About

The Brooding Brigand, original artwork by Harnas Dragoslav

Welcome to the offical page of The Oprishki! We are a small but enthusiastic bunch of folks who dearly want to help preserve this interesting and culturally important chapter in the history of the Carpathian Mountain Cultures.

What chapter of history you may ask….well let’s discuss our name for a second before we go further.

Oprishki is the plural form of Opryshok which means brigand. The Oprishki were bands of brigands in the Carpathian mountains but they were also freedom fighters. More of a Robinhood than Billy the Kid. These heros live on in song and story of the region. Armed with the trusy mountain axes, muskets and other arms they fought against the oppression of their fellow Carpathians.

So what we are doing is trying to preserve the memory of these Oprishki an in the process trying to restore the martial axe culture that hung over the entire Carpathian range since the Bronze Age.

This is all abit romantic, I will admit. Reality is often more harsh than we like to admit…moreso when we are dealing with subjects such as freedom fighting and brigandry. As a friend in another organization once said…I paraphrase…We are righteous brigands now. Not a bad way to put it.

Yes we swing axes at one another and sometimes dress in silly clothes but we are not a re-enactor society, not that there is anything wrong with that…just not our cup of tea.

If you spot mistakes either in history or anything else, do not hesitate to point it out.

We are always looking for like minded folk to join us. If you think you might be interested in working with us please write harnasandrij@gmail.com and we can discuss this further with you.