The rifles troops (russian: стрелковые войска, English transliteration - strelkovie voiska) often called ''rifle troops'' in English, is the Russian

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

combat Arm of Service that, since 1857, had been armed with

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

s (currently assault rifles) as their primary firearm. The name applies equally to the Arm of Service and its individual units (rifles russian: стрелки) or an individual soldier (russian: стрелoк).

Imperial Rifles troops

By the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

had a large number of territorially based rifle corps (not to be confused with the

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

as a formation), including: * Leib-Guard Rifles - four regiments (The Life-Guards Yegersky Regiment, although a light infantry unit in name, was numbered among the guard and not the rifles regiments) * Dismounted rifles regiments of the Guard cavalry divisions (three) * The Rifles Corps (32 regiments and the Rifles officer school regiment) * Finnish Rifles Corps (24 regiments) - consisted of Russians living in Finland * Caucasus Rifles Corps (24 regiments) * Siberian Rifles Corps (88 regiments, and 4 combined rifles regiments) *

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...

Rifles Corps (40 regiments) * Dismounted cavalry rifles (17 regiments) * Caucasian cavalry rifles regiment * Trans-Amur mounted rifles regiment (russian: Заамурский конный стрелковый полк)(This was a Cossack border guard regiment) * Polish Rifles (six battalions) * Czechoslovak Rifles (four regiments) * Armenian volunteer rifles

druzhina In the medieval history of Kievan Rus' and Early Poland, a druzhina, drużyna, or družyna ( Slovak and cz, družina; pl, drużyna; ; , ''druzhýna'' literally a "fellowship") was a retinue in service of a Slavic chieftain, also called ''knyaz ...

s (six battalions) * Latvian Rifles (eight regiments) * Georgian volunteer rifles druzhinas (two battalions combined into a regiment)

Soviet rifles troops

During the Soviet Army period the name was amalgamated with the new mode of motorised manoeuvre capability by the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

to create motor-rifle troops (russian: мотострелковые войска) as the most numerous of all types of ground forces.

References

Military units and formations of the Russian Empire Infantry units and formations of the Soviet Union {{Soviet-stub