General and structure

Mafia- a criminal community, a "shadow" state with its own structure, organization, its own code of conduct ("omerta") and its own concepts of honor. The origin of the name of this phenomenon is still debated, however, one thing is certain: the Sicilian criminals themselves never thought of calling their community “mafia”. They called it the "honor society", and the members of the community were referred to as "people of honor", "our friends" or even "good people".
The mafia originated in Sicily, and with the wave of Italian migration to the New World, this phenomenon took root on the shores of America. The American mafia inherited the basic laws and traditions of the Sicilian, but went on to develop in its own way. Like the Sicilian mafia, the American mafia does not use the term "mafia", this word has migrated from the Italian press to the American one, where it has taken root.

The internal structure of the mafia is as follows:

Boss, don- head. He is the top of the system, manages all the affairs in the family, receives information about the actions performed by each family member. The boss is elected by the capo's vote; in the event of a tie in the number of votes, the assistant boss must vote.
The most respected and influential mafia in the clan is at the head. Power, as in any other structure, can be obtained in many ways from long and hard serving to killing competitors. There are practically no restrictions on the ability to take a position (except for the absolute observance of the “omerta”, but this applies to all members of the mafia) and the general rule that a woman can not lead the clan. An exception to the last rule within the framework of the game is the Martell clan, where such precedents took place (however, extremely rarely). Age practically does not matter, the main thing is experience, influence, respect.
Within the framework of the game - the Lord of the House, i.e., for example, the boss of the Starks at the beginning of the game is Eddard Stark.

[!] Separately, it is worth mentioning such a term as "Boss of all bosses", under which it is customary to consider the mafia whose clan is the most influential. As part of the game, he is Roberto Baratheon.

Underboss or Underboss- "deputy" boss, his right hand, the second person in the family, appointed by the boss himself. The henchman is responsible for the actions of all capos. In the event of the arrest or death of the boss, the assistant usually becomes the acting boss, but this custom is not an absolute rule for the succession of power.
Within the framework of the game, the underboss is not necessarily a promising heir to the House in the canon, i.e., the underboss of the Baratheons is not Joffrey, but Renly, as he is older and more experienced than the first.

Consigliere- family adviser, whose advice the boss listens to make certain decisions. Serves as an intermediary to resolve disputes between the boss and bribed political, union, or judicial officials and/or acts as the family's representative in meetings with other families. The consigliere usually does not have a "team" of his own, but the consigliere has significant influence within the family. Tellingly, they usually also have legitimate businesses, such as practicing law or working as a stockbroker.
Within the framework of the game, anyone can be a consigliere, regardless of his blood relationship with the head of the House, i.e., for example, the consigliere of the Starks is Roose Bolton.

Caporegime, capo, or captain - the head of the "team", or "battle group" (within the game - vassals), who is responsible for one or more types of criminal activity in a certain area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city and monthly gives the boss a part of the income received from this activity. The performance in the capo is made by an assistant, but the boss personally appoints the capo.
Within the framework of the game, the capo can be anyone.

Full list of structure members:

1. Capo di Tutti Capi (Capo di Tutti Capi) - "Boss of all bosses" - the head of all families.
2. Capo di Capi Re (Capo di capi re) - literally "King-boss of all bosses" - a title awarded in respect to the "Boss of all bosses" in retirement.
3. Capofamiglia (Kapofamilia) - don, head of the family.
4. Consigliere (Consigliere) - "adviser" - Don's consultant.
5. Sotto Capo (Sotto Capo) - Don's deputy - the second person in the family.
6. Capodecina, Caporigeme, Capo (Capodecina, Kaporezhim, Kapo) - the captain of the "people of honor", a mafia soldier. As a rule, from 5 to 20 "soldiers" are subordinate to the Kapo.
7. Uomini D "onore, Sgarrista, Soldato (Umini Donore, Sgarrista, Soldato) - "people of honor" or "soldiers" of the mafia, the initial stage in a mafia career.
8. Picciotto (Pikkiotto) - "little man". This group includes people who, although becoming part of the mafia, have not yet been accepted into the family.
9. Giovane D "Onore (Giovan Donore) - young men of honor - friends and supporters of the mafia, as a rule, not of Italian blood. This extensive group includes corrupt officials, police, lawyers, mafia bankers, and all those people who help the family function .

Code of honor and commandments of the mafia.

Despite the fact that the mafia is an illegal organization that violates all sorts of moral principles, mafiosi have a certain code of honor, non-compliance with which is not only condemned, but severely punished. This code is based on Christian commandments (which have undergone a rethinking within the mafia community), family values ​​and strict secrecy. No matter how strange it may sound, Christianity really plays a crucial role in the worldview of most members of the mafia, and even if (suddenly) faith has died in you, please do not advertise this and respect the faith in others. Curiously, icons were often present at the initiation rites, but their use was not traditional (more on this later in the text), which speaks in favor of the fact that the mafiosi themselves rethought the religion of their land and served it under a sauce that was beneficial to them, closing their eyes to its main principles (non-resistance to evil, love for neighbors and enemies, self-sacrifice, etc.) Most mafia members sincerely believe in Christ and even try to follow his commandments in their own way, for example, to love the Lord God, to love your neighbor (most often, a member of your family), to remain faithful to his wife and not even dare to look at other people's wives, etc. However, the observance of the commandments of some does not cancel the neglect of others (the ban on murder, oaths, the accumulation of wealth, etc.)

The main virtue of a mafia member is respect for the organization. In addition, there can be no talk of any alcohol and drug addictions, as well as non-traditional sexual relationships. Respect for a woman, especially one's wife, is also an important covenant of the community.

Nevertheless, the mafia "code of honor" is often violated: mutual betrayals, denunciations of each other to the police and intrigues are quite typical for representatives of mafia clans. Within the framework of the game, the exception will be the Starks clan, for which observance of the “omerta” is an indisputable condition for the existence of the mafia.

"Omerta"- "code of honor", the mafia's code of silence.
- there is only one reason to leave the organization - death;
- the offender of one member of the organization offends the whole organization;
- only the organization administers justice;
- members of the organization are subject to the head of the organization implicitly;
- betrayal is punishable by the murder of the traitor and all his relatives (betrayal means even the utterance of any words within the walls of the prison during the investigation). By "all his relatives" both women and children are meant, but it rarely comes to that.

"Ten Commandments"
The Ten Commandments of Cosa Nostra is an unofficial set of laws that every member of the Mafia must follow.
1) No one can come up and introduce himself to one of "our" friends. It must be introduced by another friend of ours.
2) Never look at the wives of friends.
3) Do not allow yourself to be seen in the company of policemen.
4) Do not go to clubs and bars.
5) It is your duty to always be at the disposal of Cosa Nostra, even if your wife is in labor.
6) Always show up for appointments on time.
7) Wives should be treated with respect.
8) If you are asked to give any information, answer truthfully.
9) It is forbidden to embezzle money that belongs to other members of Cosa Nostra or their relatives.
10) The following persons cannot enter the Cosa Nostra: one whose close relative is in the police; the one whose relative or relative is cheating on his wife (wife); one who behaves badly and does not observe moral principles.

Initiation ritual.

The mafia is not only a criminal organization and a shadow state, but also a secret brotherhood, sealed by an oath of blood.
In order to become a full member of the mafia, it is not enough just to express a desire, you must first become a partner, and then get a recommendation from three mafiosi and undergo an initiation ceremony.
The recommendation is based on the personal qualities of the subject and the results of the task performed by him.
The recommendation can be given based on the personal qualities of the ward or some tasks performed, ranging from simple intimidation to brutal murder. After receiving the characteristics of the ward, they warn that it is impossible to voluntarily leave the organization and the mafia was created to protect the weak from the arbitrariness of the strong.
The ritual itself is conducted personally by the head of the family, along the way asking questions, the answers to which make it possible to understand the loyalty and loyalty of the subject to the organization. The initiator then pierces the novice's finger and spills his blood on the sacred image of the saint. The icon placed in the beginner's hand is lit. The beginner must resist the pain by tossing the image from one hand to the other until the image burns. At the same time, he must solemnly pronounce the oath "Cosa Nostra" - "Let my flesh burn like this saint, if I am not able to abide by the rules of the mafia."

You can fight alone against the system if you want to become famous and most likely dead. The history of the confrontation with the Italian mafia knows such examples of the struggle - successful and not very successful.

Cesare Mori

“It remains just a man, a citizen Mori, a fascist Mori, a fighter Mori, a living and full of strength man Mori,” Mori said about himself in a farewell speech in June 1929. Perhaps it is worth adding that Cesare Mori was in the right place at the right time. These days, he would sit with the mafia in the dock. In January 1926, a loyal ally of Mussolini organized a brutal blockade of the city of Gangi, in Sicily, which was the headquarters of the Sicilian mafia. Whoever didn’t hide, I’m not to blame - this principle was used by the police, led by the “Iron Perfect”, without exception for women and children.

The methods and fantasies of a devoted servant of the fascist regime brought results on January 10, when members of the mafia clan surrendered to the authorities. The city was decorated, a military band played - it was a victory, Mussolini sent to his prefect:

“I express my full satisfaction and advise you to continue in the same spirit until you complete your work, regardless of rank and title.”

Mori followed the instructions of his leader and did not pay attention to details, as a result of his work, about 11 thousand people were arrested, of which 5 thousand were only in the province of Palermo, even his colleagues admitted that there were honest people among them. The end came pretty soon, three years later Mussolini sent a telegram thanking him for his service. Cesare Mori was not overtaken by the revenge of the mafia structures; he died a natural death in 1942, a year before the fall of the fascist regime in Italy.

Giovanni Falcone

In the early 1960s, the young and assertive Falcone was assigned to handle the bankruptcy of the company, well-known politicians and businessmen were involved in the case, this moment can be called the starting point of his struggle against the mafia clan. Perhaps Giovanni made his decision much earlier, he always repeated that the mafia is a problem for all of Italy, and not just the South. In 1987, Giovanni Falcone became the absolute leader in the number of people who wanted to kill him among the members of the Sicilian mafia. The reason for the hatred was the trial, in which Falcone was a public prosecutor, where more than 400 members of groups were sentenced, including not only ordinary performers. Falcone found the "lead years" when the mafia did not stand on ceremony with law enforcement officers, and rarely one of them lived to retire.

Giovanni Falcone died on May 23, 1992, while driving a car with his wife Francesca Morviglio and a police escort. The explosive planted in the underpass detonated at 17:56 at the turn that connects the Punta Raisi airport in Palermo with the Capaci exit. Five tons of TNT exploded with such force that seismologists recorded a push, and the road section at the site of the tragedy was restored for more than a year. Giovanni Falcone remained for his compatriots a symbol of the struggle against the mafia and a nightmare for those who were his enemy.

Paolo Borsellino

Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were not just friends, they were united not only by their hometown of Palermo, not with a red diploma from the Faculty of Law, and not even by a passionate love for football. Together they fought for the safety of the citizens of Italy, for which they laid down their lives. Brosellino began his career in a civil court, in the 1980s he became a member of the Antimafia team, which investigated crimes committed by mafia groups. Brosellino at the beginning of his journey learned from his colleagues, friends, he knew that one day they would come for him.

On July 3, 1992, Borsellino said: "I know that dynamite is already being prepared for me." To his wife Agnese, the judge said: "The mafia will kill me, you need to accept and be ready, it's only a matter of time." On July 19, in Palermo, he was heading to his mother, at about 17:00 the judge's car was torn to pieces from the explosion of a powerful bomb, five of his bodyguards were killed along with him. The people ardently and in vain demanded that the perpetrators be punished, it got to the point that an angry crowd almost staged a lynching of the President of the Republic, Luigi Scalfaro, right in the Palermo Cathedral. The names of the customers were known, only to whom it is easier from this.

Ness Elliot

As the power of the Italian mafia grew, the fight against it became more and more global. In many ways, the activities of Alfonso Capone in the United States attracted the attention of local intelligence agencies. A cult character for the underworld. The leading US film companies could not and should not have passed by the scale of his personality. Law enforcement officers in the 1920s often took seats in the auditorium, corruption in the organs was present in large numbers.

Elliot Ness was as indifferent to money as possible, he worked quietly in the Treasury and part-time secret agent. In the autumn of 1929, he received carte blanche from the top leadership and created a special group, the average age of which did not exceed 30 years. Surveillance specialists, gunners, financiers and sappers were selected to deal with Al Capone. During the investigation, the "Untouchables" got on the trail of the mafia's black accounting with documentary evidence of all operations, there was no cloud service then, and Capone's accountants turned out to be very talkative guys.

On May 5, 1931, through the efforts of Eliot Ness and his team, Al Capone ended up in prison for a period of 11 years. The operation was successful, if you do not take into account that the “common fund” managed to be taken away from under the noses of the guardians of the law.

John Dickey

Cosa Nostra history of the Sicilian mafia

Forewarning

As will soon become apparent, serious accusations against specific individuals are inevitably made in this book. Therefore, it is absolutely not necessary to read this book, losing sight of the following.

Mafia families and families "united by blood" are by no means synonymous. The fact that one or more members of any family mentioned in this book joined the mafia does not in any way imply that their relatives by birth or marriage belong to the mafia, act in its interests, or even have any idea about it. sphere of activity and interests of their relatives. Indeed, since Cosa Nostra is a secret society, one of its rules is that members of the organization are forbidden to tell their relatives anything about its activities. For the same reason, afortiori, the descendants of now deceased people, who were suspected of having links with the mafia, cannot and should not be suspected of these links.

Throughout their history, the Sicilian and American mafias have established contacts with individual businessmen, politicians and representatives of public organizations such as labor unions. Also, both mafias established contacts with companies, trade unions, political parties or certain groups within these parties. The historical data at our disposal irrefutably testify that one of the most important characteristics of such contacts is their diversity. For example, in cases where the mafia paid for patronage, the individuals involved in the organizing process could be both innocent victims and willing accomplices of organized crime. The references to such organizations and individuals found on the pages of this book cannot and should not be interpreted as determining the guilt of specific individuals and structures. It must be borne in mind that if any persons or organizations had contacts with the mafia in the past, they do not necessarily continue to have them until now. In addition, far-reaching conclusions should not be drawn from the text of this book regarding organizations and individuals whose names and names, by pure chance, coincide with the names and names mentioned on these pages.

This book, like most mafia history, takes a broad historical perspective in which mafia members have managed to elude responsibility much more often than one might expect. The number of such cases is quite large, and the reasons for which convictions were not handed down are very diverse, and the kindness of justice is by no means always due to the short-sightedness or incompetence of representatives of law enforcement agencies and justice, witnesses and judges. Therefore, with the exception of those cases where such short-sightedness or incompetence is directly mentioned, one should not look for negligence or malicious intent in the actions of these public servants.

Many people for a century and a half denied the very existence of the mafia or sought to downplay the degree of its influence on society. Very many of these people spoke and acted quite sincerely. Simultaneously. many people expressed sincere, reasonable, and often justified doubts about the reliability of the evidence received from individual pentiti (“apostates”) or from pentiti in general. In the absence of direct statements in these pages to the contrary, no conclusion should be drawn about the connection of any person with the mafia simply because he denies the existence of the mafia or expresses doubts in the pentiti testimonies.

When this book mentions hotels, restaurants, shops and other public places where mafia meetings took place, it categorically does not follow from the facts of such references that the owners and managers of these establishments, as well as the staff, in any way assisted the mafia, knew about meetings of mafiosi, about their belonging to a criminal community or about the criminal nature of the business that served as a topic for meetings.

For purely practical reasons, the author has not had the opportunity to personally interview all the people whose statements appear on the pages of this book (quoted from written sources - such as interviews in books and newspapers). The author used these sources, proceeding from the conviction that the words cited in them were reproduced accurately and reliably.

Two stories, two May days separated by a stormy century. Each story (the first is a melodramatic fiction, the second is a tragic reality) tells us something important about the Sicilian mafia and partly explains why it has finally become possible to write a history of the mafia.

The first story revealed itself to the world at Rome's Teatro Constanzi on May 17, 1890, at the premiere of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (Country Honor) which is considered by many to be the most successful opera of all time. A simple story about the jealousy, honor and revenge of the Sicilian peasants was set to lively music. The opera was greeted with enthusiasm. At the premiere, the singers were called for an encore thirty times; The Queen of Italy applauded without hiding her emotions. A few months later, in a letter to a friend, the twenty-six-year-old Mascagni admitted that this one-act opera made him rich for life.

Everyone knows at least a few bars from Cavalleria, everyone knows that the scene of the opera is Sicily. Mascagni's intermezzo is featured in the famous final scene from Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, this merciless analysis of Italian-American machismo, pride and jealousy. Music from the opera also plays throughout the third part of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. In the final scene, a cassock-clad mafia hitman stalks his victim through the opulent Teatro Massimo in Palermo as "Cavalleria" is performed on stage. Don Michael Corleone's son sings the lead part of Turiddu. At the end of the film, the intermezzo returns as an accompaniment to the death of the aged don, played by Al Pacino.

It is much less known that the plot of this opera is the "Sicilian myth" in its purest, primordial form; this myth is very close to the official ideology, which the Sicilian mafia adhered to for almost a century and a half. According to the latter, the mafia is not an organization in the usual sense of the word; belonging to the mafia stems from a daring pride and scrupulousness, deeply rooted in the soul of every Sicilian. The notion of "rural honor" thus, as it were, justified the historical emergence of the mafia. Today it is no longer possible to talk about the mafia without taking this myth into account.

The second story began on a hill above the road that leads to Palermo from the airport. Time - about six in the evening, May 23, 1992. Giovanni Brusca, a stocky and bearded "man of honor", watches a short stretch of road before turning towards the town of Capaci. At this point, his people, using a skateboard, drove thirteen barrels into the drain pipe, containing almost 400 kilograms of explosives.

A few meters behind Bruska, another mafioso, older, is smoking and talking on a radiotelephone. He abruptly ends the conversation and leans forward to look at the road through a telescope mounted on a stool. Seeing a motorcade of three cars approaching a corner, he hisses, “Wow!” ("Come on!"). Nothing happens. "Wai!" he hisses again.

Bruska notices that the motorcade is moving slower than expected. He waits, the seconds dragging on endlessly as the cars pass the old refrigerator set by the side of the road as a marker. Only when an irritated, on the verge of panic “Wai!” is heard for the third time, he presses the button.

There is a dull explosion. The earth trembles underfoot. Asphalt rears up, the first of three cars takes off into the air. She makes an arc and lands sixty or seventy meters from the road, in a grove of olive trees. The second car is a white armored Fiat-Krom: having lost the engine torn off by the explosion, it slides into a hole formed on the highway. The third car was also damaged, but not badly.

The victims of the explosion were Magistrate Giovanni Falcone and his wife, who were driving in a white Fiat, and three guards in the first car. Falcone led the investigation into mafia crimes. By doing away with him, the Sicilian mafia got rid of the most dangerous of its enemies, a symbol of anti-mafia activity.

The explosion in Capaci shocked Italy. This event is forever imprinted in the minds of many people; some politicians have publicly stated that they are ashamed to call themselves Italians. For some, the tragedy of Capaci was a clear demonstration of the strength and power of the mafia. At the same time, this operation showed that the myth of "rural honor" was finally a thing of the past, as if confirming the bankruptcy of the official ideology of the mafia. It is no coincidence that the first credible history of the Sicilian mafia was published in Italy after Capaci.

The tale of a rural love triangle in Cavalleria Rusticana reaches its climax in the square of a Sicilian town: Alfio, the driver, refuses the drink offered to him by the young soldier Turiddu. Mutual insults have not yet reached, but both know that the clash will certainly end in blood, because Alfio was whispered that Turiddu encroached on the honor of his wife. In a brief conversation between these

There are many legends about organized crime in various countries, embellished and romanticized by works of art. Thanks to this, members of criminal gangs are shrouded in a kind of brutal flair, which, if not turning them into Robin Hoods, at least allows them not to be perceived as cruel and greedy thugs. One of these legends says that criminals have their own special code of honor, which they strictly follow. This view is somewhat true, and the most famous of these codes is the omerta, the unwritten law of the Sicilian mafia.

Deaf-blind-mute - that's the perfect mafia ...

Thanks to books and there was an idea that omerta (in Russian pronunciation, the emphasis is on the second syllable, in the original Italian sound - on the last one) is exclusively the law of silence, which all mafiosi must keep. That is, a member of the mafia should not tell anyone anything about the affairs of the “family”, about the members of the organization, about its activities - in general, be silent like a fish. This is indeed one of the main components of omerta, but far from the only one.

Omerta is translated as "mutual responsibility" and includes a variety of traditional attitudes for a member of the mafia.

The main one is that all cases should be decided exclusively in the mafia circle. This has been going on since the 18th - 19th centuries, that is, from the moment the mafia was born as secret criminal-patriotic societies in Sicily. Then the island and all of Italy were under foreign rule, so it was necessary to find some form of opposition to the occupying power. The Sicilians could not openly fight, and therefore mafia organizations arose, leading, on the one hand, a sabotage struggle, and on the other, responsible for the self-organization of rural communities. Therefore, the requirement of strict secrecy was the most important, nothing could be reported about the mafia to outsiders, all questions and mutual insults were resolved not with the help of official authorities, but “between their own”.

Later, this resulted in a strict instruction - no matter what happens, do not report on the mafia and its affairs. If a “colleague” has committed a crime against a mafia member, one cannot go to the authorities and demand justice. You need to figure it out yourself, "according to concepts." But besides the code of silence, the law of omerta included other important principles. For example, the inadmissibility of betrayal: betrayal was considered the most terrible crime and was punished mercilessly. A potential traitor had to understand in advance the consequences of his act - not only he, but his entire family was subject to punishment in the form of death. Often, not only the closest members of the apostate's family were slaughtered, but also all, even distant, of his relatives. In addition, omerta implies unconditional obedience to the higher members of the mafia and the lifelong status of a mafia. Mafia is for life, you can't retire or retire here. There are no former mafiosi, there are only mafiosi alive and mafiosi dead. And, of course, the same principle of mutual responsibility operates, “one for all and all for one”. For the offense caused to one member of the mafia, all members of the organization will fully repay.

Omerta and the Mafia: Classic Book and Movie Set

Let a harsh, but in its own way attractive picture emerges: a strict code of honor, discipline, readiness to avenge the "neighbor", loyalty to one's "family" and the like. But life shows that this is for the most part an idealized representation from works of art. In reality, omerta, the law of silence and mutual responsibility, of course, operates, but it invariably falters. The modern mafia is a kind of huge corporation that deals with illegal business and receives huge profits. And when it comes to very big money, traditions, moral rules and codes of honor recede to the tenth plan. So mutual betrayals, internecine wars and cooperation with the authorities are not uncommon within the mafia.

Omerta, like the Sicilian and Italian mafia in general, was glorified by American writers of the 1960s and 1970s, primarily by the famous Mario Puzo.

First of all, he is known, of course, as the author of the legendary "Godfather", but he wrote a number of other novels about the mafia: "The Last Don", "The Sicilian" and "Omerta". But Puzo's knowledge of the Mafia wasn't just because of his Italian heritage. The source of this knowledge, which at one time shocked the American society, was the revelations of the arrested mafia Joseph Valachi. It was Valachi who first openly violated the law of omerta and told "outsiders" about the structure and basics of the Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra (translated as "Our business"). The term itself has become entrenched in popular culture precisely because of the words of Valachi. In 1962, he was arrested for heroin trafficking and feared that he would be killed in prison for old disagreements with his boss, Vito Genovese. In order to get protection from the state, in 1963 Valachi decided to give public testimony about the mafia.

It was this middle-class gangster who said that the Sicilian mafia "families" have a structure that is in many ways similar to the hierarchy of other organized crime groups in the world (Japanese yakuza or Chinese triad , For example). At the head of the family is the "godfather", the boss, who consults on strategic issues with the "adviser" (consigliere). Directly ordinary members of the mafia are led by "captains" (caporejime), who are subordinate to individual units or territorial districts. In order to avoid direct contacts between the godfather and the direct perpetrators of criminal acts, there is a special trusted person. The scheme is as follows: the godfather gives instructions to a trusted person face to face, he, in turn, also privately transmits the order to the caporegime, who is already giving orders to the “private”. Thus, in the event of a betrayal, no one will be able to testify that he heard, for example, how the boss orders the killer to kill an objectionable person.

Alexander Babitsky

"Cosa Nostra" - these words made every inhabitant of the sunny island shudder. Entire family clans were involved in criminal mafia groups. Sicily, this flowering garden, grew on rivers of blood. The Sicilian mafia has spread its tentacles throughout Italy, and even the American godfathers have been forced to reckon with it.

After returning from the south of Italy, I shared my impressions with one of my friends. When I said that I didn’t manage to get to Sicily, I heard in response: “Well, for the better, because there is a mafia!”

Unfortunately, the sad glory of the island washed by the waters of three seas is such that its name conjures up not amazing landscapes and unique cultural monuments, not centuries-old traditions of the people, but a mysterious criminal organization that has entangled, like a web, all spheres of society. Famous films contributed a lot to this idea of ​​\u200b\u200ba "criminal syndicate": about Commissioner Cattani, who fell in an unequal battle with the "octopus", or about the "godfather" Don Corleone, who moved to America from the same Sicily. In addition, the echoes of high-profile trials of mafia leaders in the 80s and 90s, when the fight against organized crime in Italy reached its climax, have reached us. However, no success of the authorities and the police in this endeavor can change the postulate that has taken root in the minds of society: "The Mafia is immortal." Is it really?

It is generally accepted that the mafia is a fairly complex branched criminal organization with its own strict laws and traditions, whose history goes back to the Middle Ages. In those distant times, people armed with swords and lances, hiding their faces under hoods, were hiding in the underground galleries of Palermo - members of the mysterious religious sect "Beati Paoli". The very name "mafia" appeared in the XVII century. It is assumed that the word is based on an Arabic root meaning "protection"; there are also other interpretations of it - “asylum”, “poverty”, “secret murder”, “witch” ... In the 19th century, the mafia was a brotherhood that protected “unfortunate Sicilians from foreign exploiters”, in particular, from time of the Bourbons. The struggle ended with a revolution in 1860, but the peasants, instead of their former oppressors, found new ones in the person of their compatriots. Moreover, the latter managed to introduce into the life of Sicilian society the relations and code of conduct that had developed in the bowels of a secret terrorist organization. The criminal orientation quickly became the cornerstone of the "brotherhood", the corruption with which it supposedly fought was in fact the basis of its existence, mutual assistance turned into mutual responsibility.

Skillfully using the distrust of the official authorities, traditional for the population of the region, the mafia formed an alternative government, practically replacing the state where it could act more effectively, for example, in such an area as justice. The mafia undertook to solve any problems of the peasant, and - at first glance - for free. And the poor turned to her for protection, which the state could not provide them. The peasants did not think that someday it would be their turn to render services to their patron. As a result, each village had its own mafia clan, which administered its own court. And the widespread myth of a secret, centralized and branched organization with a thousand-year history greatly contributed to strengthening the authority of such clans as its "local divisions".

Palermo Airport bears the names of Falcone and Borsellino, who have become a legend in today's Italy. Prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and his successor Paolo Borsellino did their best to rid Sicily of the mafia. Falcone became the prototype of the famous Commissioner of Catania.

1861 - an important milestone in the history of the mafia - it became a real political force. Relying on the poor population of Sicily, the organization managed to nominate its candidates to the Italian parliament. By buying or intimidating other deputies, the mafia was able to largely control the political situation in the country, and the mafiosi, still relying on grassroots criminal structures, turned into respectable members of society, claiming a place in its upper class. The researchers compare the Italian society of that time with “a layer cake, in which the connections between the layers were carried out not by official representatives, but by informal ones, i.e. mafia soldiers. Moreover, without denying the criminal nature of such a state structure, many of them recognize it as quite rational. In the book of Norman Lewis, for example, you can read that in the “mafia” Palermo, a housewife could easily forget her handbag on a table in a bar, because the next day she would certainly find it in the same place.

The authorities of Palermo have developed a program to combat the mafia, which they called the "Sicilian cart". "Sicilian cart" two-wheeled. One wheel - repression: police, court, special services. The other wheel is culture: theater, religion, school.

Nevertheless, the new, "legal" mafia could not save the south of Italy from terrible impoverishment, as a result of which, between 1872 and the First World War, about 1.5 million Sicilians emigrated, mainly to America. Prohibition served as a fertile ground for illegal business and capital accumulation, the former members of the brotherhood reunited and successfully recreated their usual way of life on a foreign land - this is how Cosa Nostra was born (originally this name was used to refer specifically to the American mafia, although now so often called Sicilian).

In Italy, the mafia continued to be a state within a state until the Nazis came to power in 1922. Like any dictator, Benito Mussolini could not reconcile himself to the existence of any alternative power structures, even informal and perverted ones. In 1925, Mussolini deprives the mafia of its main instrument of political influence by canceling the elections, and then decides to finally bring the organization objectionable to the regime to its knees and sends a special prefect, Cesare Mori, to Sicily, endowing him with unlimited powers. Thousands of people were thrown into prison without sufficient evidence; sometimes, in order to capture the "godfathers", sieges of entire cities were announced, but Mori's tough tactics bore fruit - many mafiosi were imprisoned or killed, and in 1927, not without reason, victory over organized crime was announced. In fact, the fascist party itself began to play the role of the mafia as a guarantor of public order in Sicily and an intermediary between the government and the peasants.

The most "mafia" Sicilian sweetness is cannoli, waffle rolls with a sweet filling. They eat them all the time at The Godfather. Another Sicilian dessert is cassata, an almond-based cake. And the tourist town of Erice specializes in vegetables and fruits made from colored marzipan.

Those influential mafiosi who managed to escape Mori's persecution found refuge in the United States. However, here, too, the free life of Cosa Nostra was violated: first, by the abolition of Prohibition in 1933, which dealt a blow to the mafia's business, and then by quite successful, although not always legal, actions of the state against the most odious figures of the criminal organization. For example, the infamous Al Capone was imprisoned for 11 years for tax evasion, and another "America's greatest gangster", John Dillinger, was simply shot dead by federal agents when he left the cinema. However, the end of the Second World War was approaching, and the idea of ​​using the authority of the heads of organized crime in the capture of Sicily seemed tempting to the Allies. The "boss of bosses" of the latter, Lucky Luciano, who was sentenced by a US court to 35 years in prison, acted as an intermediary between the Sicilian and American mafias. The replacement of this punishment with deportation to Rome was, apparently, a good incentive for him - Luciano agreed with the Italian "colleagues" to assist the Allies in landing on Sicily, and the inhabitants of the island met the British and American troops as liberators.

However, there has never been a case where society did not have to pay for the services of the mafia. Almost brought to her knees, she suddenly had the opportunity to be reborn in a new capacity. The dons who distinguished themselves most in the fight against the fascists were appointed mayors in the main cities of Sicily, the mafia managed to replenish its arsenal at the expense of the Italian army, a thousand mafiosi who helped the allied forces were amnestied under a peace treaty. The Sicilian mafia has strengthened its position at home, strengthened ties with its American "sister" and, moreover, significantly expanded its possessions - both territorially (penetrating Milan and Naples, previously untouched by it), and in the sphere of its criminal business. Since the late 50s, the heads of the Sicilian organization have become the main suppliers of heroin to America.

The beginning of this was laid by the same Lucky Luciano, who, by the way, lived to a ripe old age and died of a heart attack almost during a meeting with an American director who was going to make a film about his life. The efforts of his followers were directed both to the drug trade and to establishing links between the mafia and politicians. How much they have succeeded in this over the past decades can be judged by the report of the Italian Anti-Mafia Commission: “Numerous interrelations have formed between mafiosi, businessmen and individual politicians, which have led to the fact that public authorities have fallen into an extremely humiliated position .. The mafia often resorted to threats or direct physical liquidation of people, even intervening in political issues, since the fate of the entire business, the income of the mafia and the influence of its individual representatives depended on them.

Thus, the impression was created that nothing threatened the well-being of the mafia. But this is not entirely true - the danger lay within the organization itself. The structural structure of the mafia is well known: at the top of the pyramid is the head (capo), near which there is always an adviser (consigliere), the heads of departments (caporegime), who control ordinary performers (picciotti), are directly subordinate to the head. In the Sicilian mafia, its cells-detachments (kosci) consist of blood relatives. Koskis under the leadership of one don are united in a consortium (family), and all the consortia together make up the mafia. However, the romantic version of an organization united by common goals becomes nothing more than a myth when it comes to big money.

The ritual of initiation into the Sicilian mafia is that the newcomer's finger is wounded and his blood is shed on the icon. He takes the icon in his hand, and it is lit. A beginner must endure the pain until it burns out. At the same time, he must say: "Let my flesh burn like this saint if I break the rules of the mafia."

Each consortium has its own interests, often very different from those of the rest of the Mafia. Sometimes the heads of families manage to agree among themselves on the division of spheres of influence, but this does not always happen, and then society becomes a witness to bloody wars between mafia clans, as was the case, for example, in the early 80s. The response to the drug trade that led to this terrible massacre was a government anti-mafia campaign, and the mafia, in turn, instituted terror, the victims of which were high-ranking officials, politicians and law enforcement officers. In particular, in 1982, General Della Chisa was killed, who began to dig up mafia scams in the construction industry and became interested in the question of who protects it in the government. 10 years later, the chief mafioso Tommaso Buschetta, who was arrested in Brazil, said that Giulio Andreotti, who served seven times as prime minister, ordered the clan to kill Della Chisa. Buscetta is also the author of the so-called "Buscetta theorem", according to which the mafia is a single organization based on a strict hierarchy, with its own laws and specific comprehensive plans. This “theorem” was firmly believed by the anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who back in the 80s conducted a series of investigations, as a result of which hundreds of mafiosi were brought to trial.

After the arrest of Buscetta, Falcone, relying on his testimony, was able to start several "high-profile cases" against them. The judge vowed to devote his whole life to the fight against the "curse of Sicily", was sure that "the mafia has a beginning and an end", and sought to get to its leaders. Falcone created something like a committee to combat the mafia, the success of which was so obvious that the committee was ... dissolved by the authorities, dissatisfied with his authority and fame, and possibly fearing exposure. Slandered, left alone, Falcone left Palermo, and in May 1992, along with his wife, fell victim to a terrorist attack. However, the murder of Giovanni Falcone and another judge who fought against the mafia - Paolo Borselino - forced the Italian public to wake up. The mafia has largely lost its former support of the population. The “omerta” law, which surrounded the organization with a veil of silence, was violated, and many “peniti” (repentant), i.e. defectors who refused mafia activities gave evidence, which made it possible to send dozens of important dons to jail. However, the old generation of gangsters, forced to retreat into the shadows, was replaced by a young one, ready to fight both the legitimate authorities and their predecessors...

So, the fight against organized crime, which was carried out with varying success throughout the 20th century, continues to this day. The mafia sometimes "changes its skin", always retaining its essence of a criminal terrorist organization. It is invulnerable as long as the official institutions of power remain ineffective and officials remain corrupt and selfish. In fact, the mafia is an exaggerated reflection of the vices of the whole society, and until society has found the courage to fight its own vices, the mafia can still be called immortal.