Solntsevskaya Bratva

**Overview**Members

Солнцевская братва

* Atlanta, Detroit, Liberty City & Los Santos

The **Solntsevskaya Bratva** is a Russian organized crime group that originated in the Solntsevo District of Moscow in the late 1970s. Sergei Mikhailov, a former waiter with a fraud conviction, founded the gang and recruited aggressive young men from the local area as foot soldiers. The gang's strategic location near transport hubs, including the M3 highway, the MKAD ring road, and the Vnukovo International Airport, allowed them to dominate the car import business.

However, in the early 1980s, the gang's dominance was challenged by the Chechen mafia. To combat this, the Solntsevskaya Bratva formed an alliance with the Orekhovskaya gang and other Slavic mobs to drive out the Chechens. The gang war resulted in many casualties, including a gun battle at the Kazakhstan Cinema, where six Chechens and four Russians were killed.

By the late 1980s, the Solntsevskaya Bratva had moved into the banking sector, enabling them to launder their money and get closer to the oligarchs.

They are also known as the Russian mafia, and as the Bratva, which is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the Soviet Union. The groups emerged in a flourishing black market after change of leadership to Gorbachev, exploiting the unstable governments of the former republics. They are either former prison members, corrupt officials and business leaders, people with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences and leaders.

The Solntsevskaya Bratva is similar to the Italian Mafia in many ways, and both groups follow a similar model of organization and structure. The two groups also share a similar portfolio of criminal activity, but the Russian mafia differed from the Italians due to their environment. The level of political corruption and arms sales in Soviet Russia allowed for massive expansion and incorporation of many government officials into the crime syndicates. The Russians also dabbled in uranium trading, stolen from the Soviet nuclear program, and human trafficking.

As of 1985, the Solntsevskaya Bratva remains one of the world's largest, deadliest, and most powerful crime syndicates, with the FBI calling them a "criminal superpower."

## Alliances and Rivalries

in the early 1980s, the gang's dominance was challenged by the Chechen mafia. To combat this, the Solntsevskaya Bratva formed an alliance with the Orekhovskaya gang and other Slavic mobs to drive out the Chechens. The gang war resulted in many casualties, including a gun battle at the Kazakhstan Cinema, where six Chechens and four Russians were killed. Currently in Los Santos and in America overall the gang has no feuds and attempts to remain a neutral party to make as much profit as possible.

## Territory

The Solntsevskaya Bratva's territory is mainly the docks as its the city's biggest import and export, there they are able to bypass customs and smuggle drugs and weapons into Los Santos mainly supplying the south side gangs as well as local biker clubs.

## Prison Tattoos

Russian prison tattoos are a unique form of body art that originated in the Soviet era and continue to be used today. The Solntsevskaya Bratva, a powerful Russian organized crime syndicate, is known for adorning these tattoos. The tattoos have common designs and themes that have evolved over the years, and their meanings can vary depending on the location of the tattoo. The imagery often does not literally mean what it is depicting. Combinations of imagery can form combined meanings, such as a rose, barbed wire, and a dagger.

A thief's collection of tattoos represents his "suit," which indicates his status within the community of thieves and his control over other thieves within the thieves' law. They might also represent his "thief's family," naming others within hearts or with the traditional tom cat image. The tattoos symbolize the owner's commitment to war against the non-thief, the police (menty), and the "bitch" (suka). The tattoos are a reaction to the heavy visual propaganda of the Soviet era, and a "grin at authority," often directly parodying official Soviet slogans with Communist Party leaders often depicted as devils, donkeys, or pigs.

Some common designs and their meanings include stars, which indicate authority and are usually located on the shoulders or the knees. The eight-pointed star denotes rank as a thief in law depending on where it is placed. The cat is a traditional sign of a thief, often with a hat, and the abbreviation "KOT" (kot; cat) stands for "a native prison inhabitant" (коренной обитатель тюрьмы, korennoy obitatel tiurmy). A portrait of Lenin and/or Stalin is often tattooed on the chest, partly from a belief that a firing squad would never follow orders to shoot such an image. It may have originated as a sign of pride among prisoners after the Bolshevik Revolution, as former prisoners were now in control of the country. An Orthodox church indicates a thief, usually a chest tattoo, with the number of cupolas indicating the number of convictions. Suns with rays can be used to indicate the number and length of sentences served. A skull indicates a murderer. Following the abolition of the death sentence for murder in 1947, the number of murders rose significantly, with an extra 10-year sentence being no deterrent to prisoners already sentenced to life.

The traditional "thieves' cross" is usually tattooed on the chest and was very common. Ships with full sails can indicate someone who has fled from custody, a gulnoy or gulat, or that a wearer is a nomadic thief who travels to steal. Dragons indicate a "shark" or someone who has stolen state or collectively owned property. A spider, when facing up, denotes an active criminal, while facing down, it denotes one who has left the lifestyle. Medals can indicate rank or, if done in pre-Soviet style, indicate contempt for authority. An eagle traditionally indicated a senior-authority figure, while if the eagle is carrying someone, it can indicate a murderer. A hooded executioner represents a prisoner who has murdered a relative. Bells can indicate a long sentence with no chance of early release, a long sentence served without parole for being uncooperative to the authorities, or, if on the right shoulder, a thief who stole from the church. Images of the Madonna with Child (St. Mary and the infant Jesus Christ) signify "Prison is my home" and act as a talisman or signify a criminal lifestyle from a young age.

## Gallery

Pictured left to right:
Dimitri, Miroslav, Turkov, Timur, Aleksei, Gregori, Maxym, Piotr, Rurik, & Vasily.
Pictured left to right:
Vasily, Anatoly, Dimitri, ~~REDACTED~~, & Roman.