This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (October 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,136 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Kleiner Krieg]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Kleiner Krieg}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (October 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,674 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Petite guerre]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Petite guerre}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (February 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Russian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,004 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Малая война]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Малая война}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Petty warfare (German: Kleiner Krieg; French: Petite guerre; Russian: малая война, romanized: malaya voyna) is a form of irregular warfare where small units attack the enemy's support operation to ensure that the main force enjoys favorable conditions for decisive battles. Petty warfare can be used in both ground and naval combat.^[1] The term first appeared during the 18th century and was subsequently developed by Russian and Soviet tacticians.

The term "petty warfare" (German: "Kleinkrieg" or "kleiner Krieg"), was first adopted in the early modern period by German people, and was later on used in 18th- and 19th-century Russian literature to refer to a particular form of warfare in which small units, avoiding collisions with larger military forces, attack communication and small fortified posts, enemy convoys, armories, etc.

Petty warfare is similar to the later Spanish term guerrilla (literally, "little war") but differs by using solely special military forces; guerrilla warfare includes armed civilians and the irregular military. During the Napoleonic Wars, when the use of civilians in military actions became widespread, the term “little war” or petty warfare in Germany was superseded by “people’s war” concept (German: volkskrieg).

It was common for 19th-century writers to write about a people’s war against Napoleon to describe the events that took place in Russia. In the early 19th century, a number of books on the theory of petty warfare were published in Russia and were later included as part of officer examinations.

The term “little war” was created at the time of a cumbersome system of arsenal supply during the early modern period, when the main means of transport were horses and carts.

The Seven Years' War was full of examples of how supply troubles often arose by the capture of transports and the destruction of stores. Such attacks led to the breakdown of planned large-scale military operations. For example, a new expedition of Russian troops to Berlin in late 1761 failed after Prussian Lieutenant General von Platen on September 15, 1761 captured a Russian convoy of 5,000 wagons and burned a number of stores that had been prepared for the expedition. Similarly around the same time, a Prussian garrison surrendered because Serbian hussars under the command of Peter Tekeli intercepted their convoy that went from Stettin to Kolberg (now Poland), which was full of gunpowder stocks and bombs.

The development of theories of guerrilla and petty warfare continued in the 1920s and 1930s in the USSR. In 1931, M. A. Drobov wrote a book, "Petty warfare: partisan and sabotage," which summarized the views of military-political leadership in the USSR on the methods of petty warfare. “Petty warfare. Organization and combat tactics of small units” book is the most recent literature in Russian dated 1998.^[2][3]

Ground petty warfare includes reconnaissance, sabotage, guerrilla, and terrorism used by small combat groups.^[4][5] Such combat groups are usually part of special purpose units and militia.^[6][7]

During the early modern period, the main petty warfare forces on ground were regular and irregular parts of light cavalry. In Austria, they were Croatian and Pandurs, and in Russia, they were Cossacks, Kalmyks and Bashkirs. King Frederick II of Prussia considered those ground forces to be one of the main advantages of Russian army during the early modern period.

In 1920s, petty warfare theories were part of the official concepts of the Soviet Navy. Naval petty warfare tactics included rapid surprise attacks on ground enemy units from shores with the support of the air forces and the coastal artillery.

• Bombardment of Givet
• Grovestins's cavalry raid

• Guerrilla warfare
• Small Wars Journal

• Groznoe oruzhie. Malaya voina, partizanstvo i drugie vidy asimitrichnogo voevaniya v svete naslediya russkih voennyh myslitiley. Sostaviteli Aleksandr Savinkin, Igor Domnin, Izdatelstvo: Voennyi universitet, Russkiy put, Seriya: Rossiiskiy voennyi sbornik, 2007 g.
• M. A. Drobov. Malaya voina: partizanstvo i diversii.
• Taras A. E. "Malaya voina" (Organizaciya i taktika boevyh deistviy malyh podrazdeleniy)
• Kvachkov V. V. Chast vtoraya. Specyalnye deistviya v voennom iskusstve sovetskogo vremeni 2.1. Teoriya i praktika spevyalnyh deistviy.
• Taktika malyh podrazdeleniy (iz polegogo ustava SSO armii UAR).
• Strachan Hew European Armies and the Conduct of War — New York: Routledge, 1983. — ISBN 0415078636.
• Pravila maloi voiny i upotrebleniya voisk. Obyasnennye primerami iz francuzkoi voiny maiorom Valentini.
• Engelgardt A.E. Kratkoe nachertanie maloi voiny dlya vseh rodov orujiya SPB. 1850. 112 str.
• Vuich I.V. Malaya voina S.-Peterburg 1850.(Ch1 Ohranenie voisk ot vnezapnogo napadeniya, Ch2 O deistviyah otryadami)
• Liprandi И. П. Некоторые замечания по поводу двух сочинений, вышедших под заглавием <малая война>. СПб., 1851. 75 стр.
• Satterfield, G. (2017). "The Fate of Petite Guerre in Early Modern Europe". Revue Historique des Armées. 286 (1): 48–59. doi:10.3917/rha.286.0048. S2CID 252116372. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
• Srazheniya. Malaya voyna. Kurs po voyennomu delu. B.m.: Lit. Il'ina, 1855. 76 s.
• Novitskiy N. D. Lektsii maloy voyny, chitanyye v Yelisavetgr. ofits. kav. uch. Odessa. 1865
• Peritsonius G. Prikladnaya taktika. Razdel D- Malaya voyna. Voyennaya biblioteka. 1872. str. 544—563.
• Teoriya bol'shoy voyny pri pomoshchi maloy ili partizanskoy i s uchastiyem Landvera. Per. s nem. V serii: Voyennaya biblioteka. Tom 4. 1872. str. 493—607.
• Rodzishevskiy. Kurs taktiki. M. 1877. Otdel IX. Deystviya maloy voyny. str. 359—390.
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• Fiedler, Siegfried: Taktik und Strategie der Kabinettskriege. 1650—1792, Bechtermünz-Verlag, Augsburg 2002
• Groehler, Olaf: Die Kriege Friedrichs II.,Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1990
• Grenier, J. (2012). "Continental and British Petite Guerre, circa 1750". The First Way of War American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–114. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511817847.005. Retrieved 11 August 2023.

• Vnimanie partizany! Taktika maloi voiny