by I’m addicted to watching the History Channel program Forged in Fire. One of the highlights for me from the 2020 SHOT Show was that I got to meet Doug Marcaida who is one of the judges.
Season 7 had a Super Champion Edition where a previous champion beat other champions to face show judge and historic weapons specialist David Baker. They had to make the Russian Cossack shashka saber.
I’d never heard of the shashka before and thought it was an interesting saber. It certainly will cut when wielded properly.
Then I stumbled across this Cossack shashka competition from Russia on Reddit. I especially liked the one competition which had a half dozen competitors racing down a lane cutting and hacking as they went.
After seeing that, I understand why the Cossacks were considered the terror of the steppes!
Those are some sharp instruments.
We are also fans of Forged in Fire. While in England they are doing their best to get rid of knives, America has a TV shows to teach you how to make them.
I love this country
Terror of St. Petersburg too.
Remember that Stalin killed about 1 million Cossacks in the 1930-33 period (at the same time as the collectivization/deulakization, and the Holodomor in Ukraine) as part of ending resistance to Soviet rule.
Touched on in several of Robert Conquests books.
I read And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov about the Don Cossacks when I was a senior in college. It covered the Cossack during WW 1, the Russian Revolution, and the aftermath. I don’t remember a lot about it except that it was one of the better things I read that year. Bear in mind that was 41 years ago!
And more at the end of WWII. A lot of the surrendered German troops handed over to the Soviets were Cossacks.
Impressive to be sure! Thanks for the links!