Splinters

Very interesting review by Irvine Welsh over at the Guardian of A Siberian Education, Nicolai Linin's memoir of the bandit life in Transistria near Ukraine. He claims that while violent criminals , the  Urka community practice  "a Christian-derived form of libertarian socialism, based on the belief that community and moral intent are sacrosanct, and that those who seek power and material gain are inherently weak and evil."  Welsh is open to charges of romanticising criminals and criminality of course, but it is by contrast with the deadened amorality of both criminals (and bankers) elsewhere in the world that he makes his comparison, arguing that in a world of dark Hobbesian chaos here, at least  a semblance of social solidarity. Whether there's any truth in this I've no idea, seems worth a read though.