Comments by "Voryn Rosethorn" (@vorynrosethorn903) on "Soviet World War Two Swords? The Cossack M1927 Shashka" video.

Psychology is important, when faced with a charge unsupported infantry on open ground tend to run for it and be cut down. They were also highly effective against units that were already disorganised or broken, sometimes they would break a line with tanks and send in the cavalry to clean up. Also scared men tend not to be good shots, the less trained the men the more likely cavalry could roll over them, though this applied to the Russians more so than the Germans and German aligned Cossacks were effective, even if they were usually used for garrison and anti-partisan duties.
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We don't know where they can from, theories are numerous. They are very much an ethnic group, or rather were, or more like several with a common culture and identity. They spoke regional dialects, some derived more from Ukrainian, some more from Russian, usually depending on which host they had origins with. They were an estate in the feudal system, which is were the idea that they were a social group comes from, but to be frank aristocrats were also usually separated ethnically from the population in much of Europe, they just tended to identify with their people. Cossacks had continual separatist sympathies and didn't get on well with regular Ukrainians and Russians, they were very ethnic despite considerable intermixing, especially on the female line.
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It is not only done to preserve the edge, it is a style of wear common to eastern countries and the Russians picked it up through influence from the Turks and Caucasians, it is basically fashion. British staff officers still wear their swords the same way due to influence from the Egyptian campaign of the Napoleonic wars, but other units with very similar swords wore them western style as their own fashions were adopted from Hungary, who were influenced by the Turks in sword design but not manner of wear.
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This is a good and accurate explanation.
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The sword of the highlanders and the Russian military are not the same even if they look it, the Russian Shashkas are military weapons which are near double the weight of the light swords the highlanders favoured, this means they are less agile but more robust and generally cut better. The Cossacks and higherlanders both specialised in small war and light troop actions. The original shashka was almost certainly a self defence weapon in addition to the dagger, being specialised towards a quick draw. While hit and run was preferable for light cavalry the cossacks still used them in prolonged engagements, especially on foot, and I'm sure the higherlanders did if they had too as well.
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