Big regiment was part of the order of battle armies of the Moscow State, which is usually divided into five regiments: large regiment, regiment the right hand, advanced regiment, guard regiment and a regiment of the left hand, sometimes three: large regiment, advanced and watchdog Shelves, also I had more rear (or zasadnыy) regiment. The appearance of ambush regiment and a special detachment of Kulikovo shows, that the regiments were created as needed and according to circumstances, rather than a single template. Since the second quarter of the XVII century the shelves right and left hands, and disappear for the last time referred to in 1629 , during their campaign against the Crimean Tatars.
big regiment, It was the main forces of the army on the march and in battle; usually, It occupies a central position in battle formation. In the formation of a unified army is one large Regiment, while individual rati, following their own, often have their large shelf.
Invoiced annually against Crimeans "Coast Men" in 1576 year was a great regiment in Serpukhov, regiment the right hand - in Mishete, advanced regiment - in Kaluga, guard regiment - in Kolomna, and the left hand - Kashira. They were going in the summer, And the servitors, is appointed to Ukraine discharge, served in two shifts, from early spring to 1 July and 1 July to snow. The regiment was heterogeneous: in the Big regiment originally consisted servitors of the Moscow Grand Prince (then - king), in the XVII century, the regiment consisted mainly of nobles. Since the time of Ivan IV in the Big regiment also included archers; the total number of soldiers sometimes reach several thousand (usually - several hundred), and in this case I had a regiment 3 — 5 governor. Large organizational regiment consisted of thousands, hundreds of, half honeycomb and dozens. At the head of a thousand was governor (tysyatsky). He commanded a hundred head, fifty - Pentecostal, ten - foreman.
Led a large regiment was Great Governor, Former chief of the governors of all the troops; rank was older than all the generals, except the governors palace. Usually appointed from among the boyars and courtiers.
Elena Milёhina
