🗓 On October 1, 1550, Ivan the Terrible issued a decree “On the deployment of a selected thousand servicemen in Moscow and surrounding counties”, which laid the foundations of the first regular army.

In the middle of the XVI century, the Russian kingdom was covered by a serious administrative crisis. It was based on the most banal personnel shortage due to the rapidly expanding territories. All this required local management and coordination. The Moscow nobles could not cope with the tasks of a rapidly growing state simply physically.

Ivan managed to create a personnel resource that fed the military system of the Russian kingdom for many years. It was from the “thousanders” that the middle-level command staff was recruited.

Along with this, a streltsy army and a permanent guard service were created, and the "outfit" of artillery was singled out as an independent branch of the armed forces.

These measures to strengthen the army allowed the Russian troops to successfully defend th...