There is a standing army with a peace strength of about 7000 officers and men.
The active or standing army comprises 18 battalions of infantry, 12 regiments of cavalry, 8 regiments of artillery, and 4 battalions of engineers.
The equipment of the standing army is thoroughly modern, the infantry being provided with Mauser rifles and the artillery with Krupp batteries.
An ambitious, energetic sister of Ivan, well known in Russian history as Sophia Alexeyevna,instigated the stryeltsi(strelitz), as the troops Sophia of the unreformed standing army were called, to upset Alexey- the arrangement.
But this scattered and heterogeneous empire required a large standing army and a strong central government to hold it together.
