Product Code Database
Abrek is a Caucasus term used for a lone Caucasian warrior living a partisan lifestyle outside power and law and fighting for a just cause. Abreks were irregular soldiers who abandoned all material life, including their family and friends, in order to fight for a just cause, to worship, and to meditate. The term was mostly used by people who struggled against Russian Empire colonialism, mostly a guerrilla struggle during Russian expansion in the Caucasus in the 19th century. An abrek would renounce any contact with friends and relatives, and then dedicate his life to praying and fighting for justice. Some abreks stole from the rich to give to the poor while others protected Caucasian villages from foreign attacks. The abrek lifestyle included a lonely life in the unexplored wilderness. Later, the majority of abreks became devoted Sufism Muslims. During the Caucasian War, which is divided into the Russo-Circassian War and the Murid War, there were constant raids between Russian and Caucasian settlements.
In Circassian, the word "Abrek" means "brave warrior", and in Chechen language, Ingush language and Avar language it means "avenger". In Russian language and in the Ossetian the word abrek (абрек) has the derogatory meaning of "bandit", as the Russians have historically been enemies of the abrek lifestyle.
The word abrek was used in propaganda to label the anti-Russian guerrillas of the North Caucasus after the Caucasian War of 1817-1864, as well as for all illegals. Abreks were popularized as the defenders of the fatherland and as paupers. In their old age, the abreks of the West Caucasus usually devoted themselves to beekeeping. The majority of the East Caucasus abreks were killed in non-stop warfare against the federal army.
Before and even after the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus in the 1920s, abreks continued to resist, for the most part in Ingushetia and Chechnya, many of them also in Georgia after the Soviet conquest of the country. Abreks provoked the rebellions of 1920-21, August Uprising, 1929–31, 1931-1939, and the last in 1940-44. During the Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush in 1944 several local guerilla groups were formed against Stalinist repression. The most prominent abrek during this period was the Ingush guerilla fighter Akhmed Khuchbarov. The last anti-Soviet Chechen abrek Khasukha Magomadov was killed on 28 March 1956 at the age of 70. ( Link flagged by anti-virus protection, 8/19/2021) Khasukha Magomadov bio
Russian caucasologist N. Yakovlev, described how the occupation of the native lands by Cossack colonisers and oppression of the Ingush people, "turned kind and gentle people into the first abreks of the Caucasus, fighting for their place in the Sun".
The Russian view on the abreks is that they were simply mountain bandits and outlaws; however, they were depicted as men of honor by some Russian authors. The locals view is that they were heroes of valor, much like Robin Hood. As Moshe Gammer points out in his book Lone Wolf and Bear, Soviet ideology fell somewhere in between the two views―and notably, one such abrek, Zelimkhan, was made a Chechen hero.Gammer, Moshe. Lone Wolf and Bear. Page 117.
|
|
