The liberation of Russia from the Mongol-Tatar yoke took place in 1480, exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Kulikovo. Why does the victory at Kulikovo Field in 1380 occupy a more significant place in our minds than the final victory over the Golden Horde? Although all comparisons are conditional, let's turn to events of a huge scale that are quite close to us – the Great Patriotic War. What was the most significant battle against the Nazis? The battles that determined the winners were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk. The war did not end after them, but the course of the war and its outcome were determined. A man needs to carry a heavy load over the mountain. How difficult is the path to the truth! My strength is running out, so it seems that everything has run out. I want to drop the load, sink down next to him on the rocks and die. But a person, if he has the courage, gets to the top – even if he crawls, and when he looks back from the top, when he sees the terrible steepness that he overcame, then the further path, even if it is also dangerous and difficult, will seem possible to him. And he will go through it with joy and enthusiasm. The Battle of Stalingrad was for the Soviet people the most difficult uphill climb, from the top of which the road to victory opened. And the Battle of Kulikovo for the Russian people became a milestone event in the fight against the Mongol-Tatars.
In the 16th century, a permanent Streltsy army was created in the Moscow state, the strength of which reached 40 thousand people during periods of intense external and internal situation in the 17th century. In the 17th century. in the Moscow state, the fees of datochny people (the germ of conscription) were established and the regiments of the "new system" were formed as a transitional form from the noble militia to the regular army. In 1680, the Moscow state had an army of about 165 thousand people. In addition, a significant number of Ukrainian and Don Cossacks were involved in military service during this period. Peter the Great was the creator of the regular Russian army and navy, which far surpassed the Western European standing armies in terms of manning and combat capability. Under Peter I, the Russian armed forces consisted of regular land regiments, the Navy, and military schools were established at the same time. By 1725, the Russian armed forces consisted of guards, artillery, 126 regiments of regular troops and 100,000 irregular Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry. During this period, the Baltic Fleet had 35 large linear sailing ships, 10 frigates and about 200 galley (rowing) vessels with 28 thousand. sailors and officers. In the warriors against foreign invaders in Russia, a large national people's militia was usually created, which courageously defended the independence of the Motherland. Russian Russian military art of the 18th century gained the opportunity for rapid development and became advanced in comparison with the military art of the permanent Western European armies, which were recruited by recruiting, due to the special nature of the progressive wars waged by the Russian people, a more advanced system of acquisition.
The mass armed forces of the manufacturing period of the wars, created on the basis of universal conscription, first appeared in France during the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. In the struggle against the coalition of feudal states, the French bourgeoisie could only attract the peasantry and the working population of the cities to the army. In 1794, the French armed forces consisted of 1.2 million people. They were built on the principle of short-term active service, which ensured the creation of large reserves of trained population enrolled in the reserve. After the victory of the French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century. All capitalist states began to recruit their armies also on the principle of universal military service. All citizens who had reached a certain age were accepted into the army. The soldier's mass was mainly composed of peasants, the dominant classes were represented in the army by officers. The troops were brought up in the spirit of nationalism and chauvinism.
During the wars against Napoleon I (1805-1813), the Russian armed forces were formed on the principle of indefinite service. In the future, the development of capitalism in Russia, the growth of the armed forces in the main European states and the defeat of tsarism in the Crimean War of 1854-1855 contributed to the introduction of universalmilitary service. The Military Service Charter of 1874 resolved an important problem in Russia – the creation of a reserve of trained reserves necessary for the deployment of mass armed forces in wartime. Conscription, established in Russia in 1874, was formally universal. But in the conditions of the autocratic system of Russia, many feudal and serfdom orders continued to be preserved in the Russian army. There was still a gap between the command staff and the disenfranchised, belittled mass of soldiers that separated the "master" from the "peasant". The military reform of 1874 nevertheless made it possible to create mass armed forces in Russia.
"In the 19th century, machine production was widely developed in large industrial countries. The last third of the 19th century was characterized by a significant increase in productive forces and major technical shifts in industry, which greatly contributed to an increase in the production capabilities of weapons. Conscription, introduced in all large capitalist states, in turn opened up wide opportunities for further numerical growth of the Armed Forces both in peacetime and in wartime. By the end of the 19th century, mass armies had developed in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary and other countries, built on the principles of a cadre army and a cadre navy.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the latest technical discoveries and inventions led to the emergence of new industries and further growth in the production of military equipment. The emergence and development of such industries as electrical engineering, petroleum, high-quality steels, automotive, pulp, aviation, machine tool construction, mechanical engineering, chemical production, as well as the development of railway transport and technical means of communication had a special impact on the progress of military equipment. This made it possible to provide massive land armies with new types of weapons, expand the construction of numerous naval fleets and begin production of combat aircraft. The established shortened terms of service in the regular armies up to 2-3 and in the navy up to 5 years made it possible to cover a significant number of military servicemen with military training in peacetime. By the beginning of the First World War in 1914-1918. of all those liable for military service, 58% were trained in peacetime: in France, 43% in Germany, 30% in Russia, which made it possible to increase the number of peacetime armed forces 4-5 times during mobilization" (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, State Scientific Publishing House "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, main editor B.A. Vvedensky, volume 9, 1951, p. 83).
The armed forces in the era of imperialism have a pronounced class character both in purpose and in terms of recruitment principles. The recruitment of capitalist armies by soldiers from the working people, who have to fight for the interests of the exploiting classes that are alien to them, is associated with deep political contradictions.