The upbringing of Russian musketeers: how did archers appear in Russia?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There is a country on the world map that lies on the very edge of Europe. Distant, mysterious and creepy for a civilized European. Rumor has it that it is from those lands that courageous merchants bring all the furs in which the European nobility go, and the wax from which they make almost half of the candles for Catholic churches.

And they also say that some bearded people live there, who are dark, and only the Polish crown, by the will of our Lord, protects from them the whole known world from their countless army, which is teeming with thousands of cavalry and archers, of which there is no account at all …

Instead of a preface

Okay, jokes aside. Propaganda clichés about Russia during the Livonian War, created not without the help of Russian defectors, deserve separate consideration. Today, let's talk a little about what was the forerunner of the regular Russian infantry firefighting - the Streletsky army. From the moment the first principalities of the Slavs appeared, the entire squad of the princes consisted of cavalry. The infantry was practically not used. There was a "militia", a squadron army, which was assembled from men and armed, as a rule, with anything. In most cases, she served the train and entered the battle, only in the most extreme cases.

The lack of regular infantry, as in the armies of antiquity, was due to objective reasons. First, the conditional "poverty" of state formations (zone of risky farming, lack of metals) and the consequent impossibility of maintaining such an army. Secondly, by the economic formation - early feudalism, in principle, is not very conducive to the use of armies of the ancient format. Thirdly, a man with a spear is absolutely helpless in front of a Khazarin with a bow and on horseback. Therefore, almost all the Middle Ages, the emphasis was on the cavalry, consisting of representatives of the military aristocracy.

However, progress did not stand still and firearms came to Europe. The time of the warriors clad in armor was leaving, and it was replaced by the era of firefighting and light cavalry of the steppe type.

With a hat and a squeaker

The creation of the streltsy army dates back to the 1540s. Up to this point in Russia there were already arrows - squeakers, fighters who fired (as it is not difficult to guess) from squeakers. They were very quickly able to prove their effectiveness as a support unit. Squeakers were especially valuable at the siege of cities. And since medieval war is in 6 out of 10 cases of a city siege, the value of a new type of warrior was undeniable. It was from the beepers that the first archers were recruited. According to their papers, there were 3,000 thousand people, 6 regiments, "orders", 500 people in each. Of course, God loves large battalions, but it should be understood that in practice the number of units has always been lower than according to papers. No one canceled losses in battle and bloody diarrhea during the campaign.

It is interesting: in order to fire the squeak, at that time it was necessary to do up to 20 manipulations with the weapon! Everything had to be done so that the weapon did not explode during the shot and did not misfire. Also, the shooter should have turned away at the last moment so that the sparks would not damage his eyes. An experienced archer would fire 2-3 shots per minute. The rate of the early infantry of firefighting was not on the accuracy of individual soldiers, but on firing in one volley.

All the archers were servicemen according to the instrument. They were recruited from personally free townspeople - townspeople. They settled archers in all the same cities, in separate districts, “settlements”. Initially, the archers were armed with match guns, later they were replaced by flint ones. Contrary to the stereotype, the first archers did not have any cane. Sabers were used for close combat.

The first striking performance of the archers was the campaigns to Kazan, which could hardly have been taken without them. The archers also showed themselves excellently in the capture of Astrakhan. Very quickly, the archers began to turn into a privileged group. Russian tsars cherished and protected their infantry. A salary of 4-5 rubles a year (with this money it was possible to build a house), medical care, benefits - this is what a person who got into the new army could count on. In war, the archers were not forbidden to collect trophies and loot when given the command.

Interesting fact: during the Carnal campaign, Ivan the Terrible forbade the troops to loot, including foraging at the expense of the peasants in enemy territory. The troops went with an unusually large baggage train. This was done in order "not to irritate the local population" and to delay as much as possible the moment when the Lithuanians would know about the approach of the army.

Sagittarius were exempted from the "tax" - the payment of all kinds of taxes. This was a strong privilege, because in peacetime they were allowed, among other things, to engage in crafts. But the children of the archers were automatically enrolled in the army, and the archer himself had one life, and he had to fight a lot.

The archers were abolished by the decree of Peter I. Contrary to popular stereotype, this did not happen because of the riot of 1698. In fact, this was done due to the fact that the semi-regular army of the archers was losing, first of all, in its organization to the armies of the new format. Despite this, the archers also managed to fight under Peter in the Northern War. After the abolition of the remaining archers, they were simply transferred to the army of a new format.