Introduction of the Streltsy army. Streltsy army of Peter I

Streltsy army of Ivan the Terrible

On October 1, 1550, Ivan the Terrible issued a Verdict on the placement in Moscow and surrounding districts of a selected thousand service people, which laid the foundations for the first standing army in Rus', which had the characteristics of a regular army. It is on this day that the Day of the Russian Ground Forces is currently celebrated.

Having suffered a series of defeats from the Mongol army, the Russian princes began to think about what could be opposed to the Mongol and, later, Tatar tactics, which consisted of remotely hitting the enemy with arrows.

The first victory of Russian troops over the regular Horde troops was won in 1285, when the son of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Alexandrovich, opposed his brother Andrei, who brought the Tatar army with him to Rus'. The main role in this victory was played by the participation of Novgorod archers in the battle (see about them in the article Why didn’t the Tatar-Mongols go to Novgorod?), whose almost two-meter infantry bows exceeded the Horde cavalry in firing range.

However, the most radical means of fighting the Tatars were the squeaks - the first examples of Russian firearms, and the immediate predecessors of the Streltsy were tweeters. They appeared at the end of the 15th century.

First mention of participation squeakers in military operations dates back to 1508 - when Grand Duke Vasily III ordered to send them to Lithuania. In 1512, 1000 were recruited from Pskov squeakers who took part in the campaign against Smolensk. Since 1512 tweeters began to participate in border defense. In 1515 tweeters together with the boyar children and Cossacks they guarded our embassy in Azov.

In 1545, along with foot soldiers, horsemen were noted tweeters: Yes, those squeakers on horseback and on foot, every person would have a squeaker by hand. The main disadvantage of the pishchalniks was the temporary nature of the army - they gathered for the duration of the campaign, after which they went home. Another disadvantage was the need to arm yourself at your own expense. Therefore, they were able to turn into a permanent regular army only under Ivan the Terrible. He was the first , Ivan IV, later nicknamed Grozny, issued the same Verdict, which played a primary role in the construction and development of the Russian regular army.

At first Sagittarius recruited from the free townspeople and rural population. Subsequently, their service became lifelong and hereditary.

The Streltsy headquarters was originally called the Streletskaya Izba, and later the Streletskaya Prikaz.

Sagittarius were divided into elected (later - Moscow) and police (in various cities of Russia). Moscow Sagittarius guarded the Kremlin, performed guard duty, and took part in military operations. Policemen Sagittarius carried out garrison and border service, carried out instructions from the local administration. Sagittarius obeyed the Streletsky order, and during the war - to military leaders. Policemen Sagittarius were also under the jurisdiction of local governors. Sagittarius were uniformly uniformed, trained and armed (hand-held arquebuses, muskets, reeds, sabers, and partly pikes). The highest military-administrative unit of the Streltsy army was an instrument, later called an order, and from 1681 - a regiment.

Initially, the staff strength of the Streltsy Orders was 500 people, divided into five hundred. Subsequently, their numbers constantly increased. In the second half of the 17th century there were differences thousandths And seven hundredths orders. In the 1680s, the staff of the Streltsy regiments was unified, after which there were 1,000 people in each regiment, and in the regiment there were 500 ranks of 1 person, a bailiff 1 person, Pentecostals 20 people, foremen 100 people, but in practice the number of Streltsy in The regiments still ranged from 600 to 1,200 people.

Teners and Pentecostals made up the non-commissioned officer corps; bailiffs, re-elected annually, served as adjutants to order commanders. In the 1650s, the position was introduced five hundred bailiff or simply five hundred, chosen from among ordinary riflemen or junior commanders. He had the responsibilities of deputy commander of the order for organizing logistics support.
Until the middle of the 17th century, the officers of the rifle regiments consisted of heads and centurions. In the 1650s, the position of half-head was introduced - the first deputy commander of the regiment. During the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667, the practice of the Streltsy service introduced the awarding of Streltsy heads with the rank of colonel, which initially had an honorary value. Accordingly, the half-heads complained with the rank of half-colonel. In 1680, the renaming of Streltsy Heads into Colonels, Half Heads into Half Colonels, and Centurions into Captains was carried out. From that time on, senior rifle commanders began to automatically be assigned the court rank of steward, after which their official name began to sound like steward and colonel, steward and half-colonel.

At the head of the orders were the Streltsy heads (at the head of the regiments -), appointed from among the nobles by the government. The orders (regiments) were divided into hundreds and tens, and were mounted ("stirrup") and on foot. Sagittarius They lived in separate settlements, receiving cash and grain salaries from the treasury. In a number of places Sagittarius Instead of a salary, they were given land, which was allotted to them for joint use for the entire settlement.

The Streltsy army was armed with squeaks, reeds, half-peaks, and bladed weapons - sabers and swords, which were worn on a belt belt. To shoot from a squeaker, 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 shelf of the squeak. By the end of the 1670s, as an additional weapon and for making obstacles ( slingshots) sometimes long peaks were used.

The archers, like the Janissaries and Taborites, fought under the cover of field fortifications forming a camp, convoy, kosh, secondly, using the rich traditions of Russian military wooden architecture, a special fortification was created - walk-city, the device of which clerk Ivan Timofeev described in detail in his Temporary.

The Streltsy army showed its combat effectiveness during the siege of Kazan in 1552, in the Livonian War, repelling the Polish-Swedish intervention in the early 17th century, as well as in military operations with Poland and. Special role Sagittarius played in which the Tatars had a fourfold advantage over the Russians. In view of this advantage, our entire army occupied defensive fortifications. Sagittarius, being under the protection of the “walk-city”, they used tactics that the Dutch would later use. They, firing from behind cover, inflicted significant damage on the Tatar cavalry and exposed it to the attack of our cavalry led by Mikhail Vorotynsky.

The Streltsy deservedly considered themselves the military elite of Russia. They heroically fought the enemy, settled new lands, but also the archers, dissatisfied with their position, undermined the foundations of Russian statehood.

How it all began

In 1546, the Novgorod squeakers came to Ivan the Terrible with a petition, but their complaints were not heard by the tsar. The offended petitioners staged a riot, which resulted in mass clashes with the nobles, where there were both wounded and killed. But further - more: the rebels did not let the tsar who was about to go to Kolomna, forcing the sovereign to get there by a bypass road.

This event angered the king, which had its consequences. In 1550, Ivan the Terrible issues a decree on the creation of a permanent Streltsy army, which replaced the disgraced squeakers.

The first streltsy were recruited “by instrument” (for hire), and their composition was replenished mainly from former squeakers adapted for military service. At first, the number of Streltsy troops was small - 3,000 people, divided into 6 orders. Most of them included the free townspeople or rural population, but the orders were commanded by people from the boyars.

Despite the fact that the Streltsy recruited mainly people from the poor class, getting there was not so easy. People were taken of their own free will, but most importantly - those who knew how to shoot. However, later they began to demand guarantees. It was enough for a few experienced archers to be responsible for the escape of a recruit from service or the loss of his weapon. The age limit for newly hired workers was no higher than 50 years old - this is quite a lot, given the low average life expectancy at that time. The service was for life, but it could also be inherited.

Life

The archers settled in settlements, receiving a manor place there. They were instructed to plant a vegetable garden and a garden, as well as build a house. The state provided settlers with “yard housing” - monetary assistance in the amount of 1 ruble: a good financial support, considering that a house at 16th-century prices cost 3 rubles. After the death or death of the archer, the courtyard remained with his family.

In remote settlements they lived very simply. The streets were mostly unpaved, and the huts (without a chimney) were covered with birch bark or straw; there were no windows as such, much less ones covered with mica - they were basically small slits in a log wall with oiled canvas. In the event of an enemy raid, the Sloboda residents sat out the state of siege behind the walls of the nearest fortress or fort.
Between military service, the archers were engaged in various trades - carpentry, blacksmithing, wheeling or carriage. We worked only to order. The range of “streltsy” products is impressive - grips, stags, openers, door handles, chests, tables, carts, sleighs - this is just a small part of what is possible. Let's not forget that the archers, along with the peasants, were also food suppliers for the city - their meat, poultry, vegetables and fruits were always welcome in city bazaars.

Cloth

The Sagittarius, as expected in a professional army, wore uniforms - casual and formal. The archers looked especially good in full dress uniform, wearing long caftans and tall hats with fur cuffs. Although the uniform was uniform, there were color differences for each regiment.

For example, the archers of Stepan Yanov's regiment sported a light blue caftan, brown lining, black buttonholes, a crimson hat and yellow boots. Some of the clothes - shirts, ports and zipuns - the archers had to sew themselves.

Weapon

History has preserved for us an interesting document that describes the reaction of the Vyazma riflemen to receiving a new weapon - matchlock muskets. The soldiers said that “they don’t know how to shoot from such muskets with zhagra (matchlock),” since “they had and still have old squeaks with locks.” This in no way indicates the backwardness of the archers in comparison with European soldiers, but rather speaks of their conservatism.

The most common weapons for archers were the arquebus (or self-propelled gun), the berdysh (an ax in the shape of a crescent) and the saber, and mounted warriors, even at the beginning of the 17th century, did not want to part with their bow and arrows. Before the campaign, the archers were given a certain amount of gunpowder and lead, the consumption of which was monitored by the governors so that “potions and lead would not be wasted.” Upon returning, the archers were obliged to hand over the remaining ammunition to the treasury.

War

The siege of Kazan in 1552 was a baptism of fire for the archers, but in the future they were indispensable participants in major military campaigns, having the status of a regular army. They witnessed both high-profile victories and painful defeats of Russian weapons. The archers were quite actively called upon to guard the always turbulent southern borders - an exception was made only for small garrisons.

The favorite tactics of the archers was the use of field defensive structures called “walk-city”. Streltsy were often inferior to the enemy in maneuverability, but shooting from fortifications was their trump card. A set of carts equipped with strong wooden shields made it possible to protect against small firearms and, ultimately, repel an enemy attack. “If the Russians did not have a walk-city, the Crimean Tsar would have beaten us,” wrote Ivan the Terrible’s German guardsman Heinrich von Staden.

The Streltsy contributed greatly to the victory of the Russian army in the Second Azov Campaign of Peter I in 1696. The Russian soldiers, who had besieged Azov in a long, hopeless siege, were already ready to turn back when the archers proposed an unexpected plan: it was necessary to erect an earthen rampart, bringing it closer to the rampart of the Azov fortress, and then, filling in the ditches, take possession of the fortress walls. The command reluctantly accepted the adventurous plan, but in the end it more than justified itself!

Riot

The Sagittarius were constantly dissatisfied with their position - after all, they considered themselves a military elite. Just as the pishchalniks once went to petition Ivan the Terrible, the archers complained to the new kings. These attempts were most often unsuccessful and then the archers rebelled. They joined the peasant uprisings - the army of Stepan Razin, and organized their own revolts - “Khovanshchina” in 1682.

However, the riot of 1698 turned out to be the most “senseless and merciless.” Princess Sophia, imprisoned in the Novodevichy Convent and thirsty for the throne, with her incitements, heated up the already tense situation within the Streltsy army. As a result, 2,200 archers who removed their commanders headed to Moscow to carry out a coup. 4 selected regiments sent by the government suppressed the rebellion in the bud, but the main bloody action - the Streltsy execution - was ahead.

Even officials had to take on the work of executioners by order of the tsar. The Austrian diplomat Johann Korb, who was present at the executions, was horrified by the absurdity and cruelty of these executions: “one boyar distinguished himself with a particularly unsuccessful blow: without hitting the condemned man’s neck, the boyar hit him on the back; the archer, cut almost into two parts in this way, would have suffered unbearable torment if Aleksashka (Menshikov), deftly using an ax, had not hastened to cut off the unfortunate man’s head.”

Peter I, who urgently returned from abroad, personally headed the investigation. The result of the “great manhunt” was the execution of almost all the archers, and the few survivors were whipped, branded, some were imprisoned, and others were exiled to remote places. The investigation continued until 1707. As a result, the archers' yard positions were distributed, houses were sold, and all military units were disbanded. This was the end of the glorious Streltsy era.

This sovereign is my predecessor and model; I have always imagined him as a model for my rule in civil and military affairs, but I have not yet gone as far in that as he did. Only fools who do not know the circumstances of his time, the properties of his people and his great merits call him a tormentor...
Peter I about Ivan the Terrible

When should we celebrate the day of the Russian infantry and the Russian Army?

According to the verdict (decree) of Ivan the Terrible on October 11, 1550, local disputes between governors during campaigns were prohibited. Now they were all subordinate to the first commander of a large regiment (commander-in-chief). Ivan the Terrible understood the need to introduce strict order. Before his eyes: when the Russians were attacked by the Crimean Tatars, the regiments could not repel them, because they did not have worthy commanders. The commanders of the junior regiments refused to obey the commander of the large regiment, who was the commander-in-chief, arguing that it was “inappropriate” for them to be lower. The young Grand Duke had to beg the boyars, giving up disputes, to defend themselves from the Tatars. Later, at the Zemsky Sobor, Ivan IV said:
“No matter who they send with whomever they do, otherwise everyone will be accommodated...”

According to the new sentence of Ivan the Terrible, a “selected thousand” of provincial nobles were placed in the Moscow district, who in the future formed the command core of the Russian army. The system of recruitment and military service in the local army was streamlined*; organization of centralized army control; creation of a permanent Streltsy army; centralization of the supply system; creation of a permanent guard service on the southern border and much more.

Service people on the device

The Streltsy army was divided into policemen and Moscow Streltsy. City archers who lived in various Russian cities were mounted and on foot. 12 thousand Moscow archers (including 2 thousand selected stirrups) were infantrymen. The Sagittarius were armed with arquebuses (squeaks). In battle, the archers mounted them on special ax stands - reeds - and fired at the enemy. The archers carried a supply of bullets in leather bags on a sling; each squeaker also had a horn for gunpowder. Streltsy regiments were distinguished by their high combat efficiency and, being stationed in Moscow and other cities, were always at hand of the authorities. They received grain and cash salaries, weapons and uniforms from the treasury.
In peacetime, they played the role of city guards. In their free hours, the archers were engaged in crafts and trade, having a number of privileges. Streltsy lived in special Streltsy settlements. A special Streletsky order was in charge of the Streletsky regiments. So that a well-armed cavalry army, like the Streltsy, would always be at the hand of the sovereign, in 1550 they decided to give estates near Moscow to a thousand boyars and sons of boyars. And two years later they compiled a list of the Sovereign's court, which included 4,000 of the best royal servants, who began to be called nobles. The nobles stood above the children of the boyars. Nobles were appointed to command positions in the army. Measures were also taken to increase the number of guns in the Russian army and cities. The staff of gunners and other service personnel has been expanded.

Service people in the country

The son of a boyar, the owner of a votchina or estate, had to begin service, having a horse and full weapons, and bring with him mounted armed serfs. From the first 100 quarters, the estate or landowner's land in one field (150 dessiatinas or approximately 170 hectares) was owned by the owner himself, and from the subsequent quarters - by his people. If a serviceman brought fewer soldiers than expected, he was fined. If there were more soldiers, they were rewarded. During campaigns, service people received grain and cash salaries, the amounts of which were stipulated by the Code. Boyar children began their service at the age of 15. The service life was not specified. They served until old age, illness or serious injury stopped serving naturally. However, the campaigns and parades of the militia did not take up much time from the service people - for most of the year they lived peacefully on their estates, doing housework and receiving dues, which were their main source of livelihood. To keep track of service people, lists of them were kept in the districts - tens.

Kamenev Anatoly Ivanovich | Russian military art has long been nourished by the ideas of the 16th century

By creating a standing army and new forms of combat, Ivan IV was ahead of Western European countries. The organization of the first permanent Russian infantry, armed with firearms, and the development in this regard of new methods of combat is one of the evidence of the great military leadership of Ivan IV. He developed the production of firearms in every possible way, as a result of which the most powerful and most numerous artillery was created.

The centralized control of troops established by Grozny during the war was carried out through the Discharge Order. Reports from the troops came to this Discharge; all orders of Grozny were also given through the Discharge, which influenced not only the military administrative service, but also the combat operations of the troops. The Discharge made appointments and movements of command personnel, assigned troops to regiments, gave orders to the commander of the army and regimental commanders, gave instructions on actions troops in the theater of military operations, etc. Wartime functions - The discharge order was retained in peacetime for the border service.

— Grozny studied and took into account the interests and mood of the population on whose territory military operations were unfolding. In the previously conquered lands of the Kazan Khanate, Grozny took all measures to attract the local princes to his side. In the campaign against the Kazan Khan in 1552, the Tatars, Mordovians and other nationalities acted on the side of the Russians. During the war with Livonia, he managed to win over the indigenous population - Livs, Estonians, Latvians; In the liberated lands, Ivan the Terrible preserved local customs and laws, reduced taxes, and expelled German feudal lords. Such measures made it easier for the Russian army to solve combat missions.

— Grozny’s strategy is characterized by the desire to beat enemies one by one. First, he defeated the Kazan Khanate (1552), then the Astrakhan Khanate (1556), then launched a campaign against Livonia. — Ivan the Terrible widely applied the principle of active defense. Without waiting for the enemy to appear near his fortified cities, he sent troops to meet the enemy or directly to his territory.

— In organizing siege operations, Russian military art was ahead of the military art of the armies of Western European states. Siege work carried out by troops of Western European countries usually remained almost without any protection, while in the Russian army, special covering detachments were allocated when conducting siege work. The Russians were the first to introduce the method of gradually attacking fortresses, later borrowed from the Russians by the French military engineer Vauban (1633-1707).

— The example of the siege of Kazan proves the emergence of the Russian school of mine-explosive art in the 16th century. By checking the then accepted charge values ​​using modern scientific calculation methods, researchers note the accuracy of the calculations made by our ancestors. In Western Europe, the first calculations of the magnitude of gunpowder charges during explosions were given by the French engineer de Ville, 75 years after the siege of Kazan.

— One of the features of the Russian army was also its great mobility. This was achieved mainly by the fact that a dedicated special detachment of walking people followed the planned route following the Ertoul regiment (reconnaissance), corrected roads, repaired and built bridges, and laid roads through swamps.

— Ivan the Terrible paid special attention to the use of attire. Already at that time, Russian artillery was grouped during the assault on fortresses and in field battles. In the second half of the 16th century, a special type of light regimental guns began to be used in Russian troops for the first time. Kurbsky mentions regimental guns in his story about the siege of Kazan. 70 years later, under Gustav Adolf (1594-1632), the Swedes borrowed regimental guns and the method of using them from the Russians.

— Russian artillery under Ivan the Terrible was ahead of the artillery of Western states both in the field of manufacturing technology and in the field of its application. In the second half of the 16th century, Russian artillery was one of the most powerful in Europe. Ivan the Terrible had up to 3 thousand guns.

— Ivan the Terrible attached great importance to intelligence. When setting out on a campaign, he sent a special light horse regiment, Ertoul, six marches ahead, from which distant patrols were sent in all directions. With the help of intelligence, the commander knew about the enemy's actions. Thus, during the campaign against Kazan (1552), scouts reported to Grozny about the movement of the Crimean Tatars to Tula. Thanks to the information received, Grozny was able to promptly send reinforcements to the city’s defenders. — Ivan the Terrible is taking a number of measures to ensure an organized supply of food and fodder to the standing army (streltsy, gunners, Cossacks). Supplies for the troops were prepared by the governors according to decrees from Moscow. According to a special royal decree, it was determined from whom and how much to take. Food was collected from peasant households, church and monastery lands, as well as from estates and estates. These supplies were transported to the cities bordering the theater of military operations. The procurement of food at certain points - granaries - was carried out by specially dispatched officials. Ivan the Terrible’s letter on the occasion of the campaign “To the Swedish Frontier” (1555) indicated the preparation of road feed for the army. In addition to the archers, gunners and city Cossacks, the Tatar cavalry also took part in this campaign, for which it was also ordered to prepare food. Food for the troops was transported on peasant carts along the route of the troops. In the event of a possible attack, food was delivered under the cover of armed detachments.

— Streltsy, gunners, city Cossacks received food for money, on loan or for free. Each time a separate decree was issued for the distribution of food. Other troops, who were required to have their own supplies, were not given food (an exception was made only to poor people who were in dire need of help). These general principles of maintaining troops in wartime at the expense of money and supplies collected from the entire population, and partly through contracting, were preserved until Peter.

— Under Ivan the Terrible, the beginning of the organization of the convoy service was laid. Each regiment had its own baggage train (kosh). In the discharge book of the Polotsk campaign it was specifically stated that the convoy should follow its regiments. The convoys of the then Russian army were very numerous.
Thus, in P. Shuisky’s campaign from Polotsk to Orsha (1564), the convoy consisted of 5,000 carts for an army of 17-18 thousand. On a campaign, the convoy usually contained weapons of foot troops, military supplies, food, and fodder. To guard the convoy, special detachments of archers and Cossacks were allocated. If congestion from convoys formed on the roads and especially crossings, Grozny, through specially appointed heads, gave instructions which regiments and in what order should be allowed through.

— Entering enemy territory, Grozny tried to make do with only his own food supply to supply the army. So, during the Polotsk campaign, he ordered to select people from all regiments and send them to Velikiye Luki to stockpile food for the winter and spring. The mercenary armies of Western European states were content, as is known, at the expense of the local population, robbing their country and mercilessly ruining the population of the territory they occupied. - To ensure quick communication between Moscow and the army operating in both the west and the south, as well as for the delivery of letters, the Yamsk and postal services were well organized. The route from Novgorod to Moscow (600 kilometers) was covered in 72 hours of continuous driving. Such speed of communication was achieved by changing horses at each station.

— Ivan the Terrible’s great merit as a commander lies in the fact that he made an attempt to create a Russian navy. He created a mercenary privateer fleet to fight the enemy on sea trade routes under the command of the Dane Karsten Rode. In March 1570, Rode received a charter from the king - a letter of marque for the right to attack enemy ships and capture them. The privateer fleet of Ivan the Terrible caused great concern in the Baltic states, which were afraid of losing dominance in the Baltic Sea. An intensified pursuit of Rode's ships began. Having no bases other than Narva, the Russian privateer fleet was forced to focus on the ports of Denmark. But Denmark, having prohibited Russian privateer ships from entering ports, arrested Rode. At the end of 1570, the privateer fleet ceased to exist. Ivan the Terrible began to build his military fleet in Vologda and tried to transfer it to the Baltic, but the difficult economic and political situation of the country at the end of the Livonian War prevented this.

— Ivan the Terrible appears before posterity not only as an outstanding statesman, but also as a wonderful commander and talented military leader. Under him, Russian military art rose to a higher level and was in many ways ahead of the military art of Western European armies. Even pre-revolutionary researchers recognized that Russian military art for a long time was nourished by the ideas of the 16th century.

Note
The publication was prepared by the editors of the website “ArtPolitInfo” // materials were used in compiling the publication: video “Creation of the Streltsy Army”; A. Kamenev “The Terrible as a Commander” and other open sources * Service people were divided into servicemen “by fatherland” (service was mainly passed on from father to son) and “by instrument” (recruited from representatives of the tax-paying classes, personally free). Service people “in the fatherland” (boyars, okolnichy, stolniki, boyar children, Murzas and service Tatars, courtyard Lithuania, stellate sturgeon, nobles, Duma clerks) belonged to the privileged classes, owned land (on patrimonial or local rights) and peasants. For their service they received cash or local salaries, titles and other rewards. Service people “according to the instrument” (streltsy, Cossacks, gunners, collars, interpreters and others) were formed during the military reforms of the mid-16th century and government colonization of the southern, southeastern, eastern borders of the Russian state; they received a salary for their service (cash, in kind, and in the form of a land plot under local law). In the 17th century, plowed soldiers and dragoons were added to the category of service people “according to the instrument” - (editor’s note)

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 “archers” 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, documents have been preserved, albeit in small quantities, telling 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 Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia made elective archers and squeakers for 3,000 people, and ordered them to live in Vorobyovoy Sloboda, and he made the heads of the boyar children: in the first article, Grisha Zhelobov’s son Pusheshnikov, and he has squeakers 500 people 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 pishchalniks, and every hundred people have a son of a boyar; 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 the annual grain consumption rate 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 of the Living Great Russian Language”: “ Elective, selected, best, chosen; chosen..." It turns out that, firstly, the Streltsy infantry corps was originally 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. It is not known exactly when handguns appeared in the Muscovite arsenal. 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 latches from the end of the 15th century. Engraving from Zeugbuch Kaiser Maximilians I

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It is unlikely that the first hand-held squeakers received baptism of fire during the famous stand on the Ugra - hand-held firearms 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

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Another interesting fact from that time - in 1525, from the words of the Moscow ambassador at 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, because 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 cannons 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, having all three types of troops, Vasily III and his commanders probably 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, the staves and tweeters were “swept away” and fled during a strong storm, downpour and thunderstorm, 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

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The last straw that overflowed 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

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 the centurions from the children of the boyars, the fiftieths and the 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.

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 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

Participation of 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 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.

The success of the siege of the city was the result of 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 which was occupied by “fiery” archers5. Chernov A.V. . Armed forces of the Russian state in the XV-XVII centuries. M.: “Voenizdat”, 1954. 224 pp.