prigozhin, you have to go back to the beginning. in the 1980s, st. petersburg was known as leningrad and the soviet union was already in decline. the communist party's promise of building a workers paradise had proving to be a lie. the criminal underworld ruled the streets and st. petersburg was russia's version of chicago in the 1920s. >> st. petersburg was called the -- capital of russia. >> it was here where the young prigozhin made his start as a thief. >> it was at that time that prigozhin became more and more entrenched in the mafia culture of the city. >> he was jailed in 1981 for assaulting a woman on the street. >> he and two other friends followed this young woman home, stripped her of her boots, nearly strangled her to death, and took her belongings.