The beginning of the 1910s found our army in a difficult state: there were regular military men, militias, worthy developments in military equipment, and even arms exports. But the defense had to be restored from the deep devastation caused by the recent turmoil. Despite the lack of money, they undertook to restore the army hastily, faster than anything else in the state. The fallen qualifications of the personnel were treated with a sharp modernization of individual units with the transition to advanced standards.
All this was four centuries ago - at the beginning of the XVII century.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Russian army was represented by three main parts: the noble militia, archers and artillery (outfit). They were different in the way of formation, social composition and quality.
Noble militia or the local army - cavalry, consisting of "serving people in the fatherland", i.e. children of boyars and nobles (hereinafter, in relation to all of them we will use the concept of “nobles” for brevity) and their fighting serfs (“boyar people”).
Within the nobility, there were “Moscow ranks” (stewards, solicitors, Moscow nobles and residents) and city (provincial) nobility. From the nobles of one locality, hundreds were formed, whose commanders were appointed one of the "Moscow ranks". There could be more or less than 100 people in a hundred. According to the same territorial principle, servile hundreds were formed, who received commanders from the nobility. In peacetime, hundreds could combine into larger units. Those of the nobles who could not enter the horse service carried it in the garrisons (city service), in the archers or in the infantry.
Noble service was lifelong and hereditary. Disability has not always been the basis for exclusion from it. They entered service at the age of 18. Entering the service was called "imposition" and was accompanied by the appointment of a salary. "Noviks" received the rank of their father, which made the career of provincial nobles very difficult.
Periodically reviews of the militia were made, but there were no joint exercises or coordination of hundreds in peacetime. There were no practice shootings. One half of the militia carried out field or guard service for six months, the other - police (garrison), after which their rotation took place. Formally, vacations were provided only for injury or illness. The main part of the field hundreds was concentrated in the southern counties to repel a possible invasion of the Crimeans.
For their service, the nobles received land (in the form of an estate) and monetary salaries. Since the time of Boris Godunov, the minimum size of an estate was determined at 100 quarters (a quarter is approximately 0.5 acres of arable land), and a monetary salary - at 5 rubles. in year. The salaries of the Moscow ranks were much higher than those of the city nobles. Money paid only for the field and guard services, the policeman was not paid. The horse, weapons and food are their own, the serf (serfs) and horses - at their own expense. The minimum cost of a war horse is 15 rubles, firearms - 10 rubles.
By the end of the 16th century, the local fund was exhausted. "Newcomers" began to receive estates much less than the norm, there were cases when they had to wait for the estate to be made up for several years. This had a sharp negative impact on the armament of the militias. At the beginning of the 17th century, each militia was required to have: a pishchal or a carbine, a pistol and a saber or a saadak, a pistol and a saber, but this was not carried out. But in practice, most of them could not meet the requirements.
Here is an example of what the city nobles were armed with at the review (although it refers to a later time): in the regiment of the governor of Lvov in 1645, out of 665 landowners, 425 had pistols (mostly one), 44 had a carbine, only 16 had a carbine and a pistol , 79 - saadak (bow with arrows), 87 - saber, 1 - spear, 6 - without weapons. It is hard to imagine what their serfs were armed with in this case.
The number of the noble militia, together with their serfs, was about 50 thousand people. Nobles and serfs in it were approximately equal. The formation of the militia was carried out by the Discharge Order, the allotment of land - by the Local. That. the militia had a dual subordination.
archers They were a permanent army on a payroll. They united in orders, consisting of 5 hundred soldiers, led by "heads". 4 orders were equestrian and located in Moscow, one of them, Stremyannaya, was engaged in the protection of the sovereign (stood at his stirrup). The rest of the orders were infantry. There were no larger associations of archers than orders.
Streltsy were considered "service people on the instrument" and were initially recruited from various categories of the draft population of the country, but gradually the archery service became hereditary. Command staff (heads, centurions and Pentecostals or " initial people”) was formed from the nobles, for whom service in the archers replaced service in the militia and was also inherited.
Streltsy wore uniforms, commanders had insignia. Weapons (squeaker, berdysh, saber and pistol for commanders) were unified and issued from the treasury. Ammunition also went at the expense of the treasury, horses and food for them in equestrian orders. Horses were also given to command personnel in the infantry. The orders carried out training in maneuvering and firing practice once or twice a week. In battle, the archers withstood the formation and could shoot in lines. Sagittarius carried field and city service. Initially, they were assigned some police functions (policing, patrolling).
Sagittarius received monetary, grain and salt salaries. Money was given from 3 rubles a year. The salary of Moscow archers was higher than that of policemen. The archers lived in families in special settlements. Upon entering the service, the archer was allocated a courtyard place in such a settlement and 2-3 rubles for the construction of a hut. This place and the hut were inherited, regardless of whether the heirs entered the service or not. They could be sold. In general, the conditions of the archery service were quite tolerable for that time.
The total number of archers is up to 25 thousand people. All of them were under the jurisdiction of the Streltsy order. A special tax was collected for their maintenance - “streltska”, but it was not always enough.
Artillery(“outfit”) of the Russian kingdom commanded the respect of foreigners . “It is believed that not one of the Christian sovereigns has such a good supply of military shells as the Russian Tsar, which can partly be confirmed by the Armory in Moscow, where they stand in huge number all sorts of guns...- wrote Giles Fletcher ("On the Russian State"). There was siege, fortress and field artillery. All of it was serviced by gunners and gunners, whose service conditions were similar to those of the archers.
The total number of trunks exceeded 2 thousand. 300 - 350 guns of various calibers could be brought out on a campaign. They fired cannonballs, among which more and more became cast iron. All guns were cast and had carriages. Several cannon yards were engaged in the production of cannons (two of them were in Moscow), they fully provided for the needs of the army and could even work for export (delivery of barrels to Persia).
In the state service, in addition, there were up to 7 thousand Cossacks who received monetary and grain salaries. They obeyed their chieftains and were used in the field and garrison services.
In general, at the beginning of the 17th century, the peacetime army numbered, including the ranks of small service people “according to the instrument” not listed above, up to 100 thousand people. Her weak point was noble cavalry. The archery infantry was not bad, but the artillery was good. She could successfully operate against the steppes and Lithuanians, but was inferior in field combat to the Poles and Swedes.
In the event of a war, the army was supplemented by "subsistence" and "short" people, but they were used mainly in auxiliary operations. Tatar irregular cavalry and "free" Cossacks were involved in military operations.
The army went on a campaign as part of a guard, advanced and large regiments and regiments of the right and left hands. Apparently, the largest field army could reach 70-75 thousand people (without the "staff").
The state of the army after the Troubles
During the Great Famine, the civil war and the intervention, the population of our country decreased by about 20%. It is likely that the "ranks" that made up the army suffered the same loss, if not more. With Sweden, at the cost of territorial concessions, an “eternal peace” was concluded (1617), and with the Commonwealth - only a truce for 14 and a half years (1618). Vladislav Vaza did not withdraw his claims to the Moscow throne. The danger of renewed war was great. In addition, gangs of "robbers" continued to roam the country. For these reasons, it was urgently necessary to restore the strength of the armed forces.
This had to be done in conditions of economic ruin and with an empty treasury, so the authorities sought to replace parts of the "ranks", mainly provincial, city, grain salaries for the issuance of land plots. This happened with the city archers, gunners and Cossacks. They were given allotments from 4 to 10 quarters, depending on the availability of free land in the counties. All of them, including those from Moscow, were allowed to engage in industrial and commercial activities in their free time with preferential taxation. Several hundred Cossacks, serfs and taxpayers, who took part in the 1st and 2nd militias, were entrusted to the nobility.
The first 14 years after the end of the Troubles "The Muscovite state was full and came to dignity." By 1631, the size of the peacetime army was restored (the number of the entire population of the country - only by 1650). This year, 24,900 nobles and about 26,000 archers were in the service (Milyukov P.N. “The state economy of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century and reforms”).
Let's pay attention to the fact that the number of archers exceeded the pre-war ("pre-troubled"). This is explained by the fact that during the Time of Troubles, these "service people on the instrument" showed greater stamina compared to the nobility. It was they who defended Novgorod-Severskaya and Smolensk; they kept loyalty to the power that is in Moscow, while the nobility was scattered among all the applicants. In addition, the functions of the police forces were increasingly assigned to the archers: they were engaged in the fight against "robbery" and power escort in the collection of taxes.
But the quality of the 1631 model army was lower than that of the 1600 army. If the noble militia remained at the same level, then the combat effectiveness of the archers decreased: out of necessity to feed their families, they began to devote more time to crafts and trade.
They tried to compensate for this drop in combat effectiveness by recruiting foreign mercenaries, whose number reached 3 thousand. Of these, soldier and reiter companies were formed. The foreign order was engaged in them. They cost the treasury very dearly, and 3,000 fighters in a 90,000-strong army did not make any difference.
Then they decided, using foreigners as command staff, to form from the Russians "regiments of a foreign (new) system", i.e. mounted and infantry regiments and train them to act according to the standards of European military art. This had to be done before the end of the truce with the Commonwealth (1632), because. the Russian government was going to start a war with her for the return of lost territories and the refusal of Vladislav Vaz from claims to the Moscow throne.
The first regiments of the new (foreign) system
By creating them, the authorities also tried to solve another problem: to find a place for dispossessed and lesser-placed nobles who could not carry out full-fledged service in the militia due to poverty. The number of such people was growing, and the government was aware of the danger of having several thousand people deprived of their means of subsistence (they were not allowed to go to townspeople, peasants, or courtyards) and possessing weapons.
In 1630, a decree followed on the recruitment of benevolent nobles on a voluntary basis to Moscow for "military study" from foreigners. They were going to recruit two regiments of soldiers, 1000 privates each. The conditions were acceptable: 5 rubles in money. per year and 3 kopecks. per day for "feed" (prices in Moscow: 10 eggs - 1 kopeck, chicken - 2 kopecks, piglet - 3-4 kopecks, a couple of pies - 0.5 kopecks, a pound of black caviar - 3-5 kopecks). The treasury provided the pishchal or musket, gunpowder and lead.
But the soldiers are infantry, and the service in it did not attract the nobles. Then they were allowed to recruit Tatars, Cossacks and townspeople. As a result, two soldier regiments of 1600 privates and 176 initial people each were quickly formed. The company consisted of 200 privates (120 pishchalnikov / musketeers and 80 spearmen) and 22 chiefs, who were all foreigners from the drummer to the colonel. Each company had two interpreters (translators). In 1632 the number of regiments was increased to six.
In the middle of 1632, a regiment of 2,000 soldiers began to complete the Reiter regiment. Payment: 3 rubles a year for a person and 2 rubles a month for horse feed. There were 14 companies in the regiment, led by captains. In addition, they formed separate "shvadrons" (battalions) of the Reiter. The service was equestrian, it did not cause damage to noble dignity, and the nobles went to her willingly.
During the war, a dragoon regiment was also recruited from, mainly, subordinate people. It had 1,600 men (12 companies of 120 privates) and a battery of 12 small guns.
The role of foreigners and the fate of the first regiments of the new system
During the Smolensk War (1632 - 1634), it became clear that the hopes placed on foreigners by the authorities were excessive.
Firstly, it turned out that many of them simply do not know military affairs. Secondly, not all of them showed stamina in battle - on the contrary, sometimes they generated panic. Thirdly, almost all of them did not know and did not want to learn Russian and communicated with Russians only through an interpreter. Due to different ethnic origins and between themselves there was a language barrier, some of the foreigners did not know well German- "lingua franca" of mercenaries.
If the use of foreigners to train Russians in the new system justified itself, then trusting only them to command in the regiments turned out to be erroneous.
At the end of the war, some of the foreigners were simply expelled from Russia, contracts with others were terminated, but the service was paid, the rest were left in the service. The latter were offered, in addition to a monetary salary, and estates, rightly believing that this would strengthen their ties with the country. Most of them later became the ancestors of Russian families of foreign origin (for example, Leslie and Lermontov) and converted to Orthodoxy.
Mercenaries continued to be recruited, but only officers and non-commissioned officers with the presentation of patents and recommendations and demonstrating their skills in handling weapons and performing combat techniques.
In late 1634 and early 1635, all regiments of the new system were disbanded, although the experience of their use was considered positive. There are two main reasons for the dissolution: "wasteland in the treasury" and understaffing of command staff.
In the first experience of the formation of these regiments, character traits in their social composition: reiters are nobles, soldiers are civilians from among free drafters, dragoons are contingent people, i.e. recruits, including those recruited from serfs. Temporarily reytars will be, if necessary, in war time be replenished with taxpayers and Cossacks, but in peacetime their social composition will be reduced to uniformity. Russian initial people on the shelves of the new system will be only from the nobility.
The restoration of the regiments of the new system will take place in the 1640s. Then the beginning of the Russian regular army will be laid. But more on that in the next part.
In the wars of the XV - early XVII centuries. the internal structure of the armed forces of the Moscow state was determined. If necessary, almost the entire combat-ready population rose to defend the country, but the backbone of the Russian army was the so-called "service people", divided into "service people from the fatherland" and "service people by instrument". The first category included service princes and Tatar "princes", boyars, roundabouts, residents, nobles and boyar children. The category of "instrument service people" included archers, regimental and city Cossacks, gunners and other military personnel of the "Pushkar rank".
At first, the organization of the Moscow army was carried out in two ways. Firstly, by prohibiting the departure of service people from the Moscow princes to Lithuania and other sovereign princes and by attracting landowners to carry out military service from their estates. Secondly, by expanding the grand duke's "court" through the permanent military detachments of those specific princes whose possessions were included in the Muscovite state. Even then, the issue of material support for the service of the grand ducal soldiers was acute. To solve this problem, the government of Ivan III, which received a large fund of populated lands during the subordination of the Novgorod Veche Republic and the Principality of Tver, began mass distribution of part of them to service people. Thus, the foundations were laid for the organization of the local army, which was the core of the Moscow army, its main striking force throughout the entire period under study.
All other military people (pishchalniks, and later archers, detachments of serving foreigners, regimental Cossacks, gunners) and mobilized to help them land and data people in campaigns and battles were distributed among the regiments of the noble rati, strengthening its combat capabilities. Such a structure of the armed forces was reorganized only in mid-sixteenth I century, when the Russian army was replenished with regiments of the "new system" (soldiers, reiters and dragoons), acting as part of field armies quite autonomously.
At present, the opinion has been established in the historical literature that, by the nature of their service, all groups of military men belonged to four main categories: cavalry, infantry, artillery, and auxiliary (military engineering) detachments. The first category belonged to the noble militia, serving foreigners, horse archers and city Cossacks, horse data (combined) people, as a rule, from monastic volosts, who went on a campaign on horseback. The infantry units consisted of archers, city Cossacks, servicemen of soldier regiments (since the 17th century), subordinate people, and, in case of urgent need, dismounted nobles and their combat lackeys. Artillery crews were mainly gunners and gunners, although, if necessary, other instrument people also got to the guns. Otherwise, it is not clear how 45 Belgorod gunners and gunners could operate from fortress guns, when there were only squeakers in Belgorod142. In the Kola prison in 1608 there were 21 guns, and there were only 5 gunners; middle and second half of the 16th century. the number of guns in this fortress increased to 54, and the number of artillerymen - up to 9 people. Contrary to popular belief about the involvement of only field people in engineering work, it should be noted that a number of documents confirm the participation of archers, including Moscow ones, in fortification work. So, in 1592, during the construction of Yelets, the village people assigned to the "city affairs" fled and the fortifications were built by the new Yelets archers and Cossacks. Under similar circumstances, in 1637, the Moscow archers "placed" the city of Yablonov, as reported to Moscow by A.V. Buturlin, who was in charge of construction: "And I, your serf,<…>ordered the Moscow archers under the Yablonov forest to set up a prison from the Yablonov forest to the river to Korocha.<…>And the prison was made and completely strengthened, and wells were dug and gouges were placed on April 30th. And I sent the standing sovereign of the guards, your serf, to set up for [the] foot of the Moscow archers before the arrival of military people. Where did you happen to put the spears on the same number. And how, sir, the standing guards of the organizer and completely strengthened, and about that to you, sir, I, your serf, will write off. And oskolenya, sir, do not go to the nadolbny business. And the gouges were not brought to the Khalansky forest of two versts ... ". Let's analyze the information given in this voivodeship formal reply. With Buturlin in 1637, under the Yablonov forest, there were 2000 archers and it was their hands that the main scope of work was completed, since they were appointed to help service people Oskolyane evaded burdensome duty.
Streltsy took an active part not only in the protection of work on the abuts that unfolded in the summer of 1638, but also in the construction of new defensive structures on the Line. They dug ditches, poured ramparts, put up gouges and other fortifications on Curl and Shcheglovskaya notch. On the ramparts erected here, Moscow and Tula archers made 3354 wicker shields-rounds.
A number of publications will consider not only the composition and structure of the Moscow army, its weapons, but also the organization of service (marching, city, security and stanitsa) by various categories of service people. And we start with a story about the local army.
***
In the first years of the reign of Ivan III, the core of the Moscow army remained the grand ducal "court", "courts" of specific princes and boyars, consisting of "free servants", "servants under the court" and boyar "servants". With the annexation of new territories to the Muscovite state, the number of squads that went into the service of the Grand Duke and replenished the ranks of his cavalry troops grew. The need to streamline this mass of military people, the establishment of uniform rules for service and material support forced the authorities to begin the reorganization of the armed forces, during which the petty princely and boyar vassalage turned into sovereign service people - landowners who received land dachas for their service in conditional holding.
Thus, the equestrian local army was created - the core and main striking force of the armed forces of the Moscow state. The bulk of the new troops were nobles and boyar children. Only some of them had the good fortune to serve under the Grand Duke as part of the Sovereign's Court, whose soldiers received more generous land and monetary salaries. Most of the boyar children, moving to the Moscow service, remained at their former place of residence or were moved by the government to other cities. Being ranked among the service people of a city, the landlord warriors were called city boyar children, organizing themselves into district corporations of Novgorod, Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl, Tula, Ryazan, Sviyazhsk and other boyar children. The main service of the nobility was held in the troops of the hundredth system.
Emerging in the 15th century the difference in the official and financial position of the two main divisions of the most numerous category of service people - the courtyard and city boyar children was preserved in the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. Even during the Smolensk War of 1632-1634. yard and city local warriors in discharge records were recorded as completely different service people. So, in the army of princes D.M. Cherkassky and D.M. Pozharsky, who was going to help the voivode M.B. Shein, there were not only “cities”, but also a “courtyard” sent on a campaign, with a list of “stewards and solicitors, and Moscow nobles, and tenants” included in it. Having gathered in Mozhaisk with these military people, the governors were to go to Smolensk. However, in the "Estimate of all service people" of 1650/1651, courtyard and city nobles and boyar children from different counties, pyatins and camps were indicated in one article. In this case, the reference to belonging to the "court" has turned into an honorary name for landowners who serve together with their "city". Only elected nobles and boyar children were singled out, who were really involved in the service in Moscow in order of priority.
In the middle of the XVI century. after the thousandth reform of 1550, noblemen stand out from among the service people of the Sovereign's court as a special category of troops. Prior to this, their official significance was not highly valued, although the nobles were always closely connected with the Moscow princely court, trace their origin from the court servants and even serfs. The nobles, along with the boyar children, received estates from the Grand Duke for temporary possession, and in wartime they went on campaigns with him or his governors, being his closest military servants. In an effort to preserve the cadres of the noble militia, the government limited their departure from service. First of all, the enslavement of servicemen was suppressed: Art. 81 of the Sudebnik of 1550 forbade accepting boyar children as slaves, except for those "whom the sovereign will set aside from service."
***
When organizing the local army, in addition to the grand ducal servants, servants from the Moscow boyar courts dissolved for various reasons (including serfs and yard servants) were taken into service. They were endowed with land that passed to them on the rights of conditional holding. Such settlements became widespread shortly after the annexation of the Novgorod land to the Moscow state and the withdrawal of local landowners from there. They, in turn, received estates in Vladimir, Murom, Nizhny Novgorod, Pereyaslavl, Yuryev-Polsky, Rostov, Kostroma "and in other cities." According to K.V. Bazilevich, out of 1310 people who received estates in the Novgorod pyatinas, at least 280 belonged to the boyar servants. Apparently, the government was satisfied with the results of this action, subsequently repeating it when conquering the counties that previously belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From the central regions of the country, service people were transferred there, who received estates on lands confiscated from the local nobility, who, as a rule, were deported from their possessions to other districts of the Muscovite state.
In Novgorod in the late 1470s - early 1480s. included in the local distribution of the fund of lands, made up of obezges confiscated from the Sophia house, monasteries and arrested Novgorod boyars. An even greater amount of Novgorod land went to the Grand Duke after a new wave of repressions that came in the winter of 1483/1484, when "the prince caught the great boyars of Novogorodsk and the boyars, and ordered their treasuries and the village to unsubscribe everything to himself, and they gave estates in Moscow around the city, and other boyars, who yelled at him, ordered those to be imprisoned in the city. The evictions of Novgorodians continued later. Their estates without fail unsubscribed to the sovereign. The confiscation measures of the authorities ended with the seizure in 1499 of a significant part of the sovereign and monastic patrimonies, which entered the local distribution. By the middle of the XVI century. In the Novgorod Pyatina, more than 90% of all arable land was in local holding.
S.B. Veselovsky, studying conducted in Novgorod in the early 80s. 15th century distribution of service people, came to the conclusion that already at the first stage, the persons in charge of land acquisition adhered to certain norms and rules. At that time, estate dachas "ranged from 20 to 60 obez", which at a later time amounted to 200-600 quarters (fours) of arable land. Similar norms, apparently, were in force in other counties, where the distribution of land to estates also began. Later, with an increase in the number of service people, local salaries were reduced.
For faithful service, part of the estate could be granted to a serving person as a fiefdom. D.F. Maslovsky believed that the patrimony complained only about the "siege seat". However, the surviving documents allow us to say that any proven difference in service could become the basis for such an award. The most famous case of the mass granting of estates to the estates of distinguished servicemen occurred after the successful end of the siege of Moscow by the Poles in 1618. Apparently, this misled D.F. Maslovsky, however, an interesting document has been preserved - the petition of Prince. A.M. Lvov with a request to welcome him for the "Astrakhan service", transferring part of the local salary to the patrimonial,. An interesting reference was attached to the petition indicating similar cases. As an example, I.V. Izmailov, who in 1624 received 200 quarters of land from 1000 quarters of the estate salary, "from one hundred four to twenty four<…>for the services that he was sent to Arzamas, and in Arzamas the city set up and made all sorts of fortresses. "It was this case that gave rise to the satisfaction of the petition of Prince Lvov and the allocation of 200 quarters of land to his patrimony from 1000 quarters of his local salary. However, he was dissatisfied and, referring to the example of other courtiers (I.F. Troekurov and L. Karpov), who had previously been awarded estates, he asked for an increase in the award.The government agreed with the arguments of Prince Lvov and he received 600 quarters of land in the estate.
Another case of granting to the patrimony of local estates is also indicative. On September 30, 1618, during the siege of Moscow by the army of King Vladislav, the serving foreigners "spitalists" Yu. Bessonov and Ya. Bez crossed over to the Russian side and revealed the enemy's plans. Thanks to this message, the night assault on the Arbat Gates of the White City was repulsed by the Poles. "Spitarschikov" were accepted into the service, given estates, but later, at their request, these salaries were transferred to the patrimony.
***
The formation of the local militia became an important milestone in the development of the armed forces of the Moscow state. Their numbers increased significantly, and the military structure of the state finally received a clear organization.
A.V. Chernov, one of the most authoritative specialists in Russian science on the history of the Russian armed forces, was inclined to exaggerate the shortcomings of the local militia, which, in his opinion, were inherent in the noble army from the moment of its inception. In particular, he noted that the local army, like any militia, gathered only when a military danger arose. The collection of troops, which was carried out by the entire central and local state apparatus, was extremely slow, and the militia had time to prepare for military operations only within a few months. With the elimination of the military danger, the regiments of the nobility dispersed to their homes, stopping service until a new gathering. The militia was not subjected to systematic military training. It was practiced to independently prepare each serviceman for a campaign, the weapons and equipment of the soldiers of the noble militia were very diverse, not always meeting the requirements of the command. In the above list of shortcomings in the organization of the local cavalry, there is much that is fair. However, the researcher does not project them onto the conditions for building a new (local) military system, under which the government needed to replace the existing combined army as quickly as possible, which was a poorly organized combination of princely squads, boyar detachments and city regiments, with a more effective military force. In this regard, one should agree with the conclusion of N.S. Borisov, who noted that "along with the widespread use of detachments of serving Tatar "princes", the creation of noble cavalry opened the way to hitherto unthinkable military enterprises." The combat capabilities of the local army were fully revealed in the wars of the 16th century. This allowed A.A. Strokov, familiar with the findings of A.V. Chernov, disagree with him on this issue. “The nobles who served in the cavalry,” he wrote, “were interested in military service and prepared for it from childhood. The Russian cavalry in the 16th century had good weapons, was distinguished by quick actions and swift attacks on the battlefield."
Speaking about the advantages and disadvantages of the noble militia, it is impossible not to mention that at that time the main opponent of the Moscow state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, had a similar system of organizing troops. In 1561 the Polish king and Grand Duke Lithuanian Sigismund II Augustus was forced to demand, when mustering troops, that “princes, nobles, boyars, gentry in all places and estates can take it on themselves, anyhow they are able and capable of serving the Commonwealth, straightened out and anyhow everyone went to the warrior in the same barve servants mayuchi and tall horses. And on each of them there is a plow-covered coat, a tarch, a tree with an ensign vodle Statutu. It is significant that the list of weapons of military servants does not contain firearms. The Lithuanian Commonwealth was also forced to convene Stefan Batory, who was skeptical about the fighting qualities of the gentry militia, which, as a rule, gathered in small numbers, but with great delay. The opinion of the most militant of the Polish kings was entirely shared by A.M. Kurbsky, who became acquainted with the structure of the Lithuanian army during his life in exile in the Commonwealth. Let us quote his review, full of sarcasm: “If they hear a barbarian presence, they will hide in such hard cities; and truly it is worthy of laughter: armed with armor, they will sit at a table with cups, let the plots with their drunken women go on, and you don’t want to get out of the gates of the city, even more and in front of the very place, but under the hail, slashing from the infidels to the Christians was. However, in the most difficult moments for the country, both in Russia and in the Commonwealth, the noble cavalry performed remarkable feats, which hired troops could not even think of. Thus, the Lithuanian cavalry, despised by Batory, during the period when the king was unsuccessfully besieging Pskov, almost destroying his army under its walls, raided deep into Russian territory with a 3,000-strong detachment of H. Radziwill and F. Kmita. The Lithuanians reached the vicinity of Zubtsov and Staritsa, frightening Ivan the Terrible, who was in Staritsa. It was then that the tsar decided to abandon the cities and castles conquered in the Baltic states in order to end the war with the Commonwealth at any cost.
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From the time of its formation, the Muscovite state either strengthened its positions in military battles, or carefully prepared for new wars, or defended itself from predatory invasions. Naturally, this required the correct organization of the Russian army, its recruitment and leadership, and the preparation of the defense of the frontiers.
The composition and internal organization of the Russian army
In the XV - XVI centuries. the internal structure of the armed forces of the Moscow state was determined. The backbone of the Russian army was made up of "service people", who were divided into "service people in the Fatherland" (service princes, boyars, roundabouts, residents, nobles, boyar children, Tatar "princes") and "service people according to the instrument" (Cossacks, archers, gunners).
The organization of the Moscow army at first was carried out in two ways: by prohibiting the departure of service people from the Moscow princes and by attracting landowners to serve, and also by attracting permanent military detachments of specific princes. At all times, the issue of material support for the service of soldiers was quite acute. In this regard, the government of Ivan III, having received a large fund of land in the process of attracting the Novgorod Republic and the Tver Principality, decided to distribute parts of them to service people. Thus, the foundations of the organization of the local army, the core of the Moscow army, are being laid.
All other military people were distributed among the regiments of the noble rati. This arrangement of the armed forces lasted until the middle of the 17th century. In modern historical literature, the opinion has been established that all groups of military people, according to the type of service, belonged to four main categories: infantry, artillery, cavalry and auxiliary detachments.
local army
In the process of joining the Moscow state of new principalities, the number of squads that passed into the service of the Grand Duke grew. The authorities began to reorganize the armed forces. Petty princes and boyars now received land dachas for their service in conditional holding.
The core and main striking force of the armed forces, the bulk of which were nobles and boyar children, was the equestrian local army. The soldiers who served under the Grand Duke Ivan III as part of the Sovereign's Court received generous land and monetary salaries. Most of them either remained at their former place of residence, or moved to other principalities at the behest of the government. Warriors-landlords in this case began to be called city children of the boyars, Novgorod, Kostroma, Tver, Yaroslavl, Tula, Ryazan, Sviyazhsk, etc.
In the middle of the XIV century. as a special category of troops, nobles are allocated, who, along with the boyar children, received estates from the Grand Duke for temporary possession, and in wartime were his closest military servants. In order to preserve the cadres of the noble militia, the government limited their departure from service.
In the middle of the 16th century, a series of important reforms was carried out aimed at centralizing the country and streamlining the military system. The Sudebnik of 1550 forbade the conversion of boyar children fit for service into slaves. This was due to the fact that to put a barrier to the growth of personal troops of large feudal lords. Since 1558, boyar children (from the age of 15) and service people were assigned to the royal service. Thus, the noble army and the "sovereign regiment" were replenished at the expense of the service people of the specific principalities.
When organizing the local army, servants from the disbanded boyar households were taken into service. They were endowed with land, which passed to them on the rights of conditional holding. Such placements became widespread after the annexation of the Novgorod land to the Muscovite state. Local landowners received estates in Vladimir, Murom, Nizhny Novgorod, Pereyaslavl, Yuriev-Polsky, Rostov, Kostroma and other cities.
The formation of the local militia was an important milestone in the development of the armed forces of the Moscow state. Their number increased markedly, and the military structure received a clear organization.
The local militia had major shortcomings. It was assembled only in case of military danger, armed at its own expense, therefore it was very diverse. These aspects were noted in his studies by one of the most authoritative specialists in the history of the Russian armed forces, A.V. Chernov40. Taking care of their household, the owners of the estate were not always willing to serve. The unity of the armed forces of the state was also undermined by independent detachments of large feudal lords. A distinctive step in comparison with the previous organization of troops was the subordination to one leadership, the conduct of military operations according to a single plan. The real misfortune of the Russian local army was the “absence” (non-appearance for service) of nobles and boyar children, their flight from the regiments, the massive nature of which was noted in the last years of the Livonian War. This was due to the ruin of the farms of service people, who were forced to abandon their farms at the very first order of the authorities. In this regard, a system was organized to search for, punish and return "netchikov" to the ranks, and later the government introduced a mandatory third-party guarantee for the proper performance of service by every nobleman or son of a boyar. It was decided to deprive the “netchins” of estates, and they could receive land salaries again only by achieving it with diligent and diligent service.
The government of Ivan IV, having given a harmonious military organization to the local system and equalizing the service of patrimonials with landlords, created a large cavalry army, the number of which reached 80 - 100 thousand soldiers. In general, the local cavalry, ready to go on any campaign on demand, demonstrated good training and the ability to win in difficult circumstances. In the 15th - 16th centuries, defeats were caused primarily by the mistakes and incompetence of the governors (in the Battle of Orsha on September 8, 1514, the battle on the Oka River on July 28, 1521).
Many service people "in the fatherland", participating in the battles, showed true courage and devotion to duty. These exploits are mentioned in chronicles and documents. For example, it talks about famous hero, Suzdal boyar son Ivan Shibaev, who captured a prominent Tatar commander in the battle near the village of Molodi Diveya-Murza (April 30, 1572).
In Moscow and other cities, general reviews ("analysis") were often held to check the combat readiness of the landlord warriors. The children of the landlords, who had grown up and were already fit for service, were assigned the corresponding land and monetary salaries. Information about such appointments was recorded in the "ten", verstal lists of county service people. In addition to the verst, there were "tens" "collapsible" and "distributing", designed to fix the attitude of the landowners to the performance of their official duties. They included information about the names, salaries, weapons of each serviceman, as well as the number of slaves he assigned, data on the number of male children, information about the previous service, the reasons for their failure to appear for "analysis", etc. Local and monetary salaries could be increased depending on the results of the review and on the readiness for service of the children of boyars and nobles. If the landowners were found to have poor military training, their monetary and land salaries could be reduced. The first reviews of the nobles were held in 1556. This was facilitated by the adoption of the Code of Service (1555/1556). All collapsible, distributing and verstal "ten" had to be sent to Moscow, they were marked with official appointments, military and diplomatic assignments, participation in campaigns, battles, battles and sieges.
Land grants were called "dachas". Their sizes differed from the salary and depended on the land fund received for distribution. With the increase in the number of service people "in the fatherland", the size of the dachas began to noticeably decrease. At the end of the XVI century. the landowner owned land several times less than his salary. Thus, in order to feed themselves, other service people had to engage in peasant labor. The number of city nobles and boyar children put into service in each county depended on the amount of land that was freed up in this area for local distribution.
Small service people were not assigned to long-distance campaigns, they were often exempted from guard and village service, their main duty was to carry out siege (garrison), and sometimes even "foot" service. Those who were completely impoverished were automatically dropped out of service.
The most important task of the officials who conducted the reviews was the correct establishment of salaries for the newly called up for service. A serviceman could receive the land dacha due to him and an increase to it only by regular service.
In each county, according to the “ten” and scribe books, salaries had their own limits. The authorities tried not to lower the salary below a certain level (50 quarters of the land), preferring to leave part of the service people without local dachas. The most regulated was the landownership in the Moscow district.
In the second half of the XVI century. the military service of the children of boyars and nobles was divided into city (siege) and regimental. The siege service was carried out either by small landed persons with salaries of 20 four or those who, for health reasons, were incapable of regimental (marching) service. It was carried out on foot. Monetary salaries were not paid to these soldiers, but for the proper performance of duties they could be transferred from siege to regimental service with an increase in local salary and the issuance of a monetary salary.
The regimental service was distant (marching) and near (Ukrainian, coastal), which in peacetime was reduced to the protection of borders. Moscow service people (the most prominent part of the nobility - solicitors, stewards, Moscow nobles and tenants41, heads and centurions of Moscow archers) were in a more privileged position. In the regiments they occupied the command positions of the governor, their comrades, hundreds of heads, etc. Total number there were not many of them - no more than 2 - 3 thousand people in the 16th century, but they brought a significant number of combat serfs to the service. In this regard, the number of the Tsar's regiment reached 20 thousand people (in the Kazan campaign of 1552), and with the participation of "elected" nobles and boyar children and more.
Hundreds, like regiments, were temporary military units of the local militia. The landowners called to service were formed at collection points in the hundreds; mixed hundreds were created from the remnants of county hundreds; all of them were distributed on the shelves. At the end of their service, the nobles and boyar children dispersed to their homes, hundreds disintegrated, and at the next call they were formed again.
Thus, the basis of the Russian marching army was the regiments of the noble cavalry, along which the archery and Cossack orders, instruments and hundreds were distributed.
The Code of 1556 finally formalized the local system of recruiting troops. It attracted a large number of feudal lords to military service, created the interest of the nobility in the service of the sovereign. The creation of the noble cavalry was of progressive importance in accordance with the requirements of the growing Russian state.
Introduction
Chapter I. The Armed Forces of the Muscovite State in the First Half of the 17th Century
§ I. Boyar and noble army
§II. Streltsy army
§ III. Cossack army
Chapter II. "Shelves of the new system" Alexei Mikhailovich
§ I. Recruitment in the "Shelves of the new system"
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
In the 17th century, the Muscovite state practically did not lag behind and promptly responded to all the latest innovations in military technologies. The rapid development of military affairs was due to the widespread use of gunpowder and firearms.
The Muscovite state, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, was influenced by both military schools. Since in the XV - XVI centuries. for him, the main opponents were nomads - at first, the experience of the eastern military tradition was taken. This tradition was subjected to significant processing, and its main idea was the dominance in the structure of the armed forces of light irregular local cavalry, supplemented by detachments of archers and Cossacks, who were partly self-sufficient, partly state-supported.
Early 30s. The 17th century, when the government of Mikhail Fedorovich and Patriarch Filaret began to prepare for a war for the return of Smolensk, became a starting point in the history of the new Russian army. The old structure of the armed forces did not meet the needs of the new government. And with the active help of foreign military specialists in the Moscow state, the formation of soldiers, reiters and other regiments of the “new system” trained and armed according to the latest European model began. From that moment on, the general line of Russian military construction in the remaining time until the end of the century was a steady increase in the share of the regular component and a decrease in the importance of the irregular.
The relevance of this work lies in the fact that at present the history of the Russian Armed Forces, in particular their reform, is of interest in society. Particular attention is drawn to the reform period of the 17th century. The range of problems that the Russian government faced at that time in the military sphere echoes those of today. This is the need for an optimal mobilization system to fight against powerful Western neighbors with limited financial and economic opportunities and human resources, as well as this desire to master the effective aspects of military organization, tactics and weapons.
The work is also relevant in that it does not focus only on questions of the regularity or irregularity of the troops, but shows its combat effectiveness during military battles.
Chronological framework the topics cover the period from the beginning of the 17th century to 1676 - the end of the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Self-study armed forces of the Russian state began at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, when a certain stock of factual information accumulated in the general historical literature. The largest work of that time was the work of Viskovatov A.V. "Historical description of clothing and weapons Russian troops, released in 1902. In his work, the author presents a unique, one of a kind, such a large-scale study in the field of the history of military ammunition. Viskovatov A.V. based on a wide range of written and material sources. Among them: royal letters (“nominal” and “boyar sentences”), orders and mandates in memory of archery heads, petitions, replies, as well as notes from Russian and foreign travelers.
The next significant contribution to science was the collective work of a group of generals and officers of the tsarist army and navy, published in 1911 and called The History of the Russian Army and Navy. "History" shows the development of Russian military affairs and considers outstanding combat episodes. The authors of the book Grishinsky A.S., Nikolsky V.P., Klado N.L. describe in detail the organization, life, weapons and characterize the combat training of the troops.
In 1938, the monograph of Bogoyavlensky S.K. “Armament of Russian troops in the 16th-17th centuries” was published. . The historian, relying on a large amount of archival data, describes in detail the weapons and equipment of the Russian troops. The achievement of the author is that after the revolution it was the only new work that later became a classic.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War release scientific papers is shrinking. In 1948, an article by Denisova M.M. was published. "Local cavalry". In this article, the author convincingly refuted one of the myths of the old historiography about the military-technical backwardness of the Russian army. In addition, Denisova M.M. on the basis of archival data gives a description of the real appearance and weapons to the local cavalry in the 17th century.
Chapter I. The Armed Forces of the Muscovite State in the First Half of the 17th Century
Boyar and noble army
The basis of the armed forces of the Moscow state was the local army, which consisted of nobles and boyar children. During the war, they acted with the Grand Duke or with the governors, and in peacetime they were landowners and received land for conditional holding for service.
The prerequisites for the appearance of the local army appeared in the second half of the XIV century, when feudally organized groups began to replace the junior and senior combatants, headed by a boyar or a serving prince, and the group included boyar children and courtyard servants. In the 15th century, such an organization of detachments replaced the city regiments. As a result, the army consisted of: the grand ducal court, the courts of specific princes and boyars. Gradually, new appanage principalities were included in the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the courts of appanage princes and boyars were disbanded, and service people passed to the Grand Duke. As a result, the vassalage of princes and boyars was transformed into sovereign servants, who received estates for service in a conditional holding (less often - in an estate). Thus, a local army was formed, the bulk of which were nobles and boyar children, as well as their combat serfs.
Boyar children, as a class, formed at the beginning of the 15th century, were initially not very large estate owners. They were "assigned" to this or that city and began to be attracted by the princes for military service.
The nobles were formed from the servants of the princely court and at first played the role of the closest military servants of the Grand Duke. Like the children of the boyars, they received land plots for their service.
In the Time of Troubles, the local army, at first, could resist the troops of the interventionists. However, the situation was aggravated by the peasant uprisings of Khlopk and Bolotnikov. Tsars Boris Godunov and Vasily Shuisky were also not popular. In this regard, the landlords fled from the army to their estates, and some even went over to the side of the interventionists or the rebellious peasants. The local militia, headed by Lyapunov, acted as part of the First People's Militia in 1611, which did not take place. In the same year, nobles and boyar children became part of the Second People's Militia under the leadership of Prince Pozharsky, as its most combat-ready unit. For the purchase of horses and weapons, he was given a salary of 30 to 50 rubles, collected from public donations. The total number of service people in the militia was about 10 thousand, and the number of the entire militia - 20-30 thousand people. The following year, this militia liberated Moscow.
The Time of Troubles led to the crisis of the local system. A significant part of the landlords became empty and could not receive support from the peasants. In this regard, the government took measures to restore the local system - paid salaries, introduced benefits. By the second half of the 1630s, the combat capability of the local troops was restored.
The number of troops in the 17th century can be established thanks to the preserved "Estimates". In 1632 there were 26,185 nobles and boyar children. According to the "Estimate of all service people" of 1650-1651, there were 37,763 nobles and boyar children in the Moscow state, and the estimated number of their people was 40-50 thousand. By this time, the local army was being supplanted by the troops of the new system, a significant part of the local army was transferred to the Reiter system, and by 1663 their number had decreased to 21,850 people, and in 1680 it was 16,097 people of the hundred service (of which 6385 were Moscow ranks) and 11 830 of their people.
In peacetime, the landowners were on their estates, and in case of war they had to gather, which took a lot of time. Sometimes on full training militia to military action took more than a month.
They went on a hike with their food.
The local army had a number of shortcomings. One of them was the lack of systematic military training, which negatively affected his combat capability. The armament of each person was at his discretion, although the government made recommendations in this regard. Another important disadvantage was the absence from the service and flight from it - "absence", which was associated with the ruin of estates or with the unwillingness of people to participate in a particular war. It reached its peak in the Time of Troubles. So, from Kolomna in 1625, out of 70 people, only 54 arrived. For this, their local and monetary salaries were reduced (with the exception of good reasons absenteeism - illness and others), and in some cases the estate was completely confiscated. However, in general, despite the shortcomings, the local army showed a high level of combat capability. Local cavalry tactics were based on speed and formed under Asian influence in the middle of the 15th century. Initially, its main purpose was to protect Orthodox population from raids, mainly by the Turkic peoples. In this regard, coastal service has become the most important task of military people and a kind of school for their combat training. In this regard, the main weapon of the cavalry was a bow, and melee weapons - spears and sabers - played a secondary role. Russian strategy was distinguished by the desire to avoid major clashes that could lead to losses; preference was given to various sabotage from fortified positions. The main forms of combat were: archery, "baiting", "attack" and "removable combat" or "great slash". Only the forward detachments took part in the "baiting". During it, an archery fight began, often in the form of a steppe “carousel” or “round dance”: detachments of Russian cavalry, rushing past the enemy, carried out his massive shelling. Archery was usually followed by a "push" - an attack using contact melee weapons; moreover, the beginning of the attack could be accompanied by archery. In the course of direct clashes, multiple "launches" of the detachments were made - they attacked, in case of the enemy's stamina, they retreated in order to lure him into pursuit or give room for the "launch" of other detachments. In the 17th century, the methods of combat of the local army changed under Western influence. During the Time of Troubles, it was rearmed with "driving squeakers", and after the Smolensk War of the 30s - with carbines. In this regard, "shooting combat" from firearms began to be used, although archery combat was also preserved. From the 1950s and 1960s, cavalry attacks were preceded by a volley of carbines. The main bladed weapon was the saber. Mostly they were domestic, but imported ones were also used. West Asian damask and Damascus sabers were especially valued. According to the type of blade, they are divided into massive kilichi, with a bright yelman, and narrower sabers without yelman, which include both shamshirs and, probably, local Eastern European types. During the Time of Troubles, Polish-Hungarian sabers became widespread. Occasionally koncharas were used. In the 17th century, broadswords were distributed, although not widely. Additional weapons were knives and daggers, in particular, a decoy knife was specialized.
The noble cavalry, right up to the Time of Troubles, was widely armed with axes - they included axes-chasers, axes-maces and various light "axes". In the 17th century, pear-shaped maces, associated with Turkish influence, gained some popularity, but they had a predominantly ceremonial significance. Throughout the entire period, warriors were armed with pernachs and six-pointers, but it is difficult to call them widespread weapons. Tassels were often used. The main weapon of the local cavalry from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th centuries was a bow with arrows, which was worn in a set - saadake. These were composite bows with highly profiled horns and a clear central handle. For the manufacture of bows, alder, birch, oak, juniper, aspen were used; they were supplied with bone overlays. Master archers specialized in the manufacture of bows, saadaks - sadachniks, arrows - archers. The length of the arrows ranged from 75 to 105 cm, the thickness of the shafts was 7-10 mm. The arrowheads were armor-piercing, dissecting and universal. Firearms were originally present in the local cavalry, but they were extremely rare, due to its inconvenience for riders and the superiority of the bow in many ways. Since the Time of Troubles, the nobles and boyar children preferred pistols, usually imported with a wheel lock; and they gave squeaks and carbines to their combat serfs. Therefore, for example, in 1634, the government ordered those servicemen who were armed only with pistols to acquire a more serious firearm, and those who were armed with a saadak, stock up on pistols as well. These pistols were used in close combat, for point-blank range. From the middle of the 17th century, screw squeaks appeared in the local cavalry and were especially widespread in the east of Russia. The main armor was chain mail, or rather, its variety - shell. Ring-plate armor was also widely used. Mirrors were used less frequently; hussar and reiter armor. Wealthy warriors often wore multiple pieces of armor. The lower armor was usually a chain mail shell. Sometimes a shishak or a bowl was worn under the shell. In addition, metal armor used to be combined with tegils. The local army was abolished under Peter I. At the initial stage of the Great Northern War, the noble cavalry, under the leadership of B.P. Sheremetev, inflicted a number of defeats on the Swedes, however, her flight was one of the reasons for the defeat in the Battle of Narva in 1700. At the beginning of the 18th century, the old noble cavalry, along with the Cossacks, still figured among the regiments of the equestrian service and took part in various hostilities. However, Peter I could not immediately organize a combat-ready army. Therefore, we had to improve new army to lead it to the victories in which the old troops were still taking a significant part at the beginning of the 18th century. Finally, the old parts were liquidated by mid-seventeenth I century.
Streltsy army
In 1550, the pishchalnik-militias were replaced by the archery army, which initially consisted of 3 thousand people. Streltsy was divided into 6 "articles" (orders), 500 people each. The archery "articles" were commanded by the heads of the boyar children: Grigory Zhelobov-Pusheshnikov, Duma clerk Rzhevsky, Ivan Semyonov son of Cheremesinov, V. Funikov-Pronchishchev F. I. Durasov and Y. S. Bundov. The centurions of the streltsy "articles" were also boyar children. The archers were quartered in the suburban Vorobyova Sloboda. They were given a salary of 4 rubles. per year, archery heads and centurions received local salaries. Streltsy formed a permanent Moscow garrison. The first archers were probably organized from among the best pishchalniks. They took part in campaigns and battles in wartime as part of the army, they were the first to attack, storming the city. The senior command staff was determined only from among the service people "in the fatherland" - nobles and boyar children. The salary of the archer's head, who commanded the order (regiment), was 30-60 rubles. annually, in addition, he received a large local salary, equal to 300-500 quarters of the earth. The garrisons of the city archers were located mainly in the border towns. Their number ranged from 20 to 1000 people, and sometimes more. A distinctive feature of the Streltsy troops was their mobility, as a result of which they were often transferred to reinforce a certain section of the border. For example, in the summer, significant archery troops were transferred to the southern outskirts from Moscow, as well as the border northwestern Russian cities. These units were supposed to strengthen the defense of the lines, which were often subjected to Tatar and Nogai attacks. Archers and Cossacks from the troops of the southern Russian fortresses were sent on a campaign against the Don in 1630. Total 1960 people. More than half of the instrumental people available there were taken from other cities. Often, the most experienced archers from the border towns were redirected to "annual" service in a less protected border fortress. In such situations, they tried to replace them in their city with service people transferred from more peaceful militarily counties. City archers carried out garrison service both in peacetime and in wartime. Their duty was to protect the fortress and the prison. They kept guard at the walls, on the towers, at the city and guard gates, near government offices. The main role for them was assigned to the defense of cities. The functions of archers were varied. They could be sent as guards for "netchiks", to saltpeter trades; as escorts for ambassadors, as well as escorting various supplies, money treasury, criminals; Streltsy were involved in the execution of court sentences. In wartime, city archers were assigned by separate orders or hundreds to different regiments of the army. Almost all archers, with a few exceptions, served on foot. As for long trips, as a rule, they went there on carts. Horse service was carried out by Moscow "stirrup" archers, archers in Oskol, Epifan, Astrakhan, Terki, Kazan, Cherny Yar, Tsaritsyn, Samara, Ufa Saratov. Streltsy, carrying out horse service, received horses from the treasury or money to buy them.
Each archer was armed with a squeaker, a reed, and sometimes a saber (later a sword), which was worn on a belt harness. Also from the equipment he had a baldric with pencil cases with powder charges attached to it, a bag for bullets, a bag for a wick, a horn with gunpowder for squeezing gunpowder onto the charging shelf. The archers were armed with smooth-bore wicks, and later - flint squeaks. Interestingly, in 1638, the Vyazma archers were given wick muskets, to which they stated that “they don’t know how to shoot from such muskets with zhagrs, and they didn’t have such muskets before with zhagrs, but they still have them old castles squeaked. At the same time, matchlock weapons persisted and probably prevailed until the 70s of the 17th century. Own production of screw squeakers began by the middle of the 17th century, and from the 70s they began to supply ordinary archers. In particular, in 1671 Ivan Polteev's Streltsy Regiment was issued 24; in 1675 archers going to Astrakhan - 489 rifles. In 1702, rifles accounted for 7% of the Tyumen archers.
By the late 1670s, long pikes were sometimes used as secondary weapons, but the existence of pikemen remains in question. The sword becomes the main bladed weapon. Streltsy regiments had a uniform and obligatory dress uniform (“colored dress”), which consisted of an upper caftan, a hat with a fur band, trousers and boots, the color of which (except for trousers) was regulated according to belonging to a particular regiment. The dress uniform was worn only on special days - during the main church holidays and during ceremonial events. For everyday duties and in military campaigns, a “wearable dress” was used, which had the same cut as the dress uniform, but was made of cheaper gray, black or brown cloth.
Cossack army
Starting from the 17th century. Don Cossacks were used to protect the southern borders of the state, as well as in wars with Turkey and Poland. The government paid the Cossacks salaries for service in money, as well as in the form of bread, cloth, gunpowder, and lead. Since 1623, the affairs of the Don Cossack army began to be in charge of the Posolsky order, with which it was communicated by sending "light" and more long-term "winter villages". In 1637, the Cossack army captured Azov from the Turks and held it for five years, withstanding the siege, which lasted 3.5 months. The Don Cossacks also participated in the Azov campaigns of 1695-96.
The Cossacks were the third main group of troops after the local and infantry troops. The Cossacks remained the decisive armed force of the Muscovite state in terms of their numbers after the people's militia was disbanded.
Due to the fact that the government did not trust the Cossacks and tried to reduce their number by separating peasants and serfs from them, as a result, the number of serving Cossacks in the army numbered about 11 thousand people. The authorities sent most of the Cossacks from Moscow to other cities for city service, along with the archery troops. Settled in different cities, the Cossacks also lost their military organization. An indicator of Cossack liberty was their unification into villages headed by elected atamans.
The state seeks to subjugate the Cossacks. The city governors were ordered to paint the Cossacks in hundreds, as well as other service people, and assign heads to them. As a result, the Cossacks lost their stanitsa organization and atamans.
The device of the Cossack army became hundreds, hundreds, like archers, were reduced to orders. Basically, now the Cossacks were subordinate to the heads of the archers, and in some cities - to the children of the boyars. As for the size of the salary of the Cossacks, in 1613 the Pskov Cossacks were paid 10 rubles each. chieftains, 8 rubles each. esaulam and 6 rubles. private. Feed salaries were collected from the population of Pskov, which caused discontent among the inhabitants and was not always enough for all the Cossacks. There were not enough government reserves. To facilitate the maintenance of the Cossacks, the government replaced the fodder salary with land. During the reign of Mikhail Romanov, the land salary of the Cossacks was not large and was intended mainly for atamans, as a result of which a whole group of local chieftains was formed, whose condition and position were practically equal to the financial situation of the boyar children.
Due to the fact that the land was difficult to cultivate in wartime conditions, the Cossacks did not appreciate the land grant. However, after the war, it began to be valued, and the Cossacks sought the right to transfer their lands to children and relatives. For service and sitting under siege, the state gave land to some groups of Cossacks in local ownership, thereby equalizing their financial situation and service with boyar children.
Cossacks with local ownership accounted for about 15% of all service Cossacks, most of whom, in terms of their financial situation, approached the archers and other service people. The Cossack landowners received land and monetary salaries slightly higher than the archers, but they were equal in benefits. Separately, a group of white-seated Cossacks appeared, whose salaries ranged from 20 to 30 quarters per field. By petition, the state gave them benefits in the form of exemption from taxes and duties of Cossack households and land plots or settled them on such plots.
The training was hard and constant. From the age of three or five, the Cossack was accustomed to riding. They were taught to shoot from the age of seven, to chop with a saber from the age of ten. First, they lowered the water in a thin stream and “put a hand” so that the blade would cut the water at the right angle without leaving splashes. Then they were taught to “cut the vine”, sitting on a hitching post, on a log, and only then on a war horse, saddled in a fighting way, in a drill. Hand-to-hand combat was taught three years. Passing on special techniques stored in each genus. The boy was brought up much more strictly than the girl, and from early childhood his life was filled with work and learning. From the age of five, the boys worked with their parents in the field: they drove oxen to plow, graze sheep and other livestock. But there was still time to play. And the godfather, and the ataman, and the old people made sure that the little boy was “not stopped by”, so that they were allowed to play. But the games themselves were such that in them the Cossack was trained either in work or in martial arts. The sons of Cossack officers were given less time for children's games than the sons of ordinary Cossacks. As a rule, from the age of five or seven, their fathers took them to replaceable hundreds, regiments and took them with them to the service, often to the war. It was the skills acquired in the happy years of childhood that helped the Cossack become the best in the craft for which he was born - military service. The principle of collection was completely medieval, Horde. The ataman chose regimental commanders from among the rich and famous Cossacks. They were given an order to assemble a regiment of their own name. The order said from which villages to take the Cossacks. They were also given several sample uniforms, cloth for the entire regiment, saddle chips, belts, all material for equipment and 50 experienced combat Cossacks for training young recruits. The regiment commander was told the day and place where the formed regiment should be brought. Further, the authorities did not interfere with his orders. The regimental commander was the owner and creator of his regiment, he made ideas about the production of officer ranks and appointed conscripts, wrote a charter based on personal experience or the experience of seniors, if he was young. But since there were Cossacks in the regiment older and more experienced than him, they acted quite independently, according to common sense. Discipline was in the exceptionally responsible attitude of the Cossack to the performance of his military duty. The Cossacks had very few losses in battles, since they fought next to their villagers: often grandfather, father and grandchildren were in the same ranks. They protected each other and rather allowed themselves to be killed or injured than their comrade. One earring in the ear of a Cossack served as a sign that this man was one son in the family, such people were protected in battle, in case of death there would be no one to continue the family, which was considered a great tragedy. If a deadly task was ahead, it was not the commander who decided who should go for it: sometimes they were volunteers, but more often the case was decided by lot or a rally. Well-armed warriors who learned their craft from birth, who had excellent command of various combat skills, including tactical ones, who were able to quickly complete assigned tasks - all this, taken together, made the Cossacks absolutely indispensable for the Russian army. Thus, summing up the state of the Russian armed forces in the first half of the 17th century, the following should be noted. The Moscow government, guided in matters of military construction by familiar ideas, did not remain aloof from newfangled trends and, not without success, tried to put them into practice during conflicts with the Commonwealth and the Tatars. The authorities were still unable to completely abandon the old military system for various reasons. However, for all the limited steps taken under Mikhail Fedorovich to reform the military sphere, the Russians accumulated the most valuable experience in creating a "new model" army, which was then successfully used by his son Alexei Mikhailovich.
The process of unification of Russian lands, which began in the 14th century, was completed by the end of the 15th century. formation of a centralized state. Since that time in Russia it has been developing local picking system troops. The system received this name because of the distribution of land (estates) to service people (nobles, boyar children, etc.), who were obliged to serve the sovereign for this.
The transition to this recruiting system was determined to a decisive extent by economic reasons. As the armed forces increased, the question of their maintenance arose. The resources of the country with subsistence farming were very limited, but the Russian state had a significant territory.
Unlike the boyar, patrimonial lands, which were inherited, the nobleman owned the estate (land) only during his service. He could neither sell it nor pass it on by inheritance. Having received the land, the nobleman, who usually lives on his estate, had to appear at the first request of the sovereign at the appointed time with a horse, weapons and people.
Another source of replenishment of the local army was the princes and boyars, who came to the service with their detachments. But their service to the Grand Duke in the XV century. lost its voluntary character, becoming mandatory under the threat of being accused of treason and deprivation of all lands.
An important role in strengthening the Russian army was played by the reforms carried out in the 16th century. Ivan IV. During the military reforms in 1556. The Code of Service was adopted, which legally fixed the procedure for recruiting the noble local army. Each nobleman-landowner and boyar-patrimony exhibited one equestrian armed warrior from 100 quarters (150 acres) of land. For setting up extra people, the nobles received additional rewards, for shortfalls or evasion - punishment, up to the confiscation of the estate. In addition to the estate, they received a monetary salary before the campaign (from 4 to 7 rubles). The military service of the nobility was lifelong and hereditary from the age of 15. All nobles were required to serve. Registration of servicemen by counties was introduced, military reviews were periodically held.
However, it was impossible not to take into account that the local recruitment system destroyed the character of the ancient squad: instead of a permanent army, which was the squad with a military spirit, with an awareness of military duties, with the inducement of military honor, it created a class of peaceful citizens-owners who only by chance, for a while war, were already carrying out a heavy service for them.
The tsar could not keep the noble militia in constant combat readiness, since the army was recruited only in the event of an immediate threat of an enemy attack. It was necessary to create a state-supported army, constantly ready to start hostilities on the orders of the king, subordinate supreme power.
So in 1550 a permanent foot detachment of 3 thousand people was recruited, armed with firearms (squeakers). completed archery army by recruiting free people from the free population. Later, the children and relatives of the archers became a source of replenishment. Their service was lifelong, hereditary and permanent. Unlike the noble militia, which gathered only in case of war, the archers served both in wartime and in peacetime, being on state support, receiving monetary and grain salaries from the treasury. They had a single uniform, the same type of weapons, a single staff organization and training system. The archers lived in special settlements with families, had their own yard and garden plot, could engage in crafts and trade. The formation of the streltsy army laid the foundation for the formation of a standing army of the Russian state .
Under Ivan IV, another new type of troops was developed - city Cossacks. They were recruited, like archers, from free people and made up the garrisons of border cities and fortifications. The name "police" came from the place of recruitment in the cities.
A special group of military people began to be artillerymen - gunners. They were recruited from free craft people. Their service was lifelong, knowledge was inherited from father to son. They were granted various privileges and benefits in addition to salaries and land allotments.
The composition of the Russian army in the time of Ivan IV included field army (people's militia) from rural and urban populations. At various times, one person from 3, 5 and even 30 yards on horseback and on foot, aged 25 to 40 years, was exhibited in the field army. They had to be in good health, shoot well with bows and squeakers, and ski. The forces of the field army carried out military engineering work on the construction of fortifications, roads, bridges, the delivery of guns, ammunition and food.
Compared with the previous period, the recruiting system under Ivan IV has undergone significant changes. So from the former squad was born local - the first standing army The Russian state with elements of a regular device - archers, gunners and city Cossacks, designed to compensate for the shortcomings of the noble cavalry, which was assembled only in case of war, by constant combat readiness. The people's militia gradually lost its significance, turning into auxiliary troops.
Thus, the creation of a permanent army of the Russian state became an important part of the military reforms of Ivan IV. The significance of the reforms of Ivan the Terrible was highly appreciated by Peter I: “This sovereign is my predecessor and model; I have always imagined him as a model of my government in civil and military affairs, but I have not yet managed to go as far as he does.
Regiments of the "new system"
Early 17th century was one of the most difficult and dramatic periods in the history of Russia. Troubles, the peasant uprising of Ivan Bolotnikov, the Polish-Swedish intervention ruined the country, seriously undermining its military potential. There were not enough funds for the maintenance of the archers, the discipline of the "sovereign troops" fell. Russia was in dire need of recreating a trained army. In 1607, the Charter of military, cannon and other matters relating to military science was developed. This charter was used as a guide to the combat training of Russian troops and their actions in battle.
With the accession of Mikhail Romanov in 1613, the period of unrest and anarchy ended. AT difficult conditions gradually began to revive the armed forces. So in 1630, in the most major cities Russia began to form regiments of the "new order"(unlike the "old" - archery and city Cossacks).
In the second half of the XVII century. the regiments of the "new system" were finally established. Were formed soldier (infantry), reiter (cavalry) and dragoon (cavalry trained on foot) regiments. Unlike the countries of Western Europe (except Sweden), where mercenarism was widespread, in Russia for the first time there was a system of compulsory military service for all social strata of the indigenous population. This was a truly reformist step that predetermined the further course of building the Russian armed forces.
The regiments of the "new system" were completed mainly by forced set dependent people (soldier regiments) and forced entry petty and landless nobles and boyar children (reitar service). The Reiters received a monetary salary for their service, many received estates. Spearmen and hussars had the same rights as the Reiters. It was the noble cavalry of the "new system". In peacetime, they lived on their estates, but were obliged to gather for one month for training. For failure to appear, estates were taken away from the nobles and transferred to soldier regiments. Discipline was strict for everyone, and at that distant time it was considered one of the fundamental principles of military construction.
Soldiers were recruited for permanent life service according to the principle: from three brothers one by one, from four - two each, or from estates and estates - one each from 25-100 households (the sizes of the sets varied). They lived in state-owned houses and special soldier's settlements in cities on full state support. The soldiers kept land allotments for the maintenance of families. Part of this army was permanent, part was recruited for the duration of the war, being at home in peacetime, ready to appear at the first call to their regiments.
Thus, the complex, almost 50-year-old (30s - 70s of the 15th century) process of folding the troops of the "new system" showed their advantage over the troops formed by other methods. The source of recruitment was the forced involvement of ever larger masses of the population in military service, which became mandatory for all segments of the population. In Russia, the prototype of a regular army was taking shape. It was destined to finally bring this idea to life to the great reformer - Peter I.
