The SHASHKA: what, whom, where, when and how?

Rivkin · 22nd January 2006, 11:36 PM

Concerning the manuals:

Prior to 1810 or so, russian army did not have any standard patterns. Repair and maintanance was also considered to be a private matter of individual cavalrymen. Central russian arsenals rarely included more than 30-50 workers, theoretically responsible for repairing 5,000 or so swords a year. As a result while there were certain preferences (like heavy palashes in cuirasier regiments), all of the weapons were obtained on the individual basis. With this in mind there were no special regulations concerning shashkas and so on.

On the other hand circassians and other northern caucasians did not have any writing system until XIX century (arabic, ughur or turkish runic being used here and there for the purpose of written communication), so not much is known in this direction.

While a lot of russian units used shashkas - circassian (kabarda) heavy cavalry in 1812-1815, later cossacks and tribal units ("wild" division and imperial convoy (bodyguards)) all of these units assumed that a recruit is already accomplished in using his weapons. Most of the observations of russian officers/writers concerning the nature of shashka's use talk not so much about fencing, but about attacking targets (folded rugs, canes etc.), drawing the shashka (shashka is worn edge up and special attention was given knowing how to make the first draw/attack). I don't remember anyone mentioning some complex fencing system.

By far the most important documentation of caucasian's martial arts are small series printed by N.K.V.D. in 1930's. Because the new not-so-secret police needed to organize martial arts training for the recruits, multiple mission were dispatched that collected the information on Caucasian martial arts and assembled them in small books.

These books are very _rare_. I have seen once the one on khevsurian fencing, and it was extremely impressive, detailing the details of dozens of techniques.

Concerning folk dances with shashkas - there are some, however 99% of folk dances that are widely known today are either georgian (highly modernized and almost ballet-like), or dagestanian/lezgi related. In the latter case the emphasis was put on one specific like of dance (for example Mahaev's ensemble "Lezginka") which is very different from circassian dances.\

I have a very good article on the culture of war in Caucasus. While it is largely mased on the tales about great heroes and therefore delivers all-too-noble and rather one sided view of the history, it is very interesting. Unfortunately it is in russian.

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22nd January 2006, 11:36 PM	#4
Rivkin Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 655	Concerning the manuals: Prior to 1810 or so, russian army did not have any standard patterns. Repair and maintanance was also considered to be a private matter of individual cavalrymen. Central russian arsenals rarely included more than 30-50 workers, theoretically responsible for repairing 5,000 or so swords a year. As a result while there were certain preferences (like heavy palashes in cuirasier regiments), all of the weapons were obtained on the individual basis. With this in mind there were no special regulations concerning shashkas and so on. On the other hand circassians and other northern caucasians did not have any writing system until XIX century (arabic, ughur or turkish runic being used here and there for the purpose of written communication), so not much is known in this direction. While a lot of russian units used shashkas - circassian (kabarda) heavy cavalry in 1812-1815, later cossacks and tribal units ("wild" division and imperial convoy (bodyguards)) all of these units assumed that a recruit is already accomplished in using his weapons. Most of the observations of russian officers/writers concerning the nature of shashka's use talk not so much about fencing, but about attacking targets (folded rugs, canes etc.), drawing the shashka (shashka is worn edge up and special attention was given knowing how to make the first draw/attack). I don't remember anyone mentioning some complex fencing system. By far the most important documentation of caucasian's martial arts are small series printed by N.K.V.D. in 1930's. Because the new not-so-secret police needed to organize martial arts training for the recruits, multiple mission were dispatched that collected the information on Caucasian martial arts and assembled them in small books. These books are very _rare_. I have seen once the one on khevsurian fencing, and it was extremely impressive, detailing the details of dozens of techniques. Concerning folk dances with shashkas - there are some, however 99% of folk dances that are widely known today are either georgian (highly modernized and almost ballet-like), or dagestanian/lezgi related. In the latter case the emphasis was put on one specific like of dance (for example Mahaev's ensemble "Lezginka") which is very different from circassian dances.\ I have a very good article on the culture of war in Caucasus. While it is largely mased on the tales about great heroes and therefore delivers all-too-noble and rather one sided view of the history, it is very interesting. Unfortunately it is in russian.