Studia Bellorum

Research seminar on the Theory and History of War and Military Violence: Practices, Structures, Comparative Analysis.

The seminar devoted to a wide range of issues related to the social, economic, cultural and political history of war and military violence. Chronologically, our focus is on the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, which, however, does not preclude reference to other time periods. We intend to explore the military history of various regions of Europe through a broad comparative perspective. The seminar aims at an interdisciplinary synthesis of methodological developments in historical science and related humanities disciplines - anthropology, philosophy and linguistics. The seminar is based at the Centre for Medieval Studies of the HSE University and the Department of Medieval and Early Modern Studies of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The seminar focuses on the following research areas:

- ‘Military Revolution’, innovations and reforms in military affairs on the cusp from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.

- The military organization of feudal and composite monarchies.

- Social and economic history of military communities.

- The relationship between military violence and state power in pre-modern and early-modern societies.

- Strategies of legitimising military violence and ways of limiting it.

- Military law and customs of war.

- Man at war: ethics, motivation, survival and career strategies, traumatic experiences.

- Armed violence in everyday life and its regulation.

- Formation, accumulation and transfer of knowledge about war.

- Territorial, confessional and cultural boundaries as a source of conflict and deterrent.

- Archaeological and bioanthropological research in the context of military history.

- Economics of war: military production, supply, logistics.

Discussions held:

2024

24 June 2024. The eleventh session of the seminar. Discussion of Petr Stefanovich's report "Alexander Nevsky and Mikhail Tverskoy: hagiographic images of the holy princes-"defenders of the fatherland"".

23 May 2024. The tenth session of the seminar. Discussion of Rustam Shukurov's report "War and human capital. The precedent of Byzantium in IX-XIV centuries".

29 April 2024. Ninth session of the seminar. Discussion of Dmitriy Weber's report "Christianisation and war: Teutonic Order's strategy in Prussia and Livonia".

28 March 2024. Eighth session of the seminar. Discussion of Irina Varyash's report ""People of War": business, religion, border on the Pirenea peninsula XIV century".

29 February 2024. Seventh session of the seminar. Discussion of Ivan Kopylov's report "The Image of the First Horseman of the Apocalypse in the Exegetics of Blessed Gregorio Lopez (1542 - 1596): War in the Historical and Metahistorical Dimension".

25 January 2024. Sixth session of the seminar. Discussion of Oleg Rusakovsky's report "Foreign regiments in Russia in 1631 - 1634: Biographical and prosopographical observations".

2023

21 December 2023. Fifth session of the seminar. Discussion of Sergei Gornostaev's report "Gunpowder, cogs, mercenaries. Hanseatic fleet and army in the first Danish-Hanseatic war of 1361 - 1365".

23 November 2023. Fourth session of the seminar. Discussion of Alexei Korchagin's report ""Shout, daughters of Raba". Samuel 12:26-31 - Old Testament text in late antique and medieval sources. Senseless cruelty or translation error?".

26 October 2023. Third session of the seminar. Discussion of Elena Kalmykova's report "The Church at War. The English example".

28 September 2023. Second session of the seminar. Discussion of Elena Berger's report "How gunshot wounds were treated. Methods and practices of the 16th century".

23 June 2023. First session of the seminar. Discussion of Pavel Uvarov's report "Military revolutions, military counter-revolutions and world-system theory".

If you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail: studiabellorum@gmail.com

Head lider of the seminar - Kamil Ernazarov.

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