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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. An abrek would renounce any contact with friends and relatives, and then dedicate his life to praying and fighting for justice.
The origin of the word is unsure. In Russian Empire, during the Caucasian War all militant persons of North Caucasus were called abreks. Since then it has the derogatory meaning of "bandit" in Russian.
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 1976 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.
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