Art of Warfare of Tatarian warriors of Russian state in XV-XVII centuries

The article considers the art of warfare of serving Tatars of Russian state in XV-XVII centuries. This theme is insufficiently designed in historiography. The reasons of this were the scarcity of sources base and similarity of warfare of serving Tatars with the warfare of another peoples of the East Europe of this period. The study is based on the analysis of writing and material sources, with drawing of art materials. The author considered the following aspects of warfare of Moscow kingdom's Tatars: military organization and location in Russian army, weapons and armor, basic tactics of Tatars, location of serving Tatars in tactic and strategy of Russian warlords. The serving Tatars were divided into several local groups. Among them there were princes, dukes, mirzas and kazaks (simple warriors). In the mobilization, Tatarian dukes and Tatarian heads (special chiefs of serving Tatars from Russian, more rarely - from Tatars) were going and collecting kazaks. After the arrival to the gathering place for troops, the higher commanders were distributing Tatarian contingents into hundreds (sotnia) that were submitted to Tatarian heads. Serving Tatars of the European part of Russia were the light cavalry. Their basic weapons were the Tatarian type's bow and arrows. The armor was uncommon. Wealthy Tatars also had sabers and broadsword. the spears and maces («shestoper») were rarely used. The hand firearms was uncharacteristic for serving Tatars (in Siberia in XVII century, perhaps, it was more common, and Tatars could get it from the «treasury»). In Siberia serving Tatars in XVII century (as well as another serving men) often used armor that was due to the peculiarities of warfare of neighboring peoples and preserving the local production base. The chain armour prevailed (several examples kept safe in museum and private collections), but also the brigan-dine occured (it was local production or import). The serving Tatars were used in the same areas that the «pomestnaya konnitsa» (feudal cavalry of Moscow kingdom): participation in battles, exploration, capture of prisoners, sabotage, border service. In the battle the Tatars preferred to fight at long distance by bows, avoiding hand-to-hand. The tactics was traditionally for nomadic peoples: the coverage of the enemy from the flanks and rear, the shelling, "Tatarian dance" (annular structure nomads for doing archery combat at medium and short ranges), the false retreat with counterattack. In certain situations Tatars came into close combat with sabers, sometimes on foot position.

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