I think everyone knows that Peter I, returning from his two-year trip to Holland, decided to urgently create a new army following the example of the European ones. In doing so, he first destroyed the rifle regiments, which were the basis of the army until 1700.
A number of questions immediately arise.
In fact, in the period from 1686 to 1700, the Russian Empire was at war with Turkey. But this circumstance, for some reason, does not prevent Peter from wandering around Europe for two years, then, upon arrival, to practically destroy his army. Being at war!
Furthermore. Not having yet to create new units, he immediately declares war on Sweden, which has the strongest army at that time! What is this eccentricity? How, in such conditions, Russia defeated Turkey and recaptured the land from Sweden, where they immediately began to build the city of St. Petersburg? After all, in fact, the army was made up of former serfs. And these people, breaking away from the plow, went to kill the regular troops of Sweden?
To make it easier to understand the composition of the army and in what conditions it was created, I took the book by Viskovatov Alexander Vasilyevich "Historical description of clothing and weapons of the Russian troops."
And immediately follows confirmation of the destruction of the rifle regiments.
Promotional video:
Further there are lines where it is stated that only four regiments remained from the former army, of which officers were later released. It turns out that the officers were also tense.
That is, Peter I decided to fight the Swedes with a bunch of recruits. I understand that the life of a soldier, perhaps, was not put into anything, but after all, someone had to win.
I cannot ignore the name of the new colonels.
Ivan Treiden, Matvey Treiden, Ivan von Delden (? !!!), Ivan Bush, Ivan Berner, Ivan Angler.
These "Ivanovs" have amazing surnames. Straight real Russians.
By the way, now I understand where the name "Ingermanland" came from.
After conquering part of the lands of the Ingermanland province, Peter I decided to call this part of Russia the Ingermanland province. In 1711, this province was renamed to St. Petersburg. But the name of the regiment does not change. It is unclear what place of permanent deployment this regiment had.
Several more regiments are being created in the St. Petersburg province.
This is the St. Petersburg regiment (it is also not clear where the quotas were, the city was just being built, and the regiment is about a thousand people), the Nevsky regiment, the Shlisselburg regiment, the Olonets regiment, etc.
In total, there were 11 regiments in this province.
Baltics 10 regiments.
That is, 2/3 of the Russian troops in 1712 were concentrated practically around St. Petersburg.
Perhaps such a number of regiments near the future capital was necessary (St. Petersburg became the capital in 1712) because of the war with Sweden, but they often fought with Turkey too. And on the Turkish border there were fewer regiments.
There are 6 regiments in the Azov province.
The absence of regiments in the Urals and further to the east also looks strange to me. There is one Siberian.
There are 3 regiments in the Kazan province and that's it. And this is for such a huge territory?
Here is a map from 1708 with the designation of the Russian provinces.
At the same time, until 1719, there were two Mecklenburg regiments, deep in Europe.
Mecklenburg is the north of Germany for a minute.
In general, I get the impression that Peter I created not the Russian, but the European army.
And it was impossible to create cavalry from the inhabitants of Russia?
We must pay tribute to Peter I. Starting with 4 regiments in 1699, by the end of his reign (1725) he created an army of about 200,000 people.
For me personally, the pace of construction of both St. Petersburg and the Russian army is extremely surprising. But we will deal with this in other articles.