In my pre-teens days (Russia in the 1990s), one of the most popular games among boys was Little Knives — nozhichki; or rather, it was a whole class of games, with many games within it. The most common variety was called Lands. A large circle is drawn with a knife in dry dirt and then divided into as many sectors as there are players. The sectors must be large enough for the players to be able to stand comfortably within their home sectors, their “lands.” Players take turns throwing the knife, so that it spins in the air, into a neighbor’s territory. Then, a line is drawn from the border of one sector to another, through the plane of the knife's blade.
Wow. What a weird, strange, darkly scented game... Shades of the American board games Risk and Life. Monopoly, even. Very meta. Historical echoes. The knife part seems crucially important, as it could be played with a stick or pencil instead... Did players ever get injured? What are its origins?
I don't remember injuries, but I'm sure somebody somewhere had one. But then we also used to run around abandoned construction yards shooting each other with hawthorn berries; or daring each other to jump from the roof of some garage somewhere — a threat of injury was present in many of our past-times.
My guess is the origin is pretty simple. Soviet and post-Soviet kids didn't have a ton of toys and had to come up with games themselves. And knives are cool. So it's natural to come with games involving a knife.
Having a knife was like having a soccer ball — if you've got this one object and at least a couple of friends are around, you've got something fun to do for a few hours.
Wow! This game was played by elementary kids?! And I thought I was living dangerously by playing (American) football! Maybe Putin and Zelensky ought to settle their border war with a game of Little Knives. Then again, that might not be fair, as I bet Putin played it a LOT as a kid! It's interesting how much children's games reveal!
Most kids were older, I think starting at 12 or so. I haven't played this game much myself, mostly observing these older kids play when I was still in kindergarten; when I went to school, I stopped hanging around with the kids from the neighborhood, and nozhichki weren't played at school. But the game was very wide-spread, played all across Russia. I've brought it up with a few friends and acquaintances of my generation and a bit older in recent chats — everybody's eyes light up, "Have you played nozhichki as a kid?" "Fuck yea did I play nozhichki, man, what a time!"
Very interesting. Even though there are games here like Life and Monopoly that teach kids about capitalism, I don't know of any American games where borders are involved. Maybe somebody in Texas is working on one now! :)
I'm glad you figured out how to escape academics without attracting the teacher's attention! :) I looked up the game of "Go," since I had never heard of it. Your game of Dots looks similar. It's interesting that it was invented in China 2500 years ago, and involves surrounding more territory than your opponent. No borders, but still involved with territory! I wondered if I was the only American who had never heard of it, and learned from a Quora Go player that it's not very popular in the US, and his theory is that, "What Americans want is a clearly defined set of rules and a clear ending. Neither of these are so in Go." Yes, we Americans are easily confused without rules, and we need a defined ending!
I tried playing Go a couple of times in my 20s, and got distracted before I figured the rules out too. Dots, on the other hand, is very straightforward, and the ending is quite definite too: whoever captured more dots is the winner. Here's Wiki on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_(game)
We played a game similar to Lands when I was a kid in Canada, but we called it Conquer the World, and we used a stick instead of a knife. Each turn a kid would "declare war" on another country by throwing the stick on their land, and everyone would run away
from the center of the circle. When the kid who was declared war on touched the stick, then everyone needed to stop. The kid with the stick got to throw it at another player, and if they hit the other player they could use the stick to carve out some territory.
Actually. We did too Here in Massachusetts. It was called King of the Dock.
We used to play it with my father where we lived on a lake. We used to all swim out to our raft and then you wrestle and push and shove until you are the last one standing. King of the Dock. And everyone is swimming and trying to climb back up to try again.
We all grew up there so we were all strong swimmers.
I’d forgotten about this. Thanks for helping me remember. I love thinking back to the stuff we did as kids. Was born in 69. So I was a child of the 70’s.
We had King of the Hill, which I suppose must be common everywhere where there are hills.
Children’s culture is a fascinating topic. There’s so much folklore — games, jokes, rhymes, proverbs.
And then there were games that had no rules! Just make-believe realities that we’d come up with during the day. These are the hardest to remember for me, which is a real shame.
Wow. What a weird, strange, darkly scented game... Shades of the American board games Risk and Life. Monopoly, even. Very meta. Historical echoes. The knife part seems crucially important, as it could be played with a stick or pencil instead... Did players ever get injured? What are its origins?
I don't remember injuries, but I'm sure somebody somewhere had one. But then we also used to run around abandoned construction yards shooting each other with hawthorn berries; or daring each other to jump from the roof of some garage somewhere — a threat of injury was present in many of our past-times.
My guess is the origin is pretty simple. Soviet and post-Soviet kids didn't have a ton of toys and had to come up with games themselves. And knives are cool. So it's natural to come with games involving a knife.
Having a knife was like having a soccer ball — if you've got this one object and at least a couple of friends are around, you've got something fun to do for a few hours.
Oh yeah... the stories I can tell. It's a wonder I made it to adulthood.
Wow, fantastic article. ♥️🗡️ A wonderful read.
Thanks!
Wow! This game was played by elementary kids?! And I thought I was living dangerously by playing (American) football! Maybe Putin and Zelensky ought to settle their border war with a game of Little Knives. Then again, that might not be fair, as I bet Putin played it a LOT as a kid! It's interesting how much children's games reveal!
Most kids were older, I think starting at 12 or so. I haven't played this game much myself, mostly observing these older kids play when I was still in kindergarten; when I went to school, I stopped hanging around with the kids from the neighborhood, and nozhichki weren't played at school. But the game was very wide-spread, played all across Russia. I've brought it up with a few friends and acquaintances of my generation and a bit older in recent chats — everybody's eyes light up, "Have you played nozhichki as a kid?" "Fuck yea did I play nozhichki, man, what a time!"
Very interesting. Even though there are games here like Life and Monopoly that teach kids about capitalism, I don't know of any American games where borders are involved. Maybe somebody in Texas is working on one now! :)
Here’s my favorite one from school — it was easy to play during class without attracting the teacher’s attention — called Dots.
I never learned to play Go, but I think this was initially an attempt to make Go accessible to Soviet kids in the 1970s.
This was supposed to have an image in it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Dots_game.jpg
I'm glad you figured out how to escape academics without attracting the teacher's attention! :) I looked up the game of "Go," since I had never heard of it. Your game of Dots looks similar. It's interesting that it was invented in China 2500 years ago, and involves surrounding more territory than your opponent. No borders, but still involved with territory! I wondered if I was the only American who had never heard of it, and learned from a Quora Go player that it's not very popular in the US, and his theory is that, "What Americans want is a clearly defined set of rules and a clear ending. Neither of these are so in Go." Yes, we Americans are easily confused without rules, and we need a defined ending!
I tried playing Go a couple of times in my 20s, and got distracted before I figured the rules out too. Dots, on the other hand, is very straightforward, and the ending is quite definite too: whoever captured more dots is the winner. Here's Wiki on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_(game)
The game Risk is all about borders and conquest.
We played a game similar to Lands when I was a kid in Canada, but we called it Conquer the World, and we used a stick instead of a knife. Each turn a kid would "declare war" on another country by throwing the stick on their land, and everyone would run away
from the center of the circle. When the kid who was declared war on touched the stick, then everyone needed to stop. The kid with the stick got to throw it at another player, and if they hit the other player they could use the stick to carve out some territory.
Actually. We did too Here in Massachusetts. It was called King of the Dock.
We used to play it with my father where we lived on a lake. We used to all swim out to our raft and then you wrestle and push and shove until you are the last one standing. King of the Dock. And everyone is swimming and trying to climb back up to try again.
We all grew up there so we were all strong swimmers.
I’d forgotten about this. Thanks for helping me remember. I love thinking back to the stuff we did as kids. Was born in 69. So I was a child of the 70’s.
We had King of the Hill, which I suppose must be common everywhere where there are hills.
Children’s culture is a fascinating topic. There’s so much folklore — games, jokes, rhymes, proverbs.
And then there were games that had no rules! Just make-believe realities that we’d come up with during the day. These are the hardest to remember for me, which is a real shame.
You know what Nikita. I think The game was called King of the Hill.
Yes. It was. Thank you
I just stumbled upon your Substack. One of the things I love about the new set up is being introduced to new interesting stacks.
My name is Kristin. Glad to have found you.
Yeah no knife games. But we did play a fun one with spoons.
“There are no winners in Life.” 🙃