Buhurt

Historical Medieval Battles (HMB) or Buhurt  (from Old French béhourd: "wallop") is a modern full contact fighting sport with steel blunt weapons characteristic for the Middle Ages. Armor and weapons have to follow regulations on historical authenticity and safety published on official Battle of the Nations page.

Fighters are covered in full modern produced protective armor, made from steel (or other metal alloy if permitted) made to aesthetically be as close to their historical counterparts as possible. Hits and blows may be aimed at any parts of the body (with the limitations set in the regulations); both wrestling and percussive techniques are permitted.

Unlike staged battles, that can be seen at festivals of historical reenactment of the Middle Ages the competitions in buhurt are the full contact sporting events that are refereed by the referees called knight marshals who have special training and combat experience.

History:
Historical medieval battle dates back to the first large-scale battles with the use of steel arms, which were held in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine  in the late 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, at times when in the rest of the Eastern European countries reenactors used wooden or textolite weapons. An example is the festival "Zhelezny Grad" (Iron Town) held in Izborsk, where buhurts involving hundreds of fighters took place or Sword of Russia tournament from 1996.

First European Championship took place in Ukraine in 2005, with nominations "Sword and Shield", and "Sword vs Sword".

The expansion of buhurt as a sport truly began after the first held Battle of the Nations in Khotyn Fortress in Ukraine where participants from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia competed under unified rules and regulations. This event attracted participants from the rest of Europe and outside of it and buhurt gained worldwide attention from reenactment community.