oprichnik means A member of the bodyguard corps established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572. It carries an Arena rating of 1431, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Why “oprichnik” is a great word
A member of the personal bodyguard and political police force established by Tsar Ivan IV to enforce his autocratic will and suppress opposition within a designated territory of Russia. From Russian опри́чник (opríčnik), from опри́чь (opríčʹ, "apart, separate"), thus meaning "one who is set apart" or "separate man." Unlike a strelets, a regular infantry soldier of the period, or a gendarme, a standardized police officer, the oprichnik was an instrument of personal terror, bound directly to the Tsar's whim. His presence was the black-clad horseman on a frozen road, the smell of smoke from a sacked estate, the sound of a dog's-head emblem scraping against a saddle—the brutal manifestation of a sovereign's power to declare a portion of his own kingdom utterly alien, a separate and terrible country existing only in the shadow of a single man.
Etymology
From Russian опри́чник (opríčnik).
noun
- A member of the bodyguard corps established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572.