The 1st Guards Corps () was a

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

-level command in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

that existed in the decades leading up to and during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Stationed in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, it included some of the oldest and best known

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

s of the

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...

. Until 1915 it was called the Guards Corps (Гвардейский корпус).

History

The Guards Corps was established in 1813, consisting of two guards infantry divisions and their artillery, a guards sapper battalion, and a guards cavalry division. After the reforms in the 1830s, during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the corps was reorganized into two separate units: the 1st Guards Infantry Corps, which included three infantry divisions, a sapper battalion, and a Finnish rifle battalion, and a 1st Guards Reserve Cavalry Corps with three cavalry divisions and horse artillery. This basic structure existed through the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

. Military reforms began in 1862, and in 1864 both the Guards Infantry and Cavalry Corps had been disbanded. In 1874 all guards units were combined into a new Guards Corps. The Guards Corps saw action during World War I and was renamed the 1st Guards Corps. In the Kerensky offensive, the 1st Guards Corps launched an attack on Austrian and German positions in the sector of the Russian Eleventh Army and took heavy losses.

Organization

As of 1914, the corps included the following:Гвардейский корпус
. Ria1914.info. Retrieved 10 November 2017. * 1st Guards Infantry Division ** Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment ** Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment ** Life Guards Izmaylovsky Regiment ** Life Guards Egersky Regiment ** 1st Life Guards Artillery Brigade * 2nd Guards Infantry Division ** Life Guards Moscow Regiment **

Life Guards Grenadier Regiment Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response ...

** Life Guards Pavlovsky Regiment ** Life Guards Finland Regiment ** 2nd Life Guards Artillery Brigade * Guards Rifle Division (until 1915: brigade) ** 1st His Majesty's Own Life Guards Rifle Regiment ** 2nd Tsarskoye Selo Life Guards Rifle Regiment **

3rd His Majesty's Own Life Guards Rifle Regiment Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

** 4th Imperial Family Life Guards Rifle Regiment **

Life Guards Rifle Artillery Division Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, organisation, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response ...

* 1st Guards Cavalry Division ** Chevalier Guards Regiment **

Horse Guards Regiment In the British Army, the Horse Guards comprised several independent troops raised initially on the three different establishments. In the late 1660s, there were thus three troops in England, one in Ireland, and two in Scotland of which one was ce ...

** His Majesty's Own Cuirassier Life Guards Regiment ** Her Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna's Own Life Guards Regiment ** His Majesty's Own Cossack Life Guards Regiment ** His Imperial Highness the Tsarevich's Ataman Cossack Life Guards Regiment **

Combined Cossack Life Guards Regiment Combined may refer to: * Alpine combined (skiing), the combination of slalom and downhill skiing as a single event ** Super combined (skiing) * Nordic combined (skiing), the combination of cross country skiing and ski jumping as a single event * T ...

** 1st Life Guards Horse Artillery Division *

2nd Guards Cavalry Division The 2nd Guards Cavalry Division was a Imperial Guard (Russia), Guards light cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army. Organisation 1857–1918: *1st Cavalry Brigade **Horse Grenadier Life-Guards Regiment **Her Majesty's Lancer Guards Regimen ...

** Horse Grenadier Life Guards Regiment ** Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovona's Lancer Life Guards Regiment ** Dragoon Life Guards Regiment **

His Majesty's Hussar Life Guards Regiment His Majesty's Life Guards Hussar Regiment (until 1855 – the Hussar Life Guards Regiment) was a Russian Imperial Guard, Guards Hussar regiment of the Imperial Russian Army, Army of the Russian Empire. Organizational stages of the regiment's ...

** 2nd Life Guards Horse Artillery Division

Commanders

Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia Konstantin Pavlovich (; ) 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 Alexander I's reign, but had secretly renounced his cla ...

1831 *

Friedrich von Rüdiger Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

1855-1856 *

Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1831–1891) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (; 8 August 1831 – 25 April 1891) was the third son and sixth child of Nicholas I of Russia, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia, Alexandra Feodorovna. He may also be referred to as Nic ...

1862-1864 *

Alexander III of Russia Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the libera ...

1874-1880 *

Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (; 22 April 1847 – 17 February 1909) was a son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, a brother of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and the senior Grand Duke of the House of Romanov during the reign of hi ...

1880-1881 *

Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov Count Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov (; Leipzig/Saint Petersburg, – Yalta, ) was an Imperial Russian statesman and the brother of Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov. Biography Pavel Andreyevich came from the Shuvalov family which has been promi ...

1881-1885 *

Duke Alexander of Oldenburg Duke Alexander Frederick Constantin of Oldenburg (; , Alexander Petrovich Oldenburgsky; – 6 September 1932) was the second son of Duke Peter of Oldenburg and Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg. Though he had a German title and ancestry, Alexan ...

1885-1889 *

Nikolai Obolensky Prince Nikolai Nikolayevich Obolensky (November 10, 1833 – August 25, 1898) was an Imperial Russian division commander. He was born in what is now Ulyanovsk, Ulyanovsk Oblast. He fought in wars in the Crimea, Poland and against the Ottoman Emp ...

1897-1898 *

Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (; 3 October 1860 – 28 January 1919) was the sixth son and youngest child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia by his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander III ...

1898-1902 *

Sergei Vasilchikov Sergei Illarionovich Vasilchikov (9 September 1849 – 27 August 1926) was an Imperial Russian division commander.He was born in Kiev in modern-day Ukraine. He was the son of Imperial Russian general Illarion Illarionovich Vasilchikov. He fough ...

1902-1906 *

Vladimir Danilov Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology T ...

1906-1912 *

Vladimir Besobrasow Vladimir Mikhailovich Bezobrazov (; 1857 - 1932) was a Russian military leader from the Bezobrazov family, general from the cavalry, adjutant general. From 1915-1916 he was commander of the Guard. Biography The younger brother of the Secretary of ...

(19.01.1912 — 25.08.1915) * Vladimir Olohov (25.08.1915 - 08.12.1915) * Georgi Rauch (08.12.1915 — 27.05.1916) *

(27.05.1916 — end 1916) * Pavel Pototsky (end 1916 - 02.04.1917) * Nikolai Ilkevich (02.04.1917 - 07.1917) *

Vladimir May-Mayevsky Vladimir Zenonovich May-Mayevsky KCMG (; – 30 November 1920) was a Russian military leader who was a general in the Imperial Russian Army and one of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary White movement during the Russian Civil War. Bio ...

(07.1917 — 01.1918)

Citations

Sources

* * {{Russian Empire Ground Forces Corps of the Russian Empire Military units and formations established in 1874 Military units and formations disestablished in 1918