Roman N. Evdokimov

Associate Professor, PhD in History, Associate Professor of the Chair of History and Philosophy

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics

Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

(Moscow, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-3-10-30

Abstract. The article deals with the departmental specifics of the existence of Cossack formations under the control of the Streltsy Department of the Moscow state, covering the period from the accession of the Time of Troubles to the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author pays special attention to their geographical location, composition, organization, service activities and population dynamics. The main aim is to determine the reason for the subordination of a certain number of serving Cossacks to the specified order. On this basis, it is noted that the Cossacks of this order, equating in their status to municipal Streltsy, were included in the structure of the Streltsy army and formed by its standards (command hierarchy, organizational staff, armament, economic support, etc.) both common with the Streltsy and separate units – hundreds and regiments. At the same time, there was a definite difference between Streltsy and Cossacks – while the former was mostly infantry and performed primarily siege and town service, the latter were mostly cavalry and performed regimental service along with siege service. At the same time, the Cossack formations of the Streltsy Department, which constituted approximately one fifth of the total number of troops under its jurisdiction, were fully concentrated in the southern part of the territory of the Peripheral towns. The latter included vast open spaces of the Wild Field, where the main enemy were mobile mounted detachments of Crimean and Nogai Tatars, Zaporozhian Cherkas and, sometimes, free Cossacks, and the war was primarily of a raiding nature. These factors required to strengthen the troops of the Streletsky order with maneuverability, which only Cossack formations could provide in the necessary form. Other types of cavalry – estate or new types of cavalry (Reitars and Dragoons) – were not suitable for this purpose, as they had completely different from the Streltsy in their social and legal status and provision of personnel and system of organization.
Keywords: service class “by governmental recruitment”, servile Cossacks, municipal streltsy, Peripheral towns, Streltsy Department, Russian Empire.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Evdokimov, RN 2023, ‘Cossack Formations of the Streltsy Department of the Russian Empire in the second quarter of the 17th Century: Structure, Numbers and Use’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 3 (15), pp. 10–30, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2023-3-10-30 (in Russ.)

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