shashka

The shashka originated among the mountain tribes of the Caucasus in the 12th or 13th century.

In appearance, the shashka was midway between a full sabre and a straight sword.

The shashka has the feel of a European sabre and was notable for its sharpness.

That Turkmen by himself with his own hands using shashka beheaded all of them."

In 1882 a reorganization of the cavalry saw the regular dragoons armed with the shashka.

Soviet cavalry carried several forms of shashka in the Second World War.

The most popular weapons used by Cossack cavalrymen were usually sabres, or shashka, and long spears.

By that time shashka was adopted as their main cold weapon by Russian Cossacks.

The traditional Adyghean sword is called Shashka.

The shashka is a special kind of sabre, a very sharp, single-edged, single-handed, and guardless sword.

Originally the shashka was developed in the 12th century by Circassians in the Northern Caucasus.

The hilt is slightly curved down, thus providing an additional leverage for pulling the shashka and for additional force by wrist action.

Russian cossacks and the peoples of the Caucasus adopted a variation of nomadic Tatars' kilij as the shashka.

The absence of the guard is inherited from the original Caucasian construction, in which the shashka is nearly completely hidden in the scabbard, together with the hilt.

Two styles of shashka exist: the Caucasian shashka and the Cossack shashka.

One of the variations of the Jidir Plain jigitovka was baharbandi where the participant had to throw off his papakh, rifle, dagger, shashka at assigned spots at full speed and then collect them on his way back with the same speed.

Like most medieval and then imperial Russian weaponry of the time, often the shashka and its scabbard were very ornately decorated, with gold and silver engravings, embedded gems and stones placed into, and figures carved out of or into, the hilts.

The Don Cossacks used the shashka, (originating from Circassian "sashho" - big knife) and sablja (from Circassian "sa" - knife and "blja" - snake), which also saw military and police use in the Russian Empire and early Soviet Union.