| |
Varieties of berdish. A peculiarly
Russian long, broad axe was called berdysh. Its
blade, zhelezko, was long and curved. It sat on a long handle, which had
an iron binding or vtok on the lower end. The full berdysh had a
60 - 80 cm blade. The weapon doubled as the rest for a firearm. The
longBerdyshi were used only by footsoldiers. But a shorter version was
carried by mounted streltzi by means of a shoulder strap through two
rings.. In the 16th century berdyshi were in wide use in the militia
forces as well as the streltzi. See streltzi
for this kind of unit.
|
|
