Private orders for kindjal and shashka blades of the Kuban Cossack Host from Zlatoust arms factory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Articles

Talantov S.V. (2024). Chastnye zakazy kinzhal’nyh i shashechnyh klinkov Kubanskogo kazach’ego vojska na Zlatoustovskoj oruzhejnoj fabrike v konce XIX – nachale XX veka [Private orders for kindjal and shashka blades of the Kuban Cossack Host from Zlatoust arms factory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 432 — 522. Talantov S.V. Abstract: The article attempts to study and analyze private orders for kindjal and shashka blades of the Kuban Cossack Host in 1888-1904. The term “private orders” refers to orders made not by the Military Headquarters of the Kuban Cossack Host and the Main Artillery Department, but by regiment commanders, atamans of divisions and stanitsa, and individuals – cossacks and officers of the Kuban Cossack Host, as well as owners of jewelry workshops and stores selling uniforms and equipment for cossacks. The temporal borders of the study are determined by the fact…

Arms of the North Caucasus. A critical view on established theories

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Khaidakov K.S. (2024). Oruzhie Severnogo Kavkaza, istorija, vzaimovlijanie. Kriticheskij vzgljad na ustojavshiesja teorii [Arms of the North Caucasus. A critical view on established theories]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 372 — 431. Khaidakov K.S. Abstract: The article deals with historical events which took place in the North Caucasus in the 13th-19th centuries and influenced the formation of the region’s arms complex. It analyzes such factors as the influence of large states, trade relations, borrowings, as well as the processes of independent evolution of various arms types. Both historical sources and studies by modern authors are presented. The study concludes that during different periods militarized societies of the North Caucasus adopted arms culture of other states: the Khazar Khaganate, the Golden Horde, Italy, Persia, Egypt, the Ottoman Porte, and the Russian Empire. At the same time, local arms production did not cover necessary needs both qualitatively or quantitatively. In…

Chemical composition of blades as an attributing feature for bulat steels of the Indo-Persian region of the 17th-19th centuries

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Khaidakov K.S., Sukhanov D.A. (2024). Himicheskij sostav klinkov kak atribucionnyj priznak bulatnyh stalej Indo-Persidskogo regiona XVI-XIX vekov [Chemical composition of blades as an attributing feature for bulat steels of the Indo-Persian region of the 17th-19th centuries]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 161 — 266. Khaidakov K.S., Sukhanov D.A. Abstract: The article is devoted to historical bulat blades of the Indo-Persian region. Based on a range of sources, the article reveals that comprehensive studies on historical bulat steels have been sporadic over the last hundred years due to an insufficient number of bulat samples suitable for experiments to determine patterns between steel composition, structure and properties. Attention is drawn to the fact that attribution of certain bulat blades from the collection of K.S. Khaidakov and D.A. Sukhanov raised doubts about their production time and their region of origin. Standard typological attributive features of oriental bulat blades were combined with…

From the history of Western Georgian filigree. Master Philippe “Philu” Dzadzamidze

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Dvalishvili L.B. (2024). Iz istorii zapadnogruzinskoj filigrani (Master Filipp «Philu» Dzadzamidze) [From the history of Western Georgian filigree. Master Philippe “Philu” Dzadzamidze]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 82 — 160. Dvalishvili L.B. Abstract: The article examines a little-explored aspect of the Western Georgian tradition of filigree based on examples of arms decoration in this technique. It also briefly describes previously uncovered life and creative path of the goldsmith Philippe “Philu” Dzadzamidze whose original works are widely represented in museums and private collections. Despite the fact that filigree technique occurs in Georgia since the ancient period, modern weaponology has so far been confined to the consideration of Georgian items mainly of the 19th century, as it was from the middle of the 19th century when arms decorated with filigree became popular in Western Georgia. Such arms were made in different cities of Western Georgia, in particular in Kutaisi, Khoni,…

On ceremonial arms of Russian sovereigns’ pilgrimages in the last quarter of the 17th century

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Orlenko S.P., Novoselov V.R. (2024). O ceremonial’nom oruzhii palomnicheskih pohodov russkih gosudarej poslednej chetverti XVII stoletija [On ceremonial arms of Russian sovereigns’ pilgrimages in the last quarter of the 17th century]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 43 — 81. Orlenko S.P., Novoselov V.R. Abstract: The article studies the changes in the set of ceremonial arms used at the royal court in the second half of the 17th century. The Smolensk campaign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1654-1656) was the starting point of active changes in the court ceremonial. The subsequent period brings tumultuous changes in ceremonial practice of the Russian court: at this time, the most spectacular and exotic elements of arms and equipment are borrowed from both the West and the East. Two-handed swords showed up in the hands of Tsar’s ceremonial guards, winged horsemen met foreign legations, hundreds of colored kuyaks, round shields, “snake spears”, Kalmyk caps,…

The sabre of Ibrahim Pasha, the Kaffa serasker, as a relic of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1775)

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Novoselov V.R. (2024). Sablja seraskira Kafy – relikvija Russko-tureckoj vojny 1768-1774 gg. [The sabre of Ibrahim Pasha, the Kaffa serasker, as a relic of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1775)]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 9 — 42. Novoselov V.R. Abstract: The article studies a group of sabres which entered Moscow Armoury Chamber between 1809-1811 as part of a group of arms stored in the Court Stable Department in St. Petersburg. In cold arms inventory of Moscow Armoury Chamber compiled in 1862 by Lukian Yakovlev and published in 1884, one of the sabres was wrongly attributed as delivered from Imperial Ryust-kamera. However, the author of the article identified it as belonging to serasker Ibrahim Pasha, the Turkish army chief in Crimea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. The author managed to document that, surrendered to the Russian troops, he kept his sabre with him and later presented it together with…

Reconstructing the system of sword wielding by French cuirassiers and dragoons, 1803-1815

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Zvjagincev M.I. (2024). Rekonstrukcija sistemy vladenija palashom francuzskih kirasir i dragun, 1803-1815 gg. [Reconstructing the system of sword wielding by French cuirassiers and dragoons, 1803-1815]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 13, pp. 267 — 371. Zvjagincev M.I. Abstract: The article attempts to reconstruct the sword wielding system of French heavy and line Cavalry (XI/XIII pattern) which actually established in 1803-1815. The necessity and importance of this reconstruction is explained by the following fact: it was only in 1829 when the first official regulations which specified the training of cavalrymen in detail, including the wielding of long-bladed cold arms, appeared in France. The system discussed in the article has not been formulated or described separately. However, it can be reconstructed relying on the draft manual “A New System of Swordsmanship in the Cavalry” (1818) by the British Cavalry officer Charles Edward Radclyffe. The manual can be referred to because the system…

On blades of daggers and shashkas used by the Terek Cossack Host in the late 19th to early 20th centuries

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Talantov S. V. (2023). O klinkah kinzhalov i shashek, bytovavshih u kazakov Terskogo kazach’ego vojska v konce XIX – nachale XX veka [On blades of daggers and shashkas used by the Terek Cossack Host in the late 19th to early 20th centuries]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 316 — 392. Talantov S. V. Abstract: The issues related to cold weapons of the Terek Cossack Host do not receive much attention in the known publications on Russian, Caucasian and Cossack historical arms. This may be due to the fact that the study of daggers and shashkas required research both of the production at the Zlatoust Arms Factory and in the Caucasus. This article is supposed to fill this gap. The article investigates the orders of shashkas and daggers at the Zlatoust Arms Factory. Most information about these arms is published for the first time. Regarding local Caucasian arms…

The Barrel Department and the Kremlin Armoury. Military Arms Manufacture at the Moscow Velvet Yard in 1700–1707

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Chubinsky A.N. (2023). Stvol’nyj prikaz i Oruzhejnaja palata. Proizvodstvo stroevogo oruzhija na moskovskom Barhatnom dvore v 1700–1707 gg. [The Barrel Department and the Kremlin Armoury. Military Arms Manufacture at the Moscow Velvet Yard in 1700–1707]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 163 — 222. Chubinsky A.N. Abstract: This research is the first attempt to collect reliable data on Russian Barrel Department (Stvolny Prikaz) which functioned from 1630s till 1700 as an independent state establishment, and from 1700 to 1711 as a structural part of the Moscow Armory Chamber. The office of the Barrel Department, its workshops and storehouses were located at the Velvet Yard (Barkhatny Dvor), which was founded in 1630s as a silk workshop. The Velvet Yard was built on the bank of the Moskva River outside the Kremlin walls. The Barrel Department’s archive dated before 1700 was unfortunately lost. Thanks to a large number of surviving…

Gunsmith Johann Joachim Grecke in Russia. New Biographical Data

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Efimov Y.G., Rodionov E.A. (2023). Oruzhejnik Iogann Ioahim Greke v Rossii – novye dannye biografii [Gunsmith Johann Joachim Grecke in Russia. New Biographical Data]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 56 — 67. Efimov Y.G., Rodionov E.A. Abstract: As in almost all other branches of developing Russian industry of the 18th century, foreign specialists played a significant role in weapon manufacture by working in factories or organizing their own workshops. Johann Adolf Grecke [son of Johann Joachim Grecke, a famous Stockholm gunsmith of German origin] was a particularly notable gunsmith among so-called “Russian foreigners” in Saint Petersburg. Information about his biography is highly scarce and contradictory. According to Russian weaponology literature, Johann Adolf was invited to Russia among other foreign masters in the 1760s, he became the gunsmith at the court of Catherine II in the 1770s and he was the head of the Rustkammer since the 1780s. His…

Fates of museologists and museum items. To the biography of K. Z. Kavtaradze

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Neratova E.I. (2023). Sud’by muzejshhikov i muzejnyh predmetov. K biografii K. Z. Kavtaradze [Fates of museologists and museum items. To the biography of K. Z. Kavtaradze]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 223 — 262. Neratova E. I. Abstract: This article is an attempt to show that circumstances affect not only fates of countries and people… but also fates of museum objects. And in this regard, the author presents four items of Caucasian arms (one dagger and three sabers), as well as describes the error that occurred during the registration of three of them in the museum collection and restores the collector’s name – Konstantin Zurabovich Kavtaradze (1879 – 1941). The fate of K.Z. Kavtaradze himself was quite unusual: a talented portrait painter, an art teacher who successfully tried himself in dental prosthetics, a creator of anthropological mannequins of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum (now Russian…

Kubachi arms in Russian Museum of Ethnography. Part 1: Items acquired for the museum by E. M. Shilling

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Neratova E.I. (2023). Kubachinskoe oruzhie v Rossijskom jetnograficheskom muzee. Chast’ 1: Predmety, priobretennye dlja muzeja E. M. Shillingom [Kubachi arms in Russian Museum of Ethnography. Part 1: Items acquired for the museum by E. M. Shilling]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 68 — 108. Neratova E. I. Abstract: By this material, the author begins a series of articles on Kubachi arms presented in the collection of Russian Museum of Ethnography (RME). Each article deals with items acquired for the museum by different collectors. This one is dedicated to items acquired by Evgeniy Mikhailovich Shilling (1892 – 1953), a famous ethnographer and caucasiologist. In addition to description and attribution of items themselves, the article addresses some issues that will help to better present a number of features peculiar to Kubachi culture, as well as its place and role in the Caucasus. Expeditions led by E.M. Shilling were conducted…

Analysis of Traditional Georgian Terminology for Bulat and Damascus Steel

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Dvalishvili L.B. (2023). Analiz gruzinskoj tradicionnoj terminologii, oboznachajushhej bulat i damasskuju stal’ [Analysis of Traditional Georgian Terminology for Bulat and Damascus Steel]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 109 — 162. Dvalishvili L. B. Abstract: The article deals with historically established Georgian terminology for Bulat and Damascus steel[1]. Samples of Damascus steel products have been seen in Georgia since the early Iron Age. The most ancient Bulat steel product in Georgia is a sword which was found by archaeologists in the Daryal Gorge and dates back to 1000 A.D. Analysis of existed terminology is performed using a comparative etymological analysis of specialized metallurgical terms, explanatory dictionaries and fragments of literary monuments. The author also relies on materials of field ethnographic research and takes into account historical cultural contacts of Georgia with neighbouring civilizations of the Near East. The article notes that in the Georgian spoken and literary language it…

Armoury Row in Tiflis from the 1630s to the 1920s

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Dvalishvili L.B. (2023). Oruzhejnyj rjad v Tiflise v 30-h godah XVII – 20-h godah XX veka [Armoury Row in Tiflis from the 1630s to the 1920s]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 4 — 55. Dvalishvili L. B. Abstract: For years Tiflis used to be a major economic center of the Caucasus. Its arms were well known and valued outside the region. Arms workshops were located in different areas of Tiflis, but most of them were concentrated in Armoury Row, which, at least since the 1630s, was located in the historic district between Sioni Cathedral and Anchiskhati Basilica, in the western part of King Square. It was probably due to King Rostom that rows of arms workshops were established in the form which remained until the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was annexed by Russia. He moved the royal palace to the area between Sioni Cathedral and Anchiskhati Basilica and began…

Reconstruction of the Mounted Swordsmanship System According to “Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry” With the Use of the Original Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sword

Articles

Zvjagincev M.I. (2023). Opyt rekonstrukcii sistemy konnogo fehtovanija po «Pravilam i nastavlenijam po uprazhnenijam s mechom v kavalerii» s ispol’zovaniem originalov sabli legkoj kavalerii obr. 1796 g. [Reconstruction of the Mounted Swordsmanship System According to “Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry” With the Use of the Original Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sword]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 12, pp. 263 — 315. Zvjagincev M.I. Abstract: The article analyzes reconstruction results of the mounted swordsmanship system developed by John Gaspard Le Marchant in his “Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry”. The analysis is applied to the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry sword which was presented in two original copies. Experiments, including performance of horse-riding techniques, established the aspects of adapting the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry sword to the requirements of Regulations. The article reveals the peculiarities of sword techniques which either were not directly…