Museums: Cold weapon exposition opened in Rostov-on-Don

Over 500 exhibits of weapons are presented at the “Sabres, cavalry swords, broadswords. Cold weapons by European and Asian masters from private collections”.

Sabres, cavalry swords, daggers, dirks, knives and machetes have been provided by Rostov collectors. Thus, European weapon art is represented by an officer sea broadsword with the mark of Solingen firm “E. F. Herster”, founded in 1850.

Very interesting are Caucasus cavalry swords and sabres, as well as daggers, whose blades are decorated with sayings from Koran in Arabic, and handles are made of ivory and richly encrusted. In 1881 a new cavalry sword, improved by General Gorlov after the end of Caucasus war, was added to the armory Cossack’s armies. It was called ‘donskaya’ because it had been developed just on Don River. The sample of such a cavalry sword is also exhibited.

The highlight of the exposition is autographed weapons. For example, a richly decorated sabre, presented to Major General Ivan Zvorykin, who was the governor of Rostov and Nakhchivan in the beginning of 20th century, by “grateful residents of Nakhchivan”. There are also exhibited sabres dating to the Russian Civil War: one with the inscription “To colonel Zelinsky in honor of Yekaterinodar capture on September 5, 1918”; the other one – a gift of the Don Cossack Host ataman Pyotr Krasnov to his brother.