Armies of the Rus
Eigth - Thirteenth Century A.D.
by Thomas Setzer
Rus grew from the early trade colonies established by Swedish and other Scandinavian adventurers, from approximatetly 750AD onward. These colonies were established along the great rivers of the area. These rivers were the byways by which trade, communications, and warbands were moved. This movement was by longship and boat in summer, and across the frozen ice in winter. The rivers were the linkes between Scandinavian and western Europe, and the Byzantine Empire and Islam in the east. Trade, raiding, and war were all prominent features of the midieval Rus states.
Route the Vikings Followed to the East
Heading east from the Baltic, the Vikings sailed up the river Volkhov to Novgorod. From their they portaged their boats overland on pine rollers to the source of the Dnieper and so made their way to Kiev, the Black Sea, and Constantinople, where the Emperor's own guard consisted entirely of Vikings. Others worked their way from Novgorod to the Volga and sailed south to the Caspian Sea and then as merchants to Baghdad, carrying with them sables, squirrel, ermine, black and white foxes, marten, beaver, arrows, and swords, wax and birch bark, fish teeth and fish lime, amber, honey, goat skins and horse hides, hawks, acorns, hazelnuts, cattle, and Slavonic slaves.
Between the eighth and tenth centuries these trade colonies grew into established fortified towns. In these towns the Scandinavians were only one of several groups. The Scandinavians were the rulers, warrior elites, and the major mercantile link between Scandinavia and Western Europe, and the nations of the East. The towns also included indigenous peoples of the region, Islamic, Jewish (Khazar), and Byzantine merchants. From this merchant class came the town militias that made up an important part of Rus armies.
Rus Armies
Eighth-Eleventh Century
Early Rus armies contained the rules Druzhina (Household Troops), Varjazi (mercenaries), and Voi (tribal levies). In the early period the Rus fought mainly as infantry with cavalry supplied by Steppe nomads, or other allies. The Rus started to develop their own cavalry at an early stage of their history and by the tenth century cavalry was a major feature of their armies.
Ritual combat remained a feature of Rus society right into the Christian period. Vendettas and challenges were widespread. The Russkaya Pravda legal codex stated: "If a man kills a man, let him be avenged by his brother, father, son, or nephew." The Rus also had their own version of Were Geld ("Blood Price") based upon the rank of the person that was slain.
The rules of war called for making formal challenge before attacking an enemy.
From these elements we can see that Rus society still contained many features of Scandinavian society while adopting many of the features of Slavic and Steppe society.
Early Russia
Eleventh-Thirteenth Century
The best known troops in Rus were the Varjazi/Varangians. These were Scandinavian mercenaries who served only the wealthiest rulers. Many of these Varjazi bands arrived in Russia with their own generals, who were often exiled Scandinavian nobles, who had their own fleets and personal armies. These Varjazi leaders were at times given the rank of Voevodo (army commander). The story of one of these Varjazi leaders is told in King Harald's Saga. He was Harald Hardrada, who later became King of Norway and was killed in 1066 while attempting the conquest of England. Harald served many years in Russia and the Byzantine Empire.
Each Rus Prince had his own Druzhina or standing army. The members of the Druzhina were known as Drugs (comrades) and were bound together by oaths and communal loyalty (Zadruzni).
From the eleventh century on, the Druzhina was split into the Malaia Druzhina (elites) from which the Otroki (bodyguard) were drawn, and the Grid (lesser) Druzhina which consisted of ordinary troops, retainers, and servants.
The Druzhinas provided the mobile mounted forces for the Prince's army. They were capable of covering the vast distance needed to deal with threats from both western nations and the hostile Steppe nomads. They were also able to remain in the field longer than the militias and levies who were needed at home to keep Rus society fed and maintain the flow of goods upon which the economy of the towns depended.
The Polk/town militias provided the next most important part of the armies, supplying the most dependable infantry elements of the army, and the engineers and siege troops.
The Voi (tribal levies) were mostly foot troops who had little or no armour and fought with spears or axes. They also provided skirmishers and light archers.
The lowest quality troops were the Smerd (peasants) who were barely armed and of very poor quality militarily.
The Black Hoods (Chernye Klobuki) - The Torks, a people related to the Oghuz who conquered most of eastern Islam, made up the most important element of the Chernye Klobuki, but it also contained Berends and others. They provided regular units of heavy and light cavalry armed with bow and lance.
The Rus/Russian Princes also made use of Poles, Hungarians, and other mercenaries and allies.
Tactics
Infantry was the main arm of Rus armies before the tenth century. After the tenth century, cavalry became the most important arm. The cavalry contained both heavy and light cavalry, troops armed for both shock warfare and skirmishing. The shock cavalry were armed with lances, and equipped with protective armour and shields. Most of these troops were provided by the Druzhinas, and western mercenaries and allies. The horse archers were mostly Chernye Klobuki and other steppe nomad troops.
The Rus seem to have had a very large percentage of Archers, as the written sources from Byzantium, the Baltic States, and Islamic States mention them often and give the impression that the Rus Archers were feared by them. Many of the shock cavalry also carried bows. The Malaia Druzhina used archery before their charge in much the same manner as used by Byzantium and the Islamic shock cavalry.
Cavalry changed Rus tactics drastically over the centuries. Early Rus infantry armies used the Skjaldbord ("Shieldfort") and the Svynfylking ("Swine Array"). These were traditional Scandinavian formations that relied upon the steadiness of the heavy infantry for victory. In later cavalry armies the use of skirmishing and rapid maneuvers by the shock cavalry became important elements of Rus battles as they were in the armies of the steppe nomads that the Rus learned the use of cavalry from.
Even in these later armies the infantry still played an important part, giving a supporting lane for the cavalry to operate from and support for the archers.
Rus armies usually formed with infantry in the center and cavalry on the wings. Then cavalry would advance and try to flank their enemies while the infantry center would engage the enemy army. This could be varied by placing most cavalry on one wing, usually the right. When this was done, the cavalry would attack in mass and attempt to crush the opposing enemy flank.
The Rus would start the battle by having horse archers rush forward and harass the enemy with their bows. Often the horse archers would pass back and forth along the enemies' line always turning to the right to keep their bows aimed toward the enemy as they passed nearest to the enemy. After this preliminary attack, the horse archers would withdraw to the flanks and the heavy cavalry and infantry would advance, showering the enemy with massed archery before making their final assault. The final assault would be a steady rush forward by the infantry and a charge by the shock cavalry.
Arms and Weapons
In the early years the Scandinavian Rus and Varjazi used typical Scandinavian equipment: long-handled single bladed axes, swords, spears, large round shields made of wood with iron center bosses. They wore mail hauberks, and composite helms of the same type found in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. Some were armed with long composite bows like those used by Scandinavian armies in the west.
The Slavs were armed with spears, javelins, axes, and bows (but these were less powerful than those used by the Scandinavians). They had shields, but only the chieftains and a few rich warriors had metal armour. By the tenth century the Slavs were using very much the same arms and armour as the Scandinavians in the Rus armies.
In this early period, cavalry was provided by nomadic tribes and mercenaries, and they used the arms and armour of their own tribes/nations.
In the tenth century the style of armour was beginning to change to what could be described as a Rus/Russian style. This consisted of conical helm (often with a veil maid of mail), mail hauberk, and large round shield. They were now armed with a bow, lance, a sabre or longsword (often in a highly decorated scabbard), mace, or short-handled horseman's axe of the type carried by the nomadic cavalry. When on foot they would replace the lance with a long spear or long-handled axe.
As the centuries advanced, Rus arms and armour became even more influenced by eastern styles of equipment.
The Druzhina adopted heavier lamellar armour and heavier lances, but they retained their bows.
Horse archery became ever more important to Rus armies, and they recruited higher numbers of them.
The Druzhinas used not only longsword and heavy lance, but also sabre and light lance, depending on the area they operated in and the enemies they were deployed against.
This hybrid of western and eastern styles served the armies of the Rus well right up until the invasions of the Mongol hordes. After the Mongol Invasions the armies of Russia adopted Mongol styles of arms and armour, but that must be addressed in a different article, as it goes beyond the scope of this article.
