The image of Shakur-Karak in Russian and Tatar literature

Abstract

The article reveals a corpus of folklore and literary texts dedicated to the life and activities of the horse thief Shakur Rakhimov who was shot in 1926. His gang consisted of 100 people. In the Russian literary tradition, writers turned to this image only during the years of perestroika – largely by order of the Press Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These are the story by E. Sukhov “Shakur-karak” (1994) and the essay by M. Belyaev and A. Sheptytsky “Robin Hood or the Progenitor of Organized Crime?”, which was written for the book “Gangster Tatarstan”. Both works were created on a documentary basis. The writers familiarized themselves with 40 volumes of the criminal case, analyzed press coverage of the events and the memories of the eyewitnesses. The fight between the smart thief and the professional investigator is depicted in F. Dostoevsky’s traditions. Tatar literature remains faithful to the folklore tradition where the image of Shakur-karak gravitates towards the pole of the Robin Hood archetype – the people’s protector. It is obvious that the Gorky romantic tradition dominates in Tatar works.