"Translation rights to this book have been sold all over the world, but not in Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, or any language which the inhabitants of Bendery and Tiraspol might read. Lilin explains this as a precaution against revenge for revealing the secrets of the Siberian urka's language, tattoos and code. Doctoral theses and Internet archives, however, tell everything about the symbolism of Russian criminal tattoos, while the beliefs of Orthodox dissenters and of "thieves-in-the-law" have been described for over a century (but never before confounded as they are in this book, where revolvers used for killing are kept under icons)."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Donald Rayfield (1 August 2010), "Bloodbath. Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin (Translated by Jonathan Hunt)", Literary Review, 378
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Siberian_Education
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Siberian Education
Siberian Education (2009) by Nicolai Lilin. It was followed by a sequel, Free Fall: A Sniper's Story from Chechnya.
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