That lawlessness left a deep mark on Gambaryan—as well as an almost zealous, black-and-white starkness to his ideas of criminality. Even today he says the sense remains with him that there are real elements of corruption and chaos in every society, that the “law of the land” he witnessed in Moscow lies just beneath the surface, everywhere, ready to emerge whenever people have a sense of impunity from consequences. “Americans don’t know how good they have it,” Gambaryan says. “You let it slip, it turns into the chaos that I saw.”
