45 teenth century. These campaigns demonstrated that the Russian cavalry was very much inferior to these more disciplined Swedish and Polish cavalry and infantry units, whose organization and tactics were adapted to the modern weapons they carried. Having learned from these experiences, the Russian government under the leadership of Patriarch Filaret took measures to organize military units of the same type. For this purpose, foreign officers were recruited to train the Russian units in the tactics and organization in common use in Western European armies. Ten regiments of this new type were set up during the Russo-Polish war of 1632— 34, and with their 17,400 officers and men they accounted for more than half of the 34,500 man Russian force which participated in the clashes at Smolensk. The new regiments had a set organizational structure with a continuous cadre of officers and soldiers, and they were armed and outfitted by the state. Their supply was likewise organized and paid for by the state during the campaigns themselves. That the new units were more effective than the old cavalry became apparent in the war against Poland, since, although Smolensk was not retaken, the Russians did succeed in forcing the Poles to surrender their claims to the Russian throne. After the war, however, the newly formed regiments were disbanded and the foreign officers released from service, and once again the anachronistic cavalry units were relied upon to provide the security of the realm.^“ The so-called Thirteen Years’ War that broke out between Russia and Poland in 1654 proved to be a turning point in the development of the Russian army. The Russians were successful at the beginning of the war, but because of their lack of infantry, these initial successes were not sustained; once again the question of modernizing the Russian army came to the fore. A decisive step toward the creation of a standing army supported by the state was taken during the period 1658—1663, when annual recruiting was conducted to man regiments of the new type. The new regiments, consisting mainly of infantry, became the principal element of the Russian forces on the Smolensk front already by IbbO.'*^ As Richard Hellie has noted, the Thirteen Years’ War (1654—1667) brought about a change in that “the army based on the middle service class archers, led by wellborn men protected by the ‘system of places,’ was phased out gradually and without severity in favor of a military force based on peasant infantry soldiers outfitted with firearms and under the nearly exclusive command of foreign officers. Finally, a military reform introduced in 1680 transformed the old Muscovite army into an organization of regiments of a new type. NobleIbid., 172. ■" Ibid., 194—195. Ibid., 257. 42
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