Creation of amusing regiments by Peter 1. Amusing regiments of Peter the Great

He received no education other than simple literacy and some historical information. His amusements were of a childish-military nature. The situation of life gave him several painful impressions. As tsar, at the same time he was under disgrace from the age of 10 and had to live with his mother in amusing villages near Moscow, and not in the Kremlin Palace. Such a sad situation deprived him of the opportunity to receive a proper further education and at the same time freed him from the fetters of court etiquette. Having no spiritual food, but having a lot of time and freedom, Peter himself had to look for activities and entertainment. One can think that the mother never embarrassed her beloved only son and that Peter's tutor, Prince Boris Golitsyn, did not follow his every step. We do not see that Peter is especially subject to maternal authority in his tastes and occupations, that Peter is occupied by others. He himself chooses his comrades from a close circle of courtiers and servants of the tsarina's court, and with these comrades he himself seeks for fun. Peter's adolescence was marked by amateur activity, and this amateur activity went in two directions: 1) Peter continued to indulge in military amusements, 2) Peter strove for self-education.

Soldiers of the "amusing regiments" of Peter I in a circle (tavern). Painting by A. Ryabushkin, 1892

Since 1683, instead of "amusing children" near Peter we see "amusing regiments" ("amusing", because they stood in amusing villages, and not because they served only for fun). In November 1683, Peter begins to form the Preobrazhensky Regiment from eager people (up to recent years Peter remembered his own that the first hunter was the court groom Sergei Bukhvostov). In relation to this amusing regiment, Peter was not a sovereign, but a comrade-comrade-in-arms, who studied military affairs along with other soldiers. With the permission, of course, of his mother and with the approval, perhaps, of B. Golitsyn (even, perhaps, with some of his assistance), Peter, as they say, both day and night with his amusing ones. Maneuvers and small campaigns are being undertaken, a funny fortress is being built on the Yauza (1685), called Pressburg, in a word, military science is practically studied not according to the old Russian models, but according to the order of regular soldier service, which in the 17th century. was borrowed by Moscow from the West. These military "fun" require military supplies and Money, which are released to Peter from the Moscow orders. Sophia's government does not see any danger for itself in such "Mars fun" and does not interfere with the development of amusing troops. It was frightened of these troops later, when a solid military force. But Peter cultivated this strength without hindrance. One should not think that Peter was amused with one yard servant. Along with him in the ranks of the amusing were his comrades from the upper strata of society. Standing outside the court etiquette, Peter interfered with well-born people and commoners in one "team", in the words of S. M. Solovyov, and from this squad unconsciously prepared for himself a circle of devoted employees in the future. Military affairs and the personality of Peter rallied heterogeneous aristocratic and democratic elements into one society with one direction. While this society was having fun, later it began to work with Peter.

A little later than Peter's war games were organized, a conscious desire to learn awakened in him. Self-education somewhat distracted Peter from exclusively military amusements, made his mental outlook and practical activity wider. Deprived of proper education, Peter, however, grew up in a circle that was far from completely ignorant. The Naryshkins from Matveev's house brought some familiarity with Western culture. The son of A. S. Matveev, close to Peter, was educated in a European way. Peter had a German doctor. In a word, not only was there no national isolation, but there was some habit towards the Germans, acquaintance with them, sympathy for the West. This habit and sympathy also passed on to Peter and made it easier for him to get closer to foreigners and their science. This rapprochement happened around 1687 in this way: in the preface to the Maritime Regulations, Peter himself says that Prince. I. Dolgoruky brought him an astrolabe as a gift from abroad, and no one knew how to cope with foreign instrument; then found Petra knowing person, the Dutchman Franz Timmerman, who explained that in order to use the astrolabe, you need to know geometry and other sciences. It was from this Timmerman that Peter "came eagerly to learn geometry and fortification." At the same time, in the village of Izmailovo, he found an old English boat lying in a barn. Timmerman explained to Peter that on this boat you can go against the wind, maneuver (which the Russians could not do). Peter became interested and found a man (like Timmerman - from the German settlement), the Dutchman Karsten-Brant, who began to teach Peter how to sail. First they studied at the narrow Yauza, and then - in the village of Izmailovo on the pond.

"Grandfather of the Russian Navy". Franz Timmerman shows Peter the Great a boat. Painting by G. Myasoedov, before 1911

The art of navigation captivated Peter so much that it became his passion. He took this matter very seriously. In 1688, dissatisfied with the fact that there was nowhere to swim near Moscow, he transferred his fun to Lake Pereyaslavskoye (more than 100 miles from Moscow to the north). Mother agreed to Peter's departure, and Peter began to build ships in Pereyaslavl with the help of Dutch masters. At this time, he did not want to know anything except mathematics, military affairs and shipboard fun. But he was already in his 17th year, he was very developed both physically and mentally. His mother had the right to expect that her son, who had reached the age of majority, would pay attention to state affairs and eliminate the hated Miloslavskys from them. But Peter was not interested in this and did not think of giving up his learning and fun for politics. To settle him down, his mother married (January 27, 1689) to Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina, to whom Peter had no attraction. Submitting to the will of his mother, Peter got married, but some month after the wedding he left for Pereyaslavl from his mother and wife to the ships. But in the summer of this year, 1689, he was summoned by his mother to Moscow, because a struggle with the Miloslavskys was inevitable.

The infantry regiment of Peter the Great's times consisted of two battalions, with some exceptions: the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment had 4 battalions, the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment, as well as the Ingermanland and Kyiv Infantry Regiments - three each. Each battalion had four companies, the companies were divided into four plutongs. The captain was at the head of the company. He had to "educate" his company militarily and for this all "military orders to be prudent." In addition to the commander, three more officers were supposed to be in the company - a lieutenant, a second lieutenant and an ensign. the lieutenant was an assistant to the company commander and had to “report in detail” about everything to the latter. The lieutenant helped the lieutenant, while the ensign was obliged to carry the banner in the ranks; in addition, he had to “visit the weak all day long” and intercede for the lower ranks “when they fall into punishment.”

Among the chiefs from the lower ranks, the first place in the company was occupied by two sergeants, who had "a lot to do in the company"; the lieutenant had as his task to replace the ensign at the banner, the captain was in charge of weapons and ammunition, the corporals commanded the plutongs. At the head of the regiment was a colonel; according to the charter, he should "like a captain in his company, have the same and even more first respect in his regiment." The lieutenant colonel helped the regiment commander, the prime major commanded one battalion, the second major the other; moreover, the first major was considered older than the second major and, in addition to command, had the duty to take care of “whether the regiment is in good condition both among the soldiers and in their weapons, ammunition and uniform.”

The diverse cavalry of the beginning of Peter's reign (reiter, spearmen, hussars) in Peter's army was replaced by dragoon regiments. The dragoon (horse-grenadier) regiment consisted of 5 squadrons (2 companies each) and consisted of 1200 people. In the dragoon regiment, 9 companies were fusilier and one grenadier. A separate squadron consisted of 5 companies (600 people). According to the states of 1711, the regiment included headquarters and chief officers - 38 people, non-commissioned officers - 80 people, privates - 920 people, non-combatants - 290 people. The company consisted of 3 chief officers, non-commissioned officers - 8, ordinary dragoons - 92.

The artillery of Peter the Great's times consisted of 12-, 8-, 6- and 3-pounder guns (a pound is equal to a cast-iron core with a diameter of 2 English inches (5.08 cm); the weight pound is exceeded by 20 spools (85.32 kg) , one-pound and half-pound howitzers, pound and 6-pound mortars (a pound is equal to 16.38 kg).It was inconvenient for transportation of artillery: a 12-pound gun, for example, weighed 150 pounds with a carriage and limber, and was carried by 15 horses. constituted regimental artillery, at first there were two such guns per battalion, and since 1723 they were limited to two per regiment.These regimental guns weighed about 28 pounds (459 kg). - and depended on the caliber of the gun.

From the gunners and grenade men of the past, Peter ordered the formation of a special artillery regiment in 1700, and for the training of artillerymen, schools were established: engineering and navigation in Moscow and engineering in St. Petersburg. Arms factories on Okhta and in Tula, organized by Peter, produced artillery and guns for the army.

The garrison troops in the Russian imperial army were intended to carry out garrison service in cities and fortresses in wartime. Created by Peter I in 1702 from city archers, soldiers, reiters and others. In 1720, the garrison troops consisted of 80 infantry and 4 dragoon regiments. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, they were transformed into local troops (garrison artillery - into fortress artillery).

The armament of each soldier consisted of a sword with a harness and a fusee. Fuzeya - a gun that weighed about 14 pounds; his bullet weighed 8 spools; the fusil castle was made of flint; in necessary cases, a baguinet was mounted on the fusee - a five- or eight-pointed trihedral bayonet. The cartridges were placed in leather bags attached to a baldric, to which a horn gunpowder with gunpowder was also attached. Captains and sergeants instead of fusees were armed with halberds - axes on a three-yard shaft.

One of the companies in each regiment was called the grenadier, and a feature of its weapons were match bombs, which were kept by the grenadier in a special bag; the grenadier's fusees were a little lighter and the soldiers, when throwing a bomb, could lay their fusees on a belt behind their backs. The lower ranks of the artillery were armed with swords, pistols, and some with a special "mortar". These "mortars" were something between a fusee and a small cannon attached to a fusee box with a fuze lock; when firing from mortars, they had to be supported by a special halberd; the length of the mortar was 13 inches, but she fired a bomb, equal to a pound core. Each soldier was supposed to have a satchel for carrying things. Dragoons for foot combat were armed with a fusee, and for equestrian combat they were armed with a broadsword and a pistol.

The privates of the bombardment company of the artillery regiment wore leather caps with copper emblems in the form of grenades. Camisoles, caftans and red pants are designed to evoke associations with battalion smoke and flames bursting from the gun muzzle. The bombardiers were armed with a sword, a pistol, a copper mortar, which relied on a halberd when firing.

By the end of Peter's reign, the regular army had in its ranks more than 200 thousand soldiers of all branches of the armed forces and over 100 thousand irregular Cossack cavalry and Kalmyk cavalry. For the 13 million population of Petrine Russia, it was a heavy burden to support and feed such a large army. According to an estimate compiled in 1710, a little more than three million rubles went to the maintenance of the field army, garrisons and fleet, artillery and other military expenses. For other needs, the treasury spent only 800 thousand with a little: the army absorbed 78% of the total budget.

To resolve the issue of financing the army, Peter ordered by decree of November 26, 1718 to count the number of the taxable population of Russia, all landowners, secular and church, were ordered to give accurate information on how many male souls live in their villages, including old people and babies. The information was then checked by special auditors. Then they accurately determined the number of soldiers in the army and calculated how many souls, counted according to the census, are for each soldier. Then they calculated how much the full maintenance of a soldier costs per year. Then it became clear what tax should be imposed on each paying soul in order to cover all the expenses of maintaining the army. According to this calculation, for each taxable soul it was necessary: ​​74 kopecks for the owner (serfs) peasants, 1 ruble 14 kopecks for state peasants and one-dwellers; 1 ruble 20 kopecks for petty bourgeois.

By decrees on January 10 and February 5, 1722, Peter outlined to the Senate the very method of feeding and maintaining the army, and proposed to “lay out the troops on the ground.” Military and foot regiments were supposed to support them. In the newly conquered regions - Ingria, Karelia, Livonia and Estonia - no census was carried out, and here regiments were to be appointed to stay, the feeding of which was entrusted to separate provinces that did not need constant military protection.

The Military Collegium compiled a list of regiments in the areas, and for the cantonment itself they commanded 5 generals, 1 brigadier and 4 colonels - one in each province. Having received from the Senate for layout, and from the Military Collegium, a list of regiments that were to be deployed in a given area, the sent headquarters officer, having arrived in his district, had to convene the local nobility, announcing the layout rules to him and inviting the layoutrs to assist. The regiments were placed as follows: for each company, a rural district was assigned with such a population that each infantryman had 35 souls, and 50 souls of the male population per equestrian. The instruction instructed the spreader to insist on the resettlement of the regiments in special settlements, so as not to place them in peasant households and thus not cause quarrels between the peasants and the inns.

To this end, the spreaders had to persuade the nobles to build huts, one for each non-commissioned officer and one for every two soldiers. Each settlement had to contain at least a corporal and be at such a distance from the other that the horse company was placed no further than 10 miles, and the foot - no further than 5 miles, the horse regiment - for 100, and the foot - 50 miles . In the middle of the company district, the nobility was ordered to build a company yard with two huts for the company's chief officers and one for the lower servants; in the center of the regiment, the nobles were obliged to build a yard for the regimental headquarters with 8 huts, a hospital and a barn.

Having located the company, the spreader handed over to the company commander a list of villages in which the company was located, indicating the number of households and the number of souls listed in each; another similar list was handed over by the spreader to the landlords of those villages. In the same way, he compiled a list of villages in which a whole regiment was stationed, and handed it over to the regimental commander. The nobles of each province had to jointly take care of the maintenance of the regiments stationed in their locality and, for this, elect from their midst a special commissar, who was entrusted with taking care of the timely collection of money for the maintenance of the regiments settled in the given locality, and in general be responsible to the nobility as a clerk and an intermediary of the estate in relations with the military authorities. Since 1723, these elected zemstvo commissars have been given the exclusive right to collect poll tax and arrears.

The first per capita census of the population 1718-1725.

The regiment, settled in this area, not only lived at the expense of the population that supported it, but, according to Peter's plan, had to become an instrument of local government: in addition to drill exercises, the regiment was assigned many purely police duties. The colonel and officers were obliged to pursue thieves and robbers in their district, that is, the location of the regiment, to keep the peasants of their district from escaping, to catch those who had fled, to watch the fugitives coming into the district from outside, to eradicate innkeepers and smuggling, to help forest overseers in pursuing illegal forest clearings, send their people with officials who are sent to the provinces from the governor, so that these people do not allow officials to ruin the county inhabitants, and help the officials cope with the self-will of the inhabitants.

According to the instructions, the regimental authorities were to rural population county "from any taxes and insults to protect." V. O. Klyuchevsky writes about this: “In fact, this boss, even against their will, laid down a heavy tax and resentment on the local population and not only on the peasants, but also on the landowners. Officers and soldiers were forbidden to interfere in the economic orders of the landlords and in peasant work, but the grazing of regimental horses and domestic officer and soldier cattle on common pastures, where both landowners and peasants grazed their cattle, the right of the military authorities to demand in certain cases people for regimental work and carts for regimental parcels and, finally, the right to general supervision of order and security in the regimental district - all this should have created constant misunderstandings between the military authorities and the townsfolk.

Obliged to monitor the poll tax payers feeding the regiment, the regimental authorities carried out this supervision in the most inconvenient way for the layman: a peasant, if he wanted to go to work in another district, had to receive a letter of leave from the landowner or parish priest. With this letter, he went to the regimental yard, where this vacation letter was registered in the book by the zemstvo commissar. Instead of a letter, the peasant was given a special ticket signed and stamped by the colonel.

The proposed separate soldier's settlements were not built anywhere, and the ones that had been started were not completed, and the soldiers were placed in the philistine yards. In one decree of 1727, which introduced some changes in the collection of the poll tax, the government itself recognized all the harm from such a deployment of soldiers, it recognized that “the poor Russian peasants are ruined and run not only from grain shortages and the poll tax, but also from disagreement among the officers with the Zemstvo rulers, and the soldiers had constant fights with the peasants.

The heaviest burden of military standing became during the periods of collection of the poll tax, which was collected by the zemstvo commissars with the military teams assigned to them "for the Anstalt", that is, for order, with an officer at the head. The tax was usually paid in thirds, and three times a year the zemstvo commissars with military people traveled around the villages and villages, collecting fees, levying fines from non-payers, selling off the property of the poor, feeding themselves at the expense of the local population. “Each detour lasted two months: for six months a year, villages and villages lived in panic fear under oppression or in anticipation of armed pickers. The poor peasants are afraid of the entrance and passage of officers and soldiers, commissars and other commanders; there is a lack of peasant belongings in paying taxes, and the peasants not only sell their livestock and belongings, but also mortgage their children, while others flee separately; commanders, who are often replaced, do not feel such ruin; none of them thinks of anything else, as soon as taking the last thing from the peasant in tribute and currying it, ”says the opinion of Menshikov and other high officials, presented to the Supreme Privy Council in 1726. The Senate in 1725 pointed out that “by paying per capita money, zemstvo commissars and officers oppress so much that the peasants are not only forced to sell their belongings and livestock, but many also give away the grain sown in the land for a pittance and therefore must be forced to run abroad.”

The flight of the peasants reached enormous proportions: in the Kazan province, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bsettlement of one infantry regiment, after less than two years of such military and financial management, the regiment did not count 13 thousand souls in its district, which accounted for more than half of the revision souls obliged to support them.

Promotion to the ranks in the Peter's army took place in the order of strict gradualism. Each new vacancy was filled at the choice of the officers of the regiment; the commander of the “generalship”, that is, the corps, the general-in-chief, and the field marshal, up to the colonel, claimed the rank up to the captain. Until 1724, patents for all ranks were issued with the signature of the sovereign himself. Production in the colonel's and general's ranks depended on the sovereign. So that tribal ties, patronage, affection and friendship would not lead people who were not familiar with military affairs among the officers, Peter decreed in 1714: for they did not serve in low ranks, and some served only for appearances for several weeks or months, therefore, such people need a statement of how many such ranks there are since 1709, and henceforth to issue a decree so that they do not write noble breeds and others from outside, which did not serve as soldiers in the guard. Peter often looked through the lists of persons promoted to the ranks himself.

In 1717, Peter demoted Lieutenant Colonel Myakishev "to the Preobrazhensky Regiment in the bombardment company as a soldier because he got that rank by intrigue, and not by service." The tsar made sure that the nobles who entered the guards regiments as soldiers underwent a well-known military education, "decent for officers." In special regimental schools, underage nobles (up to 15 years of age) underwent arithmetic, geometry, artillery, fortification, foreign languages. The training of the officer did not stop even after entering the service. In the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Peter demanded that the officers know "engineering". For this, in 1721, a special school was established at the regiment. Having made the guards regiments like schools for studying everything that “a good officer should be in charge of,” the practice of studying abroad continued. In 1716, the Military Charter was issued, which strictly defined the rights and obligations of the military in their service.

As a result of Peter the Great's transformations, Russia received a permanent, regular, centrally supplied modern army, which later for more than a century (until the Crimean War) successfully fought, among other things, with the armies of the leading European powers (Seven Years' War, Patriotic War 1812). Also, the new army served as a means that allowed Russia to turn the tide of the struggle against the Ottoman Empire, gain access to the Black Sea and spread its influence in the Balkans and Transcaucasia. However, the transformation of the army was part of the general course towards the absolutization of the power of the monarch and the infringement of the rights of various social strata. Russian society. In particular, despite the abolition of the local system, the duty of service was not removed from the nobles, and the functioning of the industry necessary for the technical equipment of the army was ensured through the use of serf labor along with civilian labor.

Streltsy rebellion

Reign of Princess Sophia

Amusing regiments of Peter 1

The struggle of Peter 1 and Princess Sophia

Amusing troops arose from the so-called Petrov Regiment, which was formed by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, from "little robins", for the amusement of Tsarevich Peter.

In 1682, the Moscow Kremlin Palace had a special amusing area. And since the spring of 1683, 11-year-old Peter - physically developed beyond his years - transferred military training in the field, and from that time on, the former game of soldiers turned into real military-practical training. At the end of this year, adults also began to be included in the number of “amusing” ones. The first on November 30, 1683, was the court groom S. Bukhvostov. He is considered the first soldier.

In 1684, in the village of Preobrazhensky near Moscow, the amusing town of Pressburg was erected, on the construction of which Peter himself worked; then amusing troops stormed this fortress and maneuvered on two sides. In 1691, the amusing troops of the troops received a proper organization and were divided into two regiments, Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky, uniformed according to the Western European model.

Soldiers of amusing regiments
play funny games.
They fly from iron horseshoes
colored funny sparks.

funny little boat board
and goblets with amusing brandy.
And waving bravely Lefort
with his funny sword.

Thunder, drum - and keep it up
will not subside in the ears of the autocrat
all the old music, - cut! -
cheer the sovereign's heart.

While at the turn of the century
split milestones are not driven in,
soldiers of the amusing regiments
dashing indulge in fun.

Funny guns fire.
And, as is already being done in Russia, -
nobody knows yet
how it all plays out for her.

A variety of military training exercises, under the guidance of foreigners, concluded with the Kozhukhovsky campaign. Already in these years, the system of views of Peter I on the issues of military education began to take shape. "Funny" Peter did not need as fun. Peter pursued a special goal - the training of future soldiers and military leaders, for whom "service would not be a heavy fasting burden", but on the contrary - "a cutting workshop in which they would become a crystal of amazing brilliance."

Considering own experience, Peter and his associates developed the first military-vocational orientation program for young men in the history of Russia.

The military professional orientation program for young men included:

Development of physical strength and dexterity of children aged 9-12 through outdoor games and gymnastic exercises; the military system was not given much importance;
- the development of courage and enterprise in children by introducing a certain amount of danger and risk into games. For this, climbing along cliffs, ravines, crossing over unsteady bridges, logs, playing robbers were used. During this game, the “amusing” will imperceptibly comprehend the guard service, intelligence, experience will reach the consciousness that “reason and art win more than the multitude”;
- learning to use weapons, not only gun techniques, but also the ability to shoot and stab. Tsar Tsar Peter from the age of 12 already fired from a cannon;
- familiarization of "amusing" with military equipment and learning to use it;
- development of discipline, sense of honor and camaraderie;
- knowledge of the fatherland and understanding of its historical tasks by familiarizing the "amusing" with the brightest and most gloomy pages of our history, as well as with the forces and aspirations of the most dangerous neighbors;
- development of love for the sovereign and the fatherland;
- instilling "amusing" love for the army.

Amusing troops of Peter 1 became the backbone of the Russian imperial army. They were created at a time when Russia was fighting for access to the sea, and therefore the country especially needed regular regiments organized according to a new, European model. The first emperor considered this task one of his main goals in the reform policy, especially since it was in those years that the war with Sweden began, which lasted almost all of his reign.

General characteristics of the era

The amusing troops of Peter 1 should be regarded as part of the military reform of the new tsar, although they arose at a time when the future emperor was still very young. At the end of the 17th century, there was a clear trend towards reform Russian army. Even previous rulers sought to reorganize it on the basis of new achievements, in accordance with Western European models. This was all the more necessary as the inevitability of our country's struggle for access to the sea became obvious. This required new regiments and well-trained soldiers.

The old local system of manning the army, when every nobleman, landowner brought servants and military servants with him to the service, gradually became obsolete. That is why the amusing troops, created with the participation of European specialists, became the basis of the new army.

Creation

It is a well-known fact that the first emperor made extensive use of the experience of foreign engineers, military specialists and builders. While still very young, he began to visit the German Quarter, where he met and became friends with people who were later destined to become his main assistants in the implementation of reforms and the conduct of hostilities. From childhood, the king showed interest in military games, activities and exercises. He took up the organization of improvised regiments, structures and battles.

The military games of the amusing troops of Peter 1 had serious consequences: after all, it was in this way that the ruler became seriously interested in military organization and the art of combat. He himself learned in practice to take improvised fortresses and other objects. Subsequently, this largely determined the victory of Russian weapons during the war with Sweden. Then the emperor himself led the operations, guided by the experience gained in the course of his children's games.

The role of foreigners

The amusing troops of Peter 1 were created with the personal participation of the tsar, who, in organizing them, relied on the experience of his new acquaintances from a well-known settlement. First of all, here it is necessary to name the name who became a personal friend of the king and instilled in him a love for the fleet and army. He was an educated and intelligent man who had an undeniable influence on the young ruler. The latter, in turn, used his advice when he seriously thought about the professional organization of his regiments.

The military games of the amusing troops of Peter 1 led to the fact that these detachments, created from courtyard children and untrained boys, began to take part in serious battles with European armies and win victories. An important role in their organization was played by P. Gordon, a comrade-in-arms of the tsar and a supporter of his reforms. He had great military experience and contributed to the transformation of the regiments into permanent regular military units and very combat-ready. Gordon was not only a practitioner, but also a theoretician. Possessing extensive knowledge of military affairs, he was an excellent organizer, and the soldiers trained by him were considered the best fighters.

Menshikov

The amusing troops of Peter 1, the story of which is the subject of this review, arose with the direct participation of Alexander Danilovich, the closest assistant and ally of the tsar in all his affairs and undertakings. He took an active part in the formation of troops, he himself served there in the rank of bombardier. Subsequently, this experience helped him become the largest military leader of the reign of Peter the Great.

Education

The amusing troops of Peter 1 played an important role in the creation of the regular army. Brief story about them includes some basic, most significant facts about their organization and training. Even in childhood, the young king, physically developed beyond his age, began to arrange impromptu war games. When he was only eleven years old, he began to organize these classes in the field, as a result of which the usual children's fun grew into a real practical study. A town was erected in Preobrazhensky village, which served as an object of maneuvers and, finally, an assault. It is known that the king himself took an active part in its construction.

Registration and training

In 1691, the amusing troops received the correct organization and were divided into two and Semenovsky. The very next year they were included in the Moscow regiment and thus became a full part of the Russian army. Two years later, the well-known training maneuvers were held south of the capital. A wooden fortress was built there, which was defended by archers and nobles. New troops were to cross the river and take this structure by storm. At first it was assumed that the event would be educational in nature, but both sides were so carried away that the amusing actions turned into a real battle, in which there were many wounded and even one killed.

Features of maneuvers

During this exercise, the soldiers of the tsar conducted an assault according to all the rules of military art: they dug tunnels and trenches, took earthen ramparts, crossed the river, and blew up fortifications. The fighters coped with the task so quickly that Peter 1 took them back and ordered them to take the fortress again. It should be noted that it was very well fortified and protected, and therefore its capture was considered an important success for the new regiments. The ruler was preparing for war, and therefore the maneuvers were conducted under the guidance of Gordon, the military teacher of the future emperor.

Meaning

Information about the amusing troops of Peter 1 was preserved in the manuscripts of the first half of the 18th century by the author P. Krekshin. The organization and training of soldiers in a new way made a great impression on contemporaries. Never before had anything like this happened in the royal court. The success of the improvised ones was so obvious that both regiments began to take part in all the main military campaigns of Peter Alekseevich.