Amusing troops

• Since 1682, the Moscow Kremlin Palace had a special amusing playground .
• From the spring of 1683, the 11-year-old Peter crowned in the Kingdom — physically developed beyond his years — transferred military training to the field, and from that time the old game of soldiers turned into real military-practical training. Captain Fyodor Sommer (Stepan Sommer), a fireman, built a small fortress with guns in the amusing village of Vorobievo , shooting out of them on the day of his birth by Peter Alekseevich, having aroused a love for artillery in him. At the end of this year, adult hunting people began to be recorded as “amusing”. The first on November 30, 1683, the court groom S. L. Bukhvostov signed up for fun . He is considered the first soldier .
• In 1684, in the suburban village of Preobrazhensky (in one of the groves near the village), a playful town “Presburg” was built by a foreigner F. F. Timmerman , and Peter himself also worked on it; then amusing troops stormed this fortress and maneuvered on two sides.
• After the first test, the Sovereign arranged approximate sieges and attacks of fortresses every summer, made practical trips with Poteshny to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda and the Lucanian Desert , and sometimes further.
• In 1686, the 14-year-old Peter started with his "amusing" artillery. Firearms master Fyodor Sommer showed the king grenade and firearms. From the Pushkarsky order were delivered 16 guns. To control the heavy guns, the king took from the Konyushenny order of those who wanted to military affairs adult ministers, who were dressed in foreign-made uniforms and identified as amicable gunners .
• In 1687, the teacher of Peter Romanov, Franz Timmerman, continued to teach him geometry, fortifications, and other sciences, and the Dutchman Karsten Brant began to teach Peter carpentry (building ships), managing ships, and so on, first learned Yauza , and then - in a funny village Izmailovo Prosyansky pond . Later driving moved to Plescheevo Lake .
• In 1691, amusing troops received proper organization and were divided into two infantry regiments ( Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky ). According to the division of Poteshnyh, their classes turned from children's games into a proper study of the front , that is, combat and march orders, and it was carried out in a new way, by the Tsar himself, the amended Charter. The camp of 1691 was distinguished by a particular activity, first the exercises in the presence of the Tsar, then the maneuvers, lasted two months. Straight from the Poteshny camp went to the Trinity Lavra and from there along the Yaroslavl road to the city of Pereyaslavl , where they were at the descent of the frigates built there, and then they served on ships as sailors .
• In October 1691, during the first independent campaign of Peter on the Presburg fortress , which was the "capital city" of Prince Fedor Yuryevich (defending the "enemy"), the prince himself was appointed generalissimo and acted under the name of Friedrich Romodanovsky. As a result of the “great and terrible battle”, “equal to the doomsday,” captain Peter Alekseev , that is, Tsar Peter himself, took prisoner of the Generalissimo.
• In 1692, the amusing regiments were consolidated into the 3rd Moscow Elective Regiment (the 1st was considered to be the Lefortovsky Regiment , the 2nd was the Butyrsky ) under the command of Major General A. M. Golovin .
• Comrade troops, in addition to ordinary exercises, quite often together with other few regular regiments , made maneuvers in the suburbs of Moscow, which sometimes lasted more than a month, and they usually acted against forces formed by the system of the time in Russia, that is, from the militia .
• In 1693 and in 1694, Peter, together with the Transfigurations, commanded by Prince- Caesar F. U. Romodanovsky, made two sea voyages to the city of Arkhangelsk .

40 streltsy , 8 singers ( scorers ), two Karlov and 10 amusing with the trumpeter was part of the elite " hundred " retinue of the king, who in 1693 made the first raid to the White Sea

• Military training exercises under the guidance of foreigners in the Russian service ended Kozhukhovskim maneuvers in 1694 . And then there were clashes, deeds, battles and battles - the basis of the Russian army of a new look.

During these years, Peter I began to take shape views on military education .

A. M. Nazarov writes that the goal was to prepare future warriors and military leaders , for whom “service would not be a heavy fasting burden,” but on the contrary - “lapidary workshop in which they would become a crystal of amazing brilliance.” Taking into account his own experience, Peter and his associates developed the first in the history of Russia program of military professional orientation of young men.

The program of military professional orientation of young men included:

1. the development of physical strength and dexterity of children 9 - 12 years old by playing on the air and gymnastic exercises; the military system was not given special importance;
2. development in children of courage and enterprise by introducing into games a certain amount of danger and risk. For this purpose, climbing on cliffs, ravines, transitions on shaky bridges, logs, games of robbers were used. During this game, "amusing" comprehended the guard service , intelligence , and experience came to the realization that "the mind and art are more victorious than the many";
3. learning to use weapons: not only with rifle techniques, but also with the ability to shoot and prick. Tsar Peter from the age of 12 shot from a cannon;
4. familiarization of the "amusing" with military equipment and training to use it;
5. developing discipline, a sense of honor and camaraderie;
6. the knowledge of the fatherland and the clarification of its historical tasks by acquainting the "amusing" with the brightest and most gloomy pages of Russian history, as well as with the forces and aspirations of the most dangerous neighbors;
7. development of love for the sovereign and fatherland;
8. inculcation of "amusing" love for the army.

Transfigurations and Semenov became the forerunner of the Russian Guard and the basis of the future regular army of Russia . On their first trip to the Turkish fortress of Azov, they left on April 30, 1695 . In the future, participation in the Northern War gave both regiments the opportunity to demonstrate combat training and to match themselves with the model of that period of time, the troops of Charles XII .

• In memory of the Poteshny troops in Moscow until 1917 there was the Poteshnaya embankment (now Gannushkina embankment ).
• There is still Poteshnaya Street , located on the site of the Poteshny town in the village of Preobrazhensky, where at the end of the 17th century there were fun.
• There are streets in memory of the first soldier S. L. Bukhvostov - 1st Street Bukhvostova , 2nd Street Bukhvostova , 3rd Street Bukhvostova , and a monument to the first soldier in Moscow.

• Army of Peter I
• Army fleet
• Navy of Peter I

• B. B. Glinsky , “Royal Children and Their Mentors” M. , 1899
• Maslovsky, "Notes on the history of military art in Russia";
• Pogodin, "The Seventeen First Years of Peter the Great"
• "Peter Brigade" (" Russian Old ", 1883 , t. XXXVIII, May book, p. 239-272).
• P. Dirin. Fun regiments of Peter the Great.
• P. O. Bobrovsky . Amusing and the beginning of the Transfiguration Regiment. - SPb .: Type. General Directorate of Lines, 1899.
• Amusing Forces // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Amusing troops of Peter I in the Alexander settlement.
• Peter’s “Fun”, Childhood and Adolescence of Peter I (1672 - 1689), Peter I Funny Shelves, Russian Historical Library.