Training System of using shashka by the Don Cossacks
Yarovoj A. (2018). Sistema obuchenija vladeniju shashkoj v kul’ture donskih kazakov [Training System of using shashka by the Don Cossacks]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 5-6, pp. 146 — 160. Yarovoj A. Abstract: The questions concerning the effectiveness of shashka, its origin and place in the Cossacks history are still among the disputable ones in contemporary Russian weaponology. The article is devoted to the analysis of training system of using shashkain the Cossack traditional culture at the edge of the 19thand 20thcenturies. The investigation was based on the actual pieces of the Don Cossacks edged weapons introduced to the scientific literature as well as on the field data and notes made by ethnographers working at Cossacks villages Starorechenskaja, Romanovskaja, Khomutovskaja, Kazanskaja, Jelizavetinskaja, Krivjanskaja, Starocherkasskaja,Razdorskaja,Verhne-Kundrjuchinskaja, Tsimljanskaja, Jegorlikskaja, Mechetinskaja, etc. Analyzing the vast historical and ethnographical data the author explains and describes institutional origins of the training system of long bladed weapons usage…