Early Petrine Army
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 1:37 am
I am having some difficulty getting information on Peter the Great's army before the Great Northern War.
I have read Osprey but it says that details on this army are sketchy and that most of the army was disbanded after the regent Sophia's failed coup in 1682.
It does seem that the army became more like a western-style army in terms of the 2-1 ratio of muskets to pikes (in armies that still had pikes). But I'm curious that the few images of cavalry in Osprey (Peter the Greats Army: cavalry) do not include cuirassiers. Was chain mail or mirror armour still used in some units as it had been by the landed cavalry earlier in the century?
So did Peter the Great abolish the cuirassier before the Great Northern War? Did he have cuirassiers during the Great Northern War? And did the feudal cavalry still look like earlier in the century when it wore a leather padded quilt and used cavalry archers?
Also any information on whether the flintlock was used in Russia before the 18th century?
Thanks.
I have read Osprey but it says that details on this army are sketchy and that most of the army was disbanded after the regent Sophia's failed coup in 1682.
It does seem that the army became more like a western-style army in terms of the 2-1 ratio of muskets to pikes (in armies that still had pikes). But I'm curious that the few images of cavalry in Osprey (Peter the Greats Army: cavalry) do not include cuirassiers. Was chain mail or mirror armour still used in some units as it had been by the landed cavalry earlier in the century?
So did Peter the Great abolish the cuirassier before the Great Northern War? Did he have cuirassiers during the Great Northern War? And did the feudal cavalry still look like earlier in the century when it wore a leather padded quilt and used cavalry archers?
Also any information on whether the flintlock was used in Russia before the 18th century?
Thanks.