In the second half of the 17th century, the service people of Siberia widely used a berdiche, a shaft weapon similar to a poleaxe or an axe. Its distinctive feature is the blade drawn down, which turns into a ‘string’ — a metal plate through which the blade is further attached to the shaft-spear stuff. Axes of this type were so common in the Muscovy that they were manufactured by both metallurgical plants and urban, monastery and rural forges.

In Siberia, due to the specifics of the military tactics of the indigenous population, berdiches were most in demand in the defense of cities and ostrogs. Drawings on the pages of the Remezov chronicle suggest that the 17th-century berdiche was exclusively an infantry weapon. It was almost impossible to use it in a cavalry attack. For example, in the note ‘On military behaviour’ in 1701, the thinker Ivan Tikhonovich Pososhkov wrote:

The sample presented in the Museum complex exposition has a typical concave cut in the upper part of the paddle opposite to the blade. This form made it possible to successfully use the berdiche as a stabbing weapon. The paddle of the weapon gradually narrows at the bottom, and then abruptly turns into a long string. Along the edge of the back side of the paddle, sixteen through holes are punched: nine in the lower part, seven in the upper part. It is believed that such holes were used for pulling rings in them, which when moving made a typical metallic ring.

Russian berdiches of such form were made in the 17th century, they have many analogues in both domestic and foreign collections. But the Tobolsk exhibit has one rare decorative element. Its back side has semicircular festoons interspersed with two sharp forks. Such a design with festoons (but without forks) is known only from the drawing of a berdiche in the book of the military historian Alexander Viskovatov ‘Historical description of the clothing and weapons of the Russian troops’, which was published in 1841-1862.