The Izmaylovsky Regiment (russian: Изма́йловский лейб-гва́рдии полк, Izmáylovskiy leyb-gvárdii polk) was one of the oldest

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

s of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

, a subdivision of the 1st Guards Infantry Division of the Imperial Russian Guard. It was formed in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

on 22 September 1730 as Empress

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's personal

life guards Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transf ...

(leib guard), named after the Romanov ancestral estate of Izmaylovo. The first colonel of the regiment that was appointed was

Adjutant general An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

Count Karl Gustav von Löwenwolde. After him, only members of the imperial family were appointed chiefs of the regiment. On 17 March 1800, the regiment was renamed to ''Lifeguards of His Imperial Highness

Konstantin Pavlovich Konstantin Pavlovich (russian: Константи́н Па́влович; ) was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. He was the heir-presumptive for most of his elder brother Alexan ...

'' (), and then on 28 May of the same year to ''Lifeguard of His Imperial Highness

Nikolai Pavlovich Nikolai Pavlovich (Bulgarian: Николай Павлович; 9 December 1835, Svishtov – 13 February 1894, Sofia) was a Bulgarian Nationalist painter, lithographer and illustrator. Biography He was the son of , a teacher and writer of the Bu ...

'' (). The original name was restored in 1801. The regimental church was Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, where its military ensigns were kept.

Timeline

* 1737 – the first time that the Izmaylovsky Regiment saw active service, when a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

led by

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

Gustav von Biron fought in the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...

; under the command of

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Burkhard Christoph von Münnich Burkhard Christoph Graf von Münnich (, tr. ; – ) was a German-born army officer who became a field marshal and political figure in the Russian Empire. He carried out major reforms in the Russian Army and founded several elite milita ...

. This battalion was the first Russian unit to enter the Turkish fortress of Ochakov. In recognition of this action the regiment was awarded a set of silver trumpets, though not until 1857. * 1742 –

Russo-Swedish War Wars between Russia and Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> ...

* 1788 – Ochakov, Bendery, Brailov * 1790 –

* 1795 –

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appointed as a colonel at the age of five * 1805 – Austerlitz * 1807 – Friedland * 1808 –

Finnish War The Finnish War ( sv, Finska kriget, russian: Финляндская война, fi, Suomen sota) was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a re ...

* 1812 – Borodino * 1813 – Lützen,

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, Kulm,

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* 1828–1829 –

* 1831 –

Polish campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

* 1863–1864 –

* 1878–1879 – Russo-Turkish war * 1914 –

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Ceremonial chiefs

* 22 September 1730 – 30 April 1735 – Count Karl Gustav von Löwenwolde * 30 April 1735 – 17 October 1740 – Empress Anna Ivanovna * 17 October 1740 – 25 November 1741 – Emperor Ivan VI of Russia * 25 November 1741 – 25 December 1761 – Empress Yelizaveta Petrovna * 25 December 1761 – 28 June 1762 – Emperor Pyotr III * 28 June 1762 – 6 November 1796 – Empress Ekaterina II * 7 November 1796 – 10 November 1796 – Emperor Pavel I * 10 November 1796 – 28 May 1800 –

Grand Prince Grand prince or great prince (feminine: grand princess or great princess) ( la, magnus princeps; Greek: ''megas archon''; russian: великий князь, velikiy knyaz) is a title of nobility ranked in honour below emperor, equal of king ...

* 28 May 1800 – 18 February 1855 – Grand Prince (then Emperor) Nicholas I * 19 February 1855 – 1 March 1881 – Emperor Alexander II * 2 March 1881 – 21 October 1894 – Emperor Alexander III (as a 2nd chief from 28 October 1866) * 2 November 1894 – 1917 – Emperor

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pol ...

Uniforms and physical appearance

Throughout its history under the Russian Empire, the regiment wore the standard uniform of the Infantry of the Imperial Guard, which from 1683 to 1914 was predominantly of a dark green (eventually verging on black) colour. The main distinctions of the Izmaylovsky Regiment were the red

facings A facing colour is a common tailoring technique for European military uniforms where the visible inside lining of a standard military jacket, coat or tunic is of a different colour to that of the garment itself.René Chartrand, William Younghusb ...

( plastron, cuffs and shoulder straps) edged in white

piping Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid. Industrial process piping (and accompa ...

. Collars were of the same dark green as the tunic; piped in red and worn with distinctive regimental patterns of braid (''litzen''). In addition, the tsar's

monogram A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series ...

appeared on the soldiers' shoulder straps and officers' epaulettes. In 1912, in recognition of its long and distinguished record, officers of the regiment were authorised to wear a large metal

gorget A gorget , from the French ' meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the ...

of a design dating from 1732. A peculiarity of the Russian Imperial Guard was that recruits for most regiments were required to meet certain criteria of physical appearance, in order to provide a standardised appearance on parade. This tradition was taken so seriously that during the 19th century the tsar himself might make the selection from a line of new recruits, chalking the regimental initial on the coat of each recruit. For the Izmaylovsky Regiment conscripts were selected on the basis of their hair colour (brown), and beards (the latter being required for the first company of each battalion only).Patrick de Gmeline, pages 36–37 "La Garde Imperiale Imperiale Russe 1896–1914", publisher Charles-Lavauzelle Paris 1986

References

External links

*
Timeline of the regiment
{{Authority control Infantry regiments of the Russian Empire Russian military units and formations of the Napoleonic Wars Russian Imperial Guard Military units and formations established in 1730 Former guards regiments 1730s establishments in the Russian Empire Military units and formations disestablished in 1917 Guards regiments of the Russian Empire