In his formative monograph on abrechestvo, Yuri Botiakov argues that the abrek exists on the threshold dividing death from life.[1] He counter poses this view with Russian and Soviet ethnography’s traditional reading of abrechestvo, which has typically seen it simply as an exalted form of robbery. Botiakov asks his readers, “Is it correct to see ‘professional robbery’ as the main idea, which united abreks in all the various incarnations of this social institution?”  and then works towards a more nuanced theory of abrechestvo, using source texts which dwell on the ways on which the classic abrek transcends the “bandit” moniker. […]