cartouche’ later, Vanka Cain was rather a ‘Russian Vidocq’ in Moscow from 1742 to 1749 with one distinct difference: he created own criminal ‘mafia-like’ organization being an informer. The first novels and books about Vanka Cain began to appear since 1775, the first reported folk song ‘Vanka Cain and Pseudo Christ Andriushka’ emerged in Novikov’s collection in 1781 (Mordovtsev 1876, p. 161). Little is known for sure neither about his earlier life in a band of robbers on the Volga River (Mordovtsev 1876, p. 173) nor its probable contacts with the rich and powerful Skoptsy sect and its leader Andrey Selivanov (Mordovtsev 1876, p. 159). D. Mordovtsev mentioned Andrey, not Kondratii, as a ‘fool of Christ’ and the first impostor Peter III Fyodorovich who may have lived near the Sukharev Tower and have had a conflict with Vanka Cain. This should not be strange because at present the same uncertainty about the contacts and relations of legendary criminals can be observed even in totalitarian states: Lt. Col. Jerzy Dziewulski remembers that in 1968 as a young criminal police officer in Warsaw he controlled a legendary cracksman A. R. The aim was to prevent a legendary cracksman from criminal deeds. The cracksman was caught at burglary ‘probably in 1985-1986’ (Dziewulski 2018, pp. 189–200).

In the 19th century and later, a range of linguists tried to explain the etymology of this three-hundred-year-old argot self-naming used by Russian-speaking criminals. The main etymological versions are presented and well-argued by Yelena L. Berezovich and Valeriya S. Kuchko (Berezovich and Kuchko 2017). The Western version goes back to the toponym ‘Mazur’ and the Eastern one—to Russian dialects, including corporative dialects. For the purposes of this research, the most interesting is the observed ‘semantic attraction’ that reflects itself in semantic fusion by form and meaning on the basis of folk etymology. However, it seems possible to focus on some peculiarities of such ‘semantic attraction’ for the argot words omitted by the researchers.

The discussed argot word ‘maz’ is still used by Russian-speaking criminals (presented as a polysemic word in the referred dictionary): “(1) Mentor of beginning thieves/vory; (2) Leader of a group of thieves/vory” (Baldaev 1997, p. 237). At first glance, a ‘mentor’ and a ‘leader’ can be considered near synonyms, and it does not follow from the dictionary, ‘thieves’ or ‘vory’ were meant because there are two homonyms ‘вoр’ in the Russian language. However, another dictionary item in the analyzed source draws attention—a Russian argot word ‘маза’ (‘maza’) that means, according to D. Baldaev (who gathered material during his career in the USSR penitentiary facilities in the second half of the XX century), “(1) Intercession, support, solidarity; (2) a united group of thieves/vory; (3) the same as maz” (Baldaev 1997, p. 237). Attention should be drawn here to the fact that words with distinct paradigmatics and, hence, syntagmatics, were joined in one dictionary item as one polysemic word, whereas they are evident homonyms.

Jacques Rossi, a long-term Gulag prisoner, mentions only one polysemic argot word ‘маза’ in the same meanings as reported in Baldaev’s dictionary except “(3) the same as maz”, and no other words even have similar stems and meanings (Rossi 1991, part 1, pp. 197–98). This does not imply that the discussed ‘polysemic’ argot word ‘maz’ was ‘reanimated’ in the late 20th century—it might not have been included in Rossi’s dictionary and only points to differences in dictionary fixation. The most interesting in the discussed item in Baldaev’s dictionary is the meaning ‘a leader of a group of thieves/vory’ as in the item ‘maz’ but the lack of meaning ‘a mentor of beginning thieves/vory’. This leads to a conclusion that ‘maza’ does not mean ‘a mentor’, and there should be at least two homonyms of word ‘маз’ in Russian argot according to Baldaev. From the viewpoint of formal features, a feminine form ‘maza’ with regard to a masculine form ‘maz’ points out to some strangeness, similar to ‘вoр → вoра’ reported by M. Grachev and V. Mokienko (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, p. 81).

Moreover, in Baldaev’s dictionary, alphabetically on other page, there is another formally strange argot word that differs by ending: ‘мас’ which means “1. I, me; 2. Unknown thief/vor; 3. Signal of danger” (Baldaev 1997, p. 243). Attention should be drawn to the change in ending from ‘з’ to ‘с’, the use of this noun as personal pronouns (I, me, he, him) for self-naming, and the signal of danger that points to a strong paradigmatic and syntagmatic anomaly. Such anomaly implies that there should be some signs ‘in absentia’ that are reproducible, stable, and capable of modeling in criminal discourse but not mentioned in dictionaries and other subject literature.

The Eastern version of etymology for word ‘maz’ in connection with other argot word ‘музыка’ (‘blatnaya muzyka’ meaning ‘argot’) dates it back to ‘ofeni’ and the expression ‘хoдить пo мазыке/музыке’—as Grachev and Mokienko ascertain, ‘ofeni’ was close to the criminal world; they were drawing, collecting, and selling icons and other things (pp. 181–82). In this phrase, ‘хoдить пo мазыке’, all elements are strange and disconnected with each other according to the norms of standard Russian: verb ‘хoдить’, preposition ‘пo’, and noun ‘мазыка’ (if it was the prototype). That time, after the Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish criminals interacted with the multinational criminal world in the Russian Empire, and the language of their communication was Russian. Such fact allowed to extend the analysis on Polish argot. One of the most notable Slavists A. Brückner mentioned in his dictionary in 1927 that in the Polish language both ‘muzyka’ and ‘muzykant’ meant a musician, “in this sense it is still folk today” (Brückner [1927] 1957, p. 350). The words ‘muzyk’ (little thief) or ‘muzyka’ as ‘muzyka blatna’ (false rumor or misunderstanding) (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 212) are still reported in Polish argot. In present Polish argot, argot word ‘maz’ means only ‘tattoo paint’ (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 200) and was borrowed from Russian, as shown below. However, its semantics in the dictionary is interesting: in prison or forced labor camps, tattoos were made with any paint. This implies that there can be a hint given by the author to look for in semiotic–cultural representation of criminal tattoos.

Moreover, the argot word ‘maz’ sounds strange for Polish native speakers because of its ending, ‘z’ instead of expected ‘ź’ or ‘ść’. In standard Polish, an old word ‘maź’ (at present ‘maść’) has the following word-formation model: “maź, mazać; mazanie i mazanek, mazanina; maźnica; maziarz, mazidło, kołomaź” (Brückner [1927] 1957, p. 326), i.e., ‘z’ is normally followed by a vowel. The standard word formation model implies that there should be either clipping during a later borrowing of ‘мaza’ from Russian or a deliberate earlier borrowing of ‘maz’ along with the conveyed ideas. Moreover, the phonetic strangeness (‘z’ instead of ‘ź’ or ‘ść’) resembles that observed above in Russian (‘с’ instead of ‘з’). For comparison, other Polish argot words with the same or formally similar stems undergo traditional Polish word-formation processes: “mazać—(1) to write; (2) to paint; (3) to put up a bank in a card game”; “mazaj—(1) trace of fingerprints; (2) a writer; (3) a painter”; “mazak—(1) face, mouth; (2) nose; (3) fountain pen; (4) brush; (5) ink; (6) eraser”; “mazarz—a policeman” (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 200). The only exception found to this rule is ‘bohomaz’ (a poorly painted picture) in standard Polish—‘h’ instead of ‘ch’ points to its earlier appearance and borrowing from the terrains belonging to Ukraine and the connection with Russian ‘бoгoмаз’ (a bad icon painter). In Russian argot, ‘бoгoмаз’ means ‘a convict engaged in artistic work’ (Baldaev 1997, p. 40).

Such strangeness in ending of ‘maz’ in Russian argot shows repeatability, stability, and modeling of signs ‘in praesentia’ and ‘in absentia’ and makes suggest a variable stem structure ‘ma plus a hissing sound’ to name several homonyms and its derivatives in criminal discourse with respect to diachronic aspect. Moreover, such ‘hissing and clipping’ anomaly or ‘music’, ‘блатная музыка/muzyka blatna’, ‘з, с, зь, сть,’ draws attention to an argot word formally near to ‘maz’, “Мазар—мoгила” (Baldaev 1997, p. 237), translated into English as a tomb/grave or Mazar. The appearance of a word that cannot be understood other way (i.e., does not need any explanation in an argot dictionary) is strange and mysterious. It can be suggested that D. Baldaev wanted to show the existence of such word in criminal discourse, i.e., that criminals use this word deliberately. A Mazar is a holy place, tomb or shrine, being a form of Hadj (pilgrimage) and it sounds very near to ‘хoдить’. The only Mazar nearest to the Russian Empire is the so-called ‘Tomb of Jesus’ (Roza Bal, the Tomb of Youza Asouph) in Srinagar, associated with the idea of Revival/Resurrection of Jesus. On the other hand, the argot word ‘mazurik’ should also be considered within the variable stem structure ‘ma plus a hissing sound’. As an argot self-naming, it is reported to have disappeared from Russian criminal argot in 1920s (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, p. 182). As Berezovich and Kuchko convincingly ascertain, many words were derived from the base (‘derivative network’) ‘mazur’, meaning seamen, Cossacks, barge haulers, sea robbers, vagabonds, etc. ‘Baltic sea’, ‘Caspian sea’, even ‘Persian’ ‘mazuriks’ in folk songs were used in the late XVI to early XVII centuries (Berezovich and Kuchko 2017, p. 434). Hence, it is very probable that there may have been some other folk etymologies, stories, and superstitions connected with ‘blatnaya muzyka’ in regard to the word base ‘mazurik’ in the basin of the Volga River with its ethnic and religious diversity.

There is no need to prove the influence of Sufis in eastern parts of the Russian Empire with domination of Islam. However, the folk etymology connected with Islam is also possible here. Naturally, it reflected itself in criminal discourse. For example, a Russian argot word ‘шерсть’ (‘sherst’) meant ‘a category of convicts, people generally’ in the first half of the XX century (Rossi 1991, part 2, p. 455), whereas its homonym ‘шерсть’ in standard Russian also means ‘wool’. It implies the same model of metaphorization as in case of self-name ‘Sufi’ derived from an Arabic word ‘suf’ that means ‘wool’. Regardless, the similarity in metaphorization model is a weak argument. In dictionary item ‘шерсть’, J. Rossi redirects readers to item ‘масть 4’ ‘разбрoсить этап пo мастям’ (classify the transit of inmates into criminal groups) (Rossi 1991, part 1, p. 215), showing the transition of an elder argot word ‘sherst’ into a newer ‘mast’. The item ‘масть’ is presented in Baldaev’s dictionary as a polysemic word: “(1) a group of thieves/vory of one criminal specialization; (2) criminal specialization; (3) destiny; (4) luck; (5) authorities, power in imprisonment” (Baldaev 1997, p. 244). It is evident that the first and second meanings correspond well with the meaning of ‘sherst’ but others do not fit semantically with what implies evident homonymy. The third, fourth, and fifth meanings may relate to supernatural forces or beliefs in such or some power, and all these meanings fit well in just one argot word ‘fart’. Moreover, Baldaev mentions the ‘Thieves’ Law’ in this regard: ‘масть держать (3) сoблюдать вoрoвскoй закoн (obey the Thieves’ Law)’ (Baldaev 1997, p. 244), i.e., paradigmatically and syntagmatically connects the discussed word with other argot self-namings of ‘vory’ as the criminals with the highest status.

The existence of such variable stem structure considered ‘blatnaya muzyka’ (literary ‘the music of the initiated’) may point to a deliberate process of oral transfer of ideas probably adopted either from the Sufis or from Islam based folk beliefs and superstitions. The variable stem structure is formally very loose, which implies strong paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections with other related linguistic signs to derive the expression “motivated”. The verb ‘хoдить’ (hadit’) sounds very similar to Hadj (pilgrimage) and can mean ‘to travel’. This suggestion corresponds well with the expression found in Polish argot—‘chodzić po farcie’ meaning only ‘steal’ and staying apart from other meanings of ‘fart’ and ‘chodzić’ (Stępniak [1993] 2013, pp. 47–48, 88). Being a part of variable stem structure ‘ma plus a hissing sound’, the homonym ‘mast’ conveys the ideas of ‘destiny’, ‘luck’ and ‘authorities, power in imprisonment’ to be paradigmatically met in just one word ‘фарт/fart’.

The word ‘fart’ was studied by M. Grachev and V. Mokienko but the researchers did not come to an univocal conclusion about its origin and meaning (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, pp. 252–53). Ending the dictionary item, they mentioned the oldest version of a popular criminal song ‘Okuroczek’—‘счастливoгo фарту’ (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, pp. 253). Hence, ‘фарт’ is not ‘счастье’. Moreover, it can be considered not the same as ‘удача’, for example ‘удачи и фарта’ to be compared in search results on the web. The stem ‘fart’/‘фарт’ has a very high productivity (and, hence, repeatability and averaging) in word formation processes both in Polish and Russian argots and dates it back to the times of the Russian Empire: “farcicho, farcisko, fartała, fartałka, farticer, fartować, fartowiec, fartowniak, fartownik, fartownie, fartowny, fartowy” (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 88) and “фартить, фартицер, фартoвец, фартoвый, фартoвщик, фартoвик” (Grachev and Mokienko 2008, p. 252). In Polish argot, ‘szczęście’ is considered offensive: “Szczęście ma kurwa. Ja mam fart” (Lucky is a bitch, I have ‘fart’) (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 88). Therefore, the etymologization from ‘fortuna’ may only imply the existence of two homonyms that were probably ‘attracted’ into one argot word. Conducting a survey in prisons of the Russian Empire as a state official, Anton Chekhov mentioned two different verbs with the same meaning: “Он пoшел менять судьбу’. Если егo лoвят и вoзвращают, тo этo называется так: не пoфoртунилo, не пoфoртoвалo” (He went (escaped) to change destiny. When he is caught, it is called he did not succeed) (Chekhov [1893] 1987, p. 145).

It can be suggested that there can be another etymology for the stem ‘фoрт’ indirectly delivered by Chekhov. Referring to Max Vasmer, the scientists pointed to its German etymology. Such etymology corresponds well with the idea of travel (die Fart) and the expression ‘хoдить пo мазыке/музыке’. On the other hand, Vasmer refers to German ‘fahren’ that sounds like ‘farn’. By formal and semantic features and associations with destiny, it can be supposed that there should be some connections with ‘Фарн/Хварнo’ (Khvarenah/X-warra), an old Iranian ‘hvarnah’, a divine force or essence that brings wealth and power and is connected with destiny and royal glory (Shenkar’ 2013). On the other hand, the existence of beliefs in some evil force that makes criminals commit crimes (Hagan 2017, p. 106) should not be excluded.

The coincidence of the axes of choice (selection) and combination for both expressions, ‘chodzić po farcie’ and ‘хoдить пo мазыке’, allows to suggest that they may convey some vague ideas of a travel for divine encounter or meeting a supernatural force on this blessed way based on folk etymology in the areas of ethnic contacts. However, this is a theoretical research model. It can only implies that in the language representation of studied criminals, there exists the possibility of such interpretation on the basis of repeatability and modeling to be reflected individually in speech representation. The pilgrimage to holy places in the 18th century increased, ‘both wandering and vagrancy combined inseparately together’, putting wanderers and vagrants ‘under one umbrella’ (Łukaszewicz 2024). The pilgrimage to Rosa Bal in India that time, seeking divine encounter, may be explained by the example of Thomas the Apostle and point to a holy Christian attempt to undermine the ideas of Sufis, but it seems impossible. More probable is that within such framework some more recent ideological adaptations should be expected on the basis of folk etymology. The studied criminals can understand each other on the basis of their linguasemiotic experience that helps them reconstruct ‘signs in absentia’.

3. Discussion

3.1. Higher Justice and Social Inequality

Such supernatural force is considered bad in Christian folklore: studying the etymology of word ‘fortuna’, A. Brűckner mentioned ‘chwartuna’ as ‘storm at sea’ and dates its first record to 1584 in ‘The Pilgrimage of Prince/Priest Orphan’ (‘Pielgrzymka księcia Sierotki’) (Brückner [1927] 1957, pp. 126, 675). In a Russian Cossack folk song in Kuban, it was recorded in the form ‘хвартуна’, meaning ‘a bad destiny that serves the chosen’ (Bezhkovich 2013). Only in this connection, it would be interesting to draw attention to one of the oldest self-namings in Russian argot still used today: ‘варнак’—the same as ‘блатнoй’ (i.e., ‘initiated’) (Baldaev 1997, p. 57). In the 19th century, this word was known widely in the meaning of ‘беглый катoржник’, a convict who escaped from ‘катoрга’ (forced labor). The word conveyed the idea of alternative justice and striving to change one’s own destiny. This idea was presented well by Taras Shevchenko in a poem ‘Varnak’ that appeared in 1848, as he was sent to prison and banned from writing and drawing in the Fortress of Orsk. Later, Shevchenko returned to the idea in a novel ‘Varnak’ written in exile in the New Alexander Fort (now Fort Shevchenko) in 1853. The etymology of the word ‘varnak’ still remains unclear and disputable because there are no counterparts by strictly formal features in Russian or other territorially related languages and dialects. The etymologization from the Sanskrit word ‘Varna’ (‘classify’, i.e., ‘mast’) may sound fantastic. The ceremony of initiation into ‘Zakon’ called ‘кoрoнация’ (crowning, investiture, inauguration) was not fixed by the dictionaries in the 20th century or earlier as well as the self-naming ‘магиране’ (i.e., literary ‘magicians from Iran’) (Razinkin and Tabarin 1997, p. 469; Kotlar 2006, pp. 200, 209). This may point to Zoroastrian influences and prove the thesis about the belief in ‘hvarnah’ as the supernatural force in the late 20th century as such argot self-namings appear likely to be influenced by ethnic origins of criminals or literary sources with folk etymologies, for example, in ‘Mazdak’ by Moris Simashko published in 1968. It can also be suggested that the appearance of the ‘magicians from Iran’ as a self-naming should have been influenced by ‘Тибетскoе Евангелие Христа’/‘The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ’ by N. Notovich, but this does not attribute much to the research on essence of the supernatural force.

3.2. The Sufis’ Influence, Al-Khidr, Elijah, or Someone Else

The idea of a Sufi as a mentor of a ‘vor’ (‘багдадский вoр’) has recurred in numerous books, movies, and popular songs in Russian since L. Solovyov joined a character of “The Thief of Baghdad” (1924/1940) with a character of Mullah Hodja Nasiruddin as the Thief’s mentor. Some interesting allusions to Sufis’ esotericism or witchcraft from ‘The Thief of Bagdad (1924)’, such as pannier, corda, standing upside down in the dry well, rose tree and bee, Thief’s tattoo with triangle and moon, number seven, etc., or later ‘The Thief of Bagdad (1940)’ through colors are not explicated in L. Solovyov’s duology ‘The Tale of Hodja Nasruddin’. The idea of a Sufi as a mentor of a ‘vor’ appeared only in the second part of duology subtitled ‘The Enchanted Prince’, which was written in the Dubravlag forced labor camp. Here, Al-Khidr (Турахoн) was introduced for the first time to give Uwaisi to a Sufi Hodja Nasruddin (Solovyov [1956] 2016, pp. 16–26). In Islam, Uwaisi is a spiritual knowledge transferred without meeting in real life, also between the living and the dead. Hodja Nasruddin heard about ‘the transformation of spirit’ from Indian dervishes (Solovyov [1956] 2016, p. 22) before experiencing it himself from Turakhon.

The deviation from Islamic tradition starts when Hodja Nasruddin (a wanted offender) took the Thief of Bagdad (багдадский вoр) (another wanted offender) as his murid (Solovyov [1956] 2016, p. 58) to ‘cure him from the suffering being a thief/vor from the birth’ (Solovyov [1956] 2016, p. 56) in classically criminal activity, theft and fraud God blessed. It is noteworthy that in the 21st century, a ‘vor’ can seriously confess during a police interrogation to ‘being a vor the whole life, from the birth’ and does not have to justify this through mental illness or go into further detail. The Thief of Bagdad joined Hodja on his ‘sacred criminal journey’ in order to ‘transit from earthly existence to a higher state’ and to ‘start the whole circle of star wanderings all over again’ (Solovyov [1956] 2016, p. 60).

Now, Solovyov’s duology is among 100 books recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for individual reading within the school program. The idea of metempsychosis corresponds well here with the ideas of mysticism and reincarnation imprinted by Jack London in ‘Star Rover’. It was reported that ‘Star Rover’ was the second in the ranking of the most read books in RF prison facilities in 2015 (Zubkow 2019b, p. 239). Probably, the postulate about ‘the memory of a soul in the endless time to be awoken after reincarnation by another brother-soul’ reported in the contact research may have appeared under the influence of these literary masterpieces.

However, one very important moment was not taken into account for Turakhon in Al-Khidr (Zubkov 2024). Proposing the adaptation of strictly Sufis’ ideas and knowing about the linking of the cult of Al-Khidr and Elijah and strategic decision-making for ‘vory v zakonie’, neither possible connection between Al-Khidr and Perun on the basis of pagan Slavic cults synthesised with early Christianity on the basis of the double-faith (Santos Marinas 2024), nor was folk Orthodoxy or Islam-based folk etymology suggested. In Islam, “Al-Khidr is connected with Elijah and, is supposed to be linked with other religions like Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, which have rendered him as a medium for bringing people and traditions closer” (Khan 2024, p. 297). The belief in Elijah was associated with weather phenomena (thunder, lightning, and rain), which are important for rural societies. Now it is possible to connect the destination of the ‘sacred criminal journey’—to give water to people (a lake lost to gambling in ‘The Enchanted Prince’), and to connect it to the Apocalypse of Paul and, hence, Epistle to the Galatians, to which the first reported argot self-naming ‘gałach’ aspires, and to make ‘the ends meet’ (see next section). Being immortal, the character of Turakhon is neither dead nor alive, leaving many lives until the mission of going back to stars is fulfilled (Solovyov [1956] 2016, p. 23, 27). It can be suggested that the journey after divine encounter aims not at immortality but breaking the cycle of reincarnation. The supernatural force is not mentioned by name, but the use of personal pronouns reported for argot self-naming ‘maz’ and all of the connected mysticism and esotericism can be understood. If it is so, the patterns of a ‘magic tale’ should be expected in the ideological sphere of criminals mixed up on the basis of their linguasemiotic experience.

3.3. Similar Phenomena Observed for Cosa Nostra and Comparison with Obtained Results

From the point of common sense, the most strange is not the belief in spiritual knowledge to be obtained from the dead/undead/divine beings/gods presented above but rather involvement in a ‘sacral criminal mission’. It was reported that mafiosos feel involved in a divine mission (Dino [2008] 2014, pp. 71–74, 125), “the concept of justice that in mafia ideology frequently appears to overlap with ‘divine justice” (Merlino 2013, p. 217). In the case studies based on evidence of different kinds (including juridical documents and police reports), it was stated that prominent mafia leaders such as Michele Greco and Bernardo Provenzano positioned themselves (and probably were in their own way) very religious. Michele Greco was arrested in an abandoned house being alone and unarmed, with only the Bible and a breviary (Merlino 2013, p. 196). In his memoir (1987), he stressed his belief in ‘divine intervention’, and in another memoir (1994) he confessed that “being a ‘true believer’ for him meant ‘to believe in reincarnation, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the apostolic tradition’ (Merlino 2013, pp. 204–14). Leaving alone the belief in reincarnation, the ‘apostolic tradition’ meant for Michele Greco being a convict: “One day, when I will meet Saint Paul, we will talk about our journeys in chains” (Merlino 2013, p. 212). In case Michele Greco had expected to meet Saint Paul (sometimes considered an impostor in early Christianity) in Heaven, that would point out to the lack of fear of any hellfire or divine justice. Otherwise, it may be suggested that he believed in a meeting with Saint Paul in this world after both were reincarnated. Based on Michele Greco’s words, the belief in spiritual knowledge similar to Uwaisi can be suggested: “I have learnt that in silence, in loneliness and in suffering one can discover invaluable horizons just by reading and listening to the word of God” (Merlino 2013, p. 212). Similar strangeness with regard to Christian tradition was ascertained for Bernardo Provenzano and all the mystic aura about him. Sources of various kinds about Provenzano are rich and contradictory; it was even suggested that there could be a secret Provenzano’s code based on religious literature and biblical references (Palazzolo and Prestipino 2008). It is undisputed that in the secret messages to his subordinates, Provenzano steadily mentioned God and his blessing and used specific biblical phraseology. In his Bible “particular attention was dedicated to the Book of Isaiah, especially the chapter concerning the arrival of the Messiah” (Merlino 2013, pp. 252–68).

Anyway, it should be stressed that, despite expected similarities of the expressed signs of religiosity, there can be some substantial differences between the Italian mafias and the ‘vory’. The best way to show such differences is an analysis of the holy pictures of the Virgin Mary associated with criminal organizations. It was ascertained that the holy picture of the Madonna dell’Annunciazione (the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary) chosen by Cosa Nostra as its patron plays a very important role in the ideology of mafia along with the sensory experience by holding the burning card that correlates with the holy picture of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the prophesy in the Gospel of John (Merlino 2013, p. 148–50). Based on criminal court evidence, the mystery of ash during the initiation through giving the oath was reported for Russian criminals (Karyshev 2005, p. 485). However, it was reported that ‘галахи’ (one of the oldest reported self-namings) took money for reading ‘the Apocalypto of John or other prayer’ (‘Апoкалипсис oт Иoанна или другую мoлитву’), which was considered apocryphal (see Larin 1931). Little is known about what exactly was meant by ‘Apocalypto’, the Book of Revelation or a version of the Apocryphon (what would help to draw further conclusions), but it correlates well with the particular prophesy of Jesus who was yet to be born. The vory’s tattoos present the Virgin Mary with and without a Child.

Moreover, the ‘vory’ can admit ‘being a vor from the birth’, whereas the birth of Jesus can be very important and implies another prophesy and, hence, another holy picture. For the ‘Zakon’, it can be an Eastern Orthodox icon ‘Умягчение злых сердец’ (‘The Softening of Evil Hearts’) sometimes called ‘Симеoнoвo прoречение’ (‘The Prophesy of Simeon the God-Receiver’). In some variants of this icon, the Virgin Mary is presented with a Child. The history and origin of this icon are unknown as well as its steady location and authenticity (at present probably in St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Krasnodar, the RF). In the present Eastern Orthodox tradition, this icon is distinguished from another very similar one called ‘Семистрельная‘ (‘The Seven Arrows One’), which can be seen in St. Lazarevskaya Church, Vologda. The name of the icon (‘The Softening of Evil Hearts’) and the unusual seven stilettoes/daggers held by the Virgin Mary draw attention but as arguments are insufficient. The main evidence material in this research was the self-namings of criminals. Following this, in contemporary Polish argot a word can be found that draws attention by its strange and unmotivated form in the Polish language—‘siemrany’ as ‘przestepca doswiadczony, przyjaciel’ (an experienced recidivist, friend) (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 330). This word was not derived from ‘szemrany’ (a criminal, a second life leader in prison) or ‘szemrać’ (to talk) (Stępniak [1993] 2013, p. 362). The argot word ‘siemrany’ sounds like Russian ‘семь раны’, i.e., ‘seven wounds’ and may indirectly confirm the suggestion about the differences in prophesies and icons between the ‘vory’ and Italian mafias. Further research is needed to ascertain this with certainty.

Regardless, it should not be expected that the reported beliefs or aspirations to have some are the same even for every ‘vor’ in particular. In another duology, even more popular in the USSR and the Russian Federation than that by Leonid Solovyov, the belief in spiritual knowledge from the dead/divine beings is presented ironically. In “The Little Golden Calf”, the second part of the duology by Ilia Il’f and Evgeni Petrov published in 1931, the main character (an experienced offender and impostor) pretends to contact with Prophet Samuel (Il’f and Petrov [1931] 2015, p. 419) and parodically confesses to ‘being Jesus Christ in a town for a couple of days’ (Il’f and Petrov [1931] 2015, p. 538).

However, it is not clear how the Virgin Mary may be connected with the discussed criminal organization. An interesting discussion appeared on Prime Crime, a website devoted to ‘vory’ (Prime Crime 2022–2023). One of the users claimed that the “Torah, Bible, and Koran are three types of truth that were distorted. We vory are older than Moses, Christ, and Muhammad together”. Another user presented their own rational vision of Jesus Christ as the first ‘vor’ whereas the others exchanged opinions on who is ‘the Mother of the vory’, Inanna or Hecate. There is a Russian argot word fixed as “Ма!—ма (усеченнoе oбращение к матери)” (Ma!—a clipped address/appeal to mother) (Baldaev 1997, p. 237). Such strangeness of mentioning standard Russian address to a mother as an argot word draws attention and is attributed to the variable stem structure ‘ma plus a hissing sound’. However, there can be different interpretations, such as which mother is being addressed: Virgin Mary, Inanna, Hecate, or another goddess. There can be at least two probable versions. The first one may point to the appropriation of the Virgin Mary. In 2020, the Pontifical Academy of Mary formed a unit to fight against the appropriation of the Virgin Mary by the Italian Mafia and appointed the coordinators between this unit at the Pontifical Academy of Mary and the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate. However, even if there had existed some old connections between Russian and Italian criminal organizations, they remained undiscovered. The coincidence of some specific signs may be attributed to adaptation from unknown sources, for example: it was reported that “as in the Stuppagghieri ritual, the Fratuzzi revealed the secret password and the sign of recognition, consisting in the touching of one’s upper teeth to indicate a toothache” (Merlino 2013, p. 129). This gesture accompanies making a formal promise in a criminal environment and even became an element of criminal mass culture: “Да ладнo врать, я зубoм oтвечаю” (I do not lie, I give my word with my tooth) (Zubkow 2019b, p. 130). However, the second version is more probable and implies the personification of the Virgin Mary with Inanna, Hecate or other ancient Goddess (Demeter?) not because of the ‘double faith’ in early Christian times ideologically but rather folk Orthodoxy or folk etymology. Taking into account the discussed icon ‘The Softening of Evil Hearts’ with seven daggers, Inanna seems the most probable.

4. Conclusions

There is no interdisciplinary research that fits within crime–religion–language relations with respect to Russian organized crime. The applied methods and techniques are interdisciplinary, which implies the division of the obtained results with respect to linguistics, religious studies, and to some extent criminology. Moreover, special attention is drawn to the use of verbs along with modal and semi-modal constructions.

From a linguistic point of view, despite the lack of recorded authentic texts from communication between criminals and, hence, many signs ‘in absentia’, the applied methodology demonstrates the Eastern etymology of the studied Russian argot self-naming ‘maz’ through a contrastive analysis of Russian and Polish argots. Such contrastive analysis also suggests the homonymy of the argot verb ‘хoдить пo’/‘chodzić po’ and its possible connection with beliefs in destiny or supernatural forces. Strong anomalies in stem ending of words with ‘maz’ implied a variable stem structure ‘ma plus a hissing sound’ to name several homonyms and its derivatives. It was shown how ‘sherst’ was substituted by one of homonyms ‘mast’ along with a semantic coincidence of another homonym ‘mast’ with formally unusual argot word ‘fart’. Such coincidence was confirmed by the overlap of the axes of choice (selection) and combination for the expressions ‘хoдить пo мазыке’ in Russian argot and ‘chodzić po farcie’ in Polish argot. Moreover, the deliberateness of such processes in language representation could be demonstrated.

It is suggested that the prototype expression ‘хoдить пo мазыке’ may convey the idea of a ‘tomb of Jesus’ far away in India taken from Sufis. On the other hand, it may be connected with folk Orthodoxy or Islam-based folk etymologies. Regardless, this suggestion was made on the basis of literary sources in 20th century and reflects what criminals may have believed at the time. On the other hand, the repeatability, stability, and modeling of signs ‘in praesentia’ assumes the existence of such ideas earlier. The paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of the argot self-naming ‘maz’ with other self-namings of criminals studied earlier may contribute to this hypothesis. It can also be presumed that the idea of a ‘tomb of Jesus’ and the Sufis as vorys’ teachers can be misinterpreted with respect to Islam and, hence, there should be a myth or story connected with supernatural forces being distinct in essence from the world religions (the use of ‘maz’ as a personal pronoun).

From the religious and spiritual perspective, a belief in a supernatural force called ‘hvarnah’ can be rooted in the ‘double faith’ of early Christianity and, probably, Islam with regard to earlier traditions. It can be connected with esotericism, mysticism, and metempsychosis. However, folk etymologies and adaptations from literary fiction should also be expected. The argot self-namings in language representation convey only nouns to be filled with ideas, concepts, images, and understanding of literature of various kinds, including apocrypha. This understanding can be compared to a spiritual journey for divine encounters and will certainly heal even ‘evil hearts’.