Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Russian Imperial Guard" in English language version.
The Russian Guard was first formed in the time of Peter the Great from the Preobrajensky and Semenoffsky regiments [...].
As a prince, [Peter] played war games with real regiments, the Semenovskoe and Preoobrazhenskoe. Created by Peter in the 1680s, they would become the elite Guards units in the Russian army. But at first they formed a sort of personal following and bodyguard. [...] [After the strel'tsy rebellion of 1698, t]here began a period of frenetic military reform, during which he gathered around himself a loyal and hard-working group of friends and dependents, some from the boyar class, but many from lower levels of society. Some came from the Guards regiments, some from the foreign quarter. All were capable, energetic and practical, and shared Peter's appetite for military reform. After Sweden defeated his armies at Narva, in 1700, Peter committed himself wholeheartedly to reform. That defeat increased Peter's confidence in his own reform ideas, because his Guards regiments were the only units to perform creditably at Narva.
