{{Short description|Cossack whip}} thumb|350px|Nagaika The '''nagaika''',<ref>{{Merriam-Webster|Nagaika}} {{OED|Nagaika}}</ref> sometimes '''nagyka''' ({{langx|ru|нага́йка}}, {{IPA|ru|nɐˈɡajkə|pron}}) is a short, thick whip with round cross-section used by Cossacks, borrowed from the 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 word "kamci" for "whip". The latter word is also used for short whips of Central Asian origin. {{tocright}} ==Description== 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. A short loop is attached to the handle so that the nagayka would hang from the arm when the grip is released or lost.
The main purpose of a nagaika was to urge a horse to move forward or to gallop. A metal piece was traditionally used as a defense against 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. As in the past, the prime and predominant use was to control or drive a horse.<ref>[http://nagajka.com/o-sovremennoj-nagajke-i-ee-istorii/ "О современн��й нагайке и ее истории"] "About the modern nagaika and its history"</ref> At the same time the 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 mounted cossack using a nagayka against worker or student demonstrators become a symbol of tsarist oppression.
In 2005 the Cossacks were reformed and armed with nagaikas in addition to other traditional weapons.{{cn|date=February 2025}}
In 2014, members of Pussy Riot were attacked by Cossacks wielding nagaikas and pepper spray while protesting.<ref>{{cite news|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|newspaper=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>
==Russian Imperial Army nagaika== Below is an official regulation of the Imperial Russian Army for the nagaikas of the Cossack troops from a 1911 book.<ref>[https://search.rsl.ru/ru/record/01003785873 Руководство к постройке обмундирования и снаряжения для нижних чинов всех казачьих войск], 1911, ''Russian State Library''</ref>
{{bquote| The nagaika (whip) for all Cossack troops, except for the Caucasian ones, consists of: a) a braid, b) a wooden handle, c) a strap braided around the handle, d) a loop for putting on the hand. }} {{bquote| The braid is made from two rawhide belts, about 1/2 vershok (22 mm) wide, cut into narrow strips, braiding them together to form a braid 1/4 vershok (11 mm) in diameter. The uncut ends of these belts, folded together, serve to attach the braid to the handle with a rawhide strap, about 1/8 vershok (5.5 mm) thick and of such a length that, having tied the braid to the handle with 9 turns, it would have a free end sufficient for winding the entire handle up to the loop put on the hand. The handle is birch, or some other hard wood, is made ¼ vershok thick and about 10 vershok (44 cm) long. At the opposite end of the handle, at 11/2 vershok, (66 mm) from the end, a rawhide strap, about 1/8 versh. (5-6 mm) wide and about 8 versh. (35-36 cm) long, is passed through a hole drilled in the wood, the ends of which are tied and form a loop for putting on the rider's arm. A rawhide shoulder strap, about 2 arshins 8 versh. (178 cm) long and 3/16-1/4 versh. (8-11 mm) wide, is fastened at one end, by means of a cut made in it, to the loop put on the arm; the other end of the strap is folded in half and tied to the strap with a flat knot, at a distance of 6 versh. (26 cm), from the other end tied to the handle, thus forming a loop about 1 arshin (71 cm) long, which is put on the rider's shoulder. }}
==Gallery== {{Gallery | File:Orenburg cossack.jpg | 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 | 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 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