Russian swordwork vs western fencing

As I noted a few posts ago, I've been pretty heavily into swordwork for the past few 5-6 months. As this is a Slavic martial art, I've been looking for historical references to how Cossacks, Russians, and various other Slavic groups practiced with blades.

The results have been frustratingly sparse.

In the field of written material, one of the few references I've found ("Training for Cossacks - 1889") is very short and doesn't have very many details - much of it appears to be dealing with horse-mounted carrying and presentation of the sword. Plate 21B is interesting because it shows the Shashka being held in an unorthodox manner described on an early Scott Sonnon knifework video.

The purpose of this hold is not at all clear, as in most other schools of saber work that I've looked at (particularly Alfred Hutton's British work), the small fingers are critical in controlling the blade; here they are under the handle. I've seen this facilitate some interesting blade twirls that - while they are interesting to look at - have little to no practicality in combat. Google Translate hasn't been much help in translating this page, BTW, so I'm going to see about chatting up some of my Russian buddies and see if I can't get a decent translation going.

The majority of the shashka videos available on Youtube show blade twirling demonstrations. Some of them breathtakingly beautiful. While these are similar to moulinetes (french for "little windmills") described in western fencing sources as early as 1570 (Di Grassi), the cossack ones seem purely decorative, as the circular motions often go completely behind or to the side of the sabreur. In western saber fencing, the moulinets are intended to warm up the wrist and are always targeted towards an opponent.

To go back to the example of the Youtube girl - as near as I can tell, the purpose of this type of cossack swordplay is to familiarize the user with the blade, and to demonstrate to observers (including out-of-range combatants, perhaps?) that the person has spent a fair amount of time behind the handle of a saber. As for combative ability, some of these spins could be used for attacks both with the forward edge and the back (false) edge of the saber, but many could at best be parries with the side of the blade, as the edge is not always lined up with a combative target.