Soldiers of the Tsar. Army and Society in Russia, 1462-1874 - John L. Keep

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New-Model Army and Questions of Cost 81
linear tactics, which called for strict disciplinary constraints. It also meant
substituting for part-time forces regular troops paid and supplied by the cen-
tral authorities. To be sure, the element of professionalism in the new-model
regiments n·as sHght, measured by the criteria of later ge.:1c1atiuu:s; rnoreover,
the government's lack of resources obliged it to quarter some of these troops in
military settlements where they were required to provide for themselves much
as the traditional forces did. In this way the distinction between the new and
old formations was less marked in practice than it was in principle; never-
theless the distinction was essential since sooner or later the new forces were
bound to supersede the old as military technology developed and the power of
the state increased.
The reform began somewhat inauspiciously in 1631 when the government of
Patriarch Filaret, preparing for war with Poland-Lithuania, took steps to
hire a substantial force of western European mercenaries. Although several
thousand men were recruited, notably by the Scot Alexander Lesly, their per-
formance in combat was uneven and after the war most of the survivors were
discharged. A few hundred, among them Lesly himself, chose to stay in
Russia, where they served principally as officers in regiments which, unlike the
mercenaries, were drawn from the native Russian population. The infantry-
men were known as soldiers (soldaty, Ger.: Sold a ten) and the cavalrymen bore
the generic designation of reytary (Ger.: Reiter); they included lancers
(kopeyshchiki, from kop ye= lance), while dragoons (draguny), who fought
on foot as well as on horseback, were considered a separate sub-category.3 The
use of German terms, also for officers' ranks (for example, kapitan for cap-
tain), indicated the authorities' desire to emulate foreign models closely,
although they_ madt: some adaptations to suit Russian conditions. During the
Smolensk War ten new-model regiments, 17,400 strong, were in service, at
which time they comprised about half the total active army. Along with the
mercenary units, they were disbanded when peace returned, probably on
grounds of expense, but within a few years fresh infantry and dragoon units
were formed to fight on the southern border; the reytary reappeared later, in
the 1650s.^4 Characteristically, an elite element came into being within the new-
model forces, just as it did among the musketeers. It consisted of two 'select
regiments' (vybornye polk1) which by the 1670s had between them no less than
10,000 men. One of them, named after Butyrki, then a Moscow suburb where
it was quartered, dated its formation from 1642 and was later accounted the
most senior regiment in the Imperial army.^5
The creation of the new-model forces greatly increased the burden of
military service for the underprivileged elements of the population. In the


J Chernov, Voor. sily, pp. 139-49; id., 'Voor. sily', pp. 442-4; Hellie, Enserfment, pp. 17G-2.
4 Hellic, Enserfment, p. 198.
l Brix, Geschichte, pp. 298-302, 402; Myshlaycvsky, 'Ofitserskiy vopros', p. 56; Bobrovsky, 'K
kharakteristike', p. 178. The normal regimental size was about 2,000 men: Stashevsky, 'Smeta',
pp. 62-4.
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