Editing Battle of Narva (1700) (section)

== Background ==
During the 17th century, [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]] was less advanced technologically than the rest of Europe, a condition which extended to its armed forces.<ref name="swift">Peter The Great – Swift</ref> Despite this shortcoming, [[Peter the Great of Russia]] was keen to get "an adequate opening to the Baltic" by conquering parts of [[Swedish Empire|Sweden's]] Baltic provinces that Russia had lost during the [[Time of Troubles]].{{sfn|Massie|1980|p=323}} However, there was a problem: while most states' armies of the time consisted of poorly trained militia and small contingents of mercenaries, Sweden had a professional army, one of the largest and most disciplined of northern Europe.<ref name="swift"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://nationalinterest.org/blog/sweden-was-military-giant%E2%80%94until-it-invaded-russia-17980 |title=Sweden Was a Military Giant—Until It Invaded Russia |date=8 October 2016 |access-date=4 February 2018 |archive-date=31 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131123153/http://nationalinterest.org/blog/sweden-was-military-giant%E2%80%94until-it-invaded-russia-17980 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Peter the Great would drastically modernize Russia in the coming years, but the army with which he traveled in 1700 was still poorly drilled. Preparing for war, he decided to form 31 new regiments. At the same time, in the spring of 1700, a revision of the officer corps was made whereby most officers were sent into retirement or to garrison units to serve without pay. A catastrophic shortage of command personnel (up to 70% at the company level) resulted. The vacancies were filled with young Moscow noblemen who had neither the experience of command nor the experience of service in the infantry nor regular military training—their traditional places were elite irregular cavalry or court service. Non-commissioned officers also experienced serious problems—they were not veteran soldiers but were elected from recruits.<ref>Великанов В.С. К вопросу об офицерском корпусе русской армии накануне и на начальном этапе Великой Северной войны. // Война и оружие: Новые исследования и материалы. Труды Пятой Международной научно-практической конференции, 14–16 мая 2014 года. СПб.: ВИМАИВиВС, 2014. pp. 338–354. [http://rusmilhist.blogspot.ru/2014/05/russian-officer-corps-in-beginning-of.html Russian officer corps in the beginning of the Great Northern war (English summary)]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301225037/http://rusmilhist.blogspot.ru/2014/05/russian-officer-corps-in-beginning-of.html |date=2018-03-01 }}</ref>