The Radogoshch Museum houses a battle-ax made around the 16th — 17th centuries, presumably in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This country appeared in 1569 because of the unification of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The ax was used for close combat. The Polish axes could look like Czech chekan (a military hammer) or South Scandinavian cutting weapons. The ax with a short hilt was a light fighting ax. In addition, warriors used heavy armor-piercing axes.

The Starodub territory, which included Pogar, was numerously attacked by neighboring countries during the 16–17th centuries. It was also burned down by Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars.

In 1618, according to the Truce of Deulino, Radogoshch (modern Pogar) and its surroundings became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Polish chronicles preserved records that the Poles did not conquer Starodub but reclaimed it because earlier they had “repossessed it from the Tatars by the sword.” It is known that in early 1620, Polish commissars came to Starodub “for the ordination of the castles reclaimed from Moscow” that is to take away palaces of the Polish rulers. The headman Baltazar Stravinsky and royal secretary Wojc Glembocki were appointed as commissars in Starodub. Other Polish noblemen, the minor landed gentry, received from the king the right to own and build on the local lands. The residence of Alexander Pyasochinsky was located in Pogar. The citizens called it a castle and the place around it — Zamkovaya Gora. Pyasochinsky populated Pogar with freemen.

In 1648, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who supported the uprising of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, ravaged and burned Pogar down, wiping out the entire Polish population. The small Polish military post, which guarded the city of Pogar, was not able to repel the attack of the Cossacks.

Researchers suggest that, during those events, one of the soldiers lost an ax, which is now housed by the Radogoshch Museum. The weapon was found by residents in the area near Zamkovaya Gora. The ax could have been lost in 1662-1663 when the city was attacked by detachments of Cossack Yuri Khmelnitsky, son of hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky.