After the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were annexed by the Muscovite state and following the Cheremis Wars of the 1560s–1570s, Nizhny Novgorod was left with one or two voyevodas and a garrison. It included gate guards (vorotniki) and gunners-zatinshchiki, who were subordinate to the town governor (gorodnichiy) and municipal stewards, as well as streltsy and foreign servicemen.
The Nizhny Novgorod streltsy, led by their voyevoda, were regularly summoned for state service in the country's trouble spots.
Foreigners — Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes, Germans, and Dutch — were recruited in the 16th century from among those who had come to Russia for service or from prisoners of war. Foreign officers (sotniks, company commanders) appointed to their posts received landed estates in Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd as salary: the Lithuanian Zhdan Ivanov held part of the village of Bedrina, Pan Zakhar Manev held the small estate of Goryushki, the German Denis Vrazgileyev held part of the village of Kubayevo, Klaus Klausov held the abandoned settlement of Velikoselye, and so on. Their estates were retained even after they were transferred to garrisons in other towns.
In 1614, the Nizhny Novgorod Garrison comprised more than 500 Russian streltsy and 200 foreigners. By 1629 their numbers had not diminished, even though in 1619 some 500 Nizhny Novgorod streltsy and their families had been relocated to Kaluga. In 1635, 140 Nizhny Novgorod foreign servicemen and their families were sent to Tobolsk. In the second half of the 17th century, right up to Peter I's Azov campaigns, the Nizhny Novgorod Streltsy Prikaz listed 500 streltsy on its rolls. The number of gate guards and gunners-zatinshchiki remained constant. In the early 17th century the annual pay of servicemen was: 6 chetverti of grain, "the same in oats" per man, and in cash: a pyatidesyatnik (squad leader of fifty) received 6 rubles, a desyatnik (squad leader of ten) 5 rubles, and a common soldier 4 rubles. However, a government decree of 1622 halved these rates. Gate guards consistently received 2 rubles per year.
Garrison servicemen paid no state taxes and frequently practiced crafts and trade free of any dues. The streltsy lived in separate slobodas (settlements) within the city, while foreigners lived outside the timber walls of Nizhny Novgorod Ostrog.
In the summer of 1614, 400 Nizhny Novgorod streltsy and 200 foreigners served on "river duty" in Astrakhan; in 1615, 180 Nizhny Novgorod streltsy defended Pskov against the Swedes. In 1630, 302 men from Nizhny Novgorod were serving in the Moscow garrison; in 1646, 160 streltsy from Nizhny Novgorod were guarding the fairway of the Volga near Cherny Yar and 200 were stationed in Arkhangelsk; they subsequently took part in the Crimean campaigns (1687 and 1689) and the Azov campaigns (1695 and 1696). From 1697, responsibility for guarding the city was placed on the zemskaya izba (local administrative office). The disbanding of the streltsy regiments in 1699 deprived Nizhny Novgorod of its main garrison force. By the early 18th century, only wounded and disabled servicemen remained here.