I too would be interested to know from where this individual acquired this knowledge. I have been looking (albeit halfheartedly) for fencing manuals in Russian or Ukrainian (or Church Slavonic for that matter) without success.
This sounds like another "I heard it from a friend's mother's father's cousin's uncle's..." sort of thing. I am also highly skeptical of anything attributed to the Cossacks nowadays since in modern Russia the Cossacks seem to be overtaking the Shaolin Monks for all sorts of stories of the "amazing" things that were apparently commonplace 200 years ago.
Russian and East Slavic languages were unfortunately reduced to written form somewhat late in the game as compared to Latin and Greek and the parent language of modern Slavic languages, Church Slavonic, was not really reduced to written form until the 800's when SS Cyril and Methodius created the Cyrillic alphabet when they preached to the Slavs (poor Methodius never got any credit.... <img src="/forum/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" /> ) and translated the Bible into their language.
One of the earliest Slavic epics, "The Lay of Igor's Campaign," was not written until the 1100's. Compare that to Beowulf, written in 800.
With the Mongol invasions and other hazards from the 12th to the 15th centuries, Russia had many issues that Western Europe did not have and so fencing manuals are still lacking. This is not to say that such a beast does not exist and I certainly would love to try my hand at translating it, but so far, no luck. Tales like the one told by your sport fencing instructor friend, unfortunately, are all too common.
On a related note, however, my alma mater, Ohio State, has one of the largest collections of Medieval Slavic manuscripts in the world in the Hilandar reading room. I will be in Columbus for a few days this summer and will be visiting some of my old professors and make some inquiries.
Who knows?
------->>>>>>>>gene tausk
SFS
Study Group Leader - Houston ARMA Southside
DA ZDRASTVUJET ROSSIJA!!!
