Russian Uniforms in the Battle of Poltava

An impression of how the Russian army looked like in the battle of Poltava is shown on this page. The uncertainties are however many because the pieces of information about Russian uniforms are few and fragmentary. The uniform colours also changed frequently when regiments were issued new uniforms, which happened within regular intervals. All uniforms shown on this page are therefore more or less specualtive. But the known uniform information is listed on special pages which you can access by clicking on the images.

The order of battle on this page is mostly based on information from Bertil Wennerholm's book "Emporterade troféer" (specifically the so called Peter the Great's plan). None of the horse grenadier regiments are however mentioned by their individual names in that order of battle. These have been identified by using Angus Konstam's book "Poltava 1709 - Russia comes of age". The presentation of the dragoon regiments in Heinske's and Volkonsky's commands are based on information from the Russian historian Pavel Krutov.

Centre (Was deployed in two lines. Each regiment had half of its battalions in each line. If the number of battalions in a regiment was not even then the odd battalion stood in the first line)
Golitsyn's Division
	Bieltz' Grenadier Regiment (1 battalion)	Preobrazhenski (4 battalions)	Semenovski (3 battalions)	Ingermanlandski (3 battalions)	Astrakhanski (2 battalions)
	Bieltz' Grenadier Regiment (1 battalion)	Preobrazhenski (4 battalions)	Semenovski (3 battalions)	(Possibly boots instead of shoes)
Repnin's Division
Repnin's Division	Repnin's Grenadier Regiment (2 battalions)	Kievski (3 battalions)	Schlüsselburgski (2 battalions)	Narvski (3 battalions)	Novgorodski (2 battalions)	Butyrski (2 battalions)
Hallart's Division
Hallart's Division	Moskovski (3 battalions)	Sibirski (2 battalions)	Pskovski (2 battalions)	Kazanski (2 battalions)	Vologodski (2 battalions)	Nizjegorodski (2 battalions)	Busch's Grenadier Regiment (2 battalions)
Left (South) Wing

	Yaroslavski	Novgorodski	Vologodski	Ingermanlandski	Kievski	Life Regiment
	Redoubt Garrison (Including the ten redoubts passed by the Swedish army and possibly two redoubts at Yakovtsy)

	Belgorodski (3 battalions)	Verden's Regiment (2 battalions)	Yamburgski (2 battalions)	Nelidov's Regiment (2 battalions)	K. Nekludov's Regiment (2 battalions)	Nechaev's Streltsy Regiment (2 battalions)
Post at Yakovtsy (Fought the Vallack Regiment)				Artillery (Kargopolski Regiment added manpower to the gun crews)
	Rostovski Dragoon Regiment	Ustyuzhski Dragoon Regiment		Artillery Regiment			Kargopolski Infantry Regiment
According to Peter Englund there were eight squadrons (i.e. two dragoon regiments) at Yakovtsy together with two infantry battalions. I have got the names of the dragoon regiments from Nicholas Dorrell's book "The Dawn of the Tsarist Empire". The infantry is however unknown but they may have been part of the force mentioned as garrison in the redoubts. Heinske's and Rentzel's Commands (Did not participate in the main battle but fought the lost Swedish battalions commanded by Roos)

Smolenski Dragoon Regiment	Troitski Dragoon Regiment	Yamburgski Dragoon Regiment	Kargopolski Dragoon Regiment	Ranenburgski Dragoon Squadron	Koporski (2 battalions)	Tobolski (2 battalions)	von Fichtenheim's Regiment (1 battalion)
Reinforcements to Rentzel		Left in the Fortified Camp

Rostovski (2 battalions)	du Bois' Grenadier Regiment (1 battalion)	Bieltz' Grenadier Regiment (1 battalion)	Apraxin's Regiment (1 battalion) (Yaroslavski?)	Troitski (2 battalions)	Rentzel's Regiment (2 battalions)	Lefortski Regiment (2 battalions)	du Bois' Grenadier Regiment (1 battalion)
Volkonsky's Command (Six dragoon regiments which were detached to support Skoropadsky's Cossacks)

	Azovski	Kazanski	Novotroitski	Ryazanski	S:t Petersburgski	Tverski
		Poltava Garrison

	Tverski (2 battalions)	Ustyuzhski (2 battalions)	Permski (1 battalion)	Apraxin's Regiment (1 battalion) (Yaroslavski?)	von Fichtenheim's Regiment (1 battalion)	Poltava Cossack Regiment (a few companies)
	Artillery Regiment (c. 100 men)					Armed townspeople

Finally I have to mention that Höglund's book states that many more regiments participated in the battle of Poltava than those that are presented here. Specifically an additional 16 regiments and then Höglund have still left out three of the regiments on this page. Uniform information for these 16 regiments can be found here.