The foreign policy of Peter the Great was quite ambitious. The young Russian Tsar longed to win access to the seas that do not freeze for his great empire. In order to achieve these goals, serious military reforms of Peter the Great were carried out, as a result of which a strong army was created. A regular army appears in Russia under Peter. According to legal data, the beginning of its construction was laid in 1699 - the military reforms of Peter. The king issued a decree in which the sources of the formation of the regiments were identified.
Hunting people were recruited to the regiments, who were free subjects and received a salary of eleven rubles a year; affluent people, who were called recruits and recruited from peasants. The recruitment process was determined by the military
reforms of Peter the Great: from the monastery peasants from 25 yards there was one recruit, the nobles who served in the civil service, from the 30 yards of one recruit were sent to the Russian army, and the noblemen-farmers who served in the army gave from 50 yards one recruit.
During the period when the military reforms of Peter 1 (1699-1725) were carried out, 53 recruitment recruits were conducted. Recruits, as well as their children, who were born while serving in the tsarist army by their father, were freed from serfdom. However, the fate of the recruit was life-long service in the army of Great Russia. Each recruit had a special brand on his left hand, testifying to his fate. It is worth noting that they were given uniforms and weapons, and they also underwent very serious military training.
The recruitment system in the era of Peter the Great evolved over five years. By the end of the reign of the Russian tsar, the army of Russia reached 318 thousand troops. Soldiers and army officers were required to possess certain knowledge, be proactive and disciplined. These conditions are an important condition in any army.
"Military Charter" was published in 1716 and remained unchanged for over 150 years. In accordance with it, soldiers should be executive and disciplined, and officers should be independent and active. The military reforms of Peter 1 included the active training of officer personnel for the Russian army. As a result, the Russian army became one of the strongest in Europe. The Northern War became an indicator of this.
In addition, with the simultaneous creation of a regular Russian army, the construction of the Russian fleet was continued. By 1702, 23 galleys, 28 ships, and a mass of small vessels were built in Voronezh. True, the fate of the Azov fleet was sad: some of the ships were sold to Turkey, and some were completely destroyed. However, already in 1703 a large Olonetsk shipyard was built in the Baltic. In the Baltic, at the very height of the Northern War, the Russian fleet consisted of 22 ships, five frigates and many small sizes of ships and boats. It is worth noting that by the end of the reign of Peter the Russian fleet totaled thirty thousand people. That is why the military reforms of Peter the Great were both very timely and productive. Thanks to them, Russia was able to successfully complete the Northern War and gain access to the sea.