Excellent stuff Veles and Red Elk! It will be useful for my building research in a Mod for another great strategy game - Medieval 2: Total War - in creation of which I'm helping (this Mod features 14th century Europe and North Africa).
Which of these warriors would fit to 14th century? And maybe you also have some info regarding organization of Russian armies at that time. For example what was the significance, armament, organization and composition of infantry (peasant infantry, townsmen, maybe some mercenaries?), cavalry, etc.?
For example this guy:
Would be a noble / boyar fighting dismounted for some special occasion? Or a mercenary / professional infantryman?
Were professional troops / mercenaries (both infantry & cavalry) in use in Russia in 14th century? When it comes to Poland it is known that king Casimir the Great (1333 - 1370) made quite extensive use of professional troops / mercenaries. Before him some Silesian dukes did it (for example duke Bolko I of Jawor had units of professional crossbowmen - balistarii in Latin - in his service in year 1286; the source which mentions this is from 1286).
Also do you happen to know what was the size of Russian forces mobilized for various campaigns at that time? When it comes to Poland for example Casimir the Great was said to have an army of about 20,000 (according to Rocznik Traski chronicle) during his campaign in Galicia–Volhynia in 1340.
It seems a reliable number as Rocznik Traski was written at that time (it covers years 965 - 1340, so it was written in ca. year 1340).
But I think that 20,000 combatants would be very close to maximum mobilizational capabilities of Poland in 1340.
Only 9 years earlier - in 1331 - Casimir's father, Wladyslaw the Elbow-high, mobilized a much smaller army for the battle of Plowce (most of historians estimate that he had only ca. 5,000 combatants at Plowce). But on the other hand he had to split his forces against 2 enemies at that time - Teutons & Bohemians - and it is also known that forces which fought at Plowce were mobilized only from northern parts of his Kingdom and were mobilized quite hurriedly.
Casimir conducted serious military reforms which increased the military potential of Poland - but most of them were done after 1340.
Guess you already figured the most generic, iconic, proverbial features, like helmet/shield shape, chainmail with lamillary cuirasses thing, etc. These are pretty good illustrations:
Spoiler:
Also see this post about equipment, albeit from later times.
Yes, in case it was Western warfare, like against Lithuanians or Swedes/Teutons. Or in case of defending a city/stronghold. The steppe warfare was all about konniki and luchniki, and one was usually also the other.
And when it comes to weapons and armament, there were also many common elements in early Medieval. And some common elements also in high Medieval - especially in eastern regions of Poland, mainly in the province of Mazovia. Mazovians used armament more similar to Ruthenians and Baltic people (Lithuanians, etc.) than to Western Europe. Also Teutonic Order adopted some elements of eastern armament during its crusades vs Prussians, Lithuanians & other Baltic people.
Not mentioning that many Baltic people (Prussians) served in Teutonic armies.
Firstly, it's known that druzhina still existed and was quite numerous. For example, in Battle on Ice (1242) of 5000 Russian warriors participating 3000 was Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky's personal druzhina, and he wasn't even Velikiy Knyaz (the "King" of Rus'), just a knyaz (duke) of Novgorod.
So there was druzhina, maintained at knyaz's expense, and also the boyars, usually landlords, decendants of warriors, who were granted land for their service (hence 'boyar' from boi/voi). These were obliged to participate in battles on knyaz demand, naturally mounted with full armor and equipment. Their children formed a special 'caste' called quite literally boyarskie deti, who were usually sent to the court of knyaz at young age to learn noble stuff, including warfare. So overall boyar 'caste' were pretty experienced warriors. Druzhina and boyars were colloquially known as dvor (court), hence Russian for noblemen - dvoryane. Also, on knyaz request, boyars were obliged to mobilize and equip a certan amount of peasants (who may be warriors or support crew, like logistics etc), depending on the size of the land they own.
In cities, which usualy were domain of the knyazi, they appointed voivodes or namestniks. Each city, on knyaz request, was to provide the voivode with certain number of warriors, equiped at the city's cost. The city's regiment was usually called polk (see for example Smolenskiy polk at Grunwald's battle). Each polk had a banner and specialization of warroirs within it usually varied, so mounted units, infantry and archers were considered the same unit, and only later at the gathering point they may be regrouped with other polk's people according to specialization.
Due to pretty much constant warring at those times, some people of polk spent thier entire life in action, thier expences were covered at city's cost. These were usually called ratniks, from rat' - "a gathering of warriors", the same root as in Ratibor, Ratmir etc). Gaining skill and prominence, they had a chance to be summoned to druzhina, if they got noticed by higher ups.
The whole voisko was usually divided into several parts: polk levoi ruki (left flank), polk pravoi ruki (right flank), peredovoi polk (forward regiment), bolshoi polk (great regiment, the main force), tylovoi polk (back regiment), zasadniy polk (ambush regiment), zapasniy polk (reserve regiment). This division was in use up to Peter's times.
Some vids from Russian movies from roughly that era (well not accuratly that era, but still)
As for mercenaries, Kievan knyazes often emloyed different tribes of steppe, colloquially know as polovtsy (field-dwellers). Like Torks or Berendei, see black hats for details. As for Northern Rus', well, Novgorod at the times was a part of Hanseatic league, so there very well may have been mercenaries of German, or pretty much any other nationality. It is known, that the sacking of Swedish Sigtuna (1187) by Novgorodians was performed with significant amount (if not the majority) of Karelians, but it's unclear whether they were mercenaries, subjects or citizens of Novgorod.
Some medieval Russian music.
Belarusian, technically, but that's the same thing:
In fact Old Belarussian was practically not used in Litva already in 1670s.
This was caused by the fact that during the wars (and following epidemics) of 1654 - 1667 against Moscow and Sweden, Grand Duchy of Litva lost 50% of population (while average population loss of the entire Commonwealth was around 30% - so Grand Duchy suffered more than the Crown of Poland).
It was a heavy blow especially for the Old Belarussian-speaking part of population of the Grand Duchy.
In 1699 Polish oficially replaced Old Belarussian as the official language.
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