Patryk Skupniewicz - Ph.D.

 Salvete Omnes,

life goes on not matter where we stand, live or die -:) 

and on the happier note tomorrow at midday my friend Patryk Skupniewicz will  defended   his dissertation  thesis before the Siedlce university academic commission  (Zytnia Street 3) in Poland.

The title - Sassanian Armament and Horse-harness in Light of Armament of Europe and Asia 3rd-7th century AD' - under the supervision of prof. dr. Katarzyna Maksymiuk.

W dniu 28 lutego 2022 r. o godz. 12.00 w budynku Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczo-Humanistycznego w Siedlcach przy ul. Żytniej 39, w sali nr 1.6 odbędzie się publiczna obrona rozprawy doktorskiej mgra Patryka Norberta Skupniewicza: "Sasanidzkie uzbrojenie oraz rząd koński na tle uzbrojenia Europy i Azji III-VII wieku'.

Buona Fortuna - Varaz (the Boar)

Valete

War In Ukraine must stop

 Salvete Omnes,

it is not going to be about horses and riders, as the war rages on in Ukraine (map)

eh, the  imperially-minded Russian Federation and their supreme leader Putin put  their armies, in some strange limited fashion and against the typical Soviet-Russian military doctrines of artillery war,  against  poor Ukraine and her armies. 

My hopes and thoughts are with the poor people of Ukraine -  especially the civilian population that is already suffering from this assault and heinous imperialism by Russian government. But I truly pity the wasted, in my opinion, lives of these Russian soldiers who  have died and will die fighting for the imperial Russian idea. Their mothers will weep in the same way the Ukrainian mothers will...

Poland, where until this armed conflict some 2 million Ukrainians had been working and thus prospered, already took in some 145,000 refugees - women and children - from Ukraine. Slovakia took at least 20,000, while Hungary and Romania probably also a large number too, but I have not checked Romanian and Hungaria news. Also there is Moldova with her rebellious area of Transdnisitria.
Ukrainian men and boy - age 18 to 60 - are staying in Ukraine to fight of this invasion, as they should, because this is what men are for; men are  to defend their children and their women.
I hear that some of the Ukrainian men living in Poland are going back to Ukraine - God bless them.

My friend Anton Wysocki has been fighting in Sumy, eastern Ukrainian city north of Kharkov, - he is a great artist and patriot, historian and writer. Hope , these find artists - Sergei Shamnkov  and Antoly Telenik are safe and unhurt, but they live in Odessa and Kherson oblast respectively. 

But now the invade  Ukraine needs you to tell your governments to step in and stop this invasion and armed conflict - weak US leadership did nothing to prevent this war,  while European Union but for Poland and the Baltic Republic(old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), was lukewarm, and  only yesterday Federal Republic of German decided to allow for some arms - RPG and Stingers - to be shipped to Ukraine (how they gonna do this remains to be seen). Poland has been sending aid, including military supplies, and receiving refugee and wounded?. 
But then how is European Union to function without Russian natural gas and countless other materials and resources  delivered from the still functioning pipelines?
Pipelines like the  Yamal pipeline and NordStream-1. When Germany turned off her nuclear energy plants, save for only one that is to be decommissioned later this year.
Where renewable energy has proven itself to be a dismal failure. Where world leadership is populated by likes of Soros, Schwab and Gates and their ilk from World Economic Forum (WEF)  and WHO(run by PRoC and WEF).  

I hope this is not going to turn in all out nuclear war and thus world conflict(Russian Federation being one hell of a nuclear power), as the arch-enemy of Israel the Islamic Republic of Iran already probably has nuclear capabilities and Israel has been bombing war-ravaged Syria and Iranian targets in Syria. Nuclear  powers  - Pakistan is in conflict with India  about Kashmir, while India herself with Peoples Republic of China, and PRofChina wants to take Taiwan (a sovereign state)  - with US fleet's warship sailing through the Formosa/Taiwan Straits.

Our world is in flux - hope peace will prevail, too bad Belarus is on the wrong side in this conflict.

Fortuna audaces iuvat 

Valete

War in Ukraine must stop

Salvete Omnes ,

no horses here, just a human tragedy 

the people of Ukraine need peace, the people of Russia need peace - now!
POTUS and NATO and Peoples Republic of China, and India need to act now

the above photo comes from Twitter - I claim no copyright 

Valete

Estonian Native Horse and genetics

 Salvete Omnes,

while perusing academia.edu subscriptions and searching for the Birka warriors etc I came across Gus Cothran's page on academia. 
I guess I started my adventure with horse genomics by reading prof. Cothran's articles etc.
So in his(and esteemed colleagues)  2019AD article -  Population Genetic Analysis of the Estonian Native Horse Suggests Diverse and Distinct Genetics, Ancient Origin and Contribution from Unique Patrilines- (link) we have a study of the Estonian Native Horse -    University of Oklahoma livestock and breeds page - wiki page, breeders pages. 

The horse averages 147cm at withers and about 430kg in weight (I guess the stallions). Its gene pool includes Mongolian horse and the Yakutian; Scandinavian horses like Gotland Pony, Norvegian Fjord, and Islandic Pony; British Isles horses - Exmoor and Shetland,  Polish Konik and Carpathian Hucul... 

This small horse might have been part of the horses' pool used by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth armies as between 1569-1629 Duchy of Livonia was part of our Polish state. Also, it is reasonable to infer that some Polish stallions left their progeny among the herds of the Estonian horse during that period.  After 1620s the Duchy of Livonia was conquered and annexed by the Swedes who already held the northern part of Estonia. It all ended with Peter the Great of Imperial Russia conquering all of Estonia during the Great Northern War. And Estonian horse became popular in Imperial Russia.. and so on until the present it is the native breed in the independent Estonia. 

Valete

Swit panstwa polskiego et inne linki

 Salvete Omnes,

[in Polish]

chciałbym podzielić się z Wami, drodzy surferzy netowi, paroma linkami do książek i rozmów/wywiadów, które ostatnio przesłuchałem czy czytałem.
największa moja ciekawość wzbudził wykład profesora Andrzeja Buko - academia  , FBC , lubimy czytać - związany z książka 'Świt państwa polskiego'  , który odbył się na portalu Archeologia Żywa i był/jest zatytułowany Rywale rodu Piastów? - Andrzej Buko | KONTEKST 51. - czytałem książki profesora 'Bodzia' (2015), 'The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland' (2008) i coś tam artykułów - eg ten artykuł.  Szczerze polecam ten wykład plus pytania i odpowiedzi po prezentacji tematu. Nota bene nie słuchałem jeszcze Q&A o Rusi Kijowskiej z Dariuszem Dąbrowskim (świetna 2-tomowa praca tego historyka o Danielu Romanowiczu), ani spotkania z Bartoszem Kotnym et al.  o kulturze przeworskiej, ani też o Scytach,Władcach Wielkiego Stepu. Może nadrobię -:)

Teraz pokłusujemy do XVII wieku, i tamże na portalu Ostoja Tradycji można posłuchać spotkań i gawędy dwóch Jacków - Komudy i Bartosiaka (Strategy and Future) na tematy wojenne (eg ta gawęda) i wojenno poboczne staropolskie, a wszystko w kontekście nadchodzącej premiery filmu fabularnego zrealizowanego  min z funduszy zebranych od darczyńców i Fundacji Ulanów króla Jana etc- premiera owego 'Diabla Łańcuckiego' ma się odbyć na Zamku w Krasiczynie 19 lutego, AD 2022. 

Na portalu Strategy and Future Jacek Bartosiak rozmawia z prof. Andrzejem Nowakiem, wielkim historykiem polskim i autorem serii Dzieje Polski  - temat: Rzeczpospolita, od Piastów po współczesność. 

Na portalu Historia Bez Mitów - rozmowa o micie Piłsudskiego w PRL. - gdzie Brunon Różycki i Tomasz Ciołkowski rozmawiają o meandrach mitu Marszałka. Wcześniej, bo we wrześniu 2021 odbyły się:  rozmowa mości Brunona z prof. Lechem Wyszczelskim na temat zaniedbań J. Piłsudskiego w wojsku miedzy 1926-35., i rozmowa tych dwóch przedmówców na temat Marszałka jako wojskowego 1914-23.

I na koniec raport z Fundacji Adarma - jako, że biją w teorbany, kotły i bębny wojny media a politycy jakby na Ukrainie nie toczyla sie wojna of 2014 a Białoruś z 'utajnionej przyjaciółki' stała się wrogiem RPIII - to warto poczytać krytykę projektu reformy Wojska Polskiego przygotowanej przez Strategy & Future jako Armia Nowego Wzoru. Krytyka jest arcy-konstruktywna, obfituje w odwołania do historii wojskowości, w tym oczywiście staropolskiej.

Z końskich tematowa w literaturze przedmiotu to dodam, że Infort Editions wydało prace  'KAWALERYĘ MIELIŚMY NADWERĘŻONĄ...' o koniach kawalerii epoki 1788-94 i 1806-14, Autorem jest Krzysztof Kuczyński, a prace można znaleźć tutaj.
Zresztą praca Mariusza Sampa o wojnie Mieszka I z Wieletami pt Brenna 991AD, tez mogłaby wzbudzić zainteresowanie, jak i krotkie wprowadzenie do Połowców Węgierskich Jakuba Juszyńskiego.

miłego czytania a słuchania etc

Valete

Max Gierymski's horses

 Salvate Omnes,

just to start your day - 
Polish painter (or going via current American parlance, then he was a Polish Russian painter) Maksymilian Giermyski painted lots of horse in his short life.

there are photos and scans of his art, and Polish National Library - Polona- has some old albums digitized .

Unfortunately most of those single canvases are not available in color, yet there are some - two of them I have attached here.
Also sketches and details of his painting - Insurgent Patrol.(1863-4 January Uprising in Polish Russia aka Congress Kingdom).

Valete

Ambrogio Spinola Doria - maestro of war

 Salvete Omnes,

the clouds of war seem, according to the msn media and respective governments, to be hanging menacing low over the steppes  and shores of Ukraine, Belarus and Russian Federation in the east of Europe (and east of that funny union), and with mysharonacirrus-19 laid to rest (tell it to a certain, fancy socks wearing, prime minister of Canada and his afficionados ), let me share some images showing  one hell of a command master - XVII century condottiero/condottiere Ambrogio Spinola Doria from Genoa and in the service of the Crown of Spain. 

early (1609AD) portrait by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt

  - surrender of Breda detail - by Diego de Velazquez, 

Surrender of Julich/Juliers details - by Jose Leonardo

and another surrender of Julich by Peter Snayers

and a print by Crispin de Passe

and another, later  1628AD,  portrait by maestro van Dyck

Valete

Maksymilian Gierymski - some sketches

 Salvete Omnes,

there was this uprising in Polish Russia back in 1863 - and the hopeless struggle known as January Uprising drew 200,000 young men to the guerilla-like armies of the Polish insurgents. One of these soldiers was a very young student Maksymilian Gierymski from Warsaw, the capital of Russian Poland (Congress Kingdom). 

Young Giermyski, born in 1846 AD, participated in the guerilla warfare against the Russian Imperial army, and this more than a year long field service must have been imprinted in his mind's eye, and thus influenced his art too - as evidenced by his sketches and paintings. Maestro Gierymski did not live long and tragically succumbed to tuberculosis in 1874AD, his untimely death cut down his developing artistic career .  But that is every Earthling's destiny - to live and to  die one day for certain. C'est la vie.

Here are some of his sketches  - horses, Russian Cossacks, uhlans and Polish guerillas. 

In the future I will share some more of Max Giermyski's works - eg as related to Mazepa, both the Byron's poem and historic Mazepa in the certain Polish 17th century memoir.

Valete

Winged Hussar from De Re Miltiari

 Salvete Omnes,

happy to announce that the Polish publisher Infort Edition has published the new volume of their De Re Militari magazine - 172 page of military history.
It can be had from their Wanax store page.

And on the front cover my winged hussar companion with of the Cecora-Chocim 1620-21 A.D. period.

The back cover has the winged hussar retinue with camp servants, horses, wagons , and oxen. 

Nowy numer De Re Miltiari - nr 6 (2022-1)  

 Valete

Baba Yaga

 Salvete Omnes,

I do like fairy and folk tales, and some of the best ones are our old pre- and post-Christian Slavic tales,  while the Russian folk tales are my favorites (especially Konik Garbunok).
But there are lots of similarities between all Slavic fairy tales when comes to the demon-witch and other dark characters,  that goes back to the pagan beliefs and customs; also many tales across the great Eurasian steppe share similarities and common characters, even some relate Baba Yaga (Baba Jaga in Polish) with ancient Greek Kirke...  so this is a field that has been the subject of many studies, as this list from Academia can exemplify.

While drawing and seeking for something good to listen I came across this YT channel - The Histocrat - and I listened to one of their productions - Baba Yaga - Mythillogical (I was interested in the Heracles story but that 2 part presentation will be for later days).

So I rather enjoyed their, Charles and Crofty, presentation - they center on the Russian Baba Yaga stories and place it more within the Russian and eastern Slavic tradition, but that is not a big deal, becasue hat is material to the story of Baba Yaga and various tales they go over, that they do this tale with style and gusto, and keep the listener, in my case at least, interested.  Which makes this presentation quite a feast I must add. 

In order to make the post more colorful and more lively below  I am adding  some images of Baba Yaga, Bogatyr-witez created by famous Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin.

enjoy the presentation

In Polish short film production there is a fun feature film titled Jaga (Yaga) which is a take on the old tales and fables, and quite enjoyable -

 

nota bene, in the second season of Netflix Witcher there is a house or hut on chicken legs, but the series season 1 and 2 are not as enjoyable as the books by Sapkowski have been to me. C'est la vie

Valete