Russian Naval Infantry founded by Peter the Great
History
Little is known about the Russian Naval infantrymen during the Imperial era of Russia because many of the units formed consisted of supernumerary ship crews of destroyed or immobilised Russian warships.The history of the Russian Navy could be traced back to the 16th century with Ivan the Terrible with the formation of his special team of Streltsy "sea soldiers" as part of his crew of flotilla ships.
The official history of the Naval Infantry could be traced back to the creation of the Russian ship Oryol (lit., Eagle), which launched in 1668 & sailed with a crew of 23 sailors & 35 soldiers, with the soldiers duties of boarding & capturing enemy ships & providing sentinel service under the command of Ivan Domozhirov.During the Azov campaign of the Russo-Turkish War, under Peter the Great, the soldiers in these units; many of whom were recruited by the Preobrazhensky & the Semyonovsky Regiments of the later-to-become Imperial Guards, were shown to be particularly effective in carrying out those duties. Those soldiers would later on form the Russian Navy's very first infantry regiment consisting of 4300 men.The first admiral of the regiment was appointed by no less than Tsar Peter I himself, General Admiral Fyodor Golovin, who later gave the respective order to Vice Admiral Cornelius Kruys on November 16, 1705, marking the glorious years following for the Russian Naval Infantry.Official formation
In November 16 (27), 1705, following a decree of Peter I, the first regiment "of naval equipage" (морской экипаж) (or in other words, equipped and supplied by the Russian Imperial Navy) was formed for boarding and landing operations, on the ships of the Baltic Fleet. The regiment had 1200 men (two battalions of five companies; 45 officers, & 70 non-commissioned officers), and from this original regiment began the long history of Naval Infantry within Russia.