View source for Nagaika

{{Short description|Cossack whip}}
[[File:Nagyka 3.jpg|thumb|350px|Nagaika]]
The '''nagaika'''<ref>{{Merriam-Webster|Nagaika}} {{OED|Nagaika}}.</ref> ({{langx|ru|нага́йка}}, {{IPA|ru|nɐˈɡajkə|pron}}) is a short, thick [[whip]] with round cross-section used by [[Cossacks]], borrowed from [[Nogai people]], hence the original name "nogaika", or "Nogai's whip".<ref>{{efron|wstitle=Нагайка}}</ref> It is also called камча, '''kamcha''' from the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] word "kamci" for "whip". The latter word is also used for short whips of [[Central Asia]]n origin.
The nagaika was made out of leather strips by [[braiding]]. It was possible to have a piece of metal at the tip of the whip.
The main purpose of a nagaika was to urge a horse. A metal piece was used for defense against [[Gray wolf|wolves]]. According to [[Vladimir Dahl]]'s "[[Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language]]", this nagayka was called ''volkoboy'' (волкобой, "wolf-slayer").
In modern times the descriptions of the military use of nagaika tend to be mythologized, and in the past the prime and predominant use was to drive horse.<ref>[http://nagajka.com/o-sovremennoj-nagajke-i-ee-istorii/ "О современной нагайке и ее истории"] "About the modern nagaika and its history"</ref> At the same time nagaika was known to be used against unarmed people, e.g., for [[corporal punishment]] or to disperse public disorders<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Joseph Stalin: Man and Legend|author=Hingley, R.|date=1994|publisher=Smithmark|isbn=9780831758691|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7gzYAAAAMAAJ|page=27 ("nagayka") |access-date=2015-07-07}}</ref> (e.g., during [[Russian Revolutions]]),<ref>''[[The Living Age]],'' July 26, 1902, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gTzWAAAAMAAJ "The Russian Awakening"]</ref> so that a cossack with nagayka has become a symbol of tsarist oppression.
In 2005 the [[Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation|Cossacks]] were reformed and armed with nagaikas in addition to other traditional weapons. In 2014, members of [[Pussy Riot]] were attacked by Cossacks wielding nagaikas and [[pepper spray]] while protesting.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/olympics/whip-wielding-russian-cossacks-attack-pussy-riot-members-near-sochi-olympics/2014/02/19/5ae278a2-9979-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html|title=Whip-wielding Russian Cossacks attack Pussy Riot members near Sochi Olympics|last1=Lally|first1=Kathy|date=19 February 2014|work=The Washington Post|access-date=27 September 2015|quote="Members of the performance-art group Pussy Riot were attacked on a public plaza Wednesday by Cossacks brandishing whips and discharging pepper spray, a day after police picked them up and held them for nearly four hours without charges."}}</ref>
==Gallery==
{{Gallery
| File:Orenburg cossack.jpg
| [[Orenburg Cossacks|Orenburg Cossack]] with a whip in his hand
| File:Russian-Cossacks-on-March.jpg
| [[Ural Cossacks]] on the march. Some riders have nagaikas visible
| File:Калмыцкие плети - маля и ташмг.jpg
| [[Kalmyks|Kalmyk]] lashes "malia" and "tashmg"
| File:Разновидность калмыцкой нагайки.jpg
| A kind of Kalmyk nagaika with a uniformly tightly woven, almost unbending leather whip without tapering to the tip
| File:Нагайка кубанская.jpg
| Nagaika of the [[Kuban Cossacks|Kuban]] and [[Terek Cossacks]]
}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* [[Horsewhip (disambiguation)]]
==External links==
*[http://www.scarb.ru/nagaika.htm "Nagayka"], construction and technique (an excerpt from the book Г. Э. Адамович, Р. И. Федин "[http://www.krivich.com/news/arm.php Владение холодным оружием (казачьи техники)]") {{in lang|ru}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110208224536/http://fstanitsa.ru/content/nagaika-donskoi-tip-kamcha "Вольная станица"] design and kinds {{in lang|ru}}
{{commons category|Nagyka}}
[[Category:Whips]]
[[Category:Cossack culture]]