ABSTRACT
As Peter Alekseevich Romanov and his co-tsar and half-brother, Ivan, began their personal rule in 1689, the reputation of Russian arms did not stand high either at home or abroad. Incomplete reform under Tsar Fedor, followed by two ignominious retreats from Crimea (1687 and 1689), deflected attention from hard-earned skills and battle-experienced men. The Crimean expeditions were also closely connected to the just-deposed Regent Sophia, which compounded distaste for the military. The army was not recalled to action for six years, one of the longer battlefield lulls in the Russian seventeenth century.
