OIL LAW AND CRIMINAL VIOLATIONS IN "SKHIDNYTSIA CALIFORNIA"

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the article – is to study the most secret criminal environment of "Skhidnytsia California" – one of the most remote centres of oil extraction attracting the attention of hundreds of well-known financial swindlers in the Habsburg Empire as well as organized criminal groups. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematics, objectivity as well as methods of historiographical analysis and synthesis. The scientific novelty of the article is an attempt to research criminal offenses that took place in the Skhidnytsia area. Conclusions. The analyzed problem has attracted scientific interest. The historians tried to show that in the XIX – early XX centuries oil became the subject of blatant controversy in society, the cause of global crises, numerous wars, international exile, instant wealth and a source of profit for the criminal world, which managed to organize an effective web of grey economy around the oil business less associated with the indigenous population of the province. The authors show that organized criminal groups appeared in the vicinity of Skhidnytsia in the early twentieth century and they were engaged exclusively in robbery of the local population, robbery of oil rigs, branches of savings banks, etc. In particular, many thefts were directly related to oilfield equipment, which was very expensive and sold in Skhidnytsia specialty stores. Many facts have been found which indicate to the existence of unwritten customary law among "industrial gangs" mainly based on the principle of silence and blood revenge. The authors raced that increased of brine production, shadow capital accumulation, clandestine transit, money laundering, fire losses, employee irresponsibility, unpaid wages and hundreds of other precedents were the source of litigation, which in turn were a living field for the fashionable legal business, which against the background of the oil industry, and even more so the rigid tax system was increasingly adapted to industrial conditions of "Skhidnytsia California".