MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES Text by ALBERT SEATON Color plates by MICHAEL YO1 Text by ALBERT SEATON Color plates by MICHAEL YOUENS HIPPOCRENE BOOKS, INC 0 Copyright 1973 Osprey Publishing Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior information of the publisher. For information write to: Hippocrene Books, Inc. I 7 I Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10016 First published in the United States 1973 First published in Great Britain in 1973 by Osprey Publishing Ltd, P.O. Box 25, 707 Oxford Road, Reading, Berkshire In the preparation of this text acknowledgement is made to Opisanie Odezhdui Vooruzheniya Rossiiskikh Voisk edited by Viskovatov (St Petersburg 1899- 1902) and L'Armie Russe by Bujac (Paris 1894). The photographs are reproduced by courtesy of the .Keeper, the Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Photographer: Berkhamsted Photographic, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire). Grateful acknowledge- ment is made to Macmillan Ltd. for permission to reproduce extracts from the accounts of Sir Robert Wilson and Sir Robert Porter, included in 1812 edited by Anthony Brett-James. Printed in Great Britain arms carrying a sword, an axe, and a musket or pike. The use of artillery field-pieces had first been introduced in 1389, but it was not until 1550 that Until the end of the sixteenth century there was a permanent artillery force came into being. no standing army in times of peace in Russia. Artillerymen, however, like those elsewhere in When danger threatened or a campaign was to western Europe, were not regarded as soldiers but be mounted, the ruler ordered the nobility into merely as camp-following auxiliaries. the field and these armed and provisioned their The reign of Boris Godunov and the 'Time of own retainers and serfs. In consequence there was the Troubles' showed that the streltsy was little no uniformity in organization, equipment, or more than a territorial militia unfit for European dress; nor was the Principality of Moscow war. Large numbers of mercenary soldiers flocked militarily strong enough to withstand invading to offer their services to Moscow - Germans, armies, whether from out of Asia or out of Livonians, and Swedes predominant among them, Europe. Muscovy survived because of its privileged position among the Russian principalities as the tax-gatherer for the overlord Tartar, who held dominion over the Slav lands as far west as the Dnieper. The Mongol-Tartar Empire began rapidly to decline with the separation of the Golden Horde from the Mongols, while in the west the Tartars were challenged by the growing military power of Lithuania-Poland. It was Ivan I11 who first threw off the Tartar yoke, but by then the Golden Horde was breaking up into the three separate Tartar khanates of the Crimea, Kazan, and Astrakhan. Not until the accession of Ivan IV (the Terrible) was the first body of Musco- vite troops set up as a permanent establishment in peace. This was the corps of streltsy, the strelets being an archer or musketeer usually recruited from the peasantry. The streltsy lived in barracks and garrisoned Moscow and the frontier towns, being responsible not only for defence but for police, fire and watch duties. The original streltsy organization was that of the company and it was not until the mid-seventeenth century that the many independent companies were united into regiments. In all there were forty regiments, each about 600 strong, the men-at- A grenadier of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, c. 1801 and these formed the officer and non-commis- seven infantry regiments, twenty-two were com- sioned officer cadres for newly-raised cavalry, manded by colonels with German names, while dragoon, and infantry regiments, organized and four of the remaining five had non-Russian names. equipped on the Western pattern. Of the regi- The two colonels of dragoons were called Schnee- ments founded in 1642, the Moskovsky continued wanz and Goltz, Goltz's regiment still being in in service until 1 ~ ~a2nd, t he ~utirsku~n,d er its existence in 1917 as I ~oskovsk~~r a~oonIsnl changed title of 13 Erivansky Grenadiers, until I 708 most of the original twenty-nine regiments 1917. When Peter the Great came to the throne in were given titles of the names of towns or pro- 168~h, is predecessor Theodor had left him a vinces; usually where they were raised, and &any standing army of twenty-five regiments of cavalry of these were retained until the twentieth century. and forty regiments of infantry. The only Imperial Tsarist Russian regiments which could claim existence before this time were certain cavalry who owed their earliest origins Peter the Great to the 'town Cossack' levies of South-west Muscovy and the Ukraine, the Sumsky, Kharkovsky, Izyumsky, Akhtirsky, and the Chernigovsky, Peter the Great in his youth had played at Seversky, and Kievsky regiments. soldiers, drilling and exercising his two companies In I 700 the new Russian Army was completely of the Preobrazhensk~a nd the Semenovsky. In defeated by Charles XI1 of Sweden on the Narva, 1689 and 1691 these two names were transferred with only the regiments of the Russian guard - - to two of his newly formed guard regiments, while showing any great steadiness. Undeterred, the the cannoniers of his childhood were formed into Tsar reorganized his forces, but continued to the 1st Battery of the Artillery Brigade. of the place his trust in his infantry rather than in Guard. In 1697 Peter left on a tour of western Europe f and during his absence the strelty mutinied, poss- ibly incited to do so by Peter's sister Sophia, the former Regent. The streltsy were already a political power within the state and to this they owed their bloody suppression on the Tsar's return. Their remnants were disbanded and Peter determined that many of the foreign mercenary regiments should be abolished, their replacements being found by a national conscription introduced in 1699. Only a proportion ,of the male population was called to the colours for an unlimited period of full-time service, which really meant for life. (Not until fifty years later was the term of service regulated to twenty-five years, this law, enacted by the Empress Anne, remaining in force until 1874.) Peter's first conscription brought him only 32,000 recruits and these, drafted into twenty- seven infantry and two dragoon regiments, were formed into three infantry divisions under the command of Weide, Repnin, and Galovin. But I Peter could not, and probably would not, rid Shabrack and holster-covers used by (top) an infantry regimental officer, and (bottom) an in- himself of the foreign officers on whom he relied fantry field officer-, c. 17.0*6 for experience and instruction, for of the twenty- \ artillery or mounted troops. By 1709, when the Swedes were defeated by Peter at Poltava in the Ukraine, the strength of the Russian Army had risen to go,ooo men, with fifty-three regiments of infantry of the line and thirty-two of mounted infantry dragoons. It had no light or heavy cavalry. In I 720 Peter the Great reformed his army once more and the effect of these changes was still apparent seventy years later at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The overall army strength was increased to 125,000 men, half of which were allocated to field formations, the remainder providing garrison troops and static installations. And so there were forty-eight regiments of field and forty-eight of garrison infantry; each regiment had two batta- lions, each of four companies of musketeers, together with a ninth (regimental) company of grenadiers. A battalion was about 600 men strong and four battalions (two regiments) formed a corps. Grenadiers of the Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky, and The mounted force numbered 40,000 of which Izmailovsky Guard Regiments, c. 1797 36,000 served in the field force. The whole of the regular cavalry of forty-one regiments were of although it had taken und'er its wing the en- dragoons, each regiment consisting of ten com- gineers, the sappers, and the miners. An artillery panies of mounted infantry and one of mounted regiment might have as many as I I ,000 men on its grenadiers. strength, including six companies of cannoniers Hussars formed no part of the army after I 707, (guns), a company of bombardiers (originally the place of light cavalry being filled by mounted mortars and howitz'ers), and several companies of Cossacks of the main hosts. There were originally miners and pontoniers. This was -additional to two types of Cossack: the 'town Cossacks', what was known as 'battle artillery', the light guns permanent bodies of troops raised by frontier belonging to infantry 'and cavalry regiments, Russian towns, these eventually being absorbed for each line regiment had three cannon or into the regular cavalry; and the Cossacks of the mortars under its own command, and the Preo- hosts (voiska) of the Don, the Terek, the Ural, and brazhensky and Semenovsky Guards each had Siberia. These were warrior settler peoples who ten. were obliged to provide the Tsar with mounted troops in exchange for certain freedoms from taxation and for the grant of common rights and lands. Each Cossack from the hosts was responsible for furnishing, at his own expense, his horse, uniform, arms and equipment. Cossack ranks, methods and training were very different from those of the regular army and, with his scant Peter the Great died in 1725 and, if one excepts regard for formal discipline, the Cossack was the forming (in 1728) of a new engineer corps viewed by his Russian brother as more than independent of the artillery, there were no further unreliable. changes until the accession of the Empress Anne The artillery arm was still little developed in I 730. That year a new guards infantry regiment I Cossack banners. Left: the Ural Host; bottom right: the Ural Guard Squadron; top right: the 1st and 2nd Chugusvsky Regiments, c. 1798 was raised, the Izmailovsky, and a number of an additional, specialized skill. Nor were fusiliers dragoon regiments were reformed as the Imperial necessarily armed with the fusil or light musket. Horse Guards. The value of Russian troops was still an un- The Russian mounted arm had had very little known factor in Europe, for, although Peter had success against the Turkish light cavalry. The overcome the Swedes at Poltava, within two years Cossack was valueless for shock action against he suffered a near-disastrous defeat at the hands enemy horse, and the Russian dragoon was better of the Turks on the Pruth. Anne intervened in the trained as an infantry soldier than as a cavalry- War of the Polish Succession and fought another man. The native Russian horse lacked weight, war against the Turks, this time in company with bone and stamina compared with the Turkish- Austria as a Russian ally. But Russian successes bred Arab. It was only at the prompting of the were comparatively trifling and it was left to the Russian Field-Marshal Munnich that the Empress Empress Elisabeth (1741-62) to pit her armies Anne agreed to the formation of three regiments against a European foe. of heavy cuirassiers, equipped with a metal In 1753 the Russian line infantry regiments helmet and breastplate and mounted on well-bred were reformed from a two- to a three-battalion horses imported from Germany. An attempt was structure, each having three companies of fusiliers made, too, to reform the Cossacks and use at least and one of grenadiers. Grenadier regiments on the part of their number as cavalry by regrouping other hand remained on a two-battalion organiza- many of their independent squadrons (sotni or tion with an additional company to each battalion, hundreds) into regiments. making ten companies to the regiment. Garrison It was during Anne's reign, too, that the regiments of infantry remained at two battalions infantry grenadier changed his basic function each. (although he retained his name) and became a Russian cavalry, too, was reorganized, and musketeer-infantryman, grenade-throwing being between 1741 and 1759 twelve new hussar Cavalry helmets, 1799 regiments were raised, the ranks being filled for gineers. Regimental artillery, permanently allo- the most part by light cavalry enlisted from abroad. cated to infantry or cavalry regiments, had also In 1756 nine existing Russian dragoon regiments been increased. were re-formed as nine cuirassier regiments and The first regiment of engineers, an offshoot of six regiments of horse grenadiers. Most mounted the artillery, was formed in 1728 of two com- regiments had an establishment of five squadrons, panies of miners, two of sappers, and two con- but the dragoons had six and the hussars had a struction companies. loose company (half-squadron) organization which varied by regiments: eight hussar regiments had G~therinteh e Gre~t ten companies and four of them (two further regiments had been raised) as many as twenty companies each. During the eighteenth century Russian artillery During the Seven Years War (1756-63) Russian developed rapidly. By 1 757 an artillery regiment troops took the field against Frederick the Great's had two battalions, each of a company of bom- Prussia. They enjoyed alternating fortunes, and bardiers, manning howitzers and mortars, and distinguished themselves by their tenacity. It four companies of cannoniers manning guns. appeared that Frederick must be finally defeated, Each regiment had over ninety artillery pieces of when suddenly the Russian Empress Elisabeth various types. In addition to the field army died. Her unstable successor, Peter 111, an artillery there were numerous regiments and admirer of the King of Prussia, hastened to make parks of specialized artillery of siege-guns and peace, but within six months he had been deposed howitzers. Presumably because the gunners were by his own German wife who subsequently the principal users, the pontoon regiments became Catherine 11, or Catherine the Great. formed part of the artillery and not of the en- Catherine reigned from I 762 to I 796 and was regiments were raised, mainly from the Ukrainian mounted militia, bringing the infantry strength of the field army to sixty-two regiments of 132 battalions, totalling I I 1,000 men; but she reverted to the old organization of two battalions to a regiment, each of six companies. The fusilier battalions were renamed musketeers (although this was only a temporary redesignation) and each had a grenadier company. The eighty-four battalions of garrison infantry, mostly of six companies, were given operational tasks, sixty-five of them being allocated to frontier defence. The cavalry, too, was reorganized once more and in I 763 Catherine introduced carabineers - cavalrymen armed with carbine and sword, but differing from dragoons in that they carried no bayonet. These were raised by converting five dragoon and six horse grenadier regiments. To replace the dragoon regiments thus lost, further units were raised, mainly from the Ukraine, bringing the total number of dragoon regiments up to twenty-three. The five ancient 'town Cossack' regiments, sometimes known as the Non-commissioned officer clerk and a private of a dragoon regiment, c. 1800 Cherkassy or Dnieper Cossacks, and the twelve existing regiments of hussars, were converted to Empress of all the Russias at the time of the eleven new hussar regiments and four lancer French Revolution, and the Revolutionary and regiments. The three cavalry regiments, privately Napoleonic Wars. Catherine claimed to be an maintained by the Hetman of the Ukraine enlightened patron of the arts and sciences, as Cossacks, were taken over by the St Petersburg. indeed she was, and a social reformer, which, all Government. In the newly-reformed regiments things considered, she was not. Her interests were the heavy cavalry and dragoons each had five Russian and were centred on the aggrandizement squadrons, while the light cavalry (hussars of Imperial Russia by political or military means, and uhlan lancers) had six. Each squadron and she took a close interest in the strength and could be broken down into half-squadrons organization of the Russian Army. (companies). After the reorganization there were At the time of Catherine's accession the line in all, sixty regular cavalry regiments of 315 infantry in the field army consisted of fifty-three squadrons, totalling 50,000 men which did not, regiments of 160 battalions, 80,000 men in all. of course, include the ~ossacksotniotrh e Ukrainian Garrison infantry comprised forty-seven regiments mounted militia. of ninety-nine battalions, totalling 65,000 men. Under Catherine the artillery was expanded to The cavalry had fifty-two regiments of 265 five regiments, one of bombardiers, two of squadrons, amounting to 40,000 men, and thirty- cannoniers, and two of fusiliers. Each artillery eight regiments of regular or territorial Ukrainian regiment had two battalions, each of five com- Cossacks outside the so-called 'irregular' troops panies. The pontoniers, still only a company of the main Don, Terek, and Siberian Hosts. strong, remained as part of the artillery. In I 793, Together the regular infantry and cavalry made at the time of the French Revolutionary War, a up 320,000 men. further seven battalions of bombardiers were In the first two years of her reign Catherine raised, but not until 1794 was the first company completely reformed her army. New infantry of horse artillery brought into existence. Throughout Catherine's long reign, the numeri- cal strength of the Russian Army grew slowly but steadily, particularly in the cavalry arm. The guard cavalry regiments remained at five squad- rons, but, after 1775, all cavalry was increased to six squadrons except for the dragoons, which were raised to ten, and the Cossack regiments which had eight sotni. By 1790 the standing Russian Army had a strength of half a million men.' From the death of Peter the Great in 1725 until the accession of Catherine the Great in 1762, Russia lacked strong government. Most of the monarchs were women and the succession was usually disputed by force, the decision being I I determined by the officers of the palace guards. The standard of an infantry grenadier regiment of household troops with shaft crest and tassel, Ultimate power rested in the guards regiments in c. 1800 St Petersburg. Yet in spite of its internal weaknesses Imperial exchange for British gold, a force of 55,000 Russia remained a power to be reckoned with in Russian troops were to be concentrated on the central and eastern Europe. This it owed to the East Prussian frontier. Hanover was, therefore, strength of its standing army. to be protected from the Baltic. From 1726 to the end of the Seven Years War In 1756 Frederick the Great made a pre- in 1763 Russia remained allied to Austria, the emptive attack on Saxony because he believed alliance being based on a mutual hostility to- that failure to do so would result in a joint offen- wards the Ottoman Empire and a joint interest sive being launched on him by Austrian, Russian, in dominating Poland. Russia again defeated the Saxon, and possibly French troops. The odds Swedes in 1743 and was ceded part of Karelia. against Frederick were immense. In 1756 he had The situation in Central Europe was changing, defeated the Saxons but the next year he failed however, with the rising power of Prussia, whose against the Austrians, and the Russians invaded monarch, Frederick the Great, with the backing East Prussia. In 1758 Britain, motivated by of the French, had recently overrun Austrian opposition to France, changed sides; but Prussia Silesia. Maria Theresa, the Austrian Empress, had no other ally. In August of that same year, was determined to recover the lost provinces and however, the Prussians defeated the Russians at she entered into agreements with London and Zorndorf in the bloodiest battle of the war, but St Petersburg preparatory to a new war. Mean- this costly victory was of little comfort since that while Frederick the Great, by his personal October Frederick lost once more to the Austrians unpopularity, had lost much of his support in at Hochkirch in Saxony, and in the following Versailles. Prussia's position had deteriorated year, in 1759, was decisively defeated by the even further in that Britain, fearing Frederick's Russian commander, Saltykov. By 1760 Berlin designs on Hanover, signed a treaty in 1755 with was occupied once again. Yet Prussia still con- the Empress Elisabeth, by the terms of which, in tinued in the war, when a little more energy on