In Russian, blat is a form of corruption which is the system of informal agreements, exchanges of services, connections, Party contacts, or black market deals to achieve results or get ahead. Along with "blat" there existed a term of "protektsiya", which is literally means protection, but with more incline to patronage. Similarly in semantics there exists a term "krysha" which derived from criminal environment and literally means a roof. In the Soviet republics, blat, a form of corruption, was widespread because of the common deficit of consumer goods and services. In Soviet times, the price of consumer goods was dictated by the state rather than set by the free market, which often resulted in a deficit of said goods. The networks of blat would make it easier for the general public to gain access to said goods. Unlike normal official privileges that would be provided to eligible group, among which are "commodities like dachas and housing in a ministerial apartment block and were in extreme short supply, being in eligible group was not enough to secure the prize. To get privileges, one would needed contacts with somebody higher up ". An example of such patronage was depicted in a fantasy sketch by the writer Mikhail Bulgakov: The system of blat can be seen as an example of social networks with some similarities to networking in the United States, old boy networks in the United Kingdom and the former British Empire, or guanxi in China. However, the noun blatnoy has a criminal meaning in Russian and it relates to a status in the criminal world. It usually means a member of a thief gang, itself means professional criminal in Russian.
Usage
The word was primarily used to describe networks, when people made each a favour in exchange for another favour. According to Max Vasmer, the origin of the wordblat is the Yiddishblatt, meaning a "blank note" or a "list". However, according to both Vasmer and N. M. Shansky, blat may also have entered into Russian as the Polishloanwordblat, a noun signifying "someone who provides an umbrella" or a "cover". The word became part of Imperial Russian criminal slang in the early 20th century, where it signified relatively minor criminal activity such as petty theft. Blatnoy originally meant "one possessing the correct paperwork", which, in the corrupt officialdom of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union indicated that the blatnoy was well connected. In addition, the word blatnoy came to indicate career criminals because they had a blatnoy or special status in the Russian criminal underworld. The word is used to indicate association with the criminal underworld. The adverbial usage of the word is po blatu, meaning "by or via blat". A notable operation of blat system was the institution of tolkachs. Because in the Soviet Union, the Gosplan wasn't able to calculate efficient or even feasible plans, enterprises often had to rely on people with connections, who could then use blat to help fulfill the quotas. Eventually most enterprises came to have a dedicated supply specialist – a tolkach – to perform this task.
