SLAVIC ARMY
The Slavic warriors did not belong to the best trained, armed and using sophisticated military tactics, soldiers. However, thanks to their zeal in fight, they stood firmly to other armies. Towarzyszy3 them also 3ut happiness, an important factor in any war. This Slavic armed force was composed of a factor in Europe and allowed for the expansion of the Slavic tribes of the vast po3aciach of central and eastern Europe.
About 200 A D took place next movement of Indo-European peoples, which led to the emergence of the youngest group Indo-Europeans - Slavs - in areas of Eastern and Central Europe. The Slavic population came to Europe, to its new settles, from the east direction, perhaps, today's northern Iran. Other hypotheses suggest that the Slavs ukszta3towali (assumed a shape) somewhere between the Oder and the Dnieper River. The stages of their wander are also not well-known. Further history of the Slavs is more transparent thou. The emergence of the East Asian Huns who attacked the Germanic tribes, had caused the latter increasingly pressed on the western provinces of the Roman Empire. In obtained in this way emptiness the Slavic tribes began to flow in. In V century the Slavs took over territories abandoned by the Germanic people. The Slaves reached so far as to the Elbe and Saale (today's Germany), and then they crossed these rivers. To the south of the Carpathians, they mastered areas of today's Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungarian. In VI century the Slavs crossed the river Danube, entered on the area the Balkan Peninsula and attacked Byzantium. After completion of the migration, the Slavs divided themself into three groups: the Western Slavs ( Polish, Czechs, Slovaks and Polabian tribes), the Eastern Slavs (Russian tribes) and the South Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenians and Pannonian tribes). Part of the Slavs (the western branch) were for a time under the rule of dangerous and warlike East Asian nation, the Avars. The subjected tribes were used by the Avars to capture Byzantine cities, usually fighting as infantry.
The basic social unit was a tribe, which clustered several or dozens of opole (opole - ancestral community, consisting of several neighbouring families). Initially, the main decision-making power, was an assembly of all free men (in Slavic meaning those who were "able to carry weapons"). The assembly was making decisions about war, offensive and defensive alliances, organisation of joint expeditions with its neighbours. The assembly was also choosing the temporary leader. This system was named war democracy by historians. The continuous battle between individual tribes, conquest one by another, fight against the Germans, the move from the Black Sea to the West, the struggle for liberation from the Avar rule, resulted that the Slavs were in the state of a permanent war. Such state require a good leadership, which would organize defence against enemies and supervise the migration of people. In particular, it concerned the South Slavs, who penetrated the territory of the Byzantine Empire. As a result of frequent fighting, part of the population was enriched by booty so that started to play a guiding role. Ambitious individuals aspired to enhance and their power and make it a permanent one. The power of chiefs were becoming longer and longer, until finally it turned into (at the cost of public meeting) permanent. The leader based his power on his body-guard unit, a group of armed warriors, growing rich from war loots and being on maintenance of the ruler. In peacetime the household guards were used to maintaining obedience among other tribesmen. In this way the small tribal states begun to transform into countries with organized central power (to certain degree) and the guiding administrative authority. Then the tribal commanders changed in the princes. The newly formed states included the territory of one or a few tribes. In the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, in this way came into being a row of small countries. Inform about that the Byzantine, Arab and later the German chronicles. The first Slav states included the Samona, Polish, Czech, Russian, Serbs and Croats organisms. In the fight against enemies grew the sense of togetherness and ethnic otherness. This process took place especially among tribes, which came across with completely different cultures and political organizations (such as the South Slavs in the fight against Byzantium, the Czechs and Slovaks in the fight against Avars, the Polish tribes in clashes with German liege lords).
The art of war the Slavs learned from war nations standing on a higher level– the Avars, Huns and Germanic tribes or later Byzantine people. In general, "people familiar with the word", that is the Slavs,inhabited areas which were often moors and covered with waters and rivers. For that reason, the tactic of fight was adjusted to the terrain on which they lived and where they fought. Infantry troops were the main strength of all Slavic armies. Maintaining cavalry was very expensive, and then the horse was rather unknown among the Slavs. It was only during the formation of the states leading by princes, the Slavs started to use the animal to war. Even then only mighty and princely units fought as horsemen.
The Slavic warriors' armament was quite weak. For a long time was not even known a sword, then all European armies’ primary weapon. Warriors fought with the help of clubs, axes as well as spears, which for several centuries, were the most popular weapon. Polish peoples often used a bow too. To defence served them quite weak, oval shield, made of boards. The Slavs fought usually as a rushed mass, often in frenzy amok caused by narcotics (for example, made from poisonous mushrooms). The war cries accompanied the Slavs before battle too. They aimed at raising the morale of own troops and frightening the enemy. To the perfection the Slavs mastered tactics of fight in forest and boggy terrains. For these reasons, they were very inconvenient opponents for every standing army which was on much higher level, but fighting in a conventional, open way. Often, the Slavs warriors were hidden under water, using a reed tube to breathe, waiting a convenient moment to attack.
The siege warfare was generally very poor. The South Slavs mastered the siege art a little better than other Slavs because often their armies tried to capture Byzantine cities. The Slavs besieged urban centres such as Salonika and even Constantinople itself. To a large extent the methods of siege warfare had been adopted from the Avars. These methods included using siege machines, iron rams, catapults hurling stones, as well ladders. However, most troops attacking Byzantium did not apply siege machines. Typically the Slavs tried to draw defenders by ruse, simulating attack by small forces and immediately withdrawing. Defenders thinking that they fight against a small unit, rush out in hot pursuit. The Slavic army's major body attack the enemy from their concealment outside the walls of the city or fortress. According to Byzantine sources, in addition to except cunning, the Slavic warriors could also be very rogue, even for the civilian population, not sparing women and children. The same sources mentioned, however, that these people sometimes treat prisoners fairly leniently, because after a small ransom they could free prisoners. This diversity could result from the fact that the various tribal communities often did not cooperate with each other and fought against external enemies on their own and without coordination.
The Slavs ( mainly the West ones) also participated in Vikings’ expeditions , arriving at Iceland, Greenland and northern Norway. Even the Vikings had more than once to fight with Slavic pirates who ravaged the coasts of Jutland (Denmark).