The bardiche is a type of battle axe used in Russia, Scandanavia, and Poland from the 1400s to the 1600s. The weapon is derived from the Dane Axe and sparth of the Middle Ages. The bardiche is known for is large blade with an exceedingly wide cutting edge, typically about two feet in length. The weapon is typically associated with the Streltsy, a elite unit of Russian arquebusiers first from under Ivan the Terrible in the 1500s, and who served as the guards of the tsar until they were officially disbanded in 1689. The Streltsy were known to use the bardiche to as a support for their arquebuses, allowing them to have an easily accessible secondary melee weapon in the era before the invention of the bayonet.