Tsar Cannon

The Tsar Cannon (Russian: Царь-пушка, Tsar'-pushka) is a large, 5.94 metres (19.5 ft) long cannon on display on the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin. It was cast in 1586 in Moscow, by the Russian master bronze caster Andrey Chokhov. Mostly of symbolic impact, it was never used in a war. However the cannon bears traces of at least one firing[1]. Per the Guinness Book of Records it is the largest bombard by caliber in the world,[2] and it is a major tourist attraction in the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin.

The very low ratio between its calibre and the length of its barrel makes it technically not a cannon, but a stylized mortar. The Tsar Cannon is made of bronze and weighs 39.312 tonnes[3] and has a length of 5.34 m (17.5 ft).[4] Its bronze-cast barrel has a diameter of 890 mm (35.0 in),[4] and an external diameter of 1,200 mm (47.2 in).[4] The barrel has eight cast rectangular brackets for use in transporting the gun, which is mounted on a stylized cast iron gun carriage with two wheels. The barrel is decorated with relief images, including an equestrian image of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich.

The spherical cast-iron projectiles located in front of the cannon - each of which weighs approximately 1 ton, were produced in 1834 as a decoration. They are too large to have been used in the Tsar Cannon, which would have fired 800 kg stone grapeshot rather than cannonballs. [5] According to legend, the cannonballs were manufactured in St. Petersburg, and were intended to be a humorous addition and a symbol of the friendly rivalry between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Bardiche Polearm

This is like something the Grim Reaper's cousin would use to slash things from a distance.

Use of bardiches started in early 15th century Russia. It is a type of glaive polearm known in the 16th and 17th centuries in Eastern Europe and Russia. Ultimately a descendant of the medieval Sparth.

The Bardiche is a long, cleaver type blade. The bardiche blade was attached to the pole either via two sockets (one at the top of the pole and one lower, at the base of the blade) or one socket at the top and one surface mount at the base, effectively mounting the heavy blade to the wooden shaft. This construction is also seen in Scottish polearms, such as the Lochaber axe, and bardiches are known to have been imported into Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Depending on the design of the particular weapons in question, at times a bardiche may greatly resemble a voulge. While the blade was often very long for an axe (usually exceeding 2 feet (60 cm)) the shaft was one of the shortest of all polearms; rarely did it exceed 5 feet (1.5 m) in length. It relied more on the weight of its heavy blade to do the damage than a swing from a long pole.