Table of contents:
- Who invented the Russian penal battalions
- Sending aristocrats to be torn apart by the highlanders
- Consolidated Penalty Regiment in the Caucasus and the Success of the Russian Guards
- End of the Persian War and return to their homelands
Video: How the first Russian penalty boxers were punished, and what happened to them after returning from the war
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The first official unit of penalties in the Russian army was created after the Decembrist uprising. The regiment was formed from soldiers and sailors who took part in the uprising against the imperial power. The penalties were sent to the Caucasus, where the servicemen atoned for their guilt by direct participation in bloody hostilities. After they returned home from the war, they received special attention from the authorities in all respects.
Who invented the Russian penal battalions
Contrary to the stereotype that developed after the Great Patriotic War, penal battalions were not an invention of the mind of the Soviet leader Stalin. In fact, the Russian, as well as the world in general, the history of penalties started much earlier. The practice of demoralizing guilty officers to the lower ranks has existed since the 18th century. A well-known legend of that time was the dispatch by Paul I to Siberia of a regiment that was fined at a military review. And although this history has not found factual confirmation, there is a lot of evidence of the demotion of hundreds of officers to the rank and file, followed by sending them to distant fortresses.
Penalties of the time of Paul I were exclusively from the nobility, but ordinary soldiers atoned for misdeeds only with their own lives. Driving through the line of ramrods, they were most often mutilated to death. In the 19th century, the practice of demotion to "penalties" became common in the army for all military ranks. After the uprising on December 14, 1825, on Senate Square, up to 4 thousand participants were sent to the Caucasus to atone for their guilt. This case was the first mass dispatch of "penalties" to the zone of active hostilities, as a result of which their percentage in the composition of the Caucasian troops turned out to be significant and decisive. Among the penalty box was Lermontov's comrade Rufim Dorokhov, one of the Trubetskoy princes, lieutenant colonel of the Pavlograd hussar regiment, holder of several high awards and lieutenant colonel-hussar Grigory Nechvolodov, was considered a penalty box, and Lermontov himself can be called a penalty box.
Sending aristocrats to be torn apart by the highlanders
Most of the participants in the uprising against Nicholas I in 1825 were nobles and nobles. Perhaps, remembering the terrible murder of his predecessor Paul I by conspiratorial aristocrats, the emperor did not dare to execute all the instigators of the revolt. He decided to act differently - to send the guilty guards to the Caucasus under the bullets of the mountaineers. This is how the first official penal battalions appeared in Russia.
In the first wave, more than a hundred noble Decembrists were demoted with subsequent transfer to the Caucasian army in the field. Up to two hundred especially active rebel soldiers were punished with sticks to a pulp, the rest, about 4 thousand privates, were also sent to the highlanders as part of the consolidated guards regiment. During the uprising, members of the Life Guards of the Moscow Regiment, as well as Life Grenadiers, were the first to come to the square to the monument to Peter the Great. In addition, they dared to offer armed resistance to the imperial military. The emperor could not forgive them for such activity, sending in full force to wash away the shame of betrayal with the blood of Russian enemies. But even in spite of all this, Nicholas I decided to continue to consider the apostates as guardsmen and to preserve their increased salaries and army prerogatives.
Consolidated Penalty Regiment in the Caucasus and the Success of the Russian Guards
The emperor appointed Colonel Shipov, who was also noted for his Decembrist feats, as the commander of the penal battalion. The combined regiment arrived in the Caucasus at the end of the summer of 1826. At that time, the war with the Persians was in full swing. But the penalty box fell out in battles the next year during the march to the Armenian Echmiadzin. The losses among the guards were minimal. The urban population greeted the Russians cordially. And the next step of the combined regiment was the siege of Erivan (Yerevan). They managed to expel the three thousandth army of the Persians into the mountains practically without enemy resistance, thanks, according to historians, to the stupid leadership of their leader Hassan Khan.
However, an epidemic began to mow the ranks of the Russian military, and they retreated to Azerbaijan, leaving one detachment near Erivan. Fearing complete defeat, the Persian prince soon surrendered Nakhichevan, trying to stop the Russian army at Javan Bulak. But the withdrawal did not save Abbas-Abad, and the Persians were defeated, having lost their cavalry. As a result, the enemy laid down his arms, and the detachment that had recovered from the epidemic returned to take Erivan.
End of the Persian War and return to their homelands
The city was captured by Russian penalties in October 1827, hiding in the local mosque, Gassan Khan was taken prisoner. Another Persian war ended, and soon the penalty regiment returned to St. Petersburg. In addition to the victory, yesterday's rebels brought with them contributions in the form of gold and numerous trophies. The emperor, satisfied with the meeting of the guards, gave the order to disband the regiment, preferring to forget about what had happened and eliminate the slightest reminder of discord.
Officers and soldiers received a special medal and a substantial monetary reward for military service. After that, they were allowed to return to their native units for further service. The ex-commander of the penalties, Shipov, began to command the Life Grenadier Regiment. If we talk about losses among penalty boxers over the years of fighting in the Caucasus, they are relatively small compared to other units. The guardsmen fully showed their professionalism, fortitude and courage.
Much later paratrooper Uncle Vasya forced entire German regiments to surrender without a fight.
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