In discussing the role of the collective farm market in Russian society and Russian life during the 1930s, I mentioned that even today, when Russian cities have many nice (and some incredible) supermarkets and absolutely NO shortages of food (except of course for those with shortages of money!), the old collective farm market (kolkhoznyi rynok) has mutated, adapted, and still survives.

It has also lost none of its adventure nor its shadows. As the German magazine Der Spiegel noted yesterday in an article concerning recent violence at Moscow’s giant Pokrovskaya market:

It’s a lucrative business. Moscow fruit and vegetable prices are on average significantly higher than those in Germany. One reason for the higher prices might be the cuts demanded by criminal intermediaries. Merchants are obligated to pay the mafia 100,000 rubles ($3130) per ton they process. But the risks are as high as the profits. Since 2007 approximately 20 murders have been considered linked to the struggle for control of Pokrovskaya.

For the full story see HERE