Историческое оружиеведение (Mar 2023)
On blades of daggers and shashkas used by the Terek Cossack Host in the late 19th to early 20th centuries
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 production, the article shows that the determining factors for the development of arms and jewelry production in the Terek Oblast are the demand for decorated arms for officers of the Imperial Russian Army units stationed in the Caucasus; the demand for arms with arbitrary decoration for the Caucasian Cossacks; and the demand for batches of blades for Cossack recruits. Particular attention is paid to orders for batches of daggers and shashkas to Vladikavkaz craftsmen and, in the first place, to the workshop of Guzun Guzunov. Some features of cold weapon decoration typical for shashkas and daggers of the Terek Cossack Host are considered separately. For this article the author uses numerous written and visual sources, including Orders concerning the Terek Cossack Host and documents from Russian archives, which allow to supplement and clarify existing ideas about the blades of shashkas and daggers that were used by the Terek Cossacks at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. The author also conducted search and study of the Terek Cossack weapons in museum and private collections, which resulted in the publication of some rare examples of cold weapons produced by the Zlatoust Arms Factory and craftsmen of the Terek Oblast.
