Abrek

Abrek is a Caucasian 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. 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. 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...