ILLEGAL USE OF NARCOTIC DRUGS, PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES, AND THEIR ANALOGUES CAUSES HEALTH DAMAGE, THEIR ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING IS PROHIBITED AND ENTAILS LIABILITY ESTABLISHED BY LAW. If you grew up in Russia at the end of the 20th century, street fights were part of your life. This book is about those who made violence their creed: hitting and getting hit—professionally, daily, mercilessly. These are the guys, participants of countless youth gangs that flooded the late Soviet Union. Kazan was the first city where the phenomenon became truly widespread. Robert Garaev, the author of this book, joined the "Nizy," one of the local gangs, while still in high school. Thirty years later, he decided to find out where the "Kazan phenomenon" came from, why hundreds died in district wars, what those who successfully "divided the asphalt" achieved, and how those harsh days are remembered by the guys themselves, former police officers, lawyers, and ordinary residents of a city disfigured by fear and hatred. This is the only book entirely composed of the voices of survivors—and those willing to tell the truth.