Early Kieven Rus Army

When Kievan Rus was created in the 9th century, the bulk of the army was composed of druzhina. These units were a home guard, who would be called upon for large campaigns along with Turkish mercenaries that resembled the Islamic mamluk. Early druzhina regiments were composed of two groups; senior members were part of the boyar group, who advised their Prince, while the newer members made up a Prince’s personal guard.  At this point the boyars were simply soldiers, but as time went on they were rewarded with plots of land, which allowed them to become a new aristocratic class.   The druzhina were loyal to local princes, and there was no centralized army at this point.  It is important to note that at this point the druzhina troops were allowed to leave their Princes and join another Princes rank.  This is important because the Princes had to entice their troops to stay with them by offering them payment and plunder from raids.  Infantry was the most common unit within the druzhina ranks.  Early infantry were armed with many different weapons such as swords, knives, spears, axes, bow, and stone catapults.  They were protected by kol' chuga , a chainmail style body armor, and an almond shaped shield.  They might also be equipped with a Shlyem, a helmet that covered the sides of the face and the nose.  Although the Russian infantry unit was very effective, it was difficult to amass a large army since there was no centralized force, and princes were often fighting each other.   This made it easy for Mongols and Tatars to conquer Rus in the thirteenth century.  Later druzhina troops obtained upgraded armor such as the shishak helmet.  They also began to focus on a stronger cavalry, which worked together well with the infantry.  This can be seen in Battle of the Ice, where infantry and cavalry led by Alexander Nevsky work to surround German troops, dealing them a crushing defeat. Please visit http://www.xenophon-mil.org/rushistory/medievalarmor/partii.htm for translations of weapon and armor names. 

 

Figure 1 Alexander Nevski, prince of Novgorod and later Grand Prince of Vladimir

Figure 2 A warrior wearing bakhterets, shishak, barmitsa, naruchi, and yelovets