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Located in the northwest of the Balkan Peninsula Montenegro relations with the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century after a long struggle has begun and the long Ottoman rule in 1498, has been completely. The geographical conditions, lifestyles, for reasons such as tribalism in Montenegro understanding of the Ottoman Empire established its dominance literally is hard to say. Until the 19th century shows a small-scale riots and banditry activities. However, after the 19th century have the effect of moving Panslavist both nationalism and the situation in the Ottoman Empire as a result of the increase of the rebel movement in the region and has led to the independence of Montenegro. In this article, the relations of Ottoman-Montenegro between 1851-1853 will be conveyed through the eyes of Ahmed Hilmi Efendi
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After a short review of the 20th century history of Byzantine studies in Hungary the author discusses the results of the past four decades in the field of Byzantine studies, also considering the Byzantine aspects of classical studies, history (Byzantium, the Middle Ages, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Hungaro–Byzantine relations, military history etc.), archeology, art history, theology, Turkic studies and other branches of science.
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Since the publication of Hammer-Purgstall’s path-breaking monograph (1840) on the history of the Golden Horde much has been written on this westernmost Tatar state, but some basic problems have remained unsolved ever since. One of the most obscure periods in the history of the Golden Horde is the twenty years’ anarchy (called bulqaq in Turkic) after Berdibek Khan’s death in 1359/60 (AH 761), lasting until 1380, the date of the establishment of Tokhtamish’s rule. With Berdibek’s death Batu’s line extinguished, and a cruel fight began among the Jochid families for the throne. Originally the western part of the Golden Horde (alias Right Wing or White Horde) was held by Batu’s house seated in Saray, and their jurisdiction nominally extended also to the eastern part of the Golden Horde (alias Left Wing or Blue Horde) where Batu’s elder brother Orda and his own successors sat on the khanal throne in Sığnaq. Practically they enjoyed total independence in matters of inner affairs, but had no coinage of their own. For long it was thought that the first eastern khan to mint coin in 770 AH (1369/70 AD) was Urus Khan, ancestor and predecessor of Girey and Jānibek, founders of the Kazak khanates in 875 AH (1470/1 AD).
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The purpose of this article is to present the phenomenon of sustainable leadership in relation to the life and activities of General Władysław Anders. The contemporary world is looking for assumptions for the model of a sustainable leader in the documents from the United Nations summits, which is certain right, but some elements of this theory can be found for example in the commissions of General Władysław Anders and in the non-authoritarian pedagogy of Thomas Gordon. The article presents selected quotes in comparison with the interpretation of content from the humanities and social sciences
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This article underlines the close connection between the disappointing performance of the Ottoman central army during the siege of Khotin, which was defended by the forces of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth in the fall of 1621, and the regicide of the Ottoman sultan Osman II in the spring of 1622. Interpreting the regicide of Osman II within the larger context of the Ottoman military rebellions of the late 16th century and the later depositions of the 17th century, this study suggests looking at the history of the Ottoman Empire in 17th and 18th centuries from a fresh perspective that would emphasise the transformation of the Ottoman political structures in this period to create – what the author calls – the “Second Empire”.
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The study is dedicated to one of the not so thoroughly researched moments in the history of World War I and namely the Dobruja front, on which the Bulgarian army, supported by a Turkish military corps, is fighting against the Russian back-up forces in the Romanian army and later against a Russian army, sent to replace the defeated Romanian troops. In order to fully present those not so well known moments from the military history, the events, related to the diplomatic preparation for Bulgaria’s engagement in the war, to the Bulgarian-Russian and the Russian-Romanian relations, which became one of the reasons for Bulgaria to join on the German side, and to the consequent opening of the Dobruja front after Romania joined the war on the Entente’s side, are chronologically described. On the basis of a wide range of sources the inclusion of the Russian troops in the 3rd Romanian army, as well as the compilation of the Russian Dobruja army, commanded by the Russian general Andrei Zayonchkovski, which starting in mid-September 1916 is fighting against the 3rd Bulgarian army, commanded by general Stefan Toshev, is described. Special attention is given to the development of the Bulgarian-Turkish relations during the years of the War, to the negotiations for signing a union treaty, to the events that led to the participation of Turkish back-up forces in the Bulgarian army, as well as to the Bulgarian-Turkish arguments about the status and the holding of Dobruja after the end of the fighting there, which became a reason for the deterioration of the relations between the Central Powers’ countries.
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After taking power (30 January 1933), the Nazis began to pay more attention to the way in which the party rallies were organized. To raise their rank, they sent out invitations to foreigners, also citizens of the United States. The regime wanted to win them for their cause. Parteitag’s invitations were sent to American diplomats and correspondents, American supporters of national socialists, American fascists and members of pro-Nazi organizations operating in the United States. Nazis foreign and internal policy successes resulted in a gradual increase in the number of American visitors at the Nazi congresses. For many observers attending the conventions meant meeting the “idols” and observing the power of the movement. Nazis prepared a number of attractions for their foreign guests. U.S. citizens were impressed by the excellent organization of the Nazi party rallies and their pomp. Many of them enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the Nazism and meet Nazi elite. The congresses were perfect propagandist celebration, full of parades and pageantry.
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On the example of Kłodzko Land the author presents one of the fundamental aspects of operations of the repression apparatus in the Stalinist period in Poland, that is the border control. From 1949 on, when the Border Guard was incorporated into the structures of the Ministry of Public Security, and a migration policy was tightened in general, the Ministry began to place a strong emphasis on the security of the state border. It applied both to all the border voivodeships (provinces), and districts. The author has analysed and emphasised several main tasks of the Security Office vis-à-vis a closure of the state border and their protection. He focuses on the presentation of counterintelligence characteristics of the terrain and systematic analyses of the border situation in 1949–1956. He described the organisation and development of the network of agents active on the border, detecting and constant surveillance of persons who wanted to illegally cross the border, liquidation of trafficking channels undertaken by the secret political police, and cooperation with the units of Border Guard and Citizen’s Militia. In a concise way he also presented consequences imposed on illegal crossers, among other things, on the example of sentences passed by the municipal court at Kłodzko and district court in Wrocław, he described the most frequent verdicts. After an analysis of the documents issued by the Special Commission for the Struggle against Abuses and Economic Sabotage, he answered the question whether the Commission was more repressive in this regard, and imposed more severe punishments. In conclusions, he was able to say whether the border of the Polish state during the Stalinist period was as tight and impossible to force as the communist authorities wanted it to be.
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Intensive archival and historical research conducted in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries led researchers to think that all Renaissance military treatises were recognized and their content was subjected to a detailed analysis. For this reason we can perceive the identification in the years 2009–2014 of the three manuscripts written by Albert of Hohenzollern as a sensational discovery. This article is aimed to provide researchers with new sources together with their brief description and to discuss the current state of knowledge on the origins and the further fate of these manuscripts.
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The following article provides an outline of the biography of Zygmunt Duszyński, the Deputy Minister of National Defence and the chief of the Main Inspectorate of Training in the late ‘50s and the early ‘60s. This prewar reserve officer during the Nazi occupation served in the underground communist guerrilla (People’s Guard/People’s Army), where he was a close co-operator of Marian Spychalski, which paved him the way to the highest positions in the afterwar army. In 1947 Duszyński – as one of the youngest officers of the People’s Polish Army – became a general; right after the war he was leading an infantry division, he also successfully fought the Polish afterwar anti-communist resistance movement. During the Stalinist purges he was “sidelined”. In the 1956, when Władysław Gomułka took the power, Duszyński became the Deputy Chief of General Staff, then the Deputy Minister of National Defence, he was also a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. He was perceived as a high-class general and a specialist, in the case of World War III he was supposed to lead a Polish Front within the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact against NATO. In the mid-1960s, due to the internal political turmoil within the leadership of both the party and the army (a conflict between the party’s fractions called “puławianie”, “natolińczycy” and “partisans”), he was removed from power.
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Close comparison of the text erroneously attributed to Ali Çavuş of Sofia and the Kavanin-i Al-i Osman of Ayn Ali shows that the two are related, having common content and a similar structure. A direct genetic relationship cannot be demonstrated. Rather, Ayn Ali used the other text as a literary model, transforming what was essentially a scribal manual into a literary work in the advice for kings genre.
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The Crimean Tatars who acted as Ottoman reinforcements on the Hungarian front during the 16th and 17th centuries had the task of making attacks and incursions on their enemy’s borders. The Turkish and Tatar sources hardly make any reference to the tools they had at their disposal and to how they collected information about the lands they had to attack and the armies they were likely to encounter. From the little evidence that we have one can only presume that the Tatars got their information directly from the theatre of war by forcing people of the conquered territories to spy and make guidance for the Tatar army. The knowledge that we present here has been gained from a report of 15 September 1663 made on the basis of the testimony of a captured spy working for the Tatars. From his testimony it becomes evident that the Tatars had an extensive spying network which had been organised by a German soldier in their pay, and that the Tatars paid the spies for their service and also rewarded them with a portion of their spoils. The captured spy’s testimony refers not only to the 1663 Ottoman campaign but also provides answer for an old historiographical problem. The Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi reported on what he knew about the Tatars’ incursions and while doing so he attempted to give information on similar activities in far away territories like Brandenburg, Holland and even Sweden. Researchers agree that Evliya Çelebi never actually visited these countries, but one can suppose that he gleaned information from discussions with spies who worked for the Ottomans and Tatars.
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La première moitié du Nüzhetü-l-esrâri-l-aẖbâr der sefer-i Sigetvâr de Ferîdûn se présente à première vue comme un récit de la dernière campagne de Soliman le Magnifique, au cours de laquelle ce sultan décéda en 1566 devant la forteresse de Szigetvár. En fait, l’étude de ce texte minutieusement composé et de la façon dont l’auteur joue avec la vérité historique sans jamais la trahir tout à fait montre qu’il s’agit d’une œuvre à la gloire de Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, grand vizir et patron de Ferîdûn. Il semble bien que la première moitié de cette chronique rédigée dans les mois qui suivirent les événements ait eu pour but de convainere le nouveau sultan, Selîm II, des compétences et plus encore de l’honnêteté et de la fidélité de Sokollu Mehmed.
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According to proponents of the “Military Revolution” theory, musketry volley fire was among the military innovations that fundamentally altered early modern field warfare. The origins of European volley fire date back to the 1590s, but no western army, with the possible exception of the Dutch in 1600, was able to use this tactic in action until the 1620s. Furthermore, it has been thus far assumed that the Ottomans failed to adopt this new tactic and thus experienced setbacks in the face of their European adversaries during this period. By utilising hitherto overlooked Ottoman narrative and visual sources, this article first shows that the Janissaries were indeed using volley fire in action in 1605, and possibly before. Secondly, it raises questions about the origins of Ottoman volley fire, which are currently unclear. Overall, the Janissaries' use of this tactic during the Long War not only affects our understanding of Ottoman warfare but also necessitates a reassessment of the patterns of invention and diffusion of military innovations in the early modern period.
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The study of the armaments of the Gorny Altaic nomadic tribes that formed parts of the Xiongnu, Xianbei and Ruanruan empires is of great importance for the military history of the Central Asian nomads. In the 1st-3rd centuries AD the nomads of the Bulan-Koba culture were armed with compound bows with bone brackets, arrows with iron three-bladed arrowheads and plugs, and handles or divided handles. In close combat they used swords, broadswords, and daggers. For self-protection, Bulan-Koba warriors used breastplates made of iron. Gorny Altaic nomad weapons were greatly influenced by the armaments of the Xiongnu and the Sarmatians. There were two nomadic groups in Gorny Altai in the 3rd-5th centuries AD: the Kok-Pash culture and the Ayrydash type. Kok-Pash armaments included bows with bone brackets and three-bladed, three-sided and rhombic arrowheads. Kok-Pash warriors had broadswords and daggers in their military equipment. They were protected by breastplates and special belts made of iron plates. The Kok-Pash culture has definite similarities with the Ulug-Khem and Kokeli cultures in Tuva. We can trace the influences of Xianbei culture in the armament material and equipment of these cultures. Ayrydash tombs contain bone bow brackets, iron three-bladed, rhombic and lenticular arrowheads, bone arrowheads with plugs and whistles, as well as arrowheads with rhombic shaped handles and divided handles. Armaments of the Ayrydash tombs can be dated from the time of Ruanruan supremacy in Central Asia. The nomads of Sayan-Altai during the first half of the 1st millenium AD were lightly-armed archers. They were not as well equipped as the Xiongnu, Xianbei and Ruanruan in terms of close combat equipment and defensive weapons and armour.
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The paper focuses on the characteristic and non-specific arms of the Avar heavy cavalry by comparing the technical terms of armament attested in written sources with information found in the archaeological finds and pictorial representations. The data culled from different sources lead us to the conclusion that heavy cavalry must have played a decisive role only in the first part of the early Avar age when the Avars had frequently waged war against Byzantium. Although it did not disappear completely in the late Avar age, its significance decreased. More data are available on the arms of the heavy cavalry from the period prior to the collapse of the Avar Empire, but even so they are much fewer than those relating to the early Avar period. In the second half of the 8thcentury the Avar army must have used Frankish types of armaments (winged-lance and Frankish-type armour)
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The article presents an analysis of two narratives of the war between the Heruls and the Lombards fought in 508. Leaving aside any attempts to see “how it really was” with the course of the conflict, the author focuses on a narrative side of the story written by Procopius of Caesarea and Paul the Deacon. The accounts of both authors are subjected to one main idea: that the victory depended neither on the size and strength of the army, nor the courage of the troops, but was the result of God’s decision to support one of the sides. In the version presented by Procopius, God in the form of a black cloud took side with the Lombards, who with a sense of profound humility wanted to avoid military conflict to the end, and were forced to go to war. The defeat of the Heruls was their punishment for initiating the war without any just reason. In the version presented by Paul the Deacon the defeat of the Heruls was the punishment for the arrogance of their king and the contempt this soldiers felt for the Lombardian troops.
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In January 1943, Commander-in-chief and Prime Minister of Poland, General Władysław Sikorski, received a memorandum on the objectives of the Polish foreign policy drawn up by Lieutenant Colonel Tadeusz Zakrzewski (1897–1964), former military attaché in Bucharest (1938–1940). The policy was founded on three pillars: the Polish Armed Forces, the Polish populace, and propaganda. He emphasised that Poland would achieve true victory with the consolidation of its independent existence within its pre-war borders in the east, and strategically expanded borders – at the expense of Germany (East Prussia, Opole Silesia) – in the west. Central and Eastern Europe was to be divided between Poland (Union of Central Europe: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Hungary) and the USSR (Eastern Union: the USSR, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Bulgaria). Romania could choose between the two. Peace and security in the world would rely on the cooperation of regional powers and the relations of states supervised by an international organisation. The durability of the post-war order would be ensured by the universal adoption of democracy, the protection of human and minority rights, extensive trade in commodities and raw materials, and the isolation of warmonger states from the international community.
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