Samgin S. (2015). Opyt razrabotki lekcionnogo kompleksa «Vvedenie v Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie» [An Attempt to Develop a Lecture Course Titled «Introduction to Historical Weaponology]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 1, pp. 124 — 135.
Abstract:
For the longest time Historical Weaponology has been recognized as an auxiliary historical discipline. However in Russia it has not been developed into a separate branch of science yet because of the interruption in professional studies, lack of activities in academic publishing and translating of foreign works during the Soviet period. Today Historical Weaponology in Russia is successfully winning the lost ground though the problem with training of future experts in this field exists and still there are no educational programs on Historical Weaponology in Russia. Meanwhile, such programs would be able not only contribute to the increase of interest in historical weapons, but lay the ground for the specialization of professional historians as well. To achieve the purposes the course of lectures titled “Introduction to the historical Weaponology” was developed in 2013.
The course of lectures is one of the first attempts to create a course on historical Weaponology in Russia. It consists of three modules: the basic module presumes 6 lectures (12 hours), the elective one is of 2 lectures (4 hours) while the third which is the focused one represents 5 lectures (10 hours). In total, all the three modules form an advanced course of 13 lectures (26 hours). On developing the course the author appealed to a corpus of books including Russian and foreign papers on Historical Weaponology that were published in the XIX – XX centuries. The samples of historical weapons provided by the Tambov regional museum and private collectors were used during practical trainings.
Among the advantages of the course are the usage of a large number of illustrative materials, grouped in sets of slides for each lecture, organization of practical trainings with samples of historical weapons, flexibility and adaptability to the requirements of the educational process.
The course was piloted with second-year students of the history department of the Tambov State University in 2014. The results can be estimated as positive.
Keywords: weaponology, historical arms, historical weapons, research centers, аuxiliary historical disciplines, a course of lectures, the Tambov State University.