Nicholas's Guard 2. How Emperor Nicholas II was actually guarded. Company of Palace Grenadiers

In those battles, almost the majority of the personnel of the guards regiments of the last recruitment died, which left Emperor Nicholas II without the best, most loyal troops on the eve of the February crisis of 1917.

After all four Russian armies of the Southwestern Front successfully overcame the enemy’s defensive line and developed a deep “Lutsk” breakthrough, before Commander-in-Chief A.A. Brusilov was faced with the question of the further direction of the breakthrough. He had an alternative: to attack Lvov or Brest-Litovsk through Kovel. On reflection, he decided that the 8th Army of General A.M. Kaledina would have to act together with the troops of the Western Front in the general direction of Brest-Litovsk, which implied an assault on Kovel. And this assault could not be carried out except head-on - through the swampy valley of the Stokhod River...

Kovel, which was the key to all of Polesie, was fortified by the enemy in advance. In addition to the fact that the city was a powerful railway junction, it covered the exit to Brest-Litovsk, and therefore to the rear of the entire southern wing of the German front. Many railways converged in Kovel, so it was very important for both sides, especially since the rail network of the Eastern Theater of Operations was very poor.

A Russian capture of Kovel would undoubtedly further divide the Austrians and Germans in their efforts to counter the Russian advance. North of Kovel there is a difficult swampy area. It was this strip that divided the German and Austro-Hungarian defensive lines on the Eastern Front into two unequal parts.

The capture of Kovel implied not only the cooperation of the two Russian fronts in their offensive in Poland, but also an operational gap between the Germans and Austrians.
The enemy would have to hastily roll up the constantly exposed flanks and thereby, retreating in different directions, trying in vain to maintain the unity of the defensive front, give the Russians the territory occupied in 1915. With pressure alone and a constant threat from the flanks in a breakthrough in the Kovel direction, Russian troops would force the Austro-Germans to retreat without a fight.

The enemy also perfectly understood the importance of Kovel. Therefore, already in the last days of May, German units of generals Luttwitz, Bernhardi, Marwitz and others began to be transferred here: already on June 1, the 10th German Army Corps was completely concentrated here. This was the same Lower Saxon corps of General W. von Lüttwitz (19th Hanoverian and 20th Brunswick infantry divisions), which since the spring of 1915 (Gorlitsky breakthrough) played the role of a “fire” unit on the Eastern Front.

The most selective here was the 20th Brunswick Infantry Division. Even at the beginning of the war, during the fighting on the Western Front, she was surrounded by the French in the Vosges. The French offered the surrounded Germans to surrender, but they chose to die rather than submit. The Brunswickers fought their way out of encirclement with a furious bayonet attack. For this feat, the division received the name “Steel” (by analogy, we had the “Iron” division of General A.I. Denikin) and the right to wear skulls (“Adam’s Head”) on their caps and helmets.

It is characteristic that the Germans strengthened all directions with their divisions, interspersing German troops between the Austrians. Such stripes, first of all, made it possible to use numerous German equipment, especially heavy batteries, in all dangerous directions.
The main factor was that in the presence of the Germans, the Austrians no longer fled, but fought.

Only German units that made up the maneuver group of General A. von Linsingen went to Kovel. Austrian troops, transferred from Italy and from the rear units, reinforced the shaky front in the Carpathians and in the Lvov direction.

At a time when every hour was precious for an offensive, by decision of the command, the Russians began a protracted regrouping. Our command, trying to protect itself from espionage activities, began the practice of evicting the “unreliable” population from the newly conquered territory. Thirteen thousand German colonists and members of their families were evicted from Lutsk, Dubensky and Kremenets districts in a week.

Suspending the offensive of Kaledin's 8th Army in order to align the lagging armies with it allowed General A. von Linsingen to gain time and pull up his few reserves to key points in the folds of the terrain. The Germans immediately, during the fighting, began building a powerful fortified area from scattered rear positions. Thanks to the fortification of the area, the Austro-Germans were able to stop the Russians with smaller forces.

The Germans also began to concentrate aviation in the Kovel region, which they skillfully used in battles for crossings across the swampy valley of the Stokhod River. A contemporary wrote: “Worried by the rapid advance of Russian troops, the German command transferred large forces of fighter aircraft to the Kovel area from near Verdun, and the balance of forces in the air in this combat area changed significantly. German aviation managed very quickly, thanks to its overwhelming numerical and technical superiority, to seize complete air supremacy and practically suppress the activities of Russian reconnaissance and spotter aircraft and thereby ensure complete freedom for its reconnaissance and spotter aircraft.”

In the battles for Kovel, the Germans carried out continuous bombing attacks on the location of Russian troops, as well as on forested areas near the front line, where Russian units could be located. In addition, the active actions of German aviation did not allow the Russians to conduct reconnaissance of the enemy defensive lines on which the attack was planned. This circumstance, for example, became one of the reasons for the failure of the July offensive of the Special Army troops on Kovel, since aerial reconnaissance, due to opposition from enemy aircraft, was unable to reveal the location of German heavy batteries.

In the summer of 1916 Eastern front, as the researcher says, “the bulk of the German air force” was transferred.

In the Russian Active Army on July 1, 1916, there were only two and a half hundred serviceable aircraft, and losses reached fifty percent of total number aircraft per month.
During the July battles in the Kovel direction, German aviation carried out bombing strikes almost every day on the main supply base for the troops storming the Kovel fortified area - Lutsk. Only by mid-August, through the efforts of a specially created fighter air group of the front, consisting of three air squads, did the Russian side manage to wrest air supremacy in the Kovel direction from the hands of the enemy. But by this time the offensive impulse of the Russian armies had already dried up, and the enemy had managed to turn the Kovel fortified area into an impregnable fortress.

German reserves radically strengthened the defense capability of the Austrian troops, and the enemy front began to acquire stability. From the beginning of June, the Austro-Germans began to launch counterattacks on the armies of the Southwestern Front in all areas of the breakthrough. The lack of heavy artillery prevented the Russian troops from dislodging the Germans from their positions in front of Kovel with one swift blow. It was necessary to bring up slowly arriving reserves.

According to some modern researchers, by refusing to advance in the Lvov direction, General Brusilov transferred the initiative to the Germans. As a result, instead of bypassing the flanks of the Linsingen group, which would have forced the Germans to voluntarily clear Kovel so as not to be surrounded, an incorrect and dangerous decision was made to apply frontal pressure through an open assault on the swampy valley of the Stokhod River, which represented a strong natural obstacle. A war participant said this about this area: “The Stokhod River itself is small, about 150–170 miles long, but deep (with the exception of certain sections). It flows through a wide swampy area, branching into branches, the number of which reaches twelve, which is why this river is called Stokhod. These branches either merged into 1-3 channels, then diverged again, making the river deceptive, both in its depth and in passability. And, despite its, at first glance, insignificance, this river literally played a fatal role for the Russians in 1916.”

By June 25, units of the 3rd and 8th armies, crushing the fiercely fighting enemy, reached the Stokhod River, splitting the enemy's resistance front into a number of scattered resisting sections. Some units - the 30th Army Corps (General A.M. Zayonchkovsky) of the 8th Army and the 1st Turkestan Corps (General S.M. Sheideman) of the 3rd Army - managed to cross the river on the move and cling to it left bank.

The left bank of the Stokhod River is high and protected by natural barriers. The right bank, to which the Russian troops reached, is, on the contrary, low and flat, completely shot through by artillery and machine guns. The enemy managed to burn his bridges, and General Brusilov did not have free reserves for the last desperate throw: the spread of forces in several directions had an effect.

At the same time, the Germans still managed to knock out our troops with counterattacks from the bridgeheads they occupied on the left bank of the Stokhod: the lack of heavy artillery that could support the infantry in the battle for the bridgeheads affected.
Thus, the offensive that had begun successfully fizzled out on the banks of Stokhod. The enemy resolutely suppressed all attempts by our troops to cross the river a second time on a wide front. It was also not possible to connect the small bridgeheads into one. The German troops defending the Kovel direction certainly fought skillfully and courageously.

The Germans removed reserve batteries and even part of the advanced ones from other, unattacked sectors of the front, and threw them towards Kovel. If the German reserves in the East were barely enough to hold the front north of Polesie, then technically the enemy still had superiority. Therefore, the enemy could to some extent maneuver the equipment, directing the last resources to the most dangerous areas, in in this case- near Kovel.

To storm the enemy fortified area near Kovel, the so-called The Guards group, whose command was appointed by the commander of the Guards Corps (commanded from the beginning of the war until the end of August 1915), Adjutant General V.M. Bezobrazova.

According to contemporaries, he was loved in the guards units, giving him the nickname “Voevoda”.

The Guards Group included the 1st and 2nd Guards Infantry Corps, the Guards Cavalry Corps, as well as the experienced 1st and 30th Army Corps attached for reinforcement, as well as the 5th Cavalry Corps from the 8th Army.

The Guard, which last took part in battles in the fall of 1915, was eager to prove itself. During the winter of 1915–1916, the troops were replenished, trained and morally strengthened. A guardsman who participated in the war writes:

“Several months of standing in reserve gave the guards units the opportunity to bring themselves into excellent condition. Numerous wounded, battle-hardened in 1915, returned to duty, and young, unfired soldiers were eager to keep up with their older comrades. Everyone's spirit was excellent. Training and discipline left nothing to be desired.”

However, tactical training in the guards units, especially among recruits, left much to be desired. War participant V.V. Vishnevsky, who served as a volunteer in the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment, recalled that during the period the guards were in the rear, they trained in almost the same way as before the war in the Krasnoselsky camps.

In particular, V.V. Vishnevsky writes: “The enormous experience of positional warfare, which we had been conducting since the autumn of 1915, remained little known or almost unknown to fresh recruits... We were taught new tactics a day or two before the offensive on Stokhod, and even then only cursorily. Only the company commander received a book with instructions, which was stamped “Secret”. Reinforcements did not know how to act confidently under fire: in attacks, when breaking through multi-row trench lines intertwined with wire on all sides, etc. These skills were somehow created on the fly, but they were not able to transfer them to the reinforcements. But we compacted the earth and were perfectly level, no worse than the personnel officers at the anniversary parades in 1912 and 1913.”

The whole point was that the guard, withdrawn to the reserve after the losses of the Great Retreat of 1915, was trained according to peacetime canons, with minimal front-line experience.
... On July 6, the Guards Group of General Bezobrazov was advanced between the 3rd and 8th Armies, replacing the 39th Army Corps of General. S.F. Stelnitsky. The site for its attack was personally chosen by the commander-in-chief of the front, Brusilov, and then confirmed by the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General. M.V. Alekseev. In other words, gen. V.M. Bezobrazov was a simple executor, whose lot it fell to simply build guard divisions for the attack. And, of course, carry out these attacks, but again with the amount of artillery that was allocated for him by higher headquarters.

Alas, the terrain over which the guards divisions were to advance could not even help concentrate heavy batteries. Subsequently, high-ranking generals seemed to completely forget that Bezobrazov, before the start of the operation, protested about the disastrous site chosen for the offensive of the guard troops. They also forgot about their own participation in this matter. As a participant in the war says, all this “did not prevent the real author - Adjutant General Alekseev - from launching an investigation into the reasons for weak achievements, silencing his authorship, and - as a result - replacing Adjutant General Bezobrazov, including the guard in the new Special Army of General Gurko.”

The July offensive, as conceived by the headquarters of the Southwestern Front, was to have a pronounced attacking character based on the principle of striking with a very large mass on a narrow section of the front. At the same time, as many as three armies were supposed to participate in the new attack in the Kovel direction - a group of generals. V.M. Bezobrazov (four infantry and two cavalry corps), 3rd Army General. L.V. Lesha (four and a half infantry and one cavalry corps), 8th Army General. A.M. Kaledin (five infantry corps, one cavalry division). It is clear that such a mass of infantry could not crowd on a narrow section of the front, so the attack on Kovel head-on, through the swampy Stokhod valley, was entrusted to Bezobrazov’s newly formed group. The other armies (3rd and 8th) were supposed to provide the main attack from the flanks.

All three Russian armies taken together had about two hundred and fifty thousand bayonets and sabers in their shock units against one hundred and sixty thousand of the enemy. The superiority of forces is insignificant if we take into account the artillery firepower and the terrain itself, which was extremely conducive to defense and inaccessible for attack. In addition, as mentioned above, Russian aviation failed to reveal the location of the German batteries concentrated near Kovel.

Initially, the offensive date was set for July 10, then, due to deteriorating weather, it was postponed to the 15th. This may also have been the reason for the subsequent failure of the offensive. Thus, the engineer officer who participated in the assault on Kovel recalled that the Austrians were in front of the guards. Therefore, the preparation of the initial bridgeheads was not carried out so carefully, and the troops were confident of success. However, when the Russians went on the attack, they were met by selected Germans. “Obviously, our command missed something here,” writes an eyewitness. “Had our attack taken place two days earlier, the first strike would have cost us much less losses, and the further course of the operation could have been completely different.”

Countless branches of the flooded Stokhod created an extremely marshy area, so the guard could advance along the front with no more than ten companies. The remaining troops marched in columns to the back of each other, which made things much easier for the enemy’s artillery.
In turn, in this direction the Germans had three lines of trenches, each with eight rows of wire fences.

According to the testimony of war participants, the Germans used Russian prisoners of war to build fortifications in the Kovel region. Under Russian artillery fire, prisoners dug trenches, erected wire fences, and strengthened machine-gun points. At the same time, they were dressed in old German military uniforms so that they would not be able to escape, and the Russian guns concentrated their fire on them.

The Germans skillfully positioned their artillery batteries, which were targeted in advance at areas of probable attack by Russian troops. Russian batteries, mostly light, could not conduct counter-battery combat, since German guns were located outside their range of action. And it was impossible to drag the guns along with you, as was the case during the May battles, through the swamps.

Also, during the operational pause, the Germans managed to build machine-gun points in the places most vulnerable to repelling an enemy attack.

However, in the battles of July 3–8, the 6th Siberian Rifle Division captured up to three thousand soldiers, one hundred and thirty-four officers, twenty-five guns and nine machine guns.

On July 15, the guards went on the offensive. After six hours of fierce artillery preparation, the guards regiments attacked the enemy. Near the towns of Trysten and Voronchin, the reinforced 10th Corps of General was defeated. W. von Luttwitz.

In the battles of July 15, the group of Gen. V.M. Bezobrazova captured more than twenty thousand people and fifty-six guns. During the day, all three lines of enemy trenches were taken in many areas.

The enemy rolled back to Kovel, trying to cling to every more or less suitable line. This success was achieved due to the efforts of the 2nd Guards and 30th Army Corps, which penetrated the enemy defenses.

However, due to the indecisiveness and tactical inexperience of the guard commander himself, General V.N. Bezobrazov's success was not developed, although the situation encouraged him to rush after the retreating enemy and burst into Kovel literally on the shoulders of the retreating enemy.
With all this, the enemy, as it turned out, had targeted in advance his own trenches located in the rear, behind the swamps, with artillery batteries, which allowed the German artillery to destroy the trenches occupied by the Russian guards with impunity and, in addition, to successfully create a fire curtain between the first echelon of the attack and the reserves.

The main problem was that there were no reserves behind the 30th Army Corps, since they were all concentrated on the other flank of the group, where, in fact, the main blow was delivered. Meanwhile, in the rear of the Germans there was only one crossing over the Stokhod, and if success developed, the defending Germans would face complete destruction, and the river would be crossed on the move. It was precisely this development of events that was initially expected by higher headquarters. But the strengthening of the defensive lines by German troops forced our troops to lose too many fighters during the breakthrough, after which there was nothing to build on the success. On the contrary, one could expect strong counterattacks from the enemy.

As a result, General Bezobrazov stopped the 30th Army Corps, which had rushed forward. A.M. Zayonchkovsky, equaling him in other parts, which were somewhat behind their vanguards. But the Germans managed to throw heavy artillery in the direction of the clearly defined Russian attack, and in the battles of July 16–21, Russian troops were unable to advance a single step, although the guard attacked in full force, in thick chains. A participant in this battle gives the following description of the Russian attacks: “After weak artillery preparation, the guard regiments, chain by chain, almost in columns, moved forward. But one could only dream of moving people in normal dashes under enemy fire here. The movement of the chains was very slow, their feet were so sucked into the swamp that people fell or pulled their legs out of the mud with the help of their hands so as not to leave their boots in the swamp. The river branches turned out to be so deep that officers and soldiers drowned in them. There weren’t enough orderlies to help the wounded and take them out of the battle, and the healthy ones were shot by the Germans like partridges... About a company of troops remained from the regiment. Here for the first time I had to hear how ordinary soldiers sent curses to the higher authorities... In general - intentionally or out of inability - here our command dug a grave for the Russian Guard, because the reinforcements that re-staffed the regiments were far from guards.”

The soldiers of the attacking troops, in addition to military equipment, also carried bundles of brushwood to fill up swampy areas and boards to overcome barbed wire...

As a result, the strike group suffered enormous losses. To replenish them, on the 17th, the 1st Siberian Corps of General M.M. was transferred from the 2nd Army of the Western Front to the group of General Bezobrazov. Pleshkova.
The battle in the Kovel direction ended with the capture of the town of Trysten by the soldiers and officers of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment, after which our troops could not advance a single step further. A participant in the battle later recalled: “With the crossing of Stokhod in the sector of the 2nd Guards Corps, the entire Kovel operation was essentially stopped. Reserves approached the Germans, but our reserves were depleted, and the same positional struggle began on the Stokhod line, with the only change that the enemy lost the tete-de-pont (bridge fortification - A.P.) on the left bank of the Stokhod, and we it was purchased on the right. The breakthrough to Kovel failed. All the sacrifices made by the guard remained fruitless.”

As one of the staff officers noted, “in none of Brusilov’s armies during the July offensive of the entire Southwestern Front was the success of the May Lutsk breakthrough repeated; the entire front remained on the same line.”

The main loss of the Kovel attack was the death of the guards themselves - the support of the Russian throne and the monarch personally. The personnel officers of the guards units were mostly destroyed in the battles of 1914–1915.

So, if by the summer of 1914 about sixty thousand soldiers and two and a half thousand officers served in the guard, then by the end of the year the guards lost over twenty thousand people only killed and seriously wounded. By the summer of 1916, the guards regiments were again replenished to one hundred and ten thousand bayonets and sabers. Now all those nobles who had always formed the support of the imperial throne were finished off.

The losses of the guard in the battles on Stokhod amounted to about fifty thousand soldiers and officers (that is, almost half of the total personnel).
And it was not for nothing that Empress Maria Feodorovna noted in her diary on July 31: “Again there is no unity among the commanders - it’s a shame. The biggest and, as it turns out, useless losses were suffered by the Guard - shame and disgrace!”

I must say that the Guards cavalry was still lucky. During the operation, Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander M.V. Alekseev, receiving information about the failures of the offensive, several times ordered Bezobrazov to hurry up the cavalry divisions and throw them into battle. That is, not into a breakthrough made by infantry in the enemy’s defense, as was intended before the start of the attack on Kovel, but precisely for the assault on German forts. There is hardly any doubt what would await the cavalrymen in this case... Well aware of this, Bezobrazov invariably refused General Alekseev such a hopeless demand.

The main culprit for the failure and heavy losses was presented exclusively by General Bezobrazov. In a personal letter to the emperor dated August 13, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich mentioned: “I sincerely mourn the losses of the guard and the negative results of its heroic exploits due to the lack of management and lack of leadership of the commanders. Almost all the officers unanimously blame General Bezobrazov, who, due to incredible stubbornness and the imagination that he is a gifted commander, is now for the third time in vain destroying thousands of lives dear to you without result”...

Due to such large losses in the guards infantry (for example, in the 3rd Guards Infantry Division of General V.V. Chernavin only twenty-six officers remained in the ranks), five officers from the cavalry guards regiments were sent to it by lot. And the fact that at the beginning of 1917 the guards units continued to stand on the South-Western and Western fronts resulted in the success of the soldiers’ revolt during the days of the February Revolution of 1917 in the capital of the Russian Empire - Petrograd.

07:48 am - Life Guards of Nicholas II.
Shirokorad A.B. Russo-Japanese Wars 1904-1945 Mn., 2003.
“The life and customs of the Russian guard at the end of the 19th century are well described by eyewitnesses. For example, according to the biographer of Nicholas II, historian Grunwald, who once served in this guard, the difference between the Preobrazhensky regiment and other famous regiments was that the “Preobrazhensky” regiments were less known their drinking bouts, but were more interested in horses and women, they were reputed to be excellent experts in the statutory service, and were distinguished by their impeccable bearing at parades.” (With)

more photos (88.7 Kb)
Life Guards Hussar Regiment of His Majesty officers: Colonel Groten and Vorontsov.
“And here is how V.P. Obninsky described the pastime of his fellow soldiers: “They often drank all day long, drinking until they hallucinated in the evening... So, often the Grand Duke and the hussars who shared his company began to feel that they were no longer people, but wolves . Everyone then stripped naked and ran out into the street... There they sat on their hind legs (the front ones were replaced by arms), raised their drunken heads to the sky and began to howl loudly. The old barman already knew what to do. He would take a large tub out onto the porch, fill it with vodka or champagne, and the flock would rush on all fours to the basin, lap up the wine with their tongues, squeal and bite." (c)

more photos (67.6 Kb)
Life Guards Hussar Regiment of His Majesty officers: Sollogub, Vorontsov, Groten. A. Vyrubova sits in the center. (Tsarkoe Selo, regiment commander’s house on Volkonskaya Street).

Ignatiev A.A. Fifty years in service. M., 1941.
“The ability to drink a dozen glasses of champagne in an officer’s artel was mandatory for the cavalry guard. This was also an unspoken test for young people - they had to drink glasses in one gulp to the bottom and remain in perfect order.

For many this was true torment. It was especially difficult for some young people in the first months of service, when the elders gradually became familiar with them: in each such case, they were required to drink for brotherhood. Some of the older ones, more good-natured people, immediately drank with the young people on first name terms, while others held out the term, and in this case the length of the term served as a criterion for how much the young cornet inspired sympathy. At one holiday, the oldest of the former regiment commanders, Adjutant General Count Musin-Pushkin, called me over and invited me to have a drink with him for brotherhood. However, after the traditional three-time kiss, he impressively told me:
- Now I can say “you” to you, but you still continue to say “your excellency” to me.
All holidays were similar to one another: after a rich appetizer with all sorts of vodka and an exquisite lunch or dinner, the table was placed across the hall and covered with silver jugs of champagne and vases of fruit and sweets.
First, a trumpet choir entered the hall, famous throughout the capital for its excellent performance of even serious music.
Russian military bandmasters were a rarity in the Russian guard, and in our regiment this position had been held for many years by “Herr Hübner,” who wore the uniform of a military official, but, of course, was not invited to the “master’s table.”
The fun didn't last. Then the regimental songwriters were called and the actual “festivities” began. If the singers start singing the song “It’s evening, my dear, I was visiting you,” then all the officers of our squadron stand up, since this is a squadron song, and drink a glass of champagne. “Can you hear, comrade, the alarm is sounding,” the songwriters begin, and the officers of the 3rd squadron perform the same ritual, and so on.
In the intervals between songs, endless “charochki” are sung - everyone according to seniority, starting with the regiment commander, and everyone must go to the middle of the hall, stretch out, as if on the command “Attention!”, take a glass of champagne from the tray with a low bow, then turn to the songbooks and, saying: “Your health, brothers,” drain the glass to the bottom. At this moment the soldiers pick him up and lift him in their arms, he must stay upright and drink another glass of beer at the top. Sometimes several officers are raised at once, and then long speeches begin, glorifying the merits of this or that squadron, this or that officer. And songwriters must hold the “gentlemen” in their arms until the command “On your feet!”
It happened in the spring, it was already dawn - several officers were sitting in the billiard room, where the sounds of the same “glass” could be heard, the rest continued to drink in the dining room. The monotony and boredom are oppressive, many want to go to sleep, but until the regiment commander leaves, no one has the right to leave the officer corps. So at all holidays - the regimental one, each of the four squadrons, the non-combatant team, at every bachelor party, at every reception of officers of other regiments - all year round and every year, and for some, perhaps all their lives...
No one thought about the fact that these “festivities” were contrary to the military regulations, which punished lower ranks for drunkenness, and to the military law, which punished more severely for a crime committed while drunk. No one dared or wanted to break this tradition. In addition, general drinking sessions were perhaps the main link in the officer environment, and some of the regimental officers even became acquainted with the soldiers through calling songbooks and were surprised to notice among them either new non-commissioned officers or fledgling recruits." (c)

more photos (66 Kb)
Ceremonial and field officer uniforms of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment during the First World War.

Ulyanov I.E. Regular infantry 1855 - 1918 / History Russian troops. M., 1998.
“Company commanders could change, junior officers even more so, and the sergeant major remained at his guard post continuously until old age, as long as health and strength allowed,” wrote Life Guards Jaeger Regiment officer B.V. Gerua. He talked about the sergeant major of his regiment, Gostilov: “When in 1913 I commanded the 1st battalion in the regiment, I met Gostilov, whose broad shoulders already had 18 years as a sergeant major, marked with chevrons, medals and badges for shooting, especially the latter: Gostilov was an amazing shooter. And, like Shalberov (the former sergeant-major of His Majesty’s company), he had unquestionable authority, as well as his own peculiarity, which the whole Guard and all the authorities knew: Gostilov did not have enough ear for music. He could not marching to the beat of the music and, slightly behind the rhythm, slightly bouncing against the background of the evenly floating mass of the closed formation. And nothing could be done about it. Everyone had to remain silent and put up with it, from the regiment commander to His Majesty. The sergeant major’s leg was unmistakably recognized in the Guard as the Sovereign’s company of the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment.” (With)

more photos (53.3 Kb)
Officers of the Life Guards of the 2nd Tsarskoye Selo Rifle Battalion.
“Beginning in 1890, scooters appeared in the regiments - first 2, then 7. The infantry were supplied with Swift bicycles, heavy and uncomfortable. One of the officers recalled an incident that occurred during Guard maneuvers at the beginning of the 20th century: “In Narva I saw on the street of a cyclist of the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, leaning in a hopeless position on his car, sweating and breathing like a steam locomotive. “What,” I say, “is it hard?” - “Oh, Your Highness, if only I could abandon this damned car, I would have delivered the package on foot long ago.” (With)

more photos (93.5 Kb)
Privates of the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment.
“Since 1884, the ceremony of the solemn oath of the lower ranks under the regimental banner was introduced. An interesting eyewitness memory is associated with the oath-taking ceremony.
“Colonel Rerberg leads the regiment to the parade ground, and a rare beauty of the oath of recruits of the 3rd Grenadier Pernov King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV Regiment opens before your eyes.
In the middle of the parade ground there are six completely identical tables covered with white tablecloths. In front of the tables, at some distance, stands the regiment's flag bearer, senior non-commissioned officer Arthur Stepin, with the regiment's banner and an assistant. Gradually, after several changes of formation, slender squares of fit Pernov grenadiers form on the other side of each table.
Clergymen of different religions appear in front of each table. The regimental priest with the Cross and Gospel stands in front of the first table, in front of which stands the largest “square” of recruits. In front of the second table there is a Catholic priest, in front of the third - a Lutheran pastor, in front of the fourth - a Muslim mullah, in front of the fifth - a Jewish rabbi, and in front of the sixth, near which only two grenadiers stand, there is no one.
The rite of oath begins, and my friend the bannerman Arthur Stepin brings the banner to the table of Orthodox grenadier recruits, his real name is Arthur Stoping, and he himself is a Finnish Lutheran, but he fulfills his honorable duty as a bannerman brilliantly.
At the same time, my father, the regiment commander, approaches the last table, and I see an amazing thing that could only happen to us, in old Russia. Both recruits take small packages out of their pockets and carefully unwrap the rags in which they are wrapped. Having unfolded the rags, both take out from the bundles two small wooden “gods”, planed from wood and greased with lard. Both wooden “idol gods” are placed on the table between my father and two recruits, and only then does my father, as the highest commander in their eyes, bring both grenadiers to the oath to serve “faithfully” to the Tsar and the Fatherland.”

During the reign of Nicholas II, the painstaking activity of selecting characteristic types of people for the guards units reached its peak. So, tall blond men were recruited into the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and in the 3rd and 5th companies - with beards; in Semyonovsky - tall brown-haired men; in Izmailovsky and Grenadiersky - brunettes (in His Majesty's company - bearded); in Moscow - red bearded men; Pavlovsky - snub-nosed people (with beards - in the 5th company, brunettes - in the 9th, the tallest - in the company of His Majesty); in Lithuanian - beardless tall blonds, in Kexholm - beardless tall brown-haired men; in St. Petersburg - brunettes; in Yegersky, Finlyandsky and Volynsky - “people of light build” of any hair color. The 1st Infantry Regiment was staffed with brunettes, the 4th with “short-nosed” people with connected thick eyebrows...

For the 25th anniversary of the active service of Nicholas II in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment (June 23, 1912), the officers of the regiment ordered special checkers of the usual officer type, but with embossed images of regimental embroidery in the form of laurel leaves (to the middle of the blade) and with inscriptions in Slavic script under the hilt (across the blade): on one side - “The Turks and the Swedes know us and the world knows about us”, on the other - “The Tsar himself always leads us to battles and victories”...

On June 12, 1906, riots arose in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, which was supposed to leave the camp in Krasnoe Selo to guard the Emperor who was in Peterhof. The soldiers shouted that they did not want to walk, but wanted to go by rail. The regiment commander managed to persuade the regiment to reach Peterhof, but unrest resumed there. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion refused to go to bed and swore at some of the officers; but the commanders were still able to calm the battalion even before the local garrison and the arriving life grenadiers got involved. This incident left a very difficult impression on the capital's garrison. By order of the Emperor, for a lack of internal order and discipline, the 1st battalion was given army (special) status; he was supposed to disappear as his ranks were transferred to the reserve. The commander of the guards corps was relieved of his post, and the division commander and regiment commander were dismissed from service for insufficiently effective actions to restore order." (c)

Any of the existing modern armies
has in its ranks a number of units,
imbued with a special spirit of self-respect,
based on a distinguished historical past...
These parts... must serve as a guarantee of the continuity of those traditions
which form the foundation of every army...
These elite troops must...
serve as a practical school,
a breeding ground for personnel from other parts of the army.

A. Gerua. "Hordes", 1923

Tsar Peter Alekseevich, creator of the Russian Guard.
Chromolithography on metal. 1909

Throughout the thousand-year history of the Russian state, our ancestors constantly had to repel numerous aggressions with arms in hand and defend the independence and integrity of the state. That is why military service has always been the most honorable and respected in Rus'. Among the armed defenders of the Fatherland, guardsmen have always deservedly occupied a special place.

Company banner of the Life Guards Regiment. 1700

In Russia, the Guard (Life Guard) was created by Peter I from amusing troops. Until now, historians have no unity on the issue of the date of creation of the Russian Guard. Thus, in the diary of Peter I, when explaining the failure near Narva in 1700, it is indicated that “only two guard regiments were in two attacks near Azov,” but in the list of troops that marched to Azov in 1696, the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments are not named guards . Famous historian P.O. Bobrovsky took May 30 (June 10), 1700, as the guard’s birthday - the birthday of its “founding sovereign.” In one of the letters, dated June 11 (22) of the same year, Peter calls Prince Yu.Yu. Trubetskoy "guard captain". And finally, in the “Journal of Peter the Great” under the date August 22 (September 2), 1700, for the first time, as is generally believed, the regiments were officially called Guards. This day - September 2 (August 22, old style) is established as a memorial day for the Russian Guard.

In the initial period of their formation, Tsar Peter I was personally involved in recruiting the guards regiments. “Every soldier who wanted to join the guards regiment was enrolled only with the permission of the Sovereign himself, who put his own handwritten resolutions on their petitions.” This “selective” principle of staffing guards units with lower ranks, and even more so with officers, was preserved subsequently, although the criterion of the level of education and military professionalism by Peter’s successors was largely displaced by the criteria of political interest, personal loyalty, wealth, birth, etc.

In the era of Peter the Great, the guards solved a triune task. Firstly, they represented the political support of the tsarist power during the implementation of reforms that were not always popular among the people. It is not for nothing that after the adoption of the imperial title in 1721, the guard units began to be called the “Russian Imperial Guard”. Secondly, the guards regiments not only performed the functions military school, which trained command personnel for the army, but was also a testing ground where all sorts of innovations for reforming the army were tested. Finally, thirdly, the guard was also a fighting unit, sometimes the last and decisive argument on the battlefield.

The Russian Guard received a baptism of fire in Northern War 1700-1721 In the battle of Narva in November 1700, two guards regiments held back the Swedish attacks for three hours. Their resilience saved the Russian army from complete defeat. For this feat, the officers of the Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments were awarded a breastplate with the inscription: “1700 November 19.” The guards also took part in other battles with the Swedes: they took Noteburg (1702), won a victory near Narva (1704), distinguished themselves in the battles of Lesnaya and Poltava (1709), etc.

For a long time, the guards did not have any advantages in rank with the rest of the troops. However, after the table of ranks was approved at the beginning of 1722, officers of the guard regiments received seniority of two ranks compared to the army.

To train officers for army cavalry regiments, the Kronshlot Dragoon Regiment was formed in 1721, which was ordered to consist of only nobles and be called the Life Regiment (from 1730 - the Horse Guards, from 1801 - the Life Guards Horse Regiment). In September 1730, another guards regiment was formed - the Izmailovsky Life Guards.

In the Russian-Turkish War of 1735-1739. a special guards detachment consisting of 3 infantry battalions from the Life Guards Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Izmailovsky regiments, 2 squadrons of horse guards and 6 guns participated in the assault on Ochakov, the capture of Khotin and in the Battle of Stavuchany in 1739.

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna had the rank of colonel of all guards regiments. The grenadier company of the Preobrazhensky stick, with the help of which she ascended the throne, as a reward for services rendered, the empress separated from the regiment and called it a life company.

During the reign of Catherine II, consolidated guards battalions took part in the Russian-Swedish War of 1788-1790. and in two Russian-Turkish wars.

Cavalry guards during the reign of Emperor Paul I.
From a watercolor by A. Baldinger.

During the reign of Paul I, the number of guards was significantly increased. Regiments were formed: the Hussar Life Guards (1796), the Cossack Life Guards (1798) and the Cavalry Guards (1799), as well as the Life Guards Artillery and Jaeger battalions.

Under Emperor Alexander I, the Life Guards Jaeger (1806), Finnish (1811) and Lithuanian (1811) regiments were formed.

In 1805, the Life Guards Horse Artillery was formed, in 1811 - the Life Guards Artillery Brigade, in 1812 - the Life Guards Sapper Battalion.

During the reign of Alexander I, guards units participated in all the wars waged by Russia in the European theater of military operations. In numerous battles, the guardsmen covered themselves with unfading glory, giving an example of true service to the Fatherland.

Cavalry guards at the Battle of Austerlitz fighting
Napoleon's cavalry.

Inscribed in blood in the military history of the Fatherland is the feat of self-sacrifice of the cavalry guards at the Battle of Austerlitz on November 20 (December 2), 1805, when they went to certain death, saving the bleeding Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky regiments from the significantly superior forces of the French cavalry that fell upon them. In total, in that terrible cabin, the Cavalry Regiment lost 13 officers and 226 lower ranks. The cavalrymen of the Life Guards Horse and Hussar regiments fought the enemy no less bravely in this battle. The guards Cossacks of Colonel P.A. also distinguished themselves. Chernozubov, who attacked the French in the vanguard of the second column of allied troops.

The guardsmen demonstrated miracles of perseverance and courage in subsequent battles with the French. At Pułtusk on December 14 (26), 1806, the life cuirassiers of His Majesty’s regiment (counted in 1813 as part of the “Young” Guard) took part in a bold Russian cavalry raid on the enemy’s right flank, which decided the outcome of the battle in our favor.

In the Battle of Friedland on June 2 (14), 1807, the Hussar and Cossack Life Guards regiments distinguished themselves, fighting with dragoons from the division of General Grusha, as well as the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, which scattered the Dutch cuirassiers with a bold attack. The Pavlovsk Grenadier Regiment, later assigned to the “Young” Guard, was awarded a special award for exceptional valor and steadfastness in battle: “he was ordered to leave the hats with him in the form in which he left the battlefield” (i.e. shot and hacked). During the battle, the regiment faced hostile attacks eleven times. Chief of the regiment, Major General N.N. Mazovsky, wounded in the arm and leg, and unable to sit in the saddle, ordered two grenadiers to carry him in front of the regiment for the final attack.

In the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army of 1813-1814. the guards confirmed the glory of Russian weapons. Polotsk and Smolensk, Borodino and Krasny, Kulm and Leipzig, Katzbach and Craon, La Rotière and Fer-Champenoise - this is not a complete list of battle sites where the Russian guard distinguished itself. And as a result - a solemn march in the defeated French capital: in front was the Prussian Guards Cavalry, followed by the Russian Light Guards Cavalry Division, guarding the monarchs, then the Allied Guards Infantry. The 1st Cuirassier Division completed the solemn procession. The Russian emperor in a cavalry guard uniform with St. Andrew's ribbon over his shoulder rode on a gray horse, surrounded by his guards.

For military exploits - honorary awards. All military awards, awarded for the Patriotic War, had one common inscription: “For distinction in the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Russia in 1812.” The regiments of the Petrovsky brigade (Preobrazhensky and Semenovsky) were awarded St. George's banners for courage and steadfastness in the battle of Kulm. For heroism in the same battle, the Izmailovsky and Jaeger Guards regiments were awarded the Trumpets of St. George. The Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment received the same award for Leipzig. For saving Emperor Alexander from captivity during the Battle of Leipzig, the Life Guards Cossack Regiment and His Majesty's Own Convoy were awarded silver trumpets. The regiments of the Guards Cuirassier Brigade - the Cavalry Guards and Horse Guards - were awarded the St. George Standards. The Life Guards Dragoon Regiment was awarded the St. George Standard in 1813, and the Trumpets of St. George for the battle of Fer-Champenoise in 1814. The 1st and 2nd Guards Artillery Brigades, as well as all Guards horse batteries, were awarded silver trumpets.

In 1813, in addition to the Old Guard, the Young Guard was established in Russia. This name was originally assigned to two grenadier and one cuirassier regiments for military distinction in the Patriotic War of 1812. In 1829, the Finnish Infantry Battalion was added to the Young Guard. He, like the Grenadier and Pavlovsky regiments of the Life Guards, was granted the rights of the Old Guard in 1831 for differences in the war with Poland.

Staff officer and bombardier of the 6th battery of the 3rd Guards and
Grenadier Artillery Brigade.

In 1814, in commemoration of the merits of the quartermaster unit and in memory of its “extremely diligent and useful activities for the troops during the era of the Napoleonic wars,” a special institution called the “Guards General Staff” was created as part of His Imperial Majesty’s Retinue for the quartermaster unit. "with the rights of the "Old" Guard. It was composed of the most outstanding headquarters and chief officers of the quartermaster unit (initially 24 officers of the Retinue), who were awarded special distinctions on their uniforms. These officers were not intended to serve exclusively in the guard, but were distributed on an equal basis with other ranks of the Retinue among all troops and teams that carried out topographic surveys. It was a personal honorary advantage granted to particularly distinguished officers of the quartermaster's unit, wherever they served.

In 1830, the Life Guards Don Horse Artillery Company was formed. In 1833, the Guard was divided into two corps - the Guards Infantry (infantry and foot artillery) and the Guards Reserve Cavalry (cavalry and horse artillery).

In 1856, rifle companies were formed in all guards infantry regiments, one per battalion, and at the same time the 1st and 2nd guards rifle battalions were again formed. Also in 1856. The Life Guards Rifle Battalion of the Imperial Family was added to the Guard (as the Young Guard).

In subsequent years, the number of units that were part of the Young Guard continued to increase. In wartime, guards units took part in all wars waged by Russia. With their steadfastness and courage, the guardsmen earned fame not only in their homeland, but also rave reviews from their allies,

In peacetime, the guard carried out internal service, participated in the protection of members of the royal family, guards, parades, on campaigns within Russia, in camps and carried out various assignments,

The officer corps of the guard consisted mainly of representatives of the highest nobility. Soldiers for the guard were selected from physically strong people who were politically reliable.

The appearance of the guards units was distinguished by the dashing spirit of the soldiers, their bearing, the ability of the officers to behave with dignity, and their uniforms.

The case near the village of Telishe in 1877.
Artist V.V. Mazurovsky.

In the second half of the 19th century. The Russian Imperial Guard participated in almost all military enterprises of Tsarist Russia. The guard units especially distinguished themselves during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. in the battles for Gorny Dubnyak and Palishch, Far Dubnyak and the Shindara position, at Tashkisen and Philippopolis.

At the same time, along with participation in hostilities, the guard continued to be used as a school for training military personnel for army units. The secondment of trained soldiers and officers from the Guard continued until the First World War.

Life Guards Sapper Battalion. 1853
Artist A. I. Gebens.

By the beginning of the 20th century, 23.6% of regimental commanders and 28.8% of division commanders were transferred to the army from the guard. The Semenovsky regiment, considered exemplary, was turned into a practical school for future army officers. The Life Guards Sapper Battalion served as a school for non-commissioned officers for sapper units. In artillery this was the Life Guards Artillery Battalion,

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by Russia's participation in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China. In 1900-1901 As part of the expeditionary force in the Chinese campaign, the Life Guards Rifle Artillery Division took part, which participated in the operations of Russian troops in Manchuria and northern China.

In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The Guards Fleet crew took part. Many guard officers participated in the war as volunteers, staffing units and formations of Russian troops in the Far Eastern theater of military operations with command staff.

After the war with Japan, there was an urgent need to carry out military reforms in Russia. They also affected the guard. First of all, this was due to an increase in the number of guards units.

The deployment of the guard was carried out through the formation of new units or the transformation of army units into guards units for their combat distinctions. If at the beginning of the 20th century the guard consisted of 12 infantry, 4 rifle, 13 cavalry regiments, three artillery brigades, an engineer battalion and a naval crew, then the guard met the First World War as part of 13 infantry, 4 rifle and 14 cavalry regiments. It also included four artillery brigades. Sapper battalion, naval crew and other units. In the Fleet, in addition to the Guards Fleet crew, the cruiser "Oleg", two destroyers and an imperial yacht were also assigned to the Guard. In total, by 1914, the guard included about 40 units and over 90 thousand people. The Guards also included the Corps of Pages and the permanent staff of the Nicholas Cavalry School (Officer Cavalry School). In peacetime, the guard was subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the troops of the guard and the St. Petersburg military district.

The First World War was a serious test for the Russian Guard. Guards units successfully operated in the Battle of Galicia, the Warsaw-Ivangorad and Lodz operations. Part of the Guards (3rd Guards Infantry, 1st and 2nd Guards Cavalry Divisions) participated in the East Prussian Operation of 1914. Unfortunately, the actions of the Guards units here were less successful than on the Southwestern Front, Life Guards The Kexholm regiment and the 3rd battery of the Life Guards of the 3rd Artillery Brigade shared the tragic fate of two army corps of the 2nd Army in the Masurian Lakes region.

In the summer of 1916, as part of a special army, the guard participated in the offensive of the Southwestern Front. In the battles on the Stokhod River, she fought bloody battles with the enemy. Exhausted and suffering heavy losses, the guards units were withdrawn to the reserve of Headquarters, where they remained until the end of the war.

Due to serious losses in personnel, representatives of the peasantry and working class began to be called upon to replenish the guard. This seriously affected the political mood among the guards. As a result, after the victory of the February Revolution of 1917 and the abdication of the tsar, the guard did not even make an attempt to intervene in the course of events; the Kornilov rebellion also left the guard indifferent. In February 1917, soldiers of almost all reserve infantry units of the Petrograd garrison went over to the side of the rebels, which greatly contributed to the victory of the revolution.

The Provisional Government retained the guard, abolishing the prefix “lab” and the name “Imperial”. During the preparation of the October Uprising, at a garrison meeting in Smolny on October 18 (31), representatives of almost all regimental committees of the Guards reserve regiments (with the exception of Izmailovsky and Semenovsky) spoke out in favor of an armed uprising. They also took an active part in the uprising itself. Thus, Pavlovtsy and Guards Grenadiers took part in the storming of the Winter Palace, reserve soldiers of the Finnish Regiment established Soviet power on Vasilyevsky Island, etc.

The formal disappearance of the guard was associated with the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty on March 3, 1918 by the Soviet government. However, already from the end of January, demobilization of parts of the Petrograd garrison took place. At that time, it was recognized as necessary to get rid of the previous military formations, including the guards, as soon as possible. The liquidation of the guards regiments was completed by April 1, 1918.

The Soviet Guard was born in the battles near Yelnya during the Battle of Smolensk, during the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War. By decision of the Supreme High Command Headquarters for mass heroism, courage of personnel, high military skill, on September 18, 1941, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 308, four rifle divisions were transformed into guards: the 100th (commander Major General I.N. Russiyanov) into 1 -th Guards Rifle Division, 127th (commander Colonel A.Z. Akimenko) in the 2nd, 153rd (commander Colonel N.A. Gagen) in the 3rd and 161st (commander Colonel P.F. Moskvitin) to the 4th Guards Rifle Division. This was the beginning of the Soviet guard, which inherited the best traditions of the Russian guard from the times of Peter the Great, A.V. Suvorova, M.I. Kutuzova.

Guards formations took an active part in all the decisive battles of the Great Patriotic War and made a significant contribution to the victory. If in 1941 the Soviet Guard included nine rifle divisions, three cavalry corps, a tank brigade, a number of rocket artillery units and six aviation regiments, then in 1942 various formations of the Navy, the country's air defense, and the country's air defense joined its ranks. many types of artillery, as well as rifle, tank and mechanized corps, combined arms armies, 10 airborne guards divisions, and since 1943 - tank armies, aviation divisions and corps.

As a result, by the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Guard was an invincible force. It consisted of 11 combined arms and 6 tank armies, one cavalry-mechanized group, 40 rifle, 7 cavalry, 12 tank, 9 mechanized and 14 aviation corps, 117 rifle, 9 airborne, 17 cavalry, 6 artillery, 53 aviation and 6 anti-aircraft -artillery divisions, 7 rocket artillery divisions; 13 motorized rifle, 3 airborne, 66 tank, 28 mechanized, 3 self-propelled artillery, 64 artillery, 1 mortar, 11 anti-tank fighter, 40 rocket artillery brigades, 6 engineering and 1 railway brigade. The Guards included 1 fortified area, 18 surface combat ships, 16 submarines, a number of other units and units of various branches of the military, and in total over four thousand military formations.

Recognition of their military valor was the introduction of the Guards Banner (Flag), and for military personnel - guards ranks and the establishment of the “Guard” badge. The badges of guards valor were established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 21, 1942. Thus, the military-political leadership of the country once again emphasized that it attaches particularly important importance to the guards formations in solving combat missions.

Badge “Guard”, designed by artist S.I. Dmitriev, is an oval framed by a laurel wreath, the upper part of which is covered with a Red Banner deployed to the left of the staff. The banner bears the inscription in golden letters: “Guard.” In the middle of the wreath is a red five-pointed star on a white field. The banner and star have a golden rim. The flagpole is intertwined with ribbon: the tassels in the upper part of the flagpole hang down to the right side of the wreath. At the bottom of the wreath there is a shield with the inscription in raised letters: “USSR”. The image of the Guards badge was also placed on the Guards banners awarded to the Guards armies and corps. The only difference was that on the banner of the Guards Army the sign was depicted in a wreath of oak branches, and on the banner of the Guards Corps - without a wreath.

The presentation of the Banner (Flag) and breastplate was usually carried out in a solemn atmosphere, which had great educational significance. The honorary title obligated each warrior to become a master of his craft. All this contributed to the growth of the authority of the Soviet guard.

In the post-war years, the Soviet guard continued the glorious traditions of previous generations of guards. And although in peacetime the formations were not converted into guards, in order to preserve military traditions, the guards ranks of units, ships, formations and formations were transferred to new military units and formations during the reorganization with direct succession in personnel. Thus, the Kantemirovskaya tank division was created on the basis of the famous 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Corps. She retained her honorary title and was given the corps guards banner. The same thing happened with the 5th Guards Mechanized Division, whose soldiers subsequently fulfilled their military duty in Afghanistan with dignity. Similar reorganizations took place in the Air Force, Airborne Forces and the Navy. Newly formed units and formations of the Strategic Missile Forces, anti-aircraft missile units and formations of the country's Air Defense Forces were awarded the ranks of artillery and mortar formations that distinguished themselves during the Great Patriotic War.

Guard of the Armed Forces Russian Federation was the successor and continuer of the fighting traditions of her predecessors. Guards motorized rifle Taman and Guards tank Kantemirovskaya divisions; guards formations of the Airborne Forces... These names still awaken the memory, inspire and oblige.

The guardsmen of the late twentieth century are faithful to the traditions of the guard, developed and consolidated by their predecessors. Will we ever forget about the feat of our contemporaries, when on March 1, 2000, in the Argun Gorge, during a counter-terrorist operation on the territory of the Chechen Republic, the 6th parachute company of the 104th Guards Parachute Regiment of the 76th Airborne Division took on a fierce battle with many times superior forces terrorists. The paratroopers did not flinch, did not retreat, fulfilled their military duty to the end, at the cost of their lives they blocked the enemy’s path, showing courage and heroism. This feat is inscribed in gold in the modern history of the Russian Armed Forces, in the centuries-old chronicle of its guards. He inspires to good deeds those who today carry out difficult military service under the guards banners, helps to instill in soldiers a sense of pride in their army, their Fatherland.

See: Military Encyclopedia I.D. Sytin. P.201.

Bobrovsky P.O. History of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. St. Petersburg, 1900. T.I. P.376.; Valkovich A.M. My beloved children.//Motherland, 2000, No. 11. P.26.

Letters and papers of Emperor Peter the Great. St. Petersburg 1887. T. I. P. 365.

Journal or Daily Note of the blessed and eternally worthy memory of the sovereign Emperor Peter the Great from 1698 to the conclusion of the Treaty of Neustadt. St. Petersburg, 1770, Part I, P.12.

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 31, 2006 No. 549 “On the establishment of professional holidays and memorable days in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”

Dirin P.N. History of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment. T. 1. St. Petersburg, 1883. pp. 158-161.

A brief history of the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment. St. Petersburg, 1830. P. 4

The material was prepared in
Military Research Institute
history of the Military Academy of the General Staff
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Guard(Italian guardia guard, security) - a selected privileged part of the troops.

The guard was traditionally called a selected, privileged, better trained and equipped part of the troops. This was the core of the army, armed detachments that were directly attached to the monarch, often serving as his personal guard.

The first mention of Russian guards units is given in the historical chronicle Russian army in connection with the military campaigns of Peter’s troops near Azov and Narva.

Base

The Guard was established at the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great from the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments.

In the archives of the Semenovsky regiment there is information that already in 1698 it was called the Semenov Life Guards. In 1700, during the Narva Confusion, two guards regiments held back the onslaught of the Swedes for three hours, for which the chief officers of these regiments were awarded an insignia (the oldest in Russia, still preserved) with the inscription: “1700, November 19.”

Under Peter I

During the reign of Peter I, the guard was replenished mainly by nobles; Only after significant losses in battles did they begin to allow transfers from the army and the reception of recruits.

Every nobleman who entered the military service Before becoming an army officer, he had to enroll as a private in one of the guards regiments and serve in this rank until the sovereign approved his candidacy for officer, on which promotion to ranks was based at that time.

Until 1722, the guard did not have any advantages in ranks, but on January 22 of this year a table of ranks was approved, according to which officers of the guard regiments received seniority of two ranks over the army.

To train officers for army cavalry regiments, the Kronshlot Dragoon Regiment was formed in 1721, which was ordered to consist only of nobles and be called a life regiment. This regiment, although it served as the basis for the Life Guards Cavalry, under Peter the Great did not have the rights and advantages that the guard regiments enjoyed.

Under Catherine I

Under Catherine I, a cavalry guard was established, and, in addition, the Life Guards battalion, located in Moscow and made up of ranks of the guards regiments unfit for service, was added to the guard.

Under Anna Ioannovna

Under Anna Ioannovna, the life regiment was renamed the Life Guards Horse Regiment, and a guards infantry regiment was formed, called Izmailovsky.

A special guards detachment took part in the campaign against the Turks in 1737-39.

Under Elizabeth

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna herself accepted the rank of colonel of all guards regiments, and expelled the Preobrazhensky grenadier company, which contributed to her accession to the throne, from the regiment and named it a life campaign.

Under Peter III

Under Peter III, the life campaign was abolished.

Under Catherine II

Under Catherine II, the Moscow Life Guards battalion was disbanded, in its place a disabled team was established in Murom, called the Murom Life Guards (1764).

The Guard took an active part in the Swedish War.

Under Paul I

Emperor Paul I strengthened the guards regiments, including in their composition parts of the troops that were with him in Gatchina (Gatchina troops) before his accession to the throne; A Life Guards artillery battalion, a Life Guards Jaeger battalion and regiments were also formed: the Life Guards Hussars (1796) and the Life Guards Cossacks (1798), and a Life Guards garrison battalion was formed from the lower ranks of the Guards who were unable to perform field service.

Under Alexander I

Under Emperor Alexander I, the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment was formed from the Life Guards Jaeger Battalion; in 1806, a battalion of the imperial militia was formed from the appanage peasants of the estates closest to St. Petersburg, which received guard rights for distinguished service in the war of 1808; in 1811, the Finnish Life Guards Regiment was formed from it. In the same year, 1 battalion was separated from the Preobrazhensky Regiment to form the Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment, renamed in 1817 to the Moscow Life Guards; in the same 1817, the Lithuanian Life Guards and Volyn Life Guards regiments were formed in Warsaw.

In 1810, the Guards Crew was established, and in 1812 - the Sapper Life Guards Battalion.

Separate Guards Corps (1812-1864) - On April 3, 1812, the Guards Corps was formed, in December 1829 it was renamed the Separate Guards Corps. From February 3, 1844 to 1856, the Grenadier Corps was also subordinate to the commander of the Separate Guards Corps. The Corps Headquarters was reorganized into the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Guards and Grenadier Corps, and from 1849 - the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Guards and Grenadier Corps. In 1856, the Headquarters of the Separate Guards Corps was restored. There were commissions at the Corps Headquarters: “Guards Barracks” in 1820-1836 and “Cavalry Repair” (1843-1860). The corps was abolished in August 1864 with the introduction of the provision for military district administration (Milyutin's reform). The corps headquarters was transformed into the Headquarters of the Guard Troops and the St. Petersburg Military District.

In 1813, the Life Grenadier and Pavlovsky regiments were attached to the guard for their distinction, and their officers were given the advantage of one rank over the army; these shelves formed a new one, or young guard, in contrast to which the previous regiments were called old guard.

In 1809, the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment and the Life Guards Uhlan Regiment were formed, and in 1814 the Life Guards Horse Regiment was formed.

In Warsaw, the Life Guards Podolsk Cuirassier Regiment and the Life Guards Ulan Regiment of His Highness the Tsarevich were formed in 1817, and in 1824 (as a young guard) - the Life Guards Grodno Hussars. In addition, the Guards Gendarmerie Half-Squadron (1815), the Guards Horse Pioneer Squadron (1819) and the Life Guards Invalid Brigade (1824) were formed.

For the distinction rendered in the war with the French, His Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment was added to the Young Guard (1813). In 1805, the Life Guards Horse Artillery was formed, in 1811 - the Life Guards Artillery Brigade in 1816, divided into the 1st and 2nd brigades.

In 1817, a guards battery company was formed in Warsaw, which in 1821 became part of the combined guards and grenadier artillery brigade.

The Guard took part in all wars fought during the reign of Alexander I, except the Turkish and Persian.

Under Nicholas I

Moscow detachment of the Guards Corps (March-November 1826) Formed in March 1826 to participate in the coronation of Nicholas I. It consisted of two infantry brigades formed from battalions of guards regiments, a special cavalry detachment, three battery companies and a platoon of gendarmes. The commander of the detachment is Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the chief of staff of the detachment is Major General A.K. Gerua. Disbanded in November 1826.

Under Emperor Nicholas I, in 1829, the Finnish Training Rifle Battalion was added to the Young Guard and renamed the Life Guards Finnish Rifle Battalion. He, as well as the Grenadier and Pavlovsky regiments of the Life Guards, were granted the rights of the Old Guard in 1831 for distinction in the Polish campaign. At the same time, the grenadier regiments of St. Petersburg King Frederick William III and the Kexholm regiments of the Austrian Emperor were ordered to be attached to the Guards Corps.

In 1827, the Life Guards Crimean Tatar Squadron and the Life Guards Caucasus-Mountain Squadron were formed.

In 1831, His Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment was united with the Podolsk Cuirassier Life Guards under the general name of His Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassiers and with the rights of the Old Guard. At the same time, rights were granted: to the old guard - to the Life Guard regiments of the Horse-Jager and Grodno Hussars, and to the young guard - to the Ataman Cossack regiment. The Life Guards Dragoon Regiment was renamed the Life Guards Horse Grenadier Regiment, and the Life Guards Horse Jaeger Regiment was renamed the Life Guards Dragoon.

In 1830, the Life Guards Don Horse Artillery Company was formed, and in 1833 all artillery companies were renamed batteries. In the same 1833, the guard was divided into two corps: the Guards Infantry Corps (infantry and foot artillery) and the Guards Reserve Cavalry Corps (cavalry and horse artillery).

During the reign of Nicholas I, the guard took part in the Turkish and Polish wars.

Under Alexander II

Under Emperor Alexander II in 1856, rifle companies were formed in all guards infantry regiments, one per battalion, and at the same time the Life Guards First and Second Rifle Battalions were formed again. The first of them in 1858 was named the 1st His Majesty's Life Guards Rifle Battalion.

In 1856, the Life Guards Rifle Battalion of the Imperial Family, formed during the Eastern War of 1853-1856 from appanage peasants, was added to the Guard (as the Young Guard). In 1870, these battalions were united together with the Life Guards Finnish Rifle Battalion into one Guards Rifle Brigade.

The Guards Invalid Brigade was disbanded in 1859. In 1873, from the Life Guards Garrison Battalion, a personnel battalion of the Life Guards Reserve Infantry Regiment was formed.

In 1856, Her Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment was granted the rights of the Young Guard; for His Majesty's Own Convoy, 3 Life Guards Cossack squadrons were formed (1 - in service, 2 - on benefits), and the Life Guards Crimean Tatar squadron was disbanded.

Under Emperor Alexander II, the guard took part in the campaign to suppress the Polish revolt of 1863 and in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. At the end of this war, on April 17, 1878, the Life Guards Ataman Heir Tsarevich Regiment was granted the rights of the Old Guard, and in 1884 the same rights were given to Her Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment and the Life Guards 4th Infantry Battalion of the Imperial Family.

From 1864 to 1874 the guard did not form corps or corps; in 1874 the guard corps was restored.

Guards detachment of His Majesty's honorary convoy (1877-1878) Formed on May 11, 1877 to guard the Main Apartment during the stay of Alexander II in the army during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. After his departure from the army in December 1877, the detachment was attached to the commander-in-chief of the Active Army. The detachment included two companies of infantry, half a squadron of cavalry, half a company of sappers and foot artillerymen from the guards and army units sponsored by the emperor. The detachment was commanded by adjutants P. S. Ozerov, K. A. Runov, P. P. von Enden. The detachment was disbanded on November 29, 1878.

Russian Imperial Guard by 1917

1st Guards Infantry Division

1st Guards Infantry Brigade,

Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment
Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment

2nd Guards Infantry Brigade, dislocation - St. Petersburg. (02.1913)

Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment
Life Guards Jaeger Regiment

2nd Guards Infantry Division

3rd Guards Infantry Brigade, dislocation - St. Petersburg. (02.1913)

Life Guards Moscow Regiment
Life Guards Grenadier Regiment

4th Guards Infantry Brigade, dislocation - St. Petersburg. (02.1913)

His Majesty's Pavlovsky Life Guards Regiment
Life Guards Finnish Regiment

3rd Guards Infantry Division

5th Guards Infantry Brigade,

Life Guards Lithuanian Regiment
Life Guards Kexholm Emperor of Austria Regiment

6th Guards Infantry Brigade, dislocation - Warsaw (02.1913)

Life Guards St. Petersburg King Frederick William III Regiment
His Majesty's Volyn Life Guards Regiment

Guards Rifle Brigade, 02/17/1915 - the brigade was deployed into a division

Life Guards 1st His Majesty's Infantry Regiment
Life Guards 2nd Tsarskoye Selo Rifle Regiment
Life Guards 3rd Infantry Regiment of His Majesty
Life Guards 4th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Family

1st Guards Cavalry Division

1st Guards Cavalry Brigade,

Cavalry Regiment of Her Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna
Life Guards Horse Regiment

2nd Guards Cavalry Brigade, brigade headquarters - St. Petersburg. (02.1913)

His Majesty's Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment
Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment of Her Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna

3rd Guards Cavalry Brigade, brigade headquarters - St. Petersburg. (02.1913)

His Majesty's Life Guards Cossack Regiment
Life Guards Ataman Regiment of His Imperial Highness the Heir-Tsarevich
His Majesty's Life Guards Consolidated Cossack Regiment

1st Division of the Life Guards Horse Artillery

His Majesty's 1st Battery
4th His Imperial Highness the Heir-Tsarevich Battery
His Majesty's 6th Don Battery

2nd Guards Cavalry Division

4th Guards Cavalry Brigade

Life Guards Horse Grenadier Regiment of Tsarevich Alexei
Life Guards Ulansky Regiment of Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

5th Guards Cavalry Brigade

Life Guards Dragoon Regiment of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna
His Majesty's Life Guards Hussar Regiment

2nd Division of the Life Guards Horse Artillery

2nd General Feldzeichmeister of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Battery
5th His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Battery

Separate Guards Cavalry Brigade

His Majesty's Life Guards Uhlan Regiment
Life Guards Grodno Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich Hussar Regiment
3rd His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Georgiy Mikhailovich Battery of the Life Guards Horse Artillery

Guards Mortar Artillery Battalion

Life Guards Sapper Battalion

Guards naval crew

Guards Corps Aviation Detachment Russian Imperial Air Force.

1st Military Road Detachment of Guard Troops

Guards Railway Regiment

Recruit soldiers for the guard were selected based on their appearance: in the Preobrazhensky regiment - the tallest and fair-haired, in the Semenovsky regiment - blondes, in the Izmailovsky regiment - brunettes, in the Life Rangers - light build with any hair color. The Moscow Life Guards Regiment are red-haired, the Grenadier Regiment is brunette, the Pavlovsky Regiment is red-haired and snub-nosed, the Finnish Regiment is like huntsmen.

The Cavalry Regiment - the tallest blondes, bay horses, the Life Guards Cavalry - brunettes and black horses, His Majesty's Cuirassier - red on red horses, Her Majesty's Cuirassier - blondes on karak (dark bay) horses.

Russian Guard in the White Movement

In 1918, along with the disbandment of the Russian Imperial Army, the guards units were also abolished. However, almost all of them were restored during Civil War and took part in the fight against the Bolsheviks as part of the White armies. At the end of the Civil War, the Guards Association and associations of regiments of the Russian Imperial Guard were created in exile, which became part of the Russian General Military Union.

Guard of modern Russia

Today the Russian Armed Forces include:

Guards Tank Kantemirovskaya Division
Guards Motorized Rifle Taman Division
Guards Motorized Rifle Carpathian-Berlin Division
Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Sevastopol Brigade
VDV linear connections
guards units and ships of the Navy
Guards units of the Ground Forces and Air Force (in particular the 159th Guards Novorossiysk Red Banner Order of Suvorov III degree fighter aviation regiment)