Imperial Russian Army - Precursors: Regiments of The New Order

Precursors: Regiments of The New Order

Russian tsars before Peter maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps (streltsy in Russian). These were originally raised by Tsar Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible); originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the armed forces were augmented by peasants.

The Regiments of the new order, or regiments of the foreign order ("Полки нового строя" or "Полки иноземного строя", Polki novogo (inozemnogo) stroya), was the Russian term that was used to describe military units that were formed in Russia in the 17th century according to the Western European military standards.

There were different kinds of regiments, such as regulars, dragoons, and reiters. In 1631, the Russians created 2 regular regiments in Moscow. During the Russo-Polish War of 1632-1634, 6 more regular regiments, 1 reiter regiment, and 1 dragoon regiment were formed. Initially, they recruited children of the landless boyars and Streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks and others. Commanding officers comprised mostly foreigners. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded. During another Russo-Polish War (1654–1667), they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service. Reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars' children and were paid with money (or lands) for their service. More than a half of the commanding officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded.

In 1681, there were 33 regular regiments (61,000 men) and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments (29,000 men). In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian army and in the beginning of the 18th century were used for creating a regular army.