In 1986, local media started publishing articles about conflicts among the gangs. One of the articles was published in the newspaper Evening Kazan and titled A Trolleybus in the City. It told about an accident, in which members of Khadi Taktash turned the trolley with the members of Kurchatov upside down. Not like it was news to anyone in the city: people had seen the accident with their own eyes, but publications were impossible until the Perestroyka: the USSR was supposed to be free of organized crime, let alone juvenile. It had the worst impact on children and teens of both genders. Commuting from school could become real trouble; boys were getting mugged, girls could be taken away by car or to a nearby alley and get raped.By 1988, federal media picked up on the topic, and people of the country discovered the Kazan gangs. In the capital of Tatarstan, students went to movies in groups, to watch documentaries Scary Games of the Youth or Scream: Vocational School from the Backdoor2. They featured teens with broken skulls, exemplary court sessions and funerals. Evening Kazan started publishing letters from disturbed parents, teachers, classmates, and even gangsters themselves. One of them was later published in a book by Lubov Ageeva, The Kazan Phenomenon: Myth and Reality. Here it is:I don’t want to live like this anymore. I am constantly worried about my very close friend. We are 15. We’ve been through a lot, and our friendship has only deepened despite all difficulties. I knew he was in a youth street gang, but at first I did not care. Later, I banned him from going to those teen street fights. But today, he came back and said we have to shave our heads. It’s the style of our local gang. If we don’t, the members of youth gangs will either beat us up, or shave us by force.I got scared and asked him to leave the gang. He said their laws were merciless, and ‘the authors’ were unstoppable when punishing for ‘treason’. And by treason they meant leaving the gang. Waiting for him to come back, I keep thinking if he will be bald or beaten up. Maybe he’s already in the hospital. And I know many guys who wanted to leave their gangs because of remorse. Nice, down-to-earth guys. I know many girls who don’t know how to help their friends either.[Signed: Lena](signed: Lena)This is just one of many thousands of similar stories.