ARKHANGELSK, Russia — Drunk and desperate, Pavel Araslanov climbed to the top of a power pole to steal what he thought was an unused electrical cable. When he cut the line, 10,000 volts passed through his body, killing him instantly. He was found the next morning dangling from the pole by a safety strap.
His death was not in vain. Soon, other thieves came in the night and stole the 4,000 feet of copper wire that went dead in Araslanov's final act. Within days, they sold it as scrap at one of dozens of junkyards in this city near the Arctic Circle, getting enough rubles to buy food and vodka.
This is one small case in an epidemic of thievery that has swept across Russia in the nearly seven years since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Without the repressive control of the Communist system, theft has emerged as an integral part of the "privatization" of property once controlled by the state.
While the powerful and well-connected have made off with factories and companies, the poor and disenfranchised take whatever they can get their hands on. Stealing, experts say, has become a normal part of life for millions of Russians.
"People don't think theft is that much of a crime anymore," said Vladimir B. Almukhamed, an Arkhangelsk prosecutor whose office handled two similar cases of thieves electrocuting themselves. "The number of thefts has skyrocketed. Right now, people are basically stealing everything they lay their eyes on."
Cult of Thievery Dates Back 300 Years
The theft of public resources is a deeply rooted tradition in Russia. For more than three centuries, rulers from Peter the Great to Boris N. Yeltsin have complained of graft and corruption in their governments. Stealing has long permeated all levels of Russian society. Today, history and economic necessity have combined to produce a modern culture of theft.
During the Soviet era, Russians were taught that everything was owned in common, and stealing from the state was kept in check by severe penalties. But the breakdown of the Communist system set off a capitalist free-for-all in which the strongest, smartest and most ruthless divided up the empire's spoils.
"People see the results of the so-called privatization," said Boris V. Uemlyanin, first deputy police chief of the Arkhangelsk region. "In Soviet times, everything belonged to the people. The change has created the situation where things ceased to be 'ours' but didn't become 'mine.' They're nobody's. Now, people have no qualms about destroying something that was created by other people to buy a bottle or support themselves."
