Military art in Russia or how our ancestors fought

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The land on which our distant ancestors lived was rich and fertile and constantly attracted nomads from the east, Germanic tribes from the west, besides, our ancestors tried to develop new lands.

Sometimes this colonization took place peacefully, but. often accompanied by hostilities.

Soviet military historian E. A. Razin in his book "History of Military Art" tells the following about the organization of the Slavic army during the 5th-6th centuries:

“The Slavs had all adult men as warriors. The Slavic tribes had squads, which were recruited according to the age principle with young, physically strong and dexterous warriors. The organization of the army was based on the division into clans and tribes. The warriors of the clan were headed by an elder (headman), at the head of the tribe was a leader or a prince."

Further in his book, the author cites the statements of ancient authors who note the strength, endurance, cunning and bravery of the warriors of the Slavic tribes, who, moreover,. mastered the art of disguise.

Procopius of Kessaria in his book “War with the Goths” writes that the warriors of the Slavic tribe “are used to hiding even behind small stones or behind the first bush they meet and catching enemies. They have done this more than once by the Istra River. " So, the ancient author in the above-mentioned book describes one interesting case, how a Slavic warrior, skillfully using available means of disguise, took a "tongue":

“And this Slav, early in the morning, getting very close to the walls, hiding behind brushwood and curled up in a ball, hid in the grass. When the Goth approached this place, the Slav suddenly grabbed him and brought him alive to the camp."

The terrain in which the Slavs usually took battle has always been their ally. From dark forests, river creeks, deep ravines, the Slavs suddenly attacked their opponents. Mauritius, mentioned earlier, writes about this:

“The Slavs love to fight with their enemies in places covered with dense forests, in gorges. on the cliffs, they take advantage of ambushes, surprise attacks, cunning, and bottom and night inventing many different ways … Having great help in the forests, they go to them, as among the narrows they know how to fight perfectly. Often they throw the prey they are carrying, as if under the influence of confusion and run into the forests, and then, when the attackers rush to the prey, they easily rise and harm the enemy. All this they are masters of doing in a variety of ways they come up with in order to lure the enemy."

Thus, we see that the ancient warriors prevailed over the enemy primarily by the lack of a template, cunning, and skillful use of the surrounding terrain.

In engineering training, our ancestors were also recognized specialists. Ancient authors write that the Slavs excelled "all people" in the art of crossing rivers. While serving in the army of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Slavic detachments skillfully ensured the crossing of rivers. They quickly made boats and on them transferred large military detachments to the other side. The Slavs usually set up a camp at a height to which there were no hidden approaches. If it was necessary to fight on the open field, they arranged fortifications from carts.

For a defensive battle, the Slavs chose a position that was difficult for the enemy to reach, or they poured a rampart and arranged a fill. When storming enemy fortifications, they used assault ladders and siege engines. In deep formation, putting their shields on their backs, the Slavs marched to the assault. From the examples above, we can see that the use of terrain in combination with improvised items deprived the opponents of our ancestors of the advantages that they originally possessed. Many Western sources claim that the Slavs did not have a formation, but this does not mean that they did not have a battle formation. The same Mauritius recommended building a not very deep formation against them and attacking not only from the front, but to the flanks and from the rear. From this we can conclude that for the battle the Slavs were located in a certain order.

The ancient Slavs had a certain order of battle - they fought not in a crowd, but in an organized manner, lining up according to clans and tribes. The clan and tribal leaders were chiefs and maintained the necessary discipline in the army. The organization of the Slavic army was based on a social structure - the division into clan and tribal detachments. Clan and tribal ties ensured the necessary cohesion of the warriors in battle.

Thus, the use of the battle order by Slavic soldiers, which gives undeniable advantages in battle with a strong enemy, suggests that the Slavs only carried out combat training with their squads. Indeed, in order to quickly act in a battle formation it was necessary to work it out to the point of automatism. Also, you had to know the enemy with whom you will have to fight.

The Slavs could not only skillfully fight in the forest and field. They used simple and effective tactics to take the fortresses.

In 551, a detachment of Slavs numbering more than 3,000 people, without encountering any opposition, crossed the Istra River. An army with great strength was sent to meet the Slavs. After crossing the Maritsa River, the Slavs were divided into two groups. The Roman general decided to break up their forces one by one in an open field. Having well-placed tactical reconnaissance and being aware of enemy movements. The Slavs preempted the Romans and, suddenly attacking them from two directions, destroyed their enemy. Following this, the emperor Justinian threw a detachment of regular cavalry against the Slavs. The detachment was stationed in the Thracian fortress Tzurule. However, this detachment was defeated by the Slavs, who had cavalry in their ranks that were not inferior to the Roman ones. Having defeated regular field troops, our ancestors began to siege fortresses in Thrace and Illyria.

Of great interest is the capture of the seaside fortress Toyer by the Slavs, which was located 12 days' journey from Byzantium. The garrison of the fortress of 15 thousand people was a formidable force. The Slavs decided first of all to lure the garrison out of the fortress and destroy it. To do this, most of the soldiers settled in ambush near the city, and a small detachment approached the eastern gate and began to fire at the Roman soldiers. The Romans, seeing that there were not so many enemies, decided to go outside the fortress and defeat the Slavs in the field. The besiegers began to retreat, pretending to the attackers that, frightened by them, they fled. The Romans, carried away by the persecution, were far ahead of the fortifications. Then those who were in ambush rose and, finding themselves in the rear of the pursuers, cut off their possible escape routes. And those who pretended to retreat, turning to face the Romans, attacked them. Having exterminated the pursuers, the Slavs again rushed to the walls of the city. Toyer's garrison was destroyed. From what has been said, we can conclude that the interaction of several detachments, reconnaissance, camouflage on the ground were well established in the Slavic army.

From all the examples given, it is clear that in the 6th century our ancestors possessed tactics that were perfect for those times, they could fight and cause serious damage to the enemy, who was much stronger than them, and often had a numerical superiority. Not only tactics were perfect, but also military equipment. So, during the siege of fortresses, the Slavs used iron rams, installing siege machines. The Slavs, under the cover of throwing machines and archery shooters, pushed the rams close to the fortress wall, began to shake it and punch holes.

In addition to the land army, the Slavs had a fleet. There is a lot of written evidence of their use of the fleet in hostilities against Byzantium. Basically, the ships were used for transporting troops and landing troops.

For many years, the Slavic tribes, in the fight against numerous aggressors from the territory of Asia, with the powerful Roman Empire, with the Khazar Kaganate and the Franks, defended their independence and united in tribal alliances. In this centuries-old struggle, the military organization of the Slavs took shape, the military art of neighboring peoples and states arose. Not the weakness of the opponents, but the strength and military art of the Slavs ensured their victory. The offensive actions of the Slavs forced the Roman Empire to switch to a strategic defense and create several defensive lines, the presence of which did not ensure the security of the empire's borders. The campaigns of the Byzantine army beyond the Danube, deep into the Slavic territories, did not achieve their goals.

These campaigns usually ended with the defeat of the Byzantines. When the Slavs, even with their offensive actions, met superior enemy forces, they usually evaded the battle, sought to change the situation in their favor, and only then went on the offensive again.

For long-distance campaigns, river crossings and seizure of coastal fortresses, the Slavs used the rook fleet, which they built very quickly. Large campaigns and deep incursions were usually preceded by reconnaissance in force by the forces of significant detachments, which tested the enemy's ability to resist.

The tactics of the Russians consisted not in inventing forms of building battle formations, to which the Romans attached exceptional importance, but in the variety of methods of attacking the enemy, both in attack and in defense. To use this tactic, a good organization of military intelligence was necessary, to which the Slavs paid serious attention. Knowledge of the enemy allowed for surprise attacks. The tactical interaction of detachments was skillfully carried out both in field combat and during the assault on fortresses. For the siege of fortresses, the ancient Slavs were able to create all modern siege equipment in a short time. Among other things, the Slavic warriors skillfully used the psychological impact on the enemy.

So, in the early morning of June 18, 860, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, was unexpectedly attacked by the Russian army. The Rus came by sea, landed at the very walls of the city and laid siege to it. The warriors raised their comrades in outstretched arms and they, shaking their swords sparkling in the sun, threw the Constantinople people standing on the high walls into confusion. This "attack" was fulfilled for Russia of great meaning - for the first time a young state entered into confrontation with a great empire, for the first time, as events will show, presented it with its military, economic and territorial claims. And most importantly, thanks to this demonstrative, psychologically accurately calculated attack and the subsequent peace treaty of "friendship and love" Russia was recognized as an equal partner of Byzantium. The Russian chronicler later wrote that from that moment "Ruska began to call the land."

All the principles of warfare listed here have not lost their significance in our days. Have disguise and military cunning lost their relevance in the age of nuclear technology and the information boom? As recent military conflicts have shown, even with reconnaissance satellites, spy planes, perfect equipment, computer networks and weapons of enormous destructive power, rubber and wooden models can be bombed for a long time and at the same time loudly broadcast to the whole world about huge military successes.

Have secrecy and surprise lost their meaning?

Let us recall how surprised the European and NATO strategists were when, quite unexpectedly, Russian paratroopers suddenly appeared at the Pristina airfield in Kosovo, and our "allies" were powerless to do anything.

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