You hear the stories often, kids falling pray to gang life. For many there is no escaping where they are born, and leaving is nothing but a pipe dream, others embrace what is expected to become of them, and relish the lifestyle. No matter if it’s a borough in New York, the inner city in Chicago, or any other place in the United States, it always hard to get out. It's even harder when your way out is traveling across the globe to another country.
Artem Sharoshkin grew up in the small town of Penza, Russia, which is located 388 miles from the capital, Moscow. Unlike kids growing up in America where role models are their favorite athletes, in Penza, Russian mobsters or gangsters became the role models for some kids who were growing up in a brand new society after the USSR fell apart, a society that was still working out the new rules of the game.
