The first Streltsy army. Sagittarius: security forces of medieval Rus'. Streltsy army of Peter I. How does the Streltsy army differ from the regular army

Sagittarius

After the formation of Russian in the XV-XVI centuries centralized state This is how the representatives of the first regular troops began to be called. In 1550, the pishchalniki-militia were replaced by the Streltsy army, initially consisting of 3 thousand people. The Sagittarius were divided into 6 “articles” (orders), with 500 people in each. The Streltsy “articles” were commanded by heads of boyar children: Grigory Zhelobov, son of Pusheshnikov, Matvey (Dyak) Ivanov, son of Rzhevsky, Ivan Semenov, son of Cheremesinov, Vasily Funikov, son of Pronchishchev, Fyodor Ivanov, son of Durasov, and Yakov Stepanov, son of the Bunds. The centurions of the Streltsy “Articles” were also children of the boyars. The archers were quartered in the suburban Vorobyovskaya Sloboda. Their salary was set at 4 rubles a year, the archers' heads and centurions received local salaries. The Streltsy formed a permanent Moscow garrison. The formation of the Streltsy army began in the 1540s under Ivan IV the Terrible. In 1550, Tsar Ivan IV ordered the establishment in Moscow

“In the summer of 7058, the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich made three thousand elected archers from the arquebuses and ordered them to live in Vorobyovskaya Sloboda, and killed the children of the boyars;<…>And he ordered the archers’ salaries to be four rubles a year.”…

This decree laid the foundation for a special unit of the royal army - the Moscow Streltsy army. The Moscow archers received their baptism of fire during the siege and assault of Kazan in 1552 and subsequently were indispensable participants in all major military campaigns. In peacetime, Moscow and city archers performed garrison service, performing the functions of police and firefighters in cities.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the estimated number of the Streltsy army was up to 20,000, of which up to 10,000 were from Moscow. In 1632, the total number of archers was 33,775 people, and by the beginning of the 1680s it had increased to 55 thousand. At the same time, the ranks of the Streltsy were replenished, first of all, due to the addition of Moscow Streltsy, of which in 1678 there were 26 regiments with a total number of 22,504 people. In addition to the Moscow ones, there were 48 Streltsy infantry regiments in the Russian state.

Recruitment into the Streltsy army was traditionally made from “walking” people: “not taxed, and not arable, and not serfs,” “young and playful and ready to shoot with self-propelled guns.”

Over time, the grown-up sons and other relatives of instrument people became a regular source of replenishment of the Streltsy army. Gradually, service in the archers turned into a hereditary obligation, which could be given up and transferred to someone close to you. “And they are in the Streltsy forever,” wrote Kotoshikhin, “and for them children and grandchildren and nephews, Streltsy children, are forever.” Soon after the establishment of 6 Moscow Streltsy orders, the “device” of Streltsy was carried out in other cities. As P.P. Epifanov suggested, in this case, “old people who were ‘capable’ of shooting guns and squeakers” were transferred to permanent service.” Already in November 1555, during the Russian-Swedish war of 1554-1557. In the campaign to Vyborg, not only the consolidated order of the Moscow Streltsy T. Teterin, but also the Streltsy detachments from “Whites, from Opochek, from Luk from Velikikh, from Pupovich, from Sebezh, from Zavolochye, from Toropets, from Velizh” were supposed to take part. By order of the Moscow authorities, all of them should be given “half a piece of money per person, for<…>German services." Upon entering the service, the archers, like other “instrumental” people, represented guarantors, who, in the presence of rumors, assured the authorities that each soldier had properly performed his duties. In science, there are two polar points of view on the organization of a guarantee. I. D. Belyaev believed that newly recruited servicemen were accepted into the service on the mutual responsibility of all Slobozhans. Objecting to him, I. N. Miklashevsky argued that when recruiting new archers, the guarantee of 6-7 old archers was sufficient, since only certain individuals could be associated with the interests of the service. Surviving manual records suggest the existence of both forms. There are well-known cases when mutual responsibility was in effect during the formation of new garrisons. In 1593, in the Siberian city of Taborakh, the ten rifleman T. Evstikheev pledged to the centurion K. Shakurov “between themselves against each other, in faithful service in the new city of Taborakh.” In the 17th century in such cases, the Streltsy-Svedets were divided into two halves, after which each vouched for the other half. This was the situation in 1650 during the formation of the Streltsy garrison in the newly built city of Tsarev-Alekseev. The archers transferred from Yelets and Lebedyan were assigned to one half, and from Oskol, Mikhailov, Liven, Chern and Rostov to the other. At the same time, in other cities the government allowed the “cleaning up” of archers with the guarantee of old-time soldiers. “Handwritten notes” were required when enlisting in the Streltsy service of the authorities Solovetsky Monastery. In this case, a necessary condition was the guarantee of the entire Streltsy hundred maintained by the monastery.

To control the Streletsky army, the Streletsky Izba was formed in the mid-1550s, later renamed the Streletsky Prikaz. The funds and food necessary to support the Streltsy came to the Streletsky Prikaz from various departments, which controlled the tax-paying population of the cities and the black-growing peasantry. These categories of residents of the Moscow state bore the brunt of government duties, including the obligation to pay a special tax - “food money”, as well as the collection of “streltsy bread”. In 1679, for the majority of urban residents and black peasants of the northern and northeastern counties, the previous taxes were replaced by a single tax - “streltsy money”.

In the last decades of the 17th century, Moscow archers became active participants in the political processes taking place in the state and country, and more than once opposed the actions of the government with arms in hand (uprising of 1682, riot of 1698). This, ultimately, determined the decision of Peter I to liquidate the Streltsy army. The government of Peter I began reforming armed forces Russia. Eight Moscow Streltsy regiments were redeployed from the capital garrison, for “eternal life,” to the Ukrainian (border) cities of Belgorod, Sevsk, Kyiv and others. The king decided to disband the Streltsy army as a type of weapon. But after the defeat of the Russian army near Narva (1700), the disbandment of the streltsy regiments was suspended, and the most combat-ready streltsy regiments participated in Northern War And Prut campaign(1711) Russian Armies. When the garrison troops were created, the city riflemen and Cossacks were abolished. The process of eliminating the type of weapon was completed in the 1720s, although as a service (“service people of the old services”) city archers and Cossacks survived in a number of Russian cities almost until the end of the 18th century.

Armament

The Streltsy army was armed with squeaks, reeds, half pikes, bladed weapons - sabers and swords, which were worn on a belt belt. To shoot from a squeak, the archers used the necessary equipment: a sling (“berendeyka”) with pencil cases with gunpowder charges attached to it, a bag for bullets, a bag for the wick, a horn with gunpowder for rubbing gunpowder onto the charging rack of the squeak. By the end of the 1670s, as additional weapons and long peaks were sometimes used to form obstacles (“slingshots”). Hand grenades were also used: for example, in the inventory of the Streletsky Order of 1678, 267 smart hand grenade cores weighing one, two and three hryvnias each, seven smart grenade cores, 92 skinny cores weighing five hryvnias each are mentioned.

In addition to weapons, the archers received lead and gunpowder from the treasury (in war time 1-2 pounds per person). Before setting out on a campaign or a service “parcel,” the archers and city Cossacks were given the required amount of gunpowder and lead. The voivode orders contained a strict requirement to issue ammunition “to the heads and to the centurions, and to the atamans,” designed to ensure that the archers and Cossacks “did not lose potions and lead,” and upon their return “there will be no shooting,” the voivodes must there was gunpowder and lead “from the archers and the Cossacks into the sovereign’s treasury.”

In the second half of the 17th century, standard bearers and vulture musicians were armed only with sabers. Pentecostals and centurions were armed only with sabers and protazans. Senior commanders (heads, half-heads and centurions) were given canes in addition to sabers.

With rare exceptions, ordinary riflemen did not use protective equipment. An exception is the mention by F. Tiepolo, who visited Moscow in 1560, about the limited use of helmets by Russian infantry. Information has been preserved about the review on the Maiden Field in 1664, when in the Streltsy regiment of A. S. Matveev, two bannermen were in cuirasses and one was in armor. In some of the drawings of the “Book in Persons about the Election of Mikhail Fedorovich to the Tsar” of 1676, the archers are depicted in helmets similar to cassettes, but they are not mentioned in the documents. Such helmets, in the form of a helmet with a brim, were convenient for infantry - they did not interfere with shooting and, at the same time, provided sufficient protection.

TO XVII century refers to the first legislative definition of the weapons of archers. On December 14, 1659, changes in weapons were made in units operating on the territory of Ukraine. In the dragoon and soldier regiments, berdysh were introduced, and in the archers, pikes. The royal decree read: “... in the Saldatsk and Dragoon regiments, in all the regiments of the soldiers and dragoons and in the Streltsy Prikaz, the Streltsy ordered to make a short pike, with a kopeck at both ends, instead of berdysh, and long pikes in the Saldatsk regiments and in the Streltsy Prikaz, to be made according to consideration; and he ordered the rest of the soldiers and the archers to have swords. And he ordered berdyshes to be made in regiments of dragoons and soldiers instead of swords in every regiment of 300 people, and the rest should continue to have swords. And in the Streltsy orders, inflict berdysh on 200 people, and the rest will remain in swords as before.”

The archers were armed with smooth-bore matchlocks, and later - flint arquebuses. Interestingly, in 1638, the Vyazma riflemen were issued matchlock muskets, to which they stated that “They don’t know how to shoot from such muskets with zhagras, and they never had such muskets with zhagras before, but they still had old squeaks with locks”. At the same time, matchlock weapons persisted and were probably dominant until the 1670s. Firearms were both domestically produced and imported. Screw-type arquebuses, the own production of which began to mid-17th century century, at first they began to supply Streltsy heads and half-heads, and from the 1670s - also ordinary Streltsy. In particular, in 1671, 24 were issued to the rifle regiment of Ivan Polteev; in 1675, the archers going to Astrakhan received 489 rifles. In 1702, rifles accounted for 7% of the Tyumen archers.

By the end of the 17th century, some city archers of small towns far from the borders acquired purely police functions, and therefore only a few of them remained armed with arquebuses, and the rest with reeds. In addition, weapons such as spears, slingshots, bows and crossbows are mentioned in the arsenal of city archers.

Form

The Streltsy regiments had a uniform and obligatory dress uniform (“colored dress”) for all, consisting of an outer caftan, a hat with a fur band, pants and boots, the color of which (except for the pants) was regulated according to belonging to a particular regiment.

One can note the common features in the weapons and clothing of all archers:

all archers wore gloves with brown leather cuffs;
during a campaign, the muzzle of a squeak or musket was covered with a short leather case;
the berdysh was worn behind the back over either shoulder;
over the waist belt to which the saber was attached was worn sash;
there were no buttonholes on the traveling caftan;
The external distinction of the senior officers (“initial people”) was the image of a crown sewn with pearls on the cap and a staff (cane), as well as the ermine lining of the upper caftan and the edge of the cap (indicating a high-born princely origin).

The dress uniform was worn only on special days - during the main church holidays and during special events.

To perform everyday duties and during military campaigns, a “portable dress” was used, which had the same cut as the dress uniform, but made of cheaper cloth in gray, black or brown.

The distribution of government-issued cloth to Moscow archers for sewing everyday caftans was carried out annually, while to city archers once every 3-4 years. Expensive colored cloth, intended for sewing dress uniforms, was issued irregularly, only on special occasions (in honor of victories, in connection with the birth of royal heirs, etc.) and was additional form rewards for service. The colors of the regiments stationed in Moscow are known for certain only in the second half of the 17th century.

Dress uniform colors by regiment in 1674 (according to Palmquist):

Banners and uniforms of Streltsy regiments. "Notes on Russia made by Eric Palmquist in 1674"

Regiment	Kaftan	Lining	Buttonholes	A cap	Boots
Regiment of Yuri Lutokhin	Red	Red	Raspberry	Dark gray	Yellow
Regiment of Ivan Poltev	Light gray	Crimson	Raspberry	Raspberry	Yellow
Regiment of Vasily Bukhvostov	Light green	Crimson	Raspberry	Raspberry	Yellow
Regiment of Fyodor Golovlenkov	Cranberry	Yellow	Black	Dark gray	Yellow
Regiment of Fyodor Alexandrov	Scarlet	Light blue	Dark red	Dark gray	Yellow
Regiment of Nikifor Kolobov	Yellow	Light green	Dark crimson	Dark gray	Reds
Stepan Yanov's Regiment	Light blue	Brown	Black	Raspberry	Yellow
Regiment of Timofey Poltev	Orange	Green	Black	Cherry	Greens
Regiment of Pyotr Lopukhin	Cherry	Orange	Black	Cherry	Yellow
Regiment of Fyodor Lopukhin	Yellow-orange	Crimson	Raspberry	Raspberry	Greens
Regiment of Davyd Barancheev	Crimson	Brown	Black	Brown	Yellow
Regiment of Ivan Naramatsky	Cherry	Light blue	Black	Raspberry	Yellow
Regiment of Vasily Lagovchin	Lingonberry	Green	Black	Green	Yellow
Regiment of Afanasy Levshin	Light green	Yellow	Black	Raspberry	Yellow
Patriarchal Sagittarius	Cherry	Light green	Silver	Dark red	Yellow

There is also a version (see “Tseykhgauz” No. 1) that the crimson buttonholes mentioned in this list (compiled on the basis of a contemporary’s drawing) were in fact gold, and the black ones were silver.

Streltsy of the Moscow Strelets regiments Lutokhin and Ivan Poltev

Streltsy of the Moscow Strelets regiments: Kolobov, Alexandrov, Golovlinsky and Bukhvostov

Streltsy of the Moscow Strelets regiments: Timofey Poltev, Pyotr Lopukhin, Yakov and Fedor Lopukhin

Streltsy of the Moscow Strelets regiments: Lagovskina, Vorontsov and Naramansky

Standard bearer and archer of the Moscow Streletsky Levshin Regiment

Initial people or officers of the Moscow Streletsky regiments

Streltsy banners

Banners of the Moscow Strelets regiments, 1674

Ensigns

At the end of the 17th century, ensigns of the Streltsy chiefs appeared.

The Streletsky ensigns were built on the model of the boyars, in the center they depicted the Savior and the Mother of God, the faces of the Holy Saints, Archangels and angels. Ensigns for colonels, half-colonels, majors and quartermasters with two slopes, captain's ensigns - with one slope.

Streltsy regiments

The archer settled in the settlement had to build a house with a vegetable garden and the necessary buildings. To do this, he was given a sum of money for “yard housing”, which in the 16th century was 1 ruble, in the first half of the 17th century - 2 rubles, and from the 1630s - 5 rubles. When transferred to a new duty station, the estate could be sold. After the death of the archer, the estate was retained by his family and was inherited along with the service to one of the relatives.

In the event of a siege, residents of Streltsy settlements located outside the city fortifications were assigned siege yards in a fortress or fort.

In peacetime, the Streltsy also served as police and fire fighters. According to Grigory Kotoshikhin: “And as it happens in Moscow, there is fire time, and they archers are obliged to go to the fire, to take it away, with axes, and with buckets, and with copper water pipes, and with hooks with which they break down huts. And after a fire, they are inspected so that no one takes away anything from the firemen’s bellies; and whoever is not announced at the review will receive severe punishment from batoghi.” They guarded the fortress and fort (they stood guard on the walls, towers, at city and prison gates), government institutions (moving hut, customs, "outfit", "green" (powder) treasury, etc.). In the defense of cities they were assigned the main role. It is no coincidence that in 1617, the new Uglitsky governor P. Dashkov, who discovered in the city entrusted to him, from the instrumental people who had previously been there, 6 gunners, wrote the following characteristic phrase in a report sent to Moscow: “and in all your sovereign cities there are no archers<…>the siege is not strong."

Streltsy were sent as guards to the districts for netchiks, to the saltpeter trades; to accompany ambassadors, various supplies, cash treasuries, criminals; they were involved in the execution of court sentences. During the war, city riflemen were assigned by whole orders or hundreds to different regiments of the army.

Streltsy troops were quite mobile, so they were often transferred to strengthen one or another section of the border. So, in the 17th century. in the summer, it was transferred to the southern “Ukraine” big number archers from Moscow and the border northwestern Russian cities: Veliky Novgorod, Pskov, Vyazma, Toropets, Ostrov, Gdov, Ladoga, Izborsk, Opochka, Staraya Russa, Zavolochya. These units were called upon to strengthen the defense of the lines that were subject to Tatar and Nogai attacks. In 1630, archers and Cossacks from the garrisons of southern Russian fortresses were sent on a campaign to the Don. Total 1960 people. More than half of the instrument people available there were taken from some cities. Thus, Voronezh, where there were 182 archers and 310 Cossacks, sent 100 archers and 180 Cossacks to the army. In the same year, 30 Tula and Mikhailovsky archers and Cossacks were sent to Meshchovsk, 50 Dedilovsky and Lebedyansky - to Masalsk. Sometimes archers from border cities, the most experienced in military affairs, were sent for “yearly” service to another, less protected border fortress. In this case, they tried to replace them in their city with servicemen transferred from more militarily calm districts. So, both 1629 and 1638. In Terki, 500 Astrakhan foot archers performed annual service, and in Astrakhan they served: in 1629 - 500 year-old archers from Kazan, and in 1638 - 1325 "Kazan and suburban, and Nizhny Novgorod archers." in 1638, 300 Vyazemsk archers (out of 500 numbered in this city), 200 archers from Opochka (out of 300) were transferred to Odoev; in Krapivna there were 500 Pskov archers (out of 1300), etc. At the same time, 500 Novgorod archers (50%) were transferred south to Venev total number). In the Ponizov cities, sending archers to border fortresses became commonplace.

Tactics

At first, during campaigns and battles, the archers were distributed among the regiments of the local army. In the middle of the 17th century they gained independence. During battles, their tasks included shooting at the enemy, as a rule, from behind field fortifications - walk-towns and other barriers, “in the ditch”, “in the dugout”; or under the cover of local cavalry. The presence of barriers protected against enemy cavalry and gave an advantage in defense against enemy infantry.

At that time, the rifle units were not yet able to maneuver on the battlefield. The main striking force remained the noble cavalry, whose actions were covered by the archers, who did not change their position, the flanks or rear of which, as a rule, relied on convoys or forts, the structure of which was learned by Russian soldiers from the experience of Dutch and Swedish military engineers. The absence of such cover explains the defeat of F.I. Sheremetev’s army near Suzdal in the fall of 1609. Unfortunate location of infantry units near the village. Klushino predetermined the death of D.I. Shuisky’s army in the battle of June 24, 1610. However, as the outcome of the Battle of Bronnitsy in the summer of 1614 shows, in clashes with well-trained foreign mercenaries, forts did not always help Russian soldiers out.

Mounted archers

Among the elite Moscow “stirrup” and provincial “city” archers, mounted units were often found, but it is difficult to call them cavalry - they were only infantry mounted on horses (dragoons). In addition to guns, horse archers, even in the middle of the 17th century, were armed with bows and arrows. However, in some southern cities, as the surviving “paintings” and “estimates” of the Russian army of the second third of the 17th century show, along with the foot soldiers there were also mounted archers.

Mounted service was carried out by Moscow “stirrup” archers, archers in Oskol (in 1638, in addition to 70 foot archers, there were 100 mounted archers), Epifani (in 1637, there were 37 mounted and 70 foot archers in the city) and the so-called “Ponizovy cities” - Astrakhan (in 1635 there were 573 mounted archers; in 1638 “on salary” - 1000, available - 772 people), Terkakh (according to the list - 500 mounted archers, available - 347), Kazan, Cherny Yar , Tsaritsyn, Samara, Ufa (100 mounted archers each), Saratov (150 mounted archers). The archers performing equestrian service received government horses or money to buy them.

Patriarchal Sagittarius

Standing apart were the “patriarchal” archers, who in the 17th century, together with the “firemen”, the patriarchal “children of the boyars” and the patriarchal

There are different opinions about the time of the appearance of the Streltsy army in historical literature. This is explained by the fact that documentary sources testifying to the establishment of the Streltsy army have not been preserved, and perhaps they never existed. Therefore, some researchers limit themselves to only mentioning the middle of the 16th century. or the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Most pre-revolutionary historians claimed that the Streltsy appeared in 1550; some historians attributed the time of their appearance to the 15th - early 16th centuries, considering the squeakers as Streltsy. By identifying the Streltsy with the Pishchalniki, they thus removed the question of establishing a Streltsy army.

Soviet historians joined the opinion of the majority of pre-revolutionary authors who believed that the Streltsy appeared in Rus' in 1550.

A careful study of the sources makes it possible to clarify this issue.

On January 16, 1547, Ivan the Terrible was crowned king. Noting in this regard the position of the military men under the new king, the chronicler points out: “... and again, add to them many fiery archers, much more studied in military affairs and not sparing their heads, but in right time fathers and mothers, and wives, and children, forgetting their own, and not being afraid of death...”

The chronicler's message gives the right to assert that the Streltsy army was established under Ivan the Terrible. Noting the appearance of the Streltsy in connection with the accession of Ivan the Terrible, the chronicler apparently recorded a fact that took place even before Ivan the Terrible’s accession to the throne, that is, before 1547. Other sources confirm this assumption.

K. Marx points out in his “Chronological Extracts” on the history of Russia that in 1545 Ivan IV established a permanent personal guard (Leibwache), which he called archers, since it was armed with arquebuses, that is, firearms instead of bows and quivers. He sent part of this guard as the main core to the troops.

K. Marx's instruction is confirmed by some Russian sources.

In June 1546, a supporter of the Moscow government, Kasimov's Tsar Shah-Ali, sent from Moscow on April 7 of the same year, was imprisoned in the Kazan Khanate. “The Legend of the Conception of the Kazan Kingdom” reports on this occasion that Shah-Ali went to Kazan, accompanied by

The three-thousand-strong detachment of Tatars did not take with them “neither fiery archers” nor “attack” (artillery).

Shah-Ali stayed in Kazan for about a month and was expelled by the former ruler of the Kazan Khanate - Khan Safa-I Prey. Sources indicate that the next year after the expulsion of Shah Ali, Ivan the Terrible sent his governors Semyon Mikulinsky and Vasily Obolensky Serebryany to Kazan with a large army, which included the “fiery archers” . Thus, the archers took part in the hostilities of the Russian army in 1546-1547. and, therefore, appeared earlier than this time.

In 1550, “elected” rifle detachments were formed. “Russian Chronograph” talks in some detail about the appearance of these archers. Under 7058 we read: “... the tsar made ... elected archers and 3000 people from the arquebuses, and ordered them to live in Vorobyovskaya Sloboda, and killed the children of the boyars...” In total, six “articles” were created "(detachments) of elected archers, 500 people each. The “Articles” were divided into hundreds, headed by centurions from the boyars’ children, and probably into dozens. Sagittarius received a salary of 4 rubles per year.

The creation of elected archers was part of a large military reform Ivan the Terrible and was closely connected with the establishment of the “chosen thousand” in the same 1550 (see below). The “thousand” was a detachment of elected cavalry; elected archers made up a three-thousand-strong detachment of selected infantry. Both of them were the personal armed guard of the king. The elected cavalry and foot units created by Ivan the Terrible were the predecessors of the Russian Guard.

Elected archers differed from the local militia primarily in that they lived in a special settlement and were provided with a constant cash salary. The Streltsy army in its structure approached the regular army.

The social status of the archers was different from that of the local cavalry from the nobles and children of the boyars; The archers were recruited from the people, mainly from the tax-paying townspeople.

The structure of the Streltsy army was reminiscent of the existing organization of the Russian army (hundred division), but this army also had its own characteristics (reducing hundreds into five hundred detachments - articles). Streletsky “articles”, later orders (devices), existed until the second half of the 17th century. In the second half of the 17th century. they began to gradually be replaced by combined arms regiments, and hundreds by companies, and soon lost their originality.

The Streltsy received their first major baptism of fire during the siege and capture of Kazan in 1552. Chronicle sources tell in some detail about the actions of the Streltsy army in this campaign.

The Hertaul, advanced and large regiments were sent to storm Kazan. Ahead of the regiments, foot archers and Cossacks with their heads, atamans and centurions went on the offensive.

A shootout ensued, in which the archers also took part. When the mounted Tatars made a sortie against the foot archers, the tsar ordered the commanders of the Ertaul regiment to “help” the archers. By order of the governor, the archers “buried themselves in ditches” on the bank of Bulak and did not allow the Tatars to make forays out of the city.

The second governor of the large regiment, M.I. Vorotynsky, was ordered by the entire regiment to dismount from their horses and ride on foot to Kazan.

Vorotynsky “first ordered the archers led by their heads to go to the city,” then the Cossacks with their atamans, the boyar people with their heads and the tours to roll to the indicated place, “and you yourself go with the boyar children after them.” While the tours were being installed (“50 fathoms from the city”), archers, Cossacks and boyars fired at the city with arquebuses and bows. When the tours were installed, all the people were taken to them. “And before the tours, the archer and the Cossack are ordered to dig into ditches against the city.” The battle continued all night.

On Saturday, August 27, Voivode M. Ya. Morozov was ordered to roll out a “large outfit” to the tours. Artillery shelling of the city began. The archers, who were in the trenches before the tours, actively helped the artillery, “not allowing people to be on the walls and climb out of the gates.”

On Monday it was decided to stage tours along the river bank. Kazankas. The governors sent forward the archers under the command of Ivan Ershov and the atamans with the Cossacks, who dug into the ditches. The archers responded to shelling from the city with arquebuses, and the Cossacks with bows. Meanwhile, the governors placed the tours in the designated place. The same thing happened when installing the tour from the Arskoe field; the Kazan forays were repelled by archers, boyar people and Mordovians.

To intensify the shelling of the city, a 12-meter tower was built near the tour, on which guns were raised. Active assistance to the artillery was provided by the archers, who fired at the city walls and streets with hand-held arquebuses day and night.

According to the royal decree, the first to attack the city were the archers, Cossacks and boyars. They had to withstand the main attack of the besieged and capture the city walls. The attackers were helped by the governors with the boyar children from the regiments. The archers and other foot soldiers filled the ditch with brushwood and earth and moved towards the city walls. “And so,” adds the chronicler, “soon climbing the wall with great power, and put up those shields and hung on the wall day and night until the city was taken.”

Sources show that the decisive force in the capture of Kazan were archers, Cossacks and boyar people (slaves), i.e. foot soldiers. The Sagittarius also took an active part in the Livonian War. The siege and capture of all Livonian cities and castles took place with the participation of archers. The siege of Polotsk showed quite well the role and importance of the Streltsy army in the armed forces of the Russian state in the 16th century.

January 31, 1563 Russian army approached Polotsk. On the same day, Ivan the Terrible ordered his regiment to set up a convoy (“kosh”) and placed archers in front of the regiment, near the city, who guarded the royal regiment all day. Polotsk residents opened gunfire on the Russian regiments. Situated on the banks of the river. Dvina and on the island the gunners and archers knocked down the enemy gunners from the island and killed many people in the prison. The next day, the king sent two more devices (detachments) of archers with heads to the island; The archers were ordered to dig in and begin shelling the settlement.
On February 4 and 5, the deployment of tours and detachments began, the protection of which from possible attacks by the enemy was carried out by archers, Cossacks and boyar people. At the same time, the archers of the device of the head of Ivan Golokhvastov set fire to the tower of the prison from the Dvina side and entered the prison through the tower. However, the tsar ordered the archers to be taken back, “without intent” they went to the fort, since the siege tours had not yet been set up everywhere. In a bold foray, the archers lost 15 people killed.

The enemy tried to stop the siege through negotiations, but the siege continued. The tours were deployed, and the arriving battering squad joined the shelling of light and medium cannons; The archers settled under the tours. On February 9, the Polotsk governor ordered the fort to be set on fire in several places, and the townspeople from the fort to be driven into the city. Streltsy, Cossacks and boyars burst into the fort, and hand-to-hand combat ensued. Reinforcements from the royal regiment were sent to help the archers. After the capture of the fort, tours were placed around the city, followed by large and mounted guns, and they began round-the-clock shelling of the city. The arrangement of the tours and their protection were carried out by archers and boyar people. On the night of February 15, the archers set fire to the city wall. The regiments were ordered to prepare for the assault, but at dawn on February 15, Polotsk surrendered.

The success of the siege of the city was the result of the active actions of artillery and archers, who numbered up to 12 thousand near Polotsk. Here, as well as near Kazan, the burden of the siege of the fortress fell on foot soldiers, the central place among whom was occupied by “fiery” archers.

Having briefly traced the participation of the archers in the siege and capture of Kazan and Polotsk, we will draw some general conclusions.

The absence of permanent infantry in the Russian army has been felt for a long time. A long and unsuccessful struggle with Kazan throughout the first half of the 16th century. was partly a consequence of the fact that the Russian army did not have permanent detachments of foot soldiers.

The government sent dismounted cavalry to Kazan, but it could not replace standing infantry, especially since the noble cavalry considered it beneath its dignity to carry out military service on foot. Neither the pishchalniks, temporarily convened for military service, nor the Cossacks, armed primarily with bows, could replace the permanent infantry.

The Sagittarius were the embryo of that permanent army, which was given great importance F. Engels.

Engels wrote that to strengthen and strengthen the centralized royal power in the West (and therefore the tsarist power in Russia), a standing army was needed.

It is important to note the fact that the archers were armed with arquebuses. For the Russian army, whose noble cavalry was armed with bows and edged weapons, the appearance of detachments with firearms was of great importance. The universal arming of the archers with firearms placed them above the infantry of Western states, where some of the infantrymen (pikemen) had only edged weapons.

Sagittarius were good at using firearms. Already near Kazan, according to the chroniclers, “the archers danced byahu skillfully and taught military skills and arquebus shooting, like small birds in flight, killing with hand arquebuses and bows.”

Finally, repeated indications in the chronicles indicate that the archers knew how to adapt to the terrain and use artificial shelters, and this was possible only as a result of the archers being trained in military affairs.

Thus, it is impossible to identify archers with squeakers. The Pishchalyshkov can be called the predecessors of the Streltsy, but only in relation to the nature of the service (branch of the army) and weapons. Both of them (the squeakers predominantly) were foot soldiers, and both of them had firearms. This is where the continuity ends. The Streltsy army, which was permanent, in its organization and combat capability stood incomparably higher than the detachments of temporarily convened pishchalniks - militias. Therefore, even after the formation of the Streltsy army, the pishchalniks could not have disappeared, but remained part of the march army, although sources, mostly foreign, sometimes call Streltsy by this name.

The legendary Moscow archers from the time of Ivan the Terrible entered the mass consciousness in a completely different form from the form in which they actually existed. An image created more than 100 years after their appearance was firmly attached to them. What years can be considered the official date of the birth of the Moscow Streltsy and what was this army like?

The beginning of a legend

... And again, add to them a lot of fiery archers, who are much studied in military affairs and do not spare their heads, and at the right time, fathers and mothers, and wives, and children forget theirs, and are not afraid of death, for every battle, like to the great who are self-interested or towards the honey and more often than not the princess, they strongly beat each other in advance, and the attitude of their heads is unflattering for the Christian faith and for the royal love for them...

Kazan history // PSRL. T.XIX. M., 2000.

Stb. 44–45.

Moscow archers... When you hear these words, the image of a stern, bearded man in a long red caftan, boots with curved toes and a fur-trimmed cloth cap involuntarily appears before your eyes. In one hand he holds a heavy arquebus, and in the other a reed, on his side is a saber, and over his shoulder is a berendeika. This classic, textbook image of the Moscow archer has been replicated by artists (Ivanov, Ryabinin, Lissner, Surikov), film directors (just remember the “streltsy” from Gaidai’s famous comedy “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession”), writers (one A. Tolstoy and his “Peter the First” "What is it worth!) and firmly entered into everyday consciousness.

But few people know that this familiar and recognizable Sagittarius is a product of the second half of the 17th century, the times of Alexei Mikhailovich the Quiet and his son Fyodor Alekseevich, the wars for Ukraine with the Poles and Turks. It was foreign diplomats who saw him, leaving more or less detailed descriptions and drawings, from which we know what the Moscow archers looked like at that time. But by that time, the history of the Streltsy army was already more, much more than a hundred years old, and during this time this army had changed a lot, both externally and internally.

What were the Streltsy like at the “beginning of glorious deeds”, in the first decades of their history, under the “father” of the Streltsy army, Ivan the Terrible? Unfortunately, much less is known about this. Unfortunately, not a single drawing has survived that would describe the appearance of the Moscow archer from the mid-16th century - their earliest images date back, at best, to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. But, fortunately, there are descriptions given by foreigners who saw them at that time. Miraculously preserved, albeit in large quantities, documents that tell us what these warriors were like. Finally, you can learn about the history of the Streltsy army from Russian chronicles and brief entries in discharge books. In a word, having rummaged through ancient manuscripts and documents, you can still find the necessary minimum information in order to try to reconstruct the appearance of the Moscow archer from the time of Ivan the Terrible.

Russian pischalniki during the siege of Smolensk in 1513–1514. Miniature from the 18th volume of the Facial Vault

Http://www.runivers.ru/

So, where, when, under what circumstances did the legendary archers appear? Alas, the archives of the Streletsky Prikaz did not survive the Troubles and the “rebellious” 17th century - only pitiful scraps remained of them. If it were not for the fragment of the tsar’s decree on the creation of the Streltsy army, retold by an unknown Russian scribe, then historians to this day would be looking for an answer to this question. Here is the excerpt:

“That same summer the king made a Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia elected archers and squeakers of 3000 people, and ordered them to live in Vorobyovoy Sloboda, and killed their heads with the boyars’ children: in the first article, Grisha Zhelobov’s son Pusheshnikov, and he has 500 squeakers and with them the heads of a hundred people, the son of a boyar , and in another article the clerk of Rzhevskaya, and he has 500 pishalniks, and every hundred people have a boyar’s son; in the third article, Ivan Semenov is the son of the Cheremisinov, and he has 500 people, and a hundred people have the son of a boyar in the centurion; in the fourth article, Vaska Funikov is the son of Pronchishchev, and with him 500 people, and a hundred people have the son of a boyar; in the fifth article, Fyodor Ivanov is the son of the Durasov, and with him 500 people, and a hundred people have the son of a boyar; in the sixth article, Yakov Stepanov is the son of the Bunds, and he has 500 people, and a hundred people have the son of a boyar. And he ordered the archer’s salary to be four rubles per year...”

The passage is short, but very, very informative. First of all, from this extract the structure of each streltsy order is clearly visible, headed by a head of boyar children: 500 streltsy each, divided into hundreds led by centurions from the boyar children. Finally, the retelling also gives us information about the size of the sovereign’s salary, which at first was due to the archers - 4 rubles. in year. Let's face it - not much. In the same year, 1550, prices for a quarter (4 poods, 65 and a half kg) of rye in the nearby Moscow district were 48 “Moskovka”, i.e. for 4 rubles (200 Moscow coins in a ruble) one could buy 66-odd pounds of rye (more than a ton in terms of the metric system of weights and measures). And this despite the fact that annual rate grain consumption in those days was approximately 24 quarters. Obviously, our scribe was not too interested in the problems of logistics, omitting the unnecessary, in his opinion, but interesting for us, details of the Streltsy salary (not only money, but grain, salt and others. However, this will be discussed in more detail below).

Forerunners of the Streltsy

However, something else is even more curious in the above passage. Noteworthy is the epithet “elective” applied to the archers. V.I. Dal, revealing the content of this word, wrote in his “ Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language": " Elective, selected, best, chosen; chosen..." It turns out that, firstly, the Streltsy infantry corps was initially created as an elite (a kind of guard) corps, and if we take into account the location of the Streltsy settlement, then, perhaps, as the tsar’s life guard, selected bodyguards. Then, since it is an “elected” corps, it means there was someone to choose from. So who were the first archers chosen from?

To answer this question, you need to rewind the time tape several decades ago, to the time of grandfather Ivan IV, also Ivan Vasilyevich and also the Terrible. When exactly handguns appeared in Muscovite arsenal is not known exactly. However, if you believe the ambassador of Ivan III George Percamote at the court of the Duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Sforza, in the early 80s. XV century some Germans brought the first “firearms” to Muscovy, and the Russians quickly got used to them. True, at first, arrows from hand-held squeakers (squeakers) did not become widespread.

Heavy tacks from the end of the 15th century. Engraving from Zeugbuch Kaiser Maximilians I

http://jaanmarss.planet.ee/

It is unlikely that the first handgun shooters received baptism of fire during the famous stand on the Ugra - handguns were very primitive at that time, and the campaign of 1480 itself was not conducive to its mass use. Only since the time of Vasily III did they appear in the state service and on the battlefields in “commercial quantities”. The first mention of them dates back to 1508, when during the next Russian-Lithuanian war, pischalniks and pososhny people recruited from the cities were sent to Dorogobuzh, closer to the “front line”. By this time, the Russians had already encountered handguns - during the Russian-Livonian War of 1501–1503. it was used against the Russian cavalry by German landsknechts hired by the Livonian Confederation and captured during the Russian-Lithuanian war of 1500–1503. in 1505, hired Lithuanian “zholners”, hand-gunners, helped governor I.V. Khabar defend Nizhny Novgorod from the Kazan people and the Nogai Tatars who came to their aid.

In 1510, for the first time it was said about “state-issued squeakers” (i.e., we must understand, we are talking about those who were “tidyed up” for permanent sovereign service. Imperial Ambassador S. Herberstein, who left interesting notes about his repeated stay in Russia from the time of Vasily III, reported that when he was in Moscow, Vasily III had “almost one and a half thousand infantrymen from Lithuanians and all sorts of rabble”). Two years later, in 1512, the Pskov pishchalniki stormed Smolensk, and in 1518 the Pskov and Novgorod pishchalniki besieged Polotsk. Pishchalniks actively participated in the Russian-Lithuanian Starodub War of 1534–1537 and in the Kazan campaigns of Vasily III.

Handle handles from the late 15th century. and landsknechts. Engraving from Zeugbuch Kaiser Maximilians I

http://jaanmarss.planet.ee/

Another interesting fact from that time - in 1525, from the words of the Moscow ambassador to the court of Pope Dmitry Gerasimov, Bishop Pavel Joviy of Nochersk wrote down that the Moscow Grand Duke started a “scloppettariorum equitum”. By them, obviously, we must understand the squeakers mounted on horses for greater mobility (otherwise Herberstein wrote that “in battles they [the Muscovites] never used infantry or cannons, for all they do is attack the enemy, whether they are pursuing him or running away from him, they do it suddenly and quickly, and therefore neither the infantry nor the guns can keep up with them...” Having suffered an offensive defeat near Orsha in 1514, when the Moscow cavalry army was beaten by the Polish-Lithuanian army, which had all three types of troops, Vasily III and his commanders, presumably, drew the right conclusions from this). This interpretation of the text is supported, for example, by the following fact: in September 1545, while preparing for his first campaign against Kazan, Ivan IV sent a letter to Novgorod in which he ordered the Novgorod suburbs, suburbs with suburbs, and rows to be “dressed up.” and from the churchyards 2000 squeakers, a thousand foot soldiers and a thousand horsemen (curiously, the document also contains the norm for ammunition consumption - each squeaker had to have with him 12 pounds of lead and the same amount of “potion” - gunpowder).

From squeakers to archers

In short, by 1550 the history of Russian infantry armed with firearms spanned at least half a century. By that time, a certain amount of both positive and negative experience in the use of arquebuses on the battlefield had been accumulated, and the first tactical techniques had been worked out (judging by the fragmentary evidence of chronicles and discharge books, under Vasily III, arquebuses were preferred to be used mainly during sieges of fortresses, and in the field they fought in positions previously equipped in the fortification plan). And everything would have been fine, but there were few “state-owned” squeakers, and their quality was questionable—a rabble is just that: a rabble. And the squeakers, recruited from suburbs according to orders in case of war (according to the principle “go hunting, feed the dogs”), also did not inspire much confidence. “Dressing up” was often accompanied by abuses, and often all sorts of walking people and Cossacks (the same rabble) went to the pishchalniks, hence the problems with combat effectiveness, discipline and loyalty.

So, in 1530, during the next siege of Kazan, staves and squeakers during strong storm, rain and thunderstorms were “swept away” and fled, and the “outfit” abandoned by them was taken by the Kazan people. In 1546, the Novgorod squeakers, dissatisfied with the disorder and abuses committed during the recruitment mentioned above, started a brawl in the camp near Kolomna, which escalated into a “great battle,” with the sovereign’s nobles. Similar cases were repeated later. In a word, the service of the tweeters needed to be streamlined.

Russian pishchalniki during the siege of Kazan in 1524. Miniature from the 18th volume of the Front Vault

Http://www.runivers.ru/

The last straw that broke the tsar’s patience was the second, and again unsuccessful, campaign against rebellious Kazan in the winter of 1549–1550. Having approached the city on February 12, 1550, Ivan and his commanders, having stood under the walls of Kazan for 11 days, were forced to lift the siege, “At that time, there was a civil disorder, strong winds, great rains, and unmeasurable phlegm,” which is why, according to the chronicler, “it is impossible to shoot from cannons and arquebuses and it is not possible to approach the city for the phlegm.”

Returning to Moscow on March 23, 1550, Ivan and his advisers began serious reforms in the military sphere. In July 1550, “the tsar, the sovereign, with the metropolitan and with all the boyars” were sentenced to be without places on campaigns, at the same time establishing the order of parochial accounts between the regimental governors; in October of the same year, the tsar and the boyars were sentenced to commit violence in the near Moscow district (within a radius of 60– 70 versts from the city) “1000 landowners of the boyar’s best servants” (and again we see that we are talking about “choice”, about a kind of tsar’s life guard, only this time from service people “in the fatherland”). And it seems that the establishment of the corps of “elected” rifle infantry (we began this article with a long chronicle quotation about this event) as connected with these two important events most likely occurred between July and September 1550.

To be continued

Introduction

1. Prerequisites for the formation of the Streletsky army

2. Creation of the Streletsky army

2.1 Participation of the Streletsky army in the siege and capture of Kazan and Polotsk

3. Streltsy army of the 16th - 17th centuries

Conclusion

Introduction

By the end of the 17th century, the total population of Moscow was about 200 thousand people, of which more than 20 thousand served in the Moscow Streltsy regiments. Taking into account their family members, retired archers, archer widows and orphans, this figure can easily be increased by 2-3 times. Thus, the Streltsy population of the capital accounted for at least a quarter of the total number of citizens.

Such a significant representation of archers among the inhabitants of Moscow in the 17th century; their activities related to their military status give them a special place in the history of the Russian state.

When writing this course work Margolin's materials were used. S. L. His article “Armament of the Streltsy Army” published in the “Military Historical Collection of the State Historical Museum” in 1948. Materials were also taken: Nefedov. S.A. “Reforms of Ivan III and Ivan IV. Ottoman influence. Questions of history". 2002; Tyurin A.V. “War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible.”; Chernov. A. In “Armed forces of the Russian state in the XV-XVII centuries.” Electronic resources also provided assistance in writing the coursework: Lobin A.N. “Artillery of the Moscow Streltsy regiments in the 1670-1680s. History of military affairs: research and sources" www.milhist.info.ru .; Perov N. N. “Prototype of the future regular army. Russian history". http://sunapse.ru.

The relevance of this course work lies in the fact that currently the history of the Russian Armed Forces is of interest in society. The range of problems that the Russian government faced then in the military sphere echoes those of today. This is the need for an optimal mobilization system to fight powerful Western neighbors with limited financial and economic capabilities and human resources, and also the 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 issues of regularity or irregularity of troops, but shows its combat effectiveness during military battles.

The chronological framework of this course work is determined by the 16th - 17th centuries.

The object of the work is the Troops of the Moscow State of the 16th - 17th centuries.

The subject of this work is the Streletsky army of the 16th - 17th centuries. The purpose of this work is to study the Streletsky army as one of the types of military formation of the 16th - 17th centuries, and also to establish the significance of its existence for the history of Russia.

To achieve the intended goal, the following tasks should be identified:

Study the prerequisites for the formation of the Streletsky army and the history of the formation of the Streletsky army;

Consider the history of the development of the Streletsky army of the 16th - 17th centuries

To consecrate the most significant events in the history of Russia in which the archers took part.

Chapter I. Prerequisites for the formation of the Streletsky army

Over the course of a hundred years, from the mid-15th century to the mid-16th century, in the northeast of Rus', Moscow completed the process of “gathering” Russian lands under its hand. The Principality of Moscow turned into Russian state, which loudly declared its great-power claims not only to political supremacy in Eastern Europe, but also to the Russian lands, which were under the rule of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was during these years that the idea gradually became stronger among the Moscow ruling and intellectual elite that Moscow should inherit imperial status from the collapsed Horde and the Byzantine Empire, which fell under the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks.

Naturally, all these achievements and plans for the future could not be realized if they were not supported by powerful military force. It is no coincidence that these years saw the rapid evolution of the army of the Moscow Principality. The very emergence of the Streltsy army and, in general, infantry armed with firearms, became possible in connection with the spread of firearms in Rus'. Here it appeared somewhat later than in the West. The first evidence of the use of artillery in European wars dates back to 1326-1331. In Rus', the first mention of the use of artillery dates back to 1382, when the defenders of Moscow fired at the battle formations of the army of Khan Tokhtamysh that besieged the city.1. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. Ed. Milova. L.V.M.: 2007. 297 P.

The transformation of Russia into a “gunpowder empire” and the mastery of firearms were integral and main part of this modernization, and the creation of the Streltsy army is a necessary component of it. True, the process of introducing firearms into the daily practice of medieval Russian armies was somewhat delayed. 2. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. Ed. Milova. L.V.M.: 2007. 297С.

But this is not surprising, given the isolation of Rus' from Europe that existed at that time, its practical isolation from pan-European historical processes and opposition to orthodox Orthodox Church expanding contacts with foreigners. However, as dependence on the Horde weakened, this isolation gradually weakened, and under Ivan III it was largely overcome, since a way out of this situation was in the interests of the growing young Russian state.

The destruction of the barrier that arose between Europe and Russia after the subjugation of most of the Russian principalities by the Horde came from both sides. And Ivan III was interested in developing ties with Europe, and Europe, especially Germany, became interested in Russia. Mutual interest in establishing contacts between the two worlds was due to completely prosaic reasons. The Russians wanted to receive from the Europeans the goods and knowledge they lacked, and the West was interested in the potential opportunity to use the young Russian state in achieving its foreign policy plans.

What was most interesting to the West, especially the German Empire, in Russia? The answer to this question must be sought in the events of the mid-15th century. Having more or less successfully survived the threat of the Tatar invasion in the early 40s. 13th century, Europeans temporarily forgot about the eastern threat, although this threat did not disappear anywhere. Moreover, it gradually acquired even more menacing outlines. The Tatar invasion changed the balance of power in the Middle East and Asia Minor, which the Ottoman Turks took advantage of. A little-known Turkic tribe, by the middle of the 14th century, turned into a very serious adversary. Under the blows of the Ottomans, the territory of the Byzantine Empire, which had fallen into complete decline, was rapidly shrinking; the Turks strengthened their positions in the Balkans, expanding their possessions step by step. By the end of the 14th century, most of the possessions of the Byzantine emperor came under their rule, Serbia and Bulgaria fell. The crusade undertaken by the Europeans in 1396 was a complete failure. In the battle of Nikopol, Sultan Bayazid completely defeated the crusader army. The successful advance of the Ottomans was stopped for a time by Tamerlane, who at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 destroyed Bayazid’s army and took him prisoner.

Europe received a respite for a while, but less than half a century had passed before the situation worsened again. In 1453, the Ottomans took Constantinople, and then subjugated the remnants of the empire. Their armies invade Hungarian territory and threaten their possessions German Empire and Venice, Ottoman pirates roam the Mediterranean Sea. The emperor, the pope, and the Venetian doges are trying to find allies to fight the Ottomans wherever possible - even an embassy is sent to Khan Akhmat with a proposal to act jointly against the Turks.

However, Khan Akhmat quickly fell away as an ally in the campaign against the Turks due to his death. And it was here that the figure of Ivan III, a powerful sovereign, conqueror of Akhmat and successfully fought with Lithuania, appeared on the horizon. Germany, Venice and the Pope could not just pass by such a potential assistant. Europe, too busy with its internal problems, did not have enough strength to successfully confront the Turkish threat. In Rome, which gave the go-ahead for the marriage of Zoe Paleologus with the Muscovite Grand Duke, they hoped that expanding contacts with Europe would allow the Roman Curia not only to attract Muscovites to the long-planned crusade against the Ottomans, but also to draw Orthodox Moscow into the Union of Florence.

But all this, apparently, was not part of Ivan III’s plans. But to use the knowledge and technology of Europeans in their own interests to strengthen military power his power, in order to successfully fight with Lithuania for the southern and western Russian lands - for this, Ivan was ready to maintain the appearance of friendly relations with Germany and Italy.

The widespread introduction of firearms and the modernization of Russian artillery was associated with the activities of Ivan III. According to his instructions, in the late 70s. In the 15th century, a Cannon Hut was built in Moscow, and in 1494 a gunpowder (or, as they said then, “green”) courtyard was built. He, and then his son Vasily, invited foreign military specialists, primarily Italians and Germans, to Russia in large numbers. In addition to inviting foreign craftsmen, purchases of firearms and the necessary components for their production were made abroad, primarily in Germany and Denmark, with which in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Moscow had good relations.

Not a single more or less large campaign could be accomplished without the participation of a “detail,” especially if it was associated with sieges of fortresses. This happened during the campaign against Novgorod in 1478. Firearms were used during the famous stand on the Ugra River in 1480, and during the campaign of the Moscow army against Fellin in 1481. Numerous artillery took part in the campaign of Ivan III to Kazan in 1482, and to Smolensk in 1492. In 1506, during the campaign against Kazan, the “outfit” first appeared in the painting of the regiments of the Russian army, which included both cannons and arquebuses. The capture of Smolensk in 1514 did not take place at all, since the powerful bombardment of the city by Russian artillery forced the Lithuanian garrison to capitulate. But only in the campaign of Ivan III against Novgorod in 1478, in which the Pskov army took part, can we assume the presence of detachments of riflemen armed with handguns. Pskov was located on the Russian border with Lithuania and Livonia, and Pskov residents were well aware of the latest achievements of European military equipment. Active trade contacts between both Pskov and Novgorod with the West suggest that it was here that the first examples of handguns appeared.

It took time for firearms to cease to be a curiosity for them to become an ordinary thing, so that there are enough people who can master it and skillfully apply it in practice. Largely thanks to the foreign military specialists who were recruited into Russian service by Ivan III and his son, this process took little time. Less than ten years have passed since detachments of pishchalniks, predecessors of the famous archers, numbering several hundred people, appear on the pages of Russian chronicles and categories. This number clearly indicates that we are dealing specifically with detachments of riflemen armed with hand-held arquebuses - the Russian version of the Western European arquebus. The reason for this turn in attitude towards firearms, and especially hand weapons, must be sought in the experience of clashes with the Livonians and Lithuanians. As Russia turned its face to the West, military clashes with them became more and more frequent, and more and more often Russian commanders dealt with Livonian and Lithuanian riflemen armed with arquebuses. From the end of the 15th century, enemy military leaders actively involved them not only in the defense and siege of fortresses, but also often deployed them in the field, using arquebusiers against the Russian local cavalry, not without success. The master of the Livonian Order, Walter von Plettenberg, actively and quite successfully used artillery and arquebusiers in battles against the Russians.

“Zhelnyri” armed with arquebuses (as Russian chroniclers called Polish-Lithuanian soldiers - zholners) were used against Russians by Lithuanian military leaders in battles of the early 16th century. Zholners took part in the famous battle on the river. Vedrosha in 1500, and several hundred of them were captured by Russians and later ended up in Nizhny Novgorod prisons. Lithuanian “zhelnyrs” are mentioned under 7100 in the chronicle story about the campaign of the Russian army near Mstislavl and near Smolensk in 7021 and 7022. But if in these cases we were talking about the defense of cities, in which riflemen armed with harquebuses and arquebuses took part , then in the battle of Orsha in the fall of 1514, the Polish-Lithuanian “zhelnyri” proved themselves to be excellent in the field battle. This battle was lost by the Russians largely thanks to the successful actions of the Lithuanian arquebusiers. “Zhelnyri” also distinguished themselves in Russian service. The accurate shooting of captured Lithuanian riflemen released from the Nizhny Novgorod prison in 1505 helped repel a sudden raid by the Kazan and Nogai on the city.

Initially, squeakers were, most likely, master manufacturers of firearms and artillery servants, and the state could go to provide them with certain tax and other benefits. Subsequently, as experience in handling firearms accumulated and the need arose to create detachments of shooters equipped with handguns, the government resorted to the traditional recruitment of such shooters from among the tax-paying townspeople. The reason for this approach is most likely explained by the fact that the first examples of hand-held arquebuses were primitive and riders could not use them successfully. Therefore, the first detachments of riflemen were on foot, and townspeople traditionally served on foot. Only later, by the middle of the 16th century, when it became clear that the teams of squeakers assembled from time to time were insufficiently trained and disciplined, the authorities decided to give them a more permanent status. This is how the archers were born.

Thus, it can be assumed that over more than 70 years of history, the meaning of the term “squeakers” has changed significantly. With some of them given the status of semi-regular military formations, separated from the main mass of military “staff” people, the contingent of riflemen was called streltsy, to distinguish them from the previous irregular squeakers. This assumption is also supported by the fact that, speaking of shooters armed with hand arquebuses, the unknown author of the Kazan Chronicler constantly calls them not arquefolk, but “fiery archers,” and on the pages of this chronicle “fiery archers” appear already in 1547 d. It turns out that for the author of the chronicle the terms “squeakers” and “streltsy” were actually synonymous. It is impossible to suspect him of ignorance of the essence of the issue, since his work was created approximately in the mid-60s. 16th century on a very wide source base, including all the leading Russian chronicles of that time.

It should be emphasized once again that initially, as in the West, the Moscow sovereigns began to recruit detachments of townspeople capable of wielding handguns to serve in their army. This is evidenced by the fact that the first news of large detachments of shooters armed with handguns are associated specifically with cities, and specifically with Novgorod and Pskov. Obviously, this was not accidental. Both of these cities were major centers crafts and trade, which have long been associated with Europe by strong economic ties, and directly bordering the possessions of Sweden, Livonia and Lithuania, where firearms had become widespread by that time. It was through these cities that new European military equipment arrived in Russia, and it was here that it was mastered most quickly. The same cannot be said about cities in other regions of the country.

Thus, in the defense of Nizhny Novgorod from the Tatars mentioned above, a small detail deserves attention. At that time, Nizhny Novgorod was a large trade and craft city with a large townspeople population, which was of great strategic importance. In 1505, the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin already had several dozen, if not hundreds, of arquebuses and arquebuses, but there were practically no people who knew how to wield them, which is why the governor was forced to release captured Lithuanian riflemen from the dungeons and entrust them with the defense of the city from the Tatars.

For the first time, detachments of pishchalniks were mentioned in discharge books in 1508, when, after receiving news of the “arrival of Lithuanian people,” Vasily III ordered to send pishchalniks and pososhnyi to the governor, Prince Semyon Serebryany, in Dorogobuzh. The next mention of pishchalniks dates back to 1510, when, together with Vasily III, 1000 “state pishchalniks” arrived in Pskov, and after the sovereign left the city, 500 Novgorod pishchalniks were left in it. The pishchalniks took part in repelling the raid of the Crimean Tatars in 1512, when Vasily III, having deployed the regiments along the Ugra in advance, ordered “... the pishchalniks and the pososhniks ... to be divided into regiments, as many as it would be convenient to be on the shore...”. 1000 Pskov pischalniks, “cut down” from Pskov “plows”, took part in the winter Smolensk campaign of 1514, and the chronicle mentioned, along with the Pskov pischalniks, detachments of riflemen from other cities.

However, judging by fragmentary evidence from both Russian chronicles and foreign sources, Vasily III did not limit himself to simply recruiting detachments of squeakers from drafts during the campaigns. Under him, the first attempts were made to form more or less permanent detachments of riflemen entirely on state support, both on foot and on horseback. Obviously, when creating them, the Moscow sovereigns could not do without the help of foreign mercenaries. In any case, this is exactly how one can interpret the chronicle’s message about “state-owned” squeakers.

Pishchalniks are mentioned repeatedly in subsequent years. Thus, they formed part of the garrison of the “Ukrainian town of Gomiya” in 1535, and in the Kazan campaign of 1545, the Novgorodians deployed 2000 arquebuses (1,000 foot and horsemen each), dressed in single-row or sermyagi, with their arquebuses, gunpowder, lead and provisions . And subsequently, the Moscow authorities, if necessary, repeatedly resorted to recruiting military men armed with handguns from among urban and rural drafters. Thus, when preparing to go on a campaign against Polotsk in the winter of 1562, Ivan IV ordered his governors and clerks, “... to choose people to mount in the Saadatsekh, who would be good-natured and young and playful, capable of shooting with bows and arquebuses; and they knew how to walk on their mouths, and they all had mouths; and along with them they would have: a saadak or a tul with a bow and arrows, a spear or a sulitsa, and an axe...”3. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. Ed. Milova. L.V.M.: 2007. 297 pp. Almost half a century later, in 1614, Mikhail Fedorovich demanded to gather military men in the Vyatka land. In the “memory” sent to clerk Sergei Moskotintsev on this occasion, it was said: “...And Sergei, having arrived in Vyatka, separate Prince Ivan Nikitich from the boyar and governor from his comrades, clerk Ivan Pozdeev and Fyodor Rezantsov, and tell them to collect on Vyatka there were three hundred military men at once, with fire and with archery, and they had spears from the ensign; But the brothers were young and playful, and they were capable of shooting from arquebuses, but there were no old or undersized people among them...”

However, the level of discipline and combat training of the squeakers, recruited from among the townspeople, was clearly insufficient, and they themselves were too few in number to represent an impressive force. This was prevented, first of all, by their irregular nature. Detachments of riflemen armed with handguns had to acquire a more or less permanent organization and were regularly trained in the use of their weapons. The Pishchalniki needed reorganization in order to successfully resist both the Crimean and Nogai Tatars in Pole, and the Lithuanians, and Kazanians. And in general, the policy of the authorities throughout the 16th century was aimed at clearly distinguishing between military, civil services and taxes, without mixing them whenever possible. The reform of the tweeters was inevitable3.

The necessary prerequisites for this have already been created. It has already been repeatedly noted above that during the first decades of the 16th century, Moscow had already mastered production newest types firearms, the required amount of gunpowder. In the wars and campaigns of the beginning of the century, both the necessary positive and negative experience was gained in the use of firearms, including hand-held ones. The combat effectiveness of Russian soldiers and their military qualities were also high. Foreigners who observed the Russian soldiers of that time unanimously emphasized their unpretentiousness and ability to endure the most severe hardships.

This reform can rightfully be considered one of the most important among the military reforms of Ivan IV. Russia has taken another big step towards becoming a “gunpowder empire.” The poorly trained and organized detachments of squeakers, recruited from time to time, were replaced by a permanent corps of foot riflemen, more or less uniformly armed and trained, supported by the state. It is noteworthy that the archers were fully armed with firearms. Polearm bladed weapons played a secondary role - and this despite the fact that in Europe at that time the ratio of pikemen and arquebusiers was, at best, 1 to 1. Ivan undoubtedly knew that in the West, musketeers and arquebusiers coexisted with pikemen in the mid-16th century , which were still the main striking force of European armies. However, he did not start this highly specialized branch of infantry. The usefulness of pikemen in Russian conditions was more than doubtful, since in the mid-16th century the main enemy of the Russians were the Tatars, and not the European armies. Against the Tatars, deep, slow-moving columns of pikemen were both useless and helpless. They could neither leave nor engage the Tatars in battle, while the Tatars could always literally shoot the pikemen from a distance at which the latter could not cause the slightest harm to the steppe riders. Even against the Polish-Lithuanian cavalry of the 16th century, pikemen were more of a burden than a necessary component field army. Their time in Russia has not yet come4.Chernov A.V. Armed forces of the Russian state in the XV-XVII centuries. M.: “Voenizdat”, 1954. 224 P.

Chapter II. Creation of the Streletsky army

The creation of the Streltsy army dates back to 1550, when, based on the already existing scattered and poorly organized detachments of “official” and “staff” squeakers, 3,000 people were “selected”, combined into 6 “articles” of 500 riflemen each. At the head of the articles were the heads - Grigory Zhelobov Pusheshnikov, clerk Rzhevsky, Ivan Cheremisinov, Vasily Pronchishchev, Fyodor Durasov, Yakov Bundov. Subordinate to them were centurions from the boyars' children, fiftieths and tens (the articles themselves, later renamed orders, were divided accordingly). For settlement of elected archers within Moscow, a special settlement was allocated - Vorobyova. From the very beginning, archers were more or less regularly trained in the art of handling matchlocks.

The creation of elected archers was part of the major military reform of Ivan the Terrible and was closely connected with the establishment of the “chosen thousand” in the same 1550 (see below). The “thousand” was a detachment of elected cavalry; elected archers made up a three-thousand-strong detachment of selected infantry. Both of them were the personal armed guard of the king. Elected cavalry and foot units created by Ivan the Terrible were the predecessors of the Russian Guard

2.1 Participation of the Streletsky troops in the siege and capture of Kazan and Polotsk

Almost immediately after their appearance, the archers received a baptism of fire. Gathering warriors for a campaign against Kazan in 1552, Ivan IV included his newly organized “elected” archers in its composition. During the siege and assault of Kazan, the archers played an important role, largely contributing to the successful completion of the campaign and the conquest of the Kazan Khanate. Elected archers differed from the local militia primarily in that they lived in a special settlement and were provided with a constant cash salary. The Streltsy army in its structure approached the regular army.

The Streltsy received their first major baptism of fire during the siege and capture of Kazan in 1552. Chronicle sources tell in some detail about the actions of the Streltsy army in this campaign.

The Hertaul, advanced and large regiments were sent to storm Kazan. Ahead of the regiments, foot archers and Cossacks with their heads, atamans and centurions went on the offensive.

2.2 The importance of the Streletsky army in military campaigns

After the capture of Kazan, Ivan IV appreciated the merits of the Streltsy, and their number began to grow rapidly. Already in the 60s. there were up to 8 thousand of them, and by the end of the 80s, under the heir of Ivan IV Fyodor Ioannovich - 12 thousand, with 7 thousand permanently living in Moscow, and 5 thousand in the cities, serving in them primarily as garrison troops. and the police service. Of the Moscow archers, 2 thousand were the so-called “stirrupmen,” who were actually dragoons, i.e. mounted infantry. The Streltsy infantry became an important component of the Moscow armies of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Not a single serious campaign or campaign of the Moscow army during the Livonian War or repelling the raids of the Crimean Tatars on Moscow in the 60-70s. could not do without their participation6. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. Ed. Milova. L.V.M.: 2007. 297 P.

But despite the importance of creating a Streltsy army, they should not be overestimated. In no case could the archers significantly displace, let alone replace, the local cavalry, and such a task was not set before them. Despite the fact that the archers were a formidable force, nevertheless, unarmored, armed with too slowly firing matchlocks (at best, the archer could fire one shot per minute), they could not act against the cavalry with a great chance of success. They needed cover, because of which they could hit the enemy, especially the Tatar and Lithuanian riders, without the risk of being knocked over while reloading the arquebuses.

In Europe, pikemen served as such cover for riflemen, but, as noted above, pikemen were useless in the steppe. In the absence of pikemen, the archers could be covered by natural obstacles - folds of terrain, groves and forests, or artificial obstacles - forts, trenches, etc. Having taken cover behind them, the archers could count on successfully repelling all enemy attacks. This was the case, for example, in the battle of July 3-4, 1555 near Sudbischi, where the archers and boyar children, having been defeated by the Krymchaks, took refuge in an oak grove and fired back until the evening, when the khan, fearing the approach of fresh Russian forces, retreated. But the steppe war was too fleeting and unpredictable to be able to count on the Tatars giving Russian commanders time to make mistakes or place their riflemen in natural shelters.

The archers were much more successful during sieges and defenses of fortresses, where they had time to arrange the necessary defensive structures - trenches, tyn, tours. Therefore, we can safely say that when creating the archery corps, Ivan and his advisers quite successfully adapted the European experience of creating infantry to Russian reality. They did not blindly copy European military institutions and create for themselves two rather highly specialized types of infantry, limiting themselves to one, but the most effective in specific Russian conditions. The appearance of the Streltsy army became a kind of response of Russian military thought of the mid-16th century to the growing effectiveness of handguns. The archers were supposed to act only as an addition to the local cavalry, armed mainly with edged and throwing weapons. But they were not yet able to take a dominant place in the Russian army of that time. For this, weapons, tactics, and the enemy had to change. Until this happened, the archers remained, albeit an important and necessary, but a secondary component Russian troops 16th century. This is also what he says specific gravity Streltsy in the Russian army by the end of the 16th century. By this time, by different estimates, the size of the Russian army was from 75 to 110 thousand people. While the Streltsy Infantry Corps numbered, as noted above, only about 12 thousand people, and not all of them could take part in long campaigns and campaigns. Thus, it is impossible to identify archers with squeakers. Pishchalnikov can be called the predecessors of the Streltsy, but only in relation to the nature of the service (branch of the army) and weapons. Both of them (the squeakers predominantly) were foot soldiers, and both of them had firearms. This is where the continuity ends. The Streltsy army, which was permanent, in its organization and combat capability stood incomparably higher than the detachments of temporarily convened pishchalniks - militias. Therefore, even after the formation of the Streltsy army, the pishchalniks could not have disappeared, but remained part of the march army, although sources, mostly foreign, sometimes call Streltsy by this name. Nevertheless, an important step towards creating a new type of army in Russia was taken.

Chapter III. Streltsy army of the 16th - 17th centuries

Streltsy were initially recruited from free people, then this service became lifelong and hereditary. According to the famous researcher Kazimir Valishevsky, archers received from the treasury upon entering the service a ruble for building a house and setting up a household, as well as a ruble salary per year. True, another historian Boris Kraevsky, citing information from Professor Bogoyavlensky, claims that the salary of an ordinary archer was 10 rubles a year, and that of a chief archer was 2007. Nefedov. S. A. Reforms of Ivan III and Ivan IV. Ottoman influence // “Questions of history”. 2002. No. 11. 104 S.. In addition, the treasury armed the archers, provided them with military supplies, and also supplied them with a certain amount of food. Subsequently, in order to save the sovereign's funds, the archers were allowed to engage in trade, crafts, and agriculture, for which they began to be allocated plots. An important circumstance is that the Streltsy were exempt from taxes, while other classes had to pay the “Streltsy” tax.

The armament of the Streltsy army was quite at the level of the era from which we are separated by almost 500 years: hand-held arquebuses, reeds, sabers or swords. Since the arquebus was heavy, when firing, instead of a bipod, a reed was used, which was then used as a bladed weapon.

Under Ivan the Terrible, there were approximately 25 thousand archers, and by the beginning of the reign of Peter I - 55 thousand. Half of them lived in Moscow, essentially performing the functions of the Life Guards. The rest were located in garrisons8. Lobin A.N. Artillery of the Moscow Streltsy regiments in the 1670-1680s. History of military affairs: research and sources. [Email: resource]. www.milhist.info.ru ( 04/11/2014).. The Streletsky army was first divided into instruments, then orders, and from 1681 into regiments. As today, service in the capital and in the garrison differed significantly. For example, in the border fortress city of Vyazma in the middle of the 17th century, a powerful garrison was crowded into a limited area enclosed by walls. It included, in addition to the Cossacks, artillerymen and Tatars in Russian service, 910 archers. And this is in a city devastated by the Time of Troubles, in which they have just begun to restore the citadel, and even under the constant threat of attack by the Poles or Cossacks! With the beginning of the unsuccessful Smolensk War, this is what happened - enemy troops repeatedly approached the walls of the fortress and burned everything around.

It was no easier for the archers, who were sent to serve beyond the Urals. For example, the Streltsy foreman Vasily Sychev in the middle of the 17th century was sent from Mangazeya (the oldest city on earth beyond the Arctic Circle, located on the Taz River, which flows into the Ob Bay) at the head of 10 Streltsy and 20 industrialists to collect yasak (fur tribute) in the Khatanga basin . Only five years later, another detachment of archers, commanded by the Cossack Yakov Semenov, who came from Turukhansk, arrived to “replace” him. On the way back, the combined detachment almost died due to lack of food. And many similar examples can be given.

However, the life and service of the capital’s (elected) archers was not all sugar either. Constant delays in the payment of money and food supplies forced the soldiers to look for work on the side. Thus, documents have been preserved that, say, the archer Ivan Moiseev bought a trading shop from the merchant Pyotr Akudinov. In addition, the Streltsy head was the absolute master in his orders. He personally issued monetary allowances, and he himself determined which of his subordinates was owed how much. He could have fined him, he could have rewarded him. He could punish the offender with batogs, he could put him under arrest, he could release him from service, or he could appoint him as “eternal duty officer.” Under these conditions, the archers who were personally loyal to the colonel found themselves in a privileged position, and the obstinate ones turned out to be “beating boys”9. Tyurin A.V. War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible. M.: EKSMO, 2009. 480 pp.

It was useless to complain about the commanders - they all came from the highest Russian nobility and were well known to the Tsar. If the archer even dared to file a petition, most often he himself was “designated” as the culprit and a fine “for dishonor” was collected from him in favor of the commander. In the garrisons, however, the archer had an even harder time, since there he was equally powerless before the local governors.

All this led to significant stratification within the Streltsy army. Some of the “sovereign people” were engaged in trade, some were craftsmen, some plowed the land, and some had to do nothing but beg. And yet the archers were the most combat-ready part of the Russian army and formed their basis. Let's say, in the Lithuanian campaign of 1578, only 2 thousand people took part in the “palace”, that is, Moscow, archers.

The Streltsy army was assigned another important function. It played the role of modern Internal troops, as well as the police. Under Ivan the Terrible, the punitive mission was carried out by the oprichniki, while the Streltsy retained law enforcement functions. They, along with the Cossacks, carried out border service.

Foreigners, who for one reason or another found themselves in Rus' at that time, left written evidence about the state of the tsarist troops. For example, the Englishman Richard Chancellor (Chancellor), who reached "Muscovy" on the ship "Edward Bonaventure" that circumnavigated Scandinavia, as well as the traveler Clement Adams noted that, despite such qualities of warriors as personal courage, their endurance and ability to endure the hardships of the campaign , their military training leaves much to be desired. Discipline was also weak, desertion flourished, especially during the period of hostilities.

Sagittarius repeatedly rebelled, often joining the enemies of the royal throne. There were many archers in the detachments of the False Dmitrievs, in the gangs of Ivan Bolotnikov. Ultimately, in parallel with the existing streltsy army, the creation of “foreign regiments” began in the 1630s. Now the Streltsy formations were doomed - it was only a question of timing.

The Streltsy were a more modern army. They carried out constant service and underwent some training. In peacetime, the archers carried out city service - they guarded the royal court, the king during his trips, were engaged in guard duty in Moscow and a number of other cities, and became messengers. In their free time from war and service, they were engaged in crafts, trade, arable farming, and gardening, since the royal salary could not fully meet the needs of the servicemen and their families. The Streletsky army had an organization - it was controlled by the Streletsky order. He was in charge of appointments, payment of salaries, and supervised military training. Throughout the 17th century, regular combat skills were introduced into the rifle regiments.

The combat effectiveness of the Streltsy was highly appreciated by contemporaries, who believed that the main force in the Russian army was the infantry. Strelets regiments were widely used in various wars, participating both in the defense of fortresses and in long-distance campaigns (for example, the Chigirin campaigns of 1677-1678). But gradually their role began to decline; they were strongly tied to their daily activities, the life of the townspeople (the majority were close in status to the lower classes of the townsfolk population). As a result, in a number of uprisings of the 17th century, their “shakyness” manifested itself - political unreliability; the archers were ready to support those who offered more10. Tyurin A.V. War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible. M.: EKSMO, 2009. 480 pp. In the uprisings of 1682 and 1698, the archers became the main driving force. As a result, the growing royal power began to think about eliminating this social layer.

3.1 Abolition of the Streltsy army

The Streltsy riot that broke out in Moscow in May 1682 frightened young Peter too much. The future emperor never forgave the archers for this fear. Even the fact that in 1689 they saved him and his mother and supported him in the confrontation with Sophia the ruler did not help. He made up for everything after another rebellion that occurred in 1698, when four rifle regiments voluntarily withdrew from the Lithuanian border and moved to Moscow, threatening to kill the boyars and Germans. Despite the fact that the uprising was suppressed and the instigators were executed by boyar Shein, Peter rushed to the capital and ordered the repressions to continue. Red Square was strewn with the headless bodies of archers, the walls of the White and Zemlyanoy cities were strewn with gallows. By special order, those executed were prohibited from cleaning. Then, by the way, the rich collection of punishments practiced in Russia was replenished with another “find”: 269 archers were sent to hard labor - to mines, saltworks, factories and factories, including in Siberia and the Urals. (Peter liked the experience - in the Military Article of March 30, 1716, the practice of exile to hard labor and to the galleys received legal justification.)11. Margolin.S.L. Armament of the Streltsy army//Military historical collection of the State Historical Museum. M., 1948. P.85 - 105

Then the Streltsy army gradually and finally sank into oblivion. It should be noted that a significant part of the cadres of the Streltsy army joined the emerging regular army. And the city archers survived the era of Peter.

Conclusion

Reforms of the armed forces under Ivan the Terrible were of great importance in the history of the armed forces of the Russian state. As a result of the reforms, it expanded and the Streletsky Army appeared, which significantly improved the condition and organization of the Russian army.

Sagittarius deserves attention and study on two grounds. Firstly, they were one of the most important components of the Russian military organization of the 16th - 17th centuries. For the period of that time, the need for defense was of great importance due to the process of the formation of a centralized state. Secondly, in addition to the obvious contribution to the education and development of military affairs, the archers played an important role in the life of the city of those times, the class struggle of the townspeople, and in major events in internal political history.

And in this regard, the Streltsy army is of great interest for the present time of history. It is absolutely necessary to clearly systematize economic conditions the existence of archers, the organization of their service and placement.

During the writing of the work, the following tasks were solved:

The prerequisites for the formation of the Streletsky army are identified and the history of the formation of the Streletsky army is analyzed;

The history of the development of the Streletsky army of the 16th - 17th centuries has been studied;

The most significant events in the history of Russia in which archers took part are given.

In addition to the indicated significance of the Streletsky army for the history of Russia, I would like to mention one more thing: every citizen of Russia is obliged to love and respect the history of his country, and for this one should study the events and phenomena of the past, no matter what subjects they are devoted to.

List of used literature

1. Lobin. A.N. Artillery of the Moscow Streltsy regiments in the 1670-1680s. History of military affairs: research and sources. [Email: resource]. www.milhist.info.ru (11.04.2014 Streltsy army regiment

2. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. Ed. Milova. L.V.M.: 2007. 297 P.

3. Perov N. Prototype of the future regular army. Russian history. [Email: resource]. http://sunapse.ru.(04/11/2014).

4. Nefedov. S. A. Reforms of Ivan III and Ivan IV. Ottoman influence // “Questions of History”. 2002. No. 11. 104 P.
5. Margolin. S.L. Armament of the Streltsy army//Military historical collection of the State Historical Museum. M., 1948. P.85 - 105

6. Tyurin A.V. War and Peace of Ivan the Terrible. M.: EKSMO, 2009. 480 pp.

7. Chernov A.V. Armed forces of the Russian state in the XV-XVII centuries. M.: “Voenizdat”, 1954. 224 P.

Participation of Streletsky troops in the siege and capture of Kazan and Polotsk

The Streltsy received their first major baptism of fire during the siege and capture of Kazan in 1552. Chronicle sources tell in some detail about the actions of the Streltsy army in this campaign.

The Hertaul, advanced and large regiments were sent to storm Kazan. Ahead of the regiments, foot archers and Cossacks with their heads, atamans and centurions went on the offensive.

The first Streltsy army. Sagittarius: security forces of medieval Rus'. Streltsy army of Peter I. How does the Streltsy army differ from the regular army

Armament

Form

Streltsy banners

Ensigns

Streltsy regiments

Tactics

Mounted archers

Patriarchal Sagittarius

The beginning of a legend

Forerunners of the Streltsy

From squeakers to archers

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