Brigada
2002 Russian miniseries
Brigada (Russian: Бригада), also known as Law of the Lawless, is a Russian 15-episode crime television miniseries that debuted in 2002. It became very popular in Russia and ex-Soviet countries as well as Eastern Europe, but received criticism for positive portrayal of criminals and aestheticization of violence. The miniseries follows the story of four best friends from 1989 to 2000, and follows their rise in the world of crime from a local gang of petty thugs to a true mafia, mainly concentrating on the leader of the group, Sasha Belov, played by Sergei Bezrukov. The fifteen-part miniseries was written by Igor Porublyov and Aleksei Sidorov and directed by Aleksei Sidorov.
Plot
The series proceeds in chronological order, apart from the scene at the beginning of the first episode before the opening credits, which was taken from Winter 1997.
Summer 1989
The film begins in 1989 when Sergeant Alexander (Sasha) Belov, (nicknamed Bely, or white) has finished his national service in the Soviet Border Troops, and returns to his home in Moscow. He is greeted there by his three childhood friends, Kosmos Kholmogorov (or Kosmos (Kos)/Space), Viktor Pchyolkin (Pchyola/Bee), and Valery Filatov (Fil/Phil). His return, however, shows that perestroika has deeply transformed the Soviet Union life and both Kosmos and Pchyola have turned to criminal racket on Moscow's markets. They try to lure Sasha to join them, but Belov abruptly refuses and instead has ambitions to attain higher education in vulcanology.
Belov also learns that his former girlfriend, Yelena Yeliseyeva (Lena, Lenka) has become a prostitute.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Brigada” as 2002 Russian miniseries. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 2002 Russian miniseries. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q915313. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 1989, 2000 and 1997.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Brigada”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Brigada primary sources, Brigada archive and Brigada research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Brigada”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Brigada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.