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Latest comment: 5 months ago4 comments3 people in discussion
@Gawaon: Don't want to start an edit war, so writing this here. This information that you reverted is mentioned in detail in the Nikon Chronicle; and it is not secret or unknown information in Russian historiography. But since it is not desirable to cite a centuries old chronicle, I cited a secondary source. What's the issue with this source? Can a source not be RS if it's in Russian? Or is there a problem with the PDF format? I can cite more secondary academic sources,[1][2][3][4][5][6] but they are all, like most digital books, PDFs; and in Russian. Angel Eyes●💬
Something seems odd here, our article on the Nikon Chronicle says it "covers the years from 859 to 1520", so how can events that happened around 1560 be in it? Other than that, sources in Russian can sure be reliable as long as they were published by reliable publishers or in reliable journals, but it's hard for me to evaluate that, so I'll wait for what others here have to say. Plus if this is notable it should be mentioned in some RS written in English too, so the most accessible solution would be to find and reference those. Gawaon (talk) 08:49, 2 March 2026 (UTC)Reply
It was originally compiled in the 1520s but later events were added. But you are right that we should not rely on primary sources. Kanklych Kanukov is briefly mentioned once in Ivan the Terrible: A Military History (2008) by Alexander Filyushkin on page 115, but this is referring to a campaign against the Crimean Tatars. Mellk (talk) 10:17, 2 March 2026 (UTC)Reply
Scholarship related to the Caucasus is simply mostly not in English. The vast majority is in Russian, or sometimes in Turkish. "If it's RS it should be in English!" is a misguided philosophy when working on obscure regional topics English scholarship has not touched. The sources I cited are mostly academic works published in the universities of the region who have their own branches dedicated to this field of research. Because frankly, only they really care about this field. Which academic in English is researching 16th century Besleney princes? It's all in Russian. Angel Eyes●💬16:07, 2 March 2026 (UTC)Reply
The sources do not have to be in English, but I think this is a question of WP:DUE. There are plenty of English-language sources that cover the Livonian War. Mellk (talk) 02:53, 3 March 2026 (UTC)Reply
References
↑Pchelov, E. V. (2007). Кабардинская земля в царском титуле и русской государственной геральдике XVI – начала XX века[Kabardian Land in the Royal Title and Russian State Heraldry of the 16th – Early 20th Centuries] (in Russian). Nalchik: Издательство КБНЦ РАН. p.86. ISBN978-5-901497-32-6.
↑Bgazhnokov, B. Kh., ed. (2008). Канжальская битва и политическая история Кабарды первой половины XVIII века: Исследования и материалы[The Kanzhal Battle and Political History of Kabarda of the First Half of the 18th Century: Researches and Materials] (in Russian). Nalchik: Издательство М. и В. Котляровых. p.496. ISBN978-5-93680-225-6.
↑Kumakhov, M. A., ed. (2006). Адыгская (черкесская) энциклопедия (in Russian). Moscow: Фонд им. Б. Х. Акбашева. ISBN5-99003-371-0.
↑Khotko, S. Kh. (2015). Открытие Черкесии. Картографические источники XIV – XIX вв[The Discovery of Circassia. Cartographic sources XIV – XIX cc.] (in Russian). Maykop: ОАО «Полиграф-ЮГ». p.292. ISBN978-5-7992-0829-5.
↑Abazov, A. Kh.; Anchabadze, Yu. D.; Kushkhabiev, A. V.; Pashtova, M. M., eds. (2022). Адыги: Адыгейцы. Кабардинцы. Черкесы. Шапсуги. Народы и культуры (in Russian). Moscow: Наука. p.870. ISBN978-5-02-040924-8.
↑Khotko, S. Kh. (2017). "«Крымский аукцион» и судьба русско-черкесского альянса в первой половине 60-х гг. XVI в.". Вестник Кабардино-Балкарского института гуманитарных исследований (in Russian) (4 (35)). Nalchik.
Latest comment: 1 month ago3 comments3 people in discussion
There's a Wikipedia article about cannibalism in Europe showing a drawing of cannibalism during the Livonian War but there's no mention of it here. Was there cannibalism during this war? If so, why? ~2026-34784-66 (talk) 15:54, 25 June 2026 (UTC)Reply
The same image is present in this article as well, although such depictions were created for propaganda purposes. Mellk (talk) 16:02, 25 June 2026 (UTC)Reply
If it happened, it was presumably due to hunger during the war. The caption mentions "hunger and pestilential trouble", and cannibalism during famine episodes is not exactly rare. My guess is that the depicted plate is based on actual accounts from the war (whether true, exaggerated, or fictitious), while the way it's depicted on the plate is due to the creator's imagination and shouldn't be taken too seriously. I'm not aware of reliable sources either confirming or rejecting cannibalism during the war, so I don't think there's much more we can write here without further research. Gawaon (talk) 02:39, 26 June 2026 (UTC)Reply
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