Modern Russian military ranks trace their roots to the Table of Ranks established by Peter the Great. Most of the rank names were borrowed from existing German/Prussian, French, English, Dutch, and Polish ranks upon the formation of the Russian regular army in the late 17th century. Russian Tsardom The Kievan Rus had no standing army apart from small druzhina (дружи́на), a permanent group of personal guards for the local ruler (knyaz, prince); an individual member of such a unit called a druzhinnik (дружи́нник). In times of war, the knyaz raised a militia comprising volunteers from the peasantry, and the druzhina served as the core of the troops. Each local knyaz served as the military leader of his troops. Such arrangements had no need for permanent ranks or positions; they were created ad hoc, based on the task(s) in hand. Upon the formation of Strelets troops in the mid-16th century, the low-level commanding officers were appointed to one of the following ranks: strelets (стреле́ц), a basic soldier desyatnik (деся́тник, 'of ten men'), acting as sergeant/corporal sotnik (со́тник, 'of hundred men'), acting as captain These were not personal ranks and were retained only as long as the officer held the position. For battles, the knyaz organized his troops into temporary high-level units, usually a polk (полк, Old Slavonic for group of troops), a regiment commanded by a golova (голова́, head) or voyevoda (воево́да, war leader); these commanding positions were not permanent and did not persist after the battle. The cossack cavalry units had their own ranks of Kazak (коза́к), yesaul (есау́л) and ataman (атама́н); they were not comparable to the strelets ranks. Upon the formation of standing regiments (prikaz, later polk) by Ivan IV, new ranks insinuated themselves into the hierarchy between the existing grades: pyatidesyatnik (пятидеся́тник, of fifty men) acting as lieutenant, golova acting as colonel of the regiment (also, tysyatskiy (ты́сяцкий, 'of thousand men'). Later, a polugolova (полуголова́. half-golova) rank appeared; eventually golova was renamed polkovnik (полко́вник, of the polk), and polugolova was renamed podpolkovnik (sub-polkovnik). As usual, voyevoda was simply a commander of a large military group and not a rank of any kind. Later, under the Romanov dynasty the companies of foreign mercenaries were formed; these incorporated the foreign ranks of Lieutenant and Rittmeister. They were later changed into the New Regiments of the Streltsy Troops and more Western ranks were adopted, including General. Finally, by 1680 the