Druzhina / Retinue
In the medieval Kievan Rus', the druzhina (literally "retinue" or "squad" or "fellowship") was the retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called knyaz. The name is derived from the Slavic word drug (droog) with the meaning of "companion, friend". In the Rus' Khanate, the druzhina helped the prince administer his principality and constituted the area's military force. The first members of a druzhina were the Varangians, whose princes established control there in the 9th century. Druzhinniki were a real military force, always ready for battle, and also advisers to the prince. In addition to military functions, they carried out administrative and judicial functions. The number of members of the squad varied, but presumably did not exceed several hundred people.
The " druzhina" existed mainly in the Kiev period of Russian history. The druzhina is considered primarily as the main form of organization of the social core of the ancient Russian civilization. The ruling classes in the different polities on the territory of Rus’ during the 10-14th centuries (from the Dnieper Rus’ of the middle of the 10th century to independent princedoms-lands of the 12-14th centuries) consisted of no more than 20-30 persons. The number of the whole estate of boyars at the beginning of the 13th century was approx. 1500 persons (not numbering members of their families). The word Boyar denoted a noble person who owed his upper status not to moral authority or local (tribal) background but to possession of political power and offices.
Chroniclers, unlike historians, do not distinguish terminologically between the druzhina, the princely council and the boyar duma. In some studies, the druzhina is not the prince's armed forces, but rather the assembly of his service aristocracy, which formed the council under the prince. Thus, in Rus', the druzhina (in the narrow sense, otherwise "senior druzhina") can be conventionally called a synonym for the advisory body under the prince. Since these senior druzhina members were already called boyars in Old Russian texts, then it seems acceptable to call the advisory body under the prince the Boyar Duma in relation to the era of Old Rus', although this term was established as the only name for the advisory body under the monarch only in Muscovite Rus'.
The princely squad was the main combat unit of the army in the Kingdom of Rus and consisted mainly of heavily armed cavalry. The squad was formed from professional warriors ("senior squad"), who received titles and land grants for their service. For these people, service was hereditary - they began it as "children" and "adolescents", becoming "gridnya" and "boyars" as they grew older. Such service involved constant training and education, giving a high administrative and political status, as well as the opportunity to make a successful career. As in Western Europe, the princes themselves went through all the stages of knightly science, starting from "children". In addition to the "senior squad", the princely guard included "adolescents" - descendants of noble boyar families ("junior squad"). The number of "junior squad" depended on the financial capabilities of the prince and ranged from several dozen to several hundred warriors. The squad was commanded directly by the prince or voivode, appointed by him from among the noble warriors or boyars.
"Spisy" (small squads of vassals) numbered from 3 to 20 fighters each. They included both heavily armed horsemen and infantrymen, as well as archers. The command of a detachment assembled from "spisy" was carried out by an appointed boyar or group of boyars.
The third component of the army was the zemstvo militia ("voi"), consisting of free rural population - "smerds" and city dwellers - "mistichs", who acted on the battlefield as light infantry. This part of the army was headed by a tysyatsky, to whom the hundred and desyatsky were subordinate. At the same time, the urban infantry was used mainly for the defense of their cities.
The main organizational units of the princely-royal army were regiments (1000-2000 people each), which in turn were divided into "banners" ("khorogvy") with their own banners, and those, in turn, into "tambourines" and "trumpets". The militia had its own structure and was directly tied to the geography of a particular city, subdivided into thousands, hundreds and "streets".
The prince's permanent retinue and the "spisy" of his vassals totaled no more than 3 thousand fighters. The total number of the Galician-Volyn army and militia during the time of Danilo Romanovich reached 30 thousand people, and if this was enough to fight the Polish or Lithuanian princes, then against the Mongols, who could concentrate up to 120 thousand people in one place, these forces were clearly not enough.
Taking into account the experience of numerous wars, in order to avoid negative organizational consequences and increase the combat effectiveness of the army, King Danilo carried out a large-scale military reform in the 1240-1260s. First of all, regular units were created from peasants ("common people"), as well as petty and landless nobility - "gunners" and "streltsy", who were paid in money or goods. "Gunners" at that time were heavily armed warriors with spears, swords (or axes) and long shields, who were the main striking force of the army and fought both on horseback and on foot. "Streltsy" were lightly armed infantry with bows, crossbows ("rozhantsy") and spears. At the same time, the core of the army remained the permanent princely squad.
An important element of the reform was the balancing of the branches of the armed forces and the optimization of their training. For example, the prince decided to organize linear heavy infantry ("gunners") to counter the Mongols, not having the ability to field equivalent cavalry forces. Having undergone special training and being sufficiently armored, the "gunners" successfully fought against the enemy's cavalry and archers. The training and armament of these units was covered by profits from salt mines, as well as duties from the entrepreneurial activities of Armenians, Karaites and Germans invited to the cities of the principality.
Danilo Romanovich paid special attention to the individual training of fighters, their weapons and armor. In particular, high standing collars, chainmail stockings appeared in the armor, and the length of the chainmail increased. At the same time, plate armor began to be used more actively, a scale armor appeared, which differed from the plate armor by the same size of scales-plates (6x4-6 cm) and the method of fastening to a leather or linen base with lacing on one edge, as well as one or two hinged rivets. In addition, many examples of individual protective equipment were borrowed from the Mongols, whose armor was effective and comparatively cheaper than European ones.
In the pre-Mongol period, war horses in the Russian principalities had no special protection. Danilo Romanovich was the first to introduce "masks" and leather "koyars" to protect horses, borrowing them from the Mongols. Leather "koyars" completely protected the horse's croup, and "masks" - its head.
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