Findings of the Golden Horde Arms in Asia and the Problem of the Impact of Eastern European Weapon Systems on the Warfare of the Peoples of Siberia, Central and Continental Eastern Asia during the 13 <sup>th</sup>-15 <sup>th</sup> centuries
The article describes the findings of armaments of the Golden Horde production (or performed according to the Golden Horde's samples) from the territory of Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Tibet and China, including: swords, spears, daggers, knives, axes, armor, helmets, etc. There are two main forms of the Golden Horde weaponry impact on the military art of the peoples of Central and Eastern Asia (between the 13 th and 15 th centuries): 1) export of arms and armor and 2) export of weapon production technologies. The analysis of written sources have demonstrated that weapons produced in the Northern Caucasus and the Volga region could get in Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China under different circumstances: the trade exchange, diplomatic gifts, spoils of war, etc. In general, military and cultural impact of the weaponry complex from the western part of the ulus of Jochi on the warfare of the peoples of Asia between the 13 th and 15 th centuries was limited and fragmented, due to both the specifics of the socio-economic and political-military contacts between the Golden Horde and states of Central and Eastern Asia, and peculiarities of the development of military art of the peoples of these regions. The ring-plate armor was among the most important borrowings in technology of weapons production. Its earliest samples originated from the territory of the Golden Horde and date from the second half of the 13 th to the first half of the 14 th century. Not later than middle of the 14 th century the ring-plate armor appeared in China and then in Korea, where its production was started (not later than 1450's). Through the mediation of the Koreans the ring-plate armor came to Japan. Japanese masters have modified its design and made the ring-plate armor in the form of a massive defensive armament for the samurai and ashigaru (shells “Carutha-gane-to-maru”, etc..). It is not excluded that the first samples of ring-plate armor could get to the Far East together with the soldiers from Eastern Europe selected for the Guard of the Yuan emperors. The latter included many units of Ases (the residents of the Norttern Caucasus), Kipchaks, and (from 1329) the Russian regiment “Everywhere the faithful.”