By the age of six, Nicolai Lilin had been given his first 'pike knife' by an uncle, and by the age of twelve, he had been convicted of attempted murder ...Nicolai Lilin gained his 'education' as a member of the Siberian Urkas - a small and tight-knit community of 'honest criminals' in a forgotten corner of Eastern Europe ...Siberian Education is his tale of an extreme childhood - exotic, violent and completely unique.