Soldiers of the army of Peter the Great
The army of Peter I received a new military uniform even before the start of the Northern War. It noticeably intertwined both old traditions and the trends of new military fashion. Staff officer of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, 1698-1700. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings.
"Warriors! The hour has come that will decide the fate of the Fatherland. And so you should not think that you are fighting for Peter, but for the state entrusted to Peter, for your family, for the Fatherland, for our Orthodox faith and church. Nor should you be confused by the glory of the enemy, supposedly invincible, which you yourselves have repeatedly proven to be false by your victories over him. In battle, have before your eyes the truth and God, who fights for you. And know about Peter that his life is not dear to him, if only Russia would live in bliss and glory, for your well-being."
"Poltava speech of Peter I".History Emperor Peter the Great from his birth to the Battle of Poltava and the capture of the remaining Swedish troops at Perevolochna inclusive." Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736).
"Poltava speech of Peter I".History Emperor Peter the Great from his birth to the Battle of Poltava and the capture of the remaining Swedish troops at Perevolochna inclusive." Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736).
On November 8, 1699, Tsar Peter I issued a decree on the first recruitment. Every hundred households were to provide one soldier. According to Peter's calculations, up to 60 people could be called up in this way. In addition, volunteers - "eager people" - were accepted into the army; they were entitled to full state support and a salary of 000 rubles per year. The Tsar decided to abandon the old system, under which most of the army was self-sufficient and bought its own weapon, equipment and food supplies. In his opinion, all financial and material burdens of maintaining the armed forces should be borne by the state, and the military personnel should do their direct work, that is, fight well! This is how a regular professional army appeared in Russia.
The first recruits arrived at the commission, located in the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow, on December 1, 1699. There were slightly fewer of them than expected: 32 thousand people. However, even from this number, 27 infantry and 2 dragoon regiments were formed. The first company of each infantry regiment, in addition to small arms, received grenades (hand grenades) and became its shock unit. The remaining nine companies were armed with fusils (large-caliber rifles with flintlocks, weighing seven kilograms) with baguettes (bayonets that were inserted into the barrel with their handles) and swords.
Fusilier of the Select Soldiers' Regiments, 1698-1702 with baguette. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
The regiment's full complement consisted of 1200 privates and 38 officers. The traditional color of the Russian infantry's clothing was green. Dragoon regiments had a thousand men. They were armed with lighter fusils without a bayonet (six kilograms), pistols, and a broadsword for mounted combat. The uniform of the young army of the Russian State fully corresponded to the pan-European uniform style.
It is believed that the soldiers of Peter I's army, both infantry and cavalry, wore cocked hats on their heads, but in fact their headgear was mainly a cylindrical hat with lapels of the regimental color, which were turned down in bad weather and protected the ears from wind, rain and snow. It was sewn from waste uniform cloth, which allowed for significant savings on fabric. Such a hat was called a cap or a cap. Although cocked hats were also in use. A narrow and short, knee-length, red epancha (cape) was used as warm outerwear.
Bombardier artillery shelf, Russia, 1708-1723. The drawing from which this figurine was made is taken from the book "Historical Description of the Clothing and Armament of the Russian Troops with Drawings". Edited by A. V. Viskovatov. But it is unlikely that he could shoot a cast-iron grenade like this, holding the "mortar" in his hands. Its recoil when fired would have been very strong. The butt had to be supported on something hard, for example, on the ground! Manufacturers: "Silver Dream Studio" and "EK Castings".
Until 1720, the choice of the color of the uniform was left to the regimental commanders, but the dominant color was still green, although many regiments were dressed in cheap gray cloth*. Artillerymen wore the same uniform as infantrymen, but its main color was red with blue cuffs on the sleeves. By the way, bombardiers (of which Peter himself was listed!) were considered elite artillery units and wore the same headgear as the guards grenadiers. The cavalry was dressed in dark blue uniforms. It is clear that preference when choosing colors for the uniform was given to fabrics dyed with the most durable dyes so that the uniforms would not fade in the sun.
By the way, one of the peculiarities of the distribution of colors by regiments, when in one army one could find uniforms of very different colors, created a certain confusion in identifying troops on the battlefield, especially in gunpowder smoke, but one had to put up with it at that time. There was a shortage of uniformly colored fabrics in Europe at that time, too many of them were required. At the same time, the colors of the uniforms of one country were very often similar to the colors of another, and it was easy to confuse them, although not always. But the same green uniforms with red cuffs and lining were worn not only by the Russian infantry, but also by the Hesse-Darmstadt dragoons, and red uniforms were worn not only by the Russian artillerymen of Peter I, but also by the artillerymen of Hanover. “Before Peter,” the carriages of Russian cannons were painted red, during his reign it was changed to green.
It turned out to be impossible to solve the problem of colored cloth by importing it, so during the Northern War, 15 factories were built in Russia, annually producing up to 300 thousand arshins of uniform cloth and up to 200 arshins of lining material (1 arshin = 0,7112 m).
Ober-officer of the Grenadier Regiments of the Army Infantry, 1710s. Manufacturers: «Silver Dream Studio» and «EK Castings»
A uniform detail that distinguished an officer from the lower ranks was a scarf in the form of a silk ribbon in the colors of the Russian flag, one and a half meters long, which was tied over the right shoulder. At the ends of the scarf were attached tassels of gilded (for staff officers) and silver (for senior officers) twisted braid, but from a distance it was almost impossible to determine the officer's rank by the scarf. The first to wear scarves were officers of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky Regiments back in 1698-1699. However, the scarf-shoulder-ribbon was not worn for long, and soon it turned into a sash on the belt. Interestingly, the money for sewing uniforms was deducted from the soldiers' salaries, and the officers had to pay for them at their own expense.
Another interesting detail of the uniform in Peter's army was the introduction of the shoulder strap as a means of distinguishing servicemen of one regiment from another. The shoulder strap also kept the cartridge pouch from slipping down. Shoulder straps were woven from garus cord (strong woolen yarn), and the pattern on a private's shoulder strap differed from that of an officer, even if they both served in the same regiment.
Fusilier of the Infantry Regiment, 1702-1706. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
Grenadier of the 2nd Vyborny (Butyrsky) Regiment, 1698-1702. Each grenadier was supposed to have two two-pound (approx. 800 g) cast-iron matchlock grenades in a special shoulder bag. As headgear, grenadiers usually wore high pointed caps, which, unlike wide-brimmed hats and cocked hats, did not prevent him from throwing a musket on a belt behind his back, freeing his hands for throwing grenades. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings.
Pikeman of the Smolensk Infantry Regiment, 1715. Pikemen were in the first rank and instead of guns often received pikes and a pistol. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and Ratnik Studio
The first military regulations were prepared in 1698 by General Weide, the document was simple, without unnecessary frills, and the rules of battle corresponded to the times, were effective and understandable. The army lacked three things: combat experience, new military traditions and its own officer corps. But all this could not appear in an instant, especially in peacetime. However, the Northern War very soon provided the necessary experience.
During the war, the structure of the armed forces conceived by Peter underwent a number of changes, but on the whole proved its viability. As a result, by the time the Treaty of Nystad was signed in 1721 with Sweden, which acknowledged its defeat, the Russian army was a truly formidable force. The infantry consisted of two guards and 49 infantry regiments - 67 thousand seasoned professional warriors, and it was decided not to reduce their numbers in peacetime. Peter's cavalry, numbering 33 thousand people, was exclusively of the dragoon type, that is, it could fight both on horseback and on foot. The Cossacks were considered irregular troops.
Peter paid great attention to artillery, as he understood the importance of its role. Before him, the Russian army was armed with both Russian and foreign guns of various calibers. Peter managed to reduce their number to a minimum. In addition to the traditional field and siege artillery, Peter's army also had horse artillery attached to cavalry regiments - an innovation that had not existed before in any army in the world. In addition to the field - shock troops - garrison units were also formed (something similar to today's Rosgvardia).
Order in the newly acquired lands was maintained by 49 garrison infantry regiments and four dragoon regiments, with a total of 70 men. In small settlements of the border southern and southeastern Ukraine, similar service was provided by the land militia, established at the end of Peter's reign and numbering six thousand men (six regiments). At the same time, the outlying population, if necessary, fielded their own detachments, which also formed and equipped the Cossack communities. By 1725, the Don Cossack army fielded five thousand horsemen, the Little Russian Cossacks - up to 15 thousand, and the same number - the Kalmyks, and the Sloboda Cossacks - up to 10 thousand sabres.
As a result, 25 years after Peter I's decree on the first recruitment, about 200 thousand people served in the Imperial Army of Russia. Men under 30 years of age were taken into the army. Death, disability, and criminal punishment could be grounds for termination of service. The non-commissioned officer corps was replenished with people from the ranks. Officer ranks were received by nobles who had served as lower ranks and passed special exams. In 1700, military schools were created to train officers, and the exams for the rank of officer were often conducted by the Tsar himself***. In this way, Peter I, together with Menshikov, Sheremetyev, Repnin, Golitsyn, Golovin, Veide, Bruce, Lefort and many others, created such an amazing reserve of strength for the armed forces of Russia that it lasted for many decades.
Peter I. It is difficult to say where and when he appeared in such a robe, and whether he wore it at all, but it looks beautiful! Manufacturers: «Silver Dream Studio» and «EK Castings»
Franz Lefort was a Russian statesman and military leader of Swiss descent and Calvinist faith; a close aide and adviser to Peter I, with whom he became close in the early 1690s; a Russian general, admiral. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
As has already been noted here, having a regular army for a country is not a cheap pleasure, and at all times it cost the treasury very, very dearly. For example, in Russia a special tax was even introduced for the maintenance of dragoon regiments, which was called the "dragoon tax". Peter I introduced it in 1701, after the reorganization of the Russian army, which included nine new dragoon regiments formed from spearmen, reiters and noble minors, with a total of 10 people.
A considerable amount of money for that time was collected from each household for their salaries: landowners and patrimonial landowners paid 20 kopecks, church and palace departments paid 25 kopecks, and merchants took a tenth of their income. But by 1706, the number of dragoon regiments reached 28, and the budget expenditure on their maintenance amounted to 420 rubles per year. Although the dragoon uniform was similar to the attire of infantry regiments, it required more money, since dragoons were supposed to wear boots with high and rigid tops. And it was simply impossible to do without them, since they protected the legs from injuries that were inevitable when riding in a tight formation, when riders almost touched each other with their knees.
Officer of the Dragoon Regiments, 1698-1704. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
Well, the first mass recruitment in the history of Russia was carried out in February 1705. Recruitment was obligatory for the tax-paying population of the country, the bulk of which were peasants. For the first time, one man from 20 households was taken. The call was regulated by law - "Articles on the collection of tax soldiers or recruits". Landowners or city communities were obliged to provide the recruit with provisions for the road, a caftan or fur coat, mittens, a shirt and a ruble of money - for a hat.
From 1705 to 1715, 10 recruitment drives were held, and more than 330 people were called up for service. In 000, the British ambassador to Moscow, Sir Whitworth, wrote: "The Russian infantry is well trained... much better than the German and is not inferior to the infantry of any nation." Incidentally, Peter I approved the general standard uniform of infantry regiments only in 1705, finally choosing green for the uniform, and red for the trim - lapels, flaps, turn-ups and waistcoat. It became difficult to determine which regiment a person served in, but a solution was quickly found: hats and pouches began to display images of the coats of arms of the cities in which certain army regiments were formed or quartered.
In what regiment's uniform did Peter I participate in the Battle of Poltava? Of course, in the uniform of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. According to the description of one foreign diplomat, the tsar was wearing a green caftan with small red lapels, over which he wore a simple black leather sword belt. On his feet were green stockings and old worn-out shoes. In his right hand he held a pike, like a guard colonel, and with his left he held a simple hat under his arm. In addition, the tsar's chest was decorated with a silver officer's badge (gorget) with the St. Andrew's Cross, a silver sash with red and blue threads, and he was armed with a half-pike and a sword with a brass hilt.
The history of the appearance of these signs in the Russian army was as follows: when in November 1700 it lost the battle near Narva, only the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky Life Guards regiments, as well as the Buturlin Strelets Regiment, did not yield to the Swedes, kept their banners and baggage train, and did not lose a single man during the retreat. In memory of this feat of the guards, Peter I ordered the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky officers to wear a gorget on their chest over their uniform with the date of the battle stamped on it — “I700 NO19”. At first, the gorget as an element of military clothing belonged to knightly armor. But in the XNUMXth century, it became an officer's insignia everywhere.
Corporal of the Army Infantry, 1708-1720. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
Artillery Regiment Gunner with a Blaze, 1704-1725. Manufacturers: Silver Dream Studio and EK Castings
All army ranks of the Peter the Great era received a salary for their service, which was calculated depending on their rank. Thus, a field marshal was entitled to 7000 rubles per year, a general - from 300 to 1200, a colonel - 300, a major - 140, a captain - 100, and an ensign - 50 rubles. Sergeants and sergeants were paid 14 rubles 40 kopecks per year, corporals and privates - 12. The guards paid significantly more, so getting into them was not only honorable, but also economically advantageous...
The opponents of Peter's army at that time were Turkish Janissaries. Manufacturers: "Silver Dream Studio" and "Pegaso Model"
It is interesting that Swedish artillerymen of the early 18th century also wore uniforms made of the cheapest undyed cloth, although usually gunners tried to dress in red, "fiery color" uniforms. Manufacturers: "Silver Dream Studio" and "Chronos-miniatures"
There was no horse guard in Russia under Peter I. But, having signed the Decree on the coronation of Empress Catherine in 1723, he decided not to skimp on the celebrations in her honor, but to form a company of cavalry guards****, or drabants, to accompany her, from the best officers of the infantry and dragoon regiments, who were supposed to demonstrate the power of the Russian Empire by their appearance.
And although in essence it was only a "one-off" unit, Peter's comrades immediately began to fight for the right to form it. Count Tolstoy had already received an order to conduct the final fitting and adjustment of the luxurious uniform and knightly armor, but Menshikov and Yaguzhinsky pushed him aside, clashing in the last major palace intrigue of the time of Peter the Great's reign. As a result, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov did not even make it into the cavalry guards; Yaguzhinsky became the main one, but Peter I appointed himself captain of the cavalry guards.
As a result, at the coronation celebrations of 1724, the cavalry guards showed off in green cloth caftans with gilded buttons and gold braid, red breeches and camisoles, and over the caftan they wore a red supervest (a vest-like outer garment) trimmed with wide gold braid. On the chest was embroidered a silver star of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, and on the back - a gold double-headed eagle. They were armed with broadswords with gilded hilts and a silver grip in a white leather sheath with a gold lanyard, as well as a carbine and two pistols trimmed with gold. However, the happiness of Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky was short-lived. After the coronation, which took place in March 1724, the Empress’s “honor guard” was immediately disbanded, and the magnificent uniforms and trumpets were put into storage.
*Thus, the Austrian army, which in the last third of the 1707th century was concerned with the choice of the main colors for uniforms, chose the light gray color of the cheapest unbleached cloth. In December XNUMX, it was declared the general color of the infantry uniform in the Austrian army. Perhaps, it was the Austrian uniform of the early XNUMXth century that was the cheapest in Europe, since it required a minimum of colored cloth, and the most easily recognizable, since no other country used uniforms of this color!
**It is interesting that horse artillery, like many other things, was inherited by Peter from his father, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. By 1680, each dragoon regiment already had 20 guns. To increase their mobility, their caliber and projectile weight were reduced from 10-5 to 3 pounds.
***There is a known case when several soldiers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment were sent to Berlin to study military sciences, primarily artillery. The senior sergeant of the group, Korchmin, sent the tsar a report in which he promised that all the students had mastered trigonometry. Peter was very surprised by this, since the dispatch also mentioned the grenadier Stepan Buzheninov, who had left for Europe being completely illiterate. Peter did not believe it and sent a letter to Berlin, but received the following response from Korchmin: “I don’t know about that either. God enlightens even the blind.” Could it be that the sergeant, defending his subordinate, decided to lie to the tsar and the regimental chief? Well, that’s unlikely. Neither respect for the autocrat nor fear of punishment for deception would have allowed him to do so. After all, everyone sent by Peter to study abroad knew very well that upon his return he would personally examine each of them.
****In total, the company consisted of 60 privates, four non-commissioned officers, two trumpeters and one kettledrummer.
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