urka

Russian у́рка (úrka, “professional criminal, career criminal, thug, thief”)

urka (plural urkas)

1. A common criminal in Russia.
   • 2007 January 9, Michiko Kakutani, “Love, Bludgeoned and Bent by the Camps”, in New York Times‎:

     He then proceeds to describe the daily calendar of violence at the camp: one urka sprinting flat-out after another urka “with a bloody mattock in his hand, a pig methodically clubbing a fascist to the ground, a workshy snake slicing off the remaining fingers of his left hand.”

• Kura, Raku, raku