New Order Regiments

The first attempts at Western military training in Russia were made by Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky in 1609, during the De la Gardie campaign.

[2] In 1630, the Muscovite government began to hire mercenary officers in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Scotland to train a new, "foreign formation force" (inozemskii stroi) with new tactics.

A number of officers were hired abroad, especially in the Netherlands; a "war manual" on the exercise of musket and pike was translated into Russian, to help Muscovite infantry with training; a new census was conducted to levy troops by household (one from every 20–100 homes); and Tsar Alexis placed thousands of "state serfs" along the border in standing service as 'settled' dragoons and infantry, drilled in their villages year-round under foreign officers.

More importantly, though, these infantry regiments were conscripted from serfs and commoners, so it was easier to rebuild them than damaged units of traditional hereditary servitors–landed cavalry and streltsy.

[4] During the military reforms of 1648, four types of professional regiments were formed:[3] Reiters and Hussars wore Western-style armor, at first imported, but after 1654 manufactured in Tula.