The "Criminal and Graveyard" 1990s in Literary Works of the Russian Far Eastern Writers
One of the markers of the state of Russian society in the 1990s is the high level of crime, as well as the intensive involvement of representatives of different social strata, who still did not have such experience, in criminal activity. The Far East occupies a special place on the criminal map of Russia. The focus of our attention is the criminogenic situation in the region and the main trends in the development of crime in the mirror of fiction. The subject of the analysis are the literary works of Russian Far Eastern authors, which were published from the beginning of the 1990s to 2017 inclusive. Literary texts provide an opportunity to see the criminality of the post-Soviet period in persons and to track the impact of the criminal sphere on everyday structures. The study found that writers pay great attention to the motivation and socio-economic background of crimes, criminalization of everyday life, transformation of the social system of values, erosion the boundaries between good and evil. The literary texts reflect the new types of criminal activity that became widespread during the period under review, including economic crimes, the activities of organized criminal groups, the merging of crime with legal business and power structures. The writers state the decrease of confidence to the guards of order and the degradation of the police system, describe the resistance practices of the inhabitant to criminal lawlessness in the conditions of powerlessness of law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the image of the policeman in the Far Eastern literature of the post-Soviet period is ambiguous: it is possible to find in works not only “werewolves in shoulder straps”, but also conscientious employees of internal affairs bodies who honorably perform their duty in any situation.