The Russian Mafia Cured My Autism
Introduction
The Russian mafia cured my autism. I was in a bad place. Hopeless, directionless, and full of uncharacteristic rage.
But when I started learning about them, I fell in love. Not going to lie.
Not with their crimes, but with the code. It was the essence of it that when I learned it, it validated the rejection that I had felt all my life, the mindset that formed from it, and also helped me to clarify how I would go about living my life from that point on.
Now, when I say they cured my autism, I mean the lessons that I extracted from them helped me to change my mindset and subsequently the way I experience my life.
No therapy, self-love, or communication skill building did that for me.
So, maybe this will help you too.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer, I don't support criminal activity and I'm not about that life.
I get anxious about double parking, so trust me, I'm not organized crime material.
This is not meant to romanticize or endorse it either.
That being said, I don't support unethical activity of any kind.
Whether that's a criminal network or something that's supposed to be official, you know, it's the same to me.
Okay, we got that out the way. Let's go.
Who I Am & Who This Channel's For
My name is Sandra Jaunita and I help people with AuDHD turn their differences into advantages by drawing on lessons learned from the history and culture of the Caucuses.
If you’re looking for one-on-one coaching for this exactly, you’re in the right place. Select your coaching package and let’s get to work.
Alright, let’s go.
1) Living in the Underworld
Number one, official systems can be corrupt and oppressive and you don't have to go along with it.
Now, I'm not going to go too deep into the history of the vory v zakone, or thieves-in- law, which is what I'm referring to when I say Russian Mafia.
I'm making an entire series about them that starts next week. So, you can just watch those videos to understand who they were. But basically, they created their own society and world outside of official and conventional systems.
They just rejected society.
They were criminals either way but they viewed themselves as being the only truth tellers in a world full of deceit and lies.
They weren't entirely wrong. It was the Soviet Era which was quite oppressive and they came out of the tsarist and Bolsheviks eras.
They had a legitimate reason and ended up becoming, at least in the beginning, a very trusted organization by even ordinary people because of just how bad the official governing bodies were.
Now, that resonated with me because growing up with autism, I was rejected by typical social atmospheres.
I didn't understand why people were fake, why they smiled in people's faces and did things behind their back.
I didn't even understand how they could actually do that. Lying created a visceral response in me where it made it very difficult for me to do it.
Yet, people were making friends like this. Even through my teenage years, I didn't get it. Through my young adult years, I didn't get it. And so, I would tell the truth and that caused me to be rejected.
Not understanding that and being pushed to the outside, I ended up wanting to work in the underworld for the government.
I wanted to work for the CIA clandestine services, do off the books missions. I wanted to be elite in the underworld but the legal underworld possibly because it seemed like it had order to me and it was something ethical. We're not going into that topic of discussion, that rabbit hole.
But that's why when I learned about the thieves-in-law it resonated with my life specifically. But now that I'm older, I realize I don't have to go to the underworld to have a life that's aligned with how I am, but I can make the distinction between cultural values.
I can adopt other cultural practices, which is what I'm doing through the Caucuses.
So I can live within those frameworks and thrive.
I can do my own thing.
2) Disrespect is Not Tolerated
Number two, don't tolerate disrespect. Also be respectful.
Thieves in-law, they were notorious and just Soviet style people. Anyways, specifically the men, they're not going for disrespect.
In America, people cuss other people out, honk their horns all the time, put up the finger, incredibly disrespectful, and they get away with it often. But if you mess with a Soviet style person or specifically a vor or just a criminal that's on that kind of time, oh no.
In English, we have a word- “motherfucker”. You say that to one of them, you will have an immediate problem.
Now, I'm not saying that should always be the case, but I do think that a lot of people are way too comfortable with being disrespectful and they need to be put in their place.
So, I actually respected that. Was it excessive at times? Yes. But I got the point. And it also showed me I don't have to accept disrespect.
Now, I'm not going around beating people up, but I don't have to stay in a place or around people who are disrespecting me.
Don't destroy your reputation and your standing by allowing for that.
I don't have to be respectful and accept disrespect.
I can be respectful and only accept respect back.
3) Delusional Confidence
Third is delusional confidence.
Now, this is born out of the idea that the thieves-in-law were truth tellers. So, if they're true, if they're moving with integrity, then what's the problem?
To explain this better, I'm going to tell you something about Georgia.
In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and specifically the city of Gori.
Georgia lost that war.
Yet, people, specifically Russians, were confused because Georgians were still celebrating.
Why were they celebrating?
Because they won a battle of sorts. They ended up taking a number of Russian invaders out and they were happy about it. In their minds, they won the battle, they won the war.
Meanwhile, Russia won that war, but you couldn't tell them anything. And because you couldn't tell them anything, the win wasn't really all that great.
The lesson to be learned from that is that if you celebrate your wins, if you are so confident in your integrity that you're like, “what's the problem?”, no one can tell you anything.
No one can tell you that you lost.
No one can tell you that you're not all that.
They can try, but you're just not going to accept it because in your mind, your delusional mind, you are all that.
You're the winner.
4) Be solid & Follow Through
Connected to that is number four. Be solid and follow through.
Basically, have integrity.
Have a code that you live by.
Stick to it.
And when push comes to shove, your reputation precedes you.
And for the thieves-in-law, reputation was everything. A vor was crowned based on his reputation.
He got put through tests, was scrutinized heavily and watched to make sure that he was basically refined by the fire that nothing was going to stop him from living with the integrity of the vory code.
They were very strict about their rules and there were strict consequences for violating them.
And in my own life and in your own life, you can be confident and rest easy if you know that you're living to the code.
5) Rules & Order
Which leads us to number five, rules and order.
Now, like I said, the vory, they had codes. They live by them.
For me, with my autism, I needed the things to make sense. Social situations confused me. A lot of stuff confused me because it was so nuanced.
And the crazy thing is I could see the nuance, but for some reason I couldn't actually use it. I don't know how to really describe that. I couldn't do it or you know capitalize on it. But I understood it way better than a lot of people.
I could understand people very well. Yet I myself had difficulty connecting with them.
So, I needed rules and order, which is why I wanted to work in the underworld for the government because in my mind, there are rules in order. There are things to be done. It's clearcut.
There are no emotions. Don't get me wrong. I'm very emotional, but I need clearcut understandings of things and things to be solid and to make sense.
And in the thieves’ world, their code was solid up until a certain point, but their code largely was pretty solid.
There were consequences.
Just stick to the code and you're good.
6) Community, Reciprocity, & Family
Number six, community, reciprocity, and family.
Now, the thieves, they were different. When I say they rejected conventional values and they they literally did.
They rejected family.
Criminals were their family.
The prison was their home.
I'm not that extreme, but the way they operated makes perfect sense to me.
They had something called an obshack, which was basically a communal fund. They would steal things and it had to go into the obshack.
It was to support each other, especially if they were in prison. They didn't do things just for themselves. Actually, that would get them into trouble.
I always wanted connection. I would put in a lot and not expect the same amount. I would be okay with getting very little while giving so much.
But when I started learning about the thieves-in-law, it made sense.
I would give these people value, but be scared to open my mouth and ask for something.
The thieves taught me number one: Value your family, value your community, value your people. Do not your people dirty.
And number two, you give a lot and also expect to receive a lot.
And the difference between that and greed is that greed is when you want to take more than you're actually putting in.
But if you're putting in a lot, ask. Ask and it should be there.
Your community should be providing for you.
And if the community that you're in is not like that, then babes, find a different community.
7) I'm Not a Man
Number seven, the thieves law taught me that I'm not a man.
Shocker, right?
How I grew up, women were expected to be very argumentative, aggressive, hostile, literally like physically fight in addition to every other kind of fighting and to be both mom and dad, but primarily have the personality of what you would think a dad is.
And I had to defend myself against people like this growing up.
I was beaten on growing up. Taught and told that I was too soft, too nice, yada yada. I need to toughen up and be like a man.
And the thieves law taught me that I'm not.
Number one, they taught me that because I don't want the responsibilities that come with them for being a man. I don't want it. I don't want that, you know?
So, I'm happy I'm a woman because I don't have that expectation on me.
But also, number two, I could relax.
And actually, this goes beyond the thieves in law culture and more into the Caucuses cultures. I'm a woman. I can be soft. I can be gentle. I can relax. I can be nurturing.
That doesn't prevent me from pursuing what I want to pursue or doing what I want to do.
Now, even with me saying those words, it sounds like I want to be like a boss. That's so cringey even trying to say that. But like, oh, I'm a career woman.
I'm not that kind of person.
I want a career, but I believe that family is more valuable than a career. And that's also a part of integrity.
If I'm wholly who I am, then I I shouldn't be worrying about anything.
8) Trust God, Not Man
And lastly, number eight, the thieves-in-laws taught me to trust God, not man and not myself.
Myself, I'm nuanced. People are nuanced. We change up. We don't make sense. We don't even understand ourselves. We can't even see our own backsides. So why should we put our trusts in any criminal code really?
Why should we put our trust in any government or any king or any leader or whatever, any social network or anything like that?
Not that you can't like rely on them sometimes, but to put your entire faith, your heart deeply into any of these things is crazy because they changed and the vory… their code changed.
How they operated and how they moved. It changed over time. What was once stable and solid went through chaos.
I actually respect the essence of what they did. Learning about them helped me out a lot.
And I know that's kind of like a crazy connection, but they really did help me out.
Get the Full Framework
Okay, so if that resonated with you, let me know .
This was just a short list. I'm actually making a guide for people with AuDHD, or if you're just a misfit that creates a Caucasus framework for you to actually have a mindset and life change just like I have.
If you're interested in that, the link to sign up for the wait list is here and you'll be notified immediately when it's available.
All right, go ahead and subscribe and be ready to learn about the thieves-in-law or vory v zakone in the next video.
All right.
Peace!
