Girei

an urban-type settlement in Kavkaz Raion, Krasnodar Krai, RSFSR, on the left bank of the Kuban’ River. It is a railroad station on the Kropotkin-Armavir line. A sugar refinery, a distillery, and a plant producing reinforced concrete structures are located in Girei; there is a sovkhoz for fattening livestock.

a dynasty of Crimean khans of the 15th-18th centuries.

The Girei dynasty was founded by Khadzhi-Girei (died 1466), who appeared in the Crimea in 1427 as a pretender to the khan’s throne. In 1449 the Crimean khanate became independent of the Golden Horde. Under Khan Mengli-Girei, the son of Khadzhi-Girei, the Crimean khanate became a vassal state of Turkey in 1475. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Gireis were the organizers of frequent plundering raids on Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Moldavian lands. In 1571, the troops of Devlet-Girei burned Moscow. However, in 1572 they were defeated near Serpukhov and Molodi by the troops of Prince Vorotynskii. When the Crimea became part of Russia in 1783, the last Crimean khan, Shagin-Girei, abdicated.