Late Soviet Union had a lot in common with modern Western liberals. Obsessed with "doing the right thing" and being on the "right side of history", it limited the realistic portrayals of people, pushed the desired role models, and in doing so produced a lot of infantile people who could self-identify as atheists and simultaneously believe in the ability of people like Alan Chumak and Anatoly Kashpirovsky to telepathically charge the regular water with paranormal healing abilities through television sessions.
Only after 1987, some authors were allowed to begin the exploration of actual human relations. One of these explorations resulted in what I consider to be one of the most scientifically correct non-documentary motion pictures about intra-male relationships: "Bespredel", meaning "Outrage" in English. Not to be confused with another must-see film, Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage"/"Autoreiji", the most philosophically nihilist film I've ever seen, which made a great effort at excluding all types of moralization and presenting the struggle for power in the purest form. Soviet "Outrage" instead focuses on biological determinism and behavioral patterns of wildly different men in a forced secluded environment also known as prison. It is freely available on YouTube but has no proper subtitles there, so I wouldn't recommend watching it there unless you find a way to attach subtitles. Auto-translated captions won't handle the nuances and slang.
Prison culture is one of the foundations of Stalin's and post-Stalin USSR, modern post-Soviet countries. It is employed by Putin's regime as an essential part of his Eurasian conservatism and, sadly, it is not always actively fought against in Ukraine. Tsarist Russian Empire and Lenin's USSR had various authoritarian tendencies but sexual attitudes were more or less chill. Various sexual niches, which are considered "perverse" today, were openly practiced back then. The church never liked it, but the legal punishment was mostly class-based, with higher classes being allowed almost everything and proles/peasants having to serve an occasional, not very severe jail term to calm down religious fanatics. Changes came after Stalin was forced to react to the spread of first-wave feminism across the globe. Just as brothels were closing down across the United States and becoming new Benjamin Franklin was no longer possible, NKVD managed to make pimps, once a respectable caste in a criminal world, untouchables. A new social system of suppression had to be installed both in the freshly constructed GULAG and outside of it. It relied on a hierarchy where state administration is above everyone, controls and cooperates with physically strong men, who have the monopoly on cooperating with administration, who also promote the idea that cooperating with the administration is dishonorable, preventing weaker men from overburdening the system.
Let's return to the movie. The protagonist is nicknamed "Philatelist", as he is a physically weak, overtly smart nerd who gets jailed for selling post stamps incorrectly. The modern analog of such punishment is getting jailed for something related to World of Warcraft. Seasoned inmates are so unused to this type of guy that many of them say that they've never encountered anyone like him before. I do believe them. The film is set in the 80s and the only time when such types were jailed en masse was the Great Purge. Afterward, the Soviets generally avoided doing so precisely for the reasons depicted in this movie: it's too much trouble. Prisons love simple people.
Being too open-minded for his own good, Philatelist starts talking with everyone without discrimination. He's lucky enough to befriend a "muzhyk" (dude/lad, average man from the middle caste) called Kalgan, who barely prevents him from eating his first prison meal at the separate table for untouchables or "petukhi" (literal meaning roosters, the closest anglophone term is nonces). Kalgan introduces him to the respectable muzhyky caste instead and Philatelist gets to live and work more or less in peace until he encounters the highest tier of the prison world: "blatnye" (favored). Defining characteristic of blatnye is the ability not to work but still eat. Philatelist gets enraged that he and his fellow muzhyky must sweat while blatnye are laying around for days, smoking and cracking jokes. He tries to bring it up to the yawning administration officer, who imitates involvement to some point but quickly gets tired of it. Then he's visited by "shesterkas" (number six, those blatnye who do menial tasks for "pakhan", second in command of blatnye, muscular enforcer) who do "preventive conversation" with him or in other words beating up. Trying to make sense of what's happening he meets with "glavpakhan" (intellectual member of blatnye, decision maker and holder of monopoly on guaranteed direct contact with prison administration) called Prince (Knyaz). He asks Prince: "If someone does unjust things, can I decide what should be done myself?". Prince smiles condescendingly and replies: "Who are you to decide anything? You should bring the matter before me and I shall decide".
Of course, Prince thought that blatnye not working, beatings up of weak muzhyky, unfair distribution of goods, and other in-your-face discriminatory things are not a problem. What is a problem is Philatelist asking too many questions and spreading discontent among muzhyky. After a green light from the administration, he orders pakhan called Mogol to make Philatelist untouchable, petukh. Despite being an unruly brute, Mogol seems to genuinely respect the criminal honor code and initially tries to object, saying that there is nothing known about Philatelist that justifies his humiliation. Prince orders to invent something.
What happens later is for you to learn, if you decide to watch this film. What I would like to do is to re-highlight qualities which are needed to become a member of respective castes.
Administration: be employed by the state.
Glavpakhan: agree with the need to covertly enforce the will of administration, be a respectable criminal according to the Stalin's/NKVD hierarchy of criminals (murderer, thief), be well versed in both legal and criminal codes of conduct, sociology, have successful businesses or legacies outside of prison, be physically strong if young (physical weakness is allowed to elderly).
Pakhan: apprentice of glavpakhan. Must be younger than him, physically stronger, able to inflict immense amounts of pain barehanded, must only do so in rare cases when shesterkas aren't managing to control the situation themselves, must be the judge of most matters except the most complex and dangerous, which he forwards to glavpakhan.
Shesterkas: must please pakhan, do menial jobs for him, do most of the harassing, beating up and bullying, must never present themselves as judges, and ask permission of pakhan for everything.
Muzhyky: must work, share their earnings with all the above categories who don't work, must not communicate with petukhi, must join the raids of blatnye against petukhi whenever blatnye expect them to. The most numerous and cowardly caste, only acts out if authority forces them to or if petukh successfully enrages them about the injustice they did not care about before.
Petukhi: be a disrespectable criminal according to the Stalin's/NKVD hierarchy of criminals (pimp, gigolo, political prisoner), be a sexual minority, must do all the disrespectable work (clean toilets), must not communicate with anyone except other petukhi. Percentage should not exceed 10% of the prison population. A bigger percentage puts the competence of administration and blatnye into question and thus endangers them.
Glavpetukh: the head of petukhi who doesn't have the guaranteed ear of administration like glavpakhan does, but is allowed not to work just like blatnye. Responsible for keeping petukhi pacified, eternally promising them "revolution in two years". In the movie the most active and sociable petukh is called Moydodyr (literal meaning - wash it until the holes appear). He is surprisingly prevented from joining the anti-blatnye revolt by the previously silent, unseen glavpetukh Khripaty. This almost missable scene is intended to highlight that even among petukhi there's no escape from authority and attempts at suppressing individual agency.
The movie "Bespredel" efficiently showcases how abilities and disabilities shape the place of men among other men. It doesn't condemn anyone really and makes you think about better modes of operation than those of the movie characters. If you're Philatelist - you should assure the support of at least some shesterkas instead of relying on muzhyky so thoroughly. If you're Mogol you can use such a situation to unseat Prince and keep the peace in prison. And if you're Moydodyr, you will understand the fragility of hierarchy better.
Only after 1987, some authors were allowed to begin the exploration of actual human relations. One of these explorations resulted in what I consider to be one of the most scientifically correct non-documentary motion pictures about intra-male relationships: "Bespredel", meaning "Outrage" in English. Not to be confused with another must-see film, Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage"/"Autoreiji", the most philosophically nihilist film I've ever seen, which made a great effort at excluding all types of moralization and presenting the struggle for power in the purest form. Soviet "Outrage" instead focuses on biological determinism and behavioral patterns of wildly different men in a forced secluded environment also known as prison. It is freely available on YouTube but has no proper subtitles there, so I wouldn't recommend watching it there unless you find a way to attach subtitles. Auto-translated captions won't handle the nuances and slang.
Prison culture is one of the foundations of Stalin's and post-Stalin USSR, modern post-Soviet countries. It is employed by Putin's regime as an essential part of his Eurasian conservatism and, sadly, it is not always actively fought against in Ukraine. Tsarist Russian Empire and Lenin's USSR had various authoritarian tendencies but sexual attitudes were more or less chill. Various sexual niches, which are considered "perverse" today, were openly practiced back then. The church never liked it, but the legal punishment was mostly class-based, with higher classes being allowed almost everything and proles/peasants having to serve an occasional, not very severe jail term to calm down religious fanatics. Changes came after Stalin was forced to react to the spread of first-wave feminism across the globe. Just as brothels were closing down across the United States and becoming new Benjamin Franklin was no longer possible, NKVD managed to make pimps, once a respectable caste in a criminal world, untouchables. A new social system of suppression had to be installed both in the freshly constructed GULAG and outside of it. It relied on a hierarchy where state administration is above everyone, controls and cooperates with physically strong men, who have the monopoly on cooperating with administration, who also promote the idea that cooperating with the administration is dishonorable, preventing weaker men from overburdening the system.
Let's return to the movie. The protagonist is nicknamed "Philatelist", as he is a physically weak, overtly smart nerd who gets jailed for selling post stamps incorrectly. The modern analog of such punishment is getting jailed for something related to World of Warcraft. Seasoned inmates are so unused to this type of guy that many of them say that they've never encountered anyone like him before. I do believe them. The film is set in the 80s and the only time when such types were jailed en masse was the Great Purge. Afterward, the Soviets generally avoided doing so precisely for the reasons depicted in this movie: it's too much trouble. Prisons love simple people.
Being too open-minded for his own good, Philatelist starts talking with everyone without discrimination. He's lucky enough to befriend a "muzhyk" (dude/lad, average man from the middle caste) called Kalgan, who barely prevents him from eating his first prison meal at the separate table for untouchables or "petukhi" (literal meaning roosters, the closest anglophone term is nonces). Kalgan introduces him to the respectable muzhyky caste instead and Philatelist gets to live and work more or less in peace until he encounters the highest tier of the prison world: "blatnye" (favored). Defining characteristic of blatnye is the ability not to work but still eat. Philatelist gets enraged that he and his fellow muzhyky must sweat while blatnye are laying around for days, smoking and cracking jokes. He tries to bring it up to the yawning administration officer, who imitates involvement to some point but quickly gets tired of it. Then he's visited by "shesterkas" (number six, those blatnye who do menial tasks for "pakhan", second in command of blatnye, muscular enforcer) who do "preventive conversation" with him or in other words beating up. Trying to make sense of what's happening he meets with "glavpakhan" (intellectual member of blatnye, decision maker and holder of monopoly on guaranteed direct contact with prison administration) called Prince (Knyaz). He asks Prince: "If someone does unjust things, can I decide what should be done myself?". Prince smiles condescendingly and replies: "Who are you to decide anything? You should bring the matter before me and I shall decide".
Of course, Prince thought that blatnye not working, beatings up of weak muzhyky, unfair distribution of goods, and other in-your-face discriminatory things are not a problem. What is a problem is Philatelist asking too many questions and spreading discontent among muzhyky. After a green light from the administration, he orders pakhan called Mogol to make Philatelist untouchable, petukh. Despite being an unruly brute, Mogol seems to genuinely respect the criminal honor code and initially tries to object, saying that there is nothing known about Philatelist that justifies his humiliation. Prince orders to invent something.
What happens later is for you to learn, if you decide to watch this film. What I would like to do is to re-highlight qualities which are needed to become a member of respective castes.
Administration: be employed by the state.
Glavpakhan: agree with the need to covertly enforce the will of administration, be a respectable criminal according to the Stalin's/NKVD hierarchy of criminals (murderer, thief), be well versed in both legal and criminal codes of conduct, sociology, have successful businesses or legacies outside of prison, be physically strong if young (physical weakness is allowed to elderly).
Pakhan: apprentice of glavpakhan. Must be younger than him, physically stronger, able to inflict immense amounts of pain barehanded, must only do so in rare cases when shesterkas aren't managing to control the situation themselves, must be the judge of most matters except the most complex and dangerous, which he forwards to glavpakhan.
Shesterkas: must please pakhan, do menial jobs for him, do most of the harassing, beating up and bullying, must never present themselves as judges, and ask permission of pakhan for everything.
Muzhyky: must work, share their earnings with all the above categories who don't work, must not communicate with petukhi, must join the raids of blatnye against petukhi whenever blatnye expect them to. The most numerous and cowardly caste, only acts out if authority forces them to or if petukh successfully enrages them about the injustice they did not care about before.
Petukhi: be a disrespectable criminal according to the Stalin's/NKVD hierarchy of criminals (pimp, gigolo, political prisoner), be a sexual minority, must do all the disrespectable work (clean toilets), must not communicate with anyone except other petukhi. Percentage should not exceed 10% of the prison population. A bigger percentage puts the competence of administration and blatnye into question and thus endangers them.
Glavpetukh: the head of petukhi who doesn't have the guaranteed ear of administration like glavpakhan does, but is allowed not to work just like blatnye. Responsible for keeping petukhi pacified, eternally promising them "revolution in two years". In the movie the most active and sociable petukh is called Moydodyr (literal meaning - wash it until the holes appear). He is surprisingly prevented from joining the anti-blatnye revolt by the previously silent, unseen glavpetukh Khripaty. This almost missable scene is intended to highlight that even among petukhi there's no escape from authority and attempts at suppressing individual agency.
The movie "Bespredel" efficiently showcases how abilities and disabilities shape the place of men among other men. It doesn't condemn anyone really and makes you think about better modes of operation than those of the movie characters. If you're Philatelist - you should assure the support of at least some shesterkas instead of relying on muzhyky so thoroughly. If you're Mogol you can use such a situation to unseat Prince and keep the peace in prison. And if you're Moydodyr, you will understand the fragility of hierarchy better.
