Were they largely similar to the western counterparts of their era? By Russia I mean roughly the regions of and around Muscovy that eventually constituted the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian empire.
Every attempt I've made to learn about Russian swords had been invariably met with shashka this and шашка that, which I understand wasn't adopted from the Cossacks until much later, and was mostly if not entirely a calvary weapon in any case that I suspect wasn't commonly in the hands of citizens, nobles and soldiers during the time of the empire and certainly not the tsardom, but please correct me if I'm wrong!
Please do pardon my historical illiteracy here, thanks for any information one can provide!
Sorry if my English sucks.
Shashka is indeed a much later type of sword, adopted only in 19th century for the cavalry purpose.
During the early periods of the Russian history, which began in the late Dark Ages, much of the weaponry used by Russian warriors was in many ways reminiscent to the Viking swords (mostly because it's now commonly perceived that Russian nobility was of Scandinavian origin). After the complete merge of foreign and local cultures and slavinization of the foreign elite, they took many things from the locals, but the main source of inspiration for this evolution was coming from the west. Before Mongolian invasion, arming swords were the dominating type of blade weaponry in Russian principalities. Before 10th century they were akin to the Carolingian swords and sometimes were even imported from the Carolingian Empire and its susccessor states. With the Dark Ages ending, Carolingian swords mostly disappear, and Byzantinian (so called Romansky type) blades take their place. Simultaneously, warrior graves with first signs of nomadic-shaped sabres date to this exact period, most likely because of frequent cultural contacts with the steppe people; but these curved exemplars are rare in comparison to the straight ones.
After the Mongolian invasion, Russian weapon-making technologies take a huge step back since much of the population has died, many able craftsmen have fled the country and the biggest manufacturing centers were burnt to the ground. In times of heavy economical and military burden coming from the Golder Horde (a successor state of the Mongolian Empire), Russian swords become more poorly made and sparse; the enormous price of such labour and technology intensive equipment gave way to more simple yet effective weapons such as clubs and axes.
During the 15th century Russian swords mostly consist of variations of European one-handed arming swords of this era (findings of the two handed ones are very rare and are considered to be purely imported weapons meant for unique swordmasters and trophy collectors). Yet, the proportion of sabre-type weaponry increases with each passing year, and, if we take a look at a picture depicting battle of Orsha (1514), we can clearly see that Russian army holds as many sabres as arming swords. By the middle of 16th century uncurved swords mostly disappear from the arsenal of Russian wariors, and Eastern looking sabres, which took their place, begin rapidly developing (the exact reason for this is unknown since close contact with the steppe people and abundance of cavalry didn't have such big influence in the previous centuries, but some historians argue such evolution could happen due to strengthening of trade partnership with Persia and India).
According to Sigismund Herberstein, an Imperial nobleman who visited Russia during 1520s, most of the Russian cavalry was armed with sabres which he compared with that of the Hungarians or Turks. By the late 16th century Russian blades split into two different archetypes: Western (which greatly mimic Polish and Hungarian cavalry blades) and Eastern (Persian shamshirs). With the passing time, Russian swords start looking different compared to both regions of infuluence: they become wider, shorter (probably to compensate for their increasing mass), more curved, frontal part of the blade intended for cutting gets noticably heavier (so-called elman). The reason for this is that Russian sabre combat was mostly concentrating on delivering powerful vetical and horizontal cuts with only supportive role intended for the thrusts since they were harder to inflict when on the horseback. Overall, Russian swords were less capable of thrusting but were able to deliver deadly cuts due to their bigger mass and larger cutting edge in comparison to ther European counterparts.
Examples of such swords can be seen here:
Steel for the blades during this period was mostly imported either from Hungarian and German manufacturers or Persian blade masters, the latter type predominating with higher-ups including swords of kings (tsars) and important political and military figures. Beginning with the second quarter of the 17th century, German and Hungarian blades slowly take their place as a popular weapon of choice among common soldiers, offering good steel quality for moderate prices. From the decorating perspective, blades (sometimes made out of imported Persian steel) usually bore lion and tiger images on their sides; herbical (flowers and petals) motives and engraved religious mottos were also quite popular. Russian swords mostly used simple and short hilts, their grips were usually made out of wood with either cloth or shark skin as a wrap up.
During late 17th century and early 18th century, Russian swords mostly copy their European counterparts, and I am unaware of any significant differences between them.
