This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Originally in YKTTW.
Camacan: I removed the following on the grounds it's useful Real Life background info, but not part of the trope description since these are not even Mafiya members let alone a description of how the Mafiya is troped in fiction.
Note that there are also petty street crime gangs in Russian cities. These are called "gopniki" and are not generally ever considered part of The Mafiya, but, in a nutshell, are "bros" in training. They are much less flamboyant than American street gangs, disliking all these biker jackets and fancy mohawks (and often trying to start fights with people who sport them), but just as way more violent. Note that these petty gangs are generally extremely small and casual, more like juvenile delinquents from the same block getting together to drink beer and ending up mugging someone or going to beat up their peers from the next block over. They lack names, signs, or symbolism, and generally don't even consider themselves to be gang members. The juvenile groups most resembling gangs in Russia are in fact the more hardcore of clique members - skinheads, fans, and less often, wiggers organizing for self-defense against skinheads or gopniki.
