Bitch Wars

The Bitch Wars or Suka Wars (Russian: Сучьи войны or in singular: Сучья война) occurred within the Soviet labor camp system between 1945 and around the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.




The Russian word suka (literally, "bitch") has a stronger negative connotation than its English equivalent. In Russian criminal argot, it specifically refers to a person from the criminal world who had cooperated with law enforcement or the government, or "went bitch" ("ссучился"). Known suki would have a miserable life in prisons. Within the Russian prison system, there was a history and social structure that had existed since the Tsarist Russian era. One of the important tenets of the system was that members would not serve or collaborate with the Tsarist and later Soviet government. This rule encompassed any kind of collaboration, not only "snitching" or "ratting." [1] [2]



As World War II progressed, Joseph Stalin made an offer to many prisoners that in exchange for their military service they would be granted a pardon at the end of the war. After the end of the war, most former criminals eventually returned to their criminal activities and promptly found their way back to prisons and labor camps. The veterans who returned to prison were declared suki and placed on the bottom of the prisoner hierarchy. As a result they sought to survive through collaboration with prison officials, and in return got some of the better jobs within the prison.[citation needed]



This, along with the suki involvement in the Soviet military, started an internal prison war between the military veterans and the leaders of the Russian criminal underground, or "Thieves in Law." Many prisoners were killed in the Bitch Wars. Prison authorities turned a blind eye, since prisoner deaths would serve to reduce the overall prison population - a population that was difficult to maintain during the famines of the times.[citation needed]