Preobrazhensky bodyguard regiment
The Preobrazhensky Body Guard Regiment ( Russian Преображенский лейб-гвардии полк ), named after the village of Preobrazhenskoe near Moscow , has been the bodyguard of the Russian emperors since Peter the Great , originally recruited from the old house troops . The guards regiment was founded in 1687. It was therefore also known as the " Old Guard " in addition to the Semjonowski Regiment , the Ismailowski Life Guard Regiment and the Life Guard Jägerregiment . These were the oldest regiments of the Imperial Russian Army . It was considered a special privilege among officers to serve in one of these guard regiments . However, the officer ranks were mostly only open to the nobility . In fact, all the great and well-known military commanders began their career as officers there.
Menshikov , Suvorov and Paskewitsch , for example , emerged from this regiment . The guards regiments were also often the subject of descriptions in the memoirs of Catherine the Great . The Preobrazhensk bodyguard regiment was often mentioned in connection with Peter III. who came to the throne for six months in 1762.
After all, it was officers of this regiment who murdered Peter after he was forced to abdicate. The main part in the assassination of Peter III. is attributed to the Orlov brothers . After the assassination of Peter III. the throne.
In this regiment also served Mussorgsky , who achieved a far greater importance as a composer than as a military man.
Trotsky wrote in his History of the Russian Revolution of the events of the February Revolution of 1917 :
"'How great was my astonishment," reports Schidlowski, "when I saw the entire Preobrazhensky regiment on the street the next morning, marching in exemplary order, with an orchestra at the head, without a single officer ..." However, some troops came to the Tauride Palace with their commanders, more precisely, they carried them with them. The officers felt in this pageant in the position of prisoners. Countess Kleinmichel, who observed these scenes when arrested, expresses herself more clearly: the officers resembled sheep that are taken to the slaughter. "
Rasputin was murdered in 1916 with the participation of an officer from the Preobrazhensk body guard regiment. The last commander under Tsar Nicholas II was Lieutenant General Kutepov . The final dissolution took place in 1918.
In 2013 the regiment was re-established as the 154th Independent Preobrazhensky Commanding Regiment .
Web links
- lgpp.petrobrigada.ru (Russian)
- history.scps.ru (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leon Trotsky: History of the Russian Revolution , Volume 1: February Revolution, Chapter 13: Army and War