Danzig Baldaev\'s father was an academic, an ethnologist who found himself imprisoned under Soviet rule as an enemy of the people.
At his father\'s suggestion, Danzig used his access to document and study the tattoos that were pervasive among the truly Criminal portion of the prison population, the vory v zakonye , or legitimate thieves, a semi-professional class who kept their own brutal laws..
In fact much of Baldaev\'s family moved through the Soviet prison system, while he became a guard.
Danzig Baldaev\'s father was an academic, an ethnologist who found himself imprisoned under Soviet rule as an enemy of the people