- Source: 1st Guards Corps (Russian Empire)
The 1st Guards Corps (Russian: 1-й Гвардейский корпус) was a corps-level command in the Imperial Russian Army that existed in the decades leading up to and during World War I. Stationed in Saint Petersburg, it included some of the oldest and best known regiments of the Emperor's Guard.
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. 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:
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 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
4th Imperial Family Life Guards Rifle Regiment
Life Guards Rifle Artillery Division
1st Guards Cavalry Division
Chevalier Guards Regiment
Horse Guards Regiment
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
1st Life Guards Horse Artillery Division
2nd Guards Cavalry Division
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
2nd Life Guards Horse Artillery Division
Commanders
Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia 1831
Friedrich von Rüdiger 1855-1856
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1831–1891) 1862-1864
Alexander III of Russia 1874-1880
Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia 1880-1881
Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov 1881-1885
Duke Alexander of Oldenburg 1885-1889
Nikolai Obolensky 1897-1898
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia 1898-1902
Sergei Vasilchikov 1902-1906
Vladimir Danilov 1906-1912
Vladimir Besobrasow (19.01.1912 — 25.08.1915)
Vladimir Olohov (25.08.1915 - 08.12.1915)
Georgi Rauch (08.12.1915 — 27.05.1916)
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (27.05.1916 — end 1916)
Pavel Pototsky (end 1916 - 02.04.1917)
Nikolai Ilkevich (02.04.1917 - 07.1917)
Vladimir May-Mayevsky (07.1917 — 01.1918)
Citations
Sources
General Staff, War Office (1914). Handbook of the Russian Army. London: Imperial War Museum. ISBN 0-89839-250-0.
Wildman, Allan (1987). The End of the Russian Imperial Army: The Road to Soviet Power and Peace. Vol. II. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05504-1.