Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 4 004 Moscow Grenadier Regiment

The biggest gain Solovyov got from participating in this salon was undoubtedly the recommendation of Duke Volkonsky.

"Son, no matter how well-trained the Suzdal Regiment is, they are just an ordinary infantry regiment. If you want to make a difference in the army, you can either serve as a herald for a general and then become an adjutant, or you can become a police officer. Good regiment, my suggestion to you is to go to a regiment in Moscow. It happens that the commander of the Moscow Grenadier Regiment is a relative of mine, so it should be a good fit for you to go to him."

"But, Your Highness the Duke, Dear Nikolay Sergeyevich, looking at my height, it seems that I am not a suitable grenadier."

"What we want are officers, not soldiers. If they are soldiers of the Grenadier Regiment, we naturally want some tall and strong ones, but officers still need courage and brains. Go ahead, kid, and I will write you a letter. Give it to General Dmitry Volkonsky, he will understand after reading it."

Admiral Volkonsky and the brigadier general did come from the same family, but from different families. However, they were confirmed to be the same family. If they were related in this way, a letter would probably be able to take care of them. If Solovyov talks about it, the worst infantry regiment he can go to after conscription is a place like the Ryazan Fusiliers, but there is no good development there. If a young noble officer wants to go up, The Guards and Grenadiers are obviously good choices.

As the recipient, Dmitry Petrovich has been in the army for a long time. In comparison, his nephew may be more famous in the future. At this time, he is in the Semyonovsky Regiment in Petersburg. In the future, he will become the adjutant of Grand Duke Constantine and the chief of the general staff of the Tsar - these have not happened yet. He also attaches great importance to the letter from the infantry general, Prince Nikolai Volkonsky. After all, this He is also the senior member of the family who joined the army.

"Sit down, Lieutenant, are you from Ryazan too?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, Brigadier General."

"Not bad, hereditary nobles in Ryazan, and my manor is also there. There is also a manor in Sukhanovo, Podolsk. That is my wife's natal family. It is a very big manor. We sometimes It’s not very convenient to live there. ”

What he is talking about now is the Sukhanovo Manor. Now is the time of peace. The Duke talks more about how to run the manor instead of marching and fighting. This is not surprising. In Yekatier After Empress Lena fell ill, the plan for the Russian army to go out was temporarily shelved. A series of changes in the court situation, as well as the foreign situation becoming more and more favorable to France, have caused Russia in Eastern Europe and Asia to lose the ability to change the situation. Great opportunity.

At this moment, Napoleon should still be fighting the most critical battle on the Italian battlefield outside the Mantua Fortress.

Peace may be poison to some places, especially countries like Russia. If you really want to find trouble, you can try to fight the Turks.

After all, the Ottoman Empire has been Russia's experience package since the time of Peter the Great, and in recent years at the mouth of the Dnieper, under the command of General Ivan Abramovich Hannibal, commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet, in 1778 Kherson was founded in Speaking of which, the father of General Hannibal was a loyal guard and secretary of Peter the Great. Under the order of Empress Catherine, he inherited the potato cultivation business left by Peter the Great himself and spread it extensively in Russia. Potato cultivation was promoted.

"Your Excellency, if we talk about manors, there are some registered villages in Ryazan Prefecture under your name. I think the output there always needs to be clarified. As you know, the governor sent by the local emperor in Ryazan always comes to clean up Real estate."

"That's right, Misha, how do you run your family?"

"There is no difference from other registered nobles, and the management should be neither good nor bad."

"It seems like everyone is like this."

Duke Dmitry Volkonsky also knows that many manors have not been managed very well over the years. Russia is a large country and environmental problems, even if there is fertile land, will always be affected by environmental problems. There were many bad harvests. After all, this was still an era where technology was not very advanced. When farming, it was not much different from the Middle Ages. Moreover, there were still a large number of serfs in Russian manors.

In addition to working, these serfs also had theaters for aristocratic gentlemen. In fact, many gentlemen used whips to punish their serfs. However, some people who had received French influence abolished this measure and could not The serfs were punished at will, even written in the contract.

It was General Hannibal himself again. In the contract he signed with Joachim von Thielen, it was stipulated that corporal punishment and the arbitrary increase of serf labor were prohibited. The latter did not comply. The final result was that General Hannibal passed Proceedings in the local appeals court resulted in the recovery of the village of La Jolla Perhaps it was the experience he and his brother Alexei Petrovitch Petrov had in the Ottoman Empire when they were young, which made him more sympathetic to the plight of serfs when he became a master. In addition, he was influenced by Voltaire and Montenegro in France. The influence of Desquieu and others is somewhat more advanced than other Boyers.

But when it comes to General Hannibal, the attitude of Duke Volkonsky is not consistent with that of the Soloviev family. Although Mikhail Soloviev himself appreciates General Hannibal's approach, their patron Prince Menshikov is an enemy of General Hannibal, while the Duke Volkonsky family is a descendant of the noble Rurik dynasty, so there is no conflict and they are relatively open-minded, and they appreciate General Hannibal's approach.

"This winter, like previous years, will be long. You should prepare more winter clothes, whether you buy them yourself or have them sent by your family in Ryazan. You don't have to go to the reserve battalion or company. You are young, energetic, and smart. You can stay here and work for me as my adjutant. My former adjutant was very brave in the war, but he always had some problems with his brain. I asked him to go to the reserve battalion, and Misha, you can be my adjutant."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

And Lieutenant Mikhail Solovyov became the adjutant of Brigadier General Duke Dmitri Volkonsky. There are many things to do. Sometimes he has to help him deal with some letters and even do accounting work. Since he is a non-artillery officer with a good brain and does not fire artillery, he has to deal with other matters related to numbers.

But it was good. Prince Volkonsky liked to transfer young officers. They were willing to work hard out of a sense of honor and enthusiasm. Moreover, officers with better backgrounds and excellent performance at work were more likely to be recommended by their superiors, promoted faster, and take up vacant positions. If the commander was a person of high status, this possibility would be even greater.

Two days after the death of Catherine II, the reserve soldiers of the Moscow Grenadiers were transferred to St. Petersburg, where they became part of the Pavlovsky Grenadiers of the Guards. This reduced the opportunity to go directly to St. Petersburg, which was much more lively than the desolate Kaluga.

However, Brigadier General Prince Volkonsky also let the soldiers spend the winter in the barracks and nearby villages. He went to his wife's estate with his adjutant. After the reserve camp was transferred, the pitiful official duties in winter were basically gone. When spring came, he returned to the station from the Sukhanovo estate near Podolsk.

In winter, it was deserted and boring to go to Sukhanovo Manor. There were only the Duke himself and some of his followers. His wife, Ekaterina Alexeevna Mergunova, was sometimes in Moscow and sometimes went to Petersburg to attend the salon there. She was not here. The Duke and his wife had no children. Only the Duke's nephew often corresponded with them, but he was still in the military.

This kind of place is more like a monastery, but the Duke's family has a lot of books, mainly some French and German books - for Solovyov himself, who is not good at French, it is a good place.

After Tsar Paul ascended the throne, in addition to forming a new army, he was also reforming the military system and adjusting the administrative system. The empress was ready to be buried, but the new silly emperor did follow his father. He wanted to move Peter III's coffin here, which showed an attitude, and then a lot of things happened.

The Ryazan Governorate became the Ryazan Province. In 1797, the original Ryazan Governor General Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich was transferred to Petersburg. His son's military rank was also quickly promoted, but he became a lieutenant of the Guards at the age of 15, and then became a colonel in 1801. This is far behind. The sons of retired officers and gentry naturally cannot bring as much benefits as the popular generals. In addition, the fall of the Zubov brothers, the favorites of the Empress, also gave some veterans and people around Tsar Paul the opportunity to be promoted. He also liked to employ Germans, especially Prussian officers, and adopted the Prussian military system.

Then, Marshal Suvorov was in bad luck. He was dismissed from his post just after the arrival of 1797, before the Emperor's coronation ceremony was held. There was a nepotism involved. Nikolai, the eldest of the Zubov brothers, was the son-in-law of Marshal Suvorov. His daughter married Count Nikolai Zubov at the Empress's request, and the Marshal's son Arkady was also fostered in the Count's home. At that time, the relationship between the father-in-law and the son-in-law was very harmonious. The excuse that Tsar Paul found was very simple, "conspiracy to incite the soldiers." Considering the Marshal's prestige in the army, the Emperor would show mercy and let him retire and return to his ancestral estate in the Novgorod area, but he could not have too much contact with the outside world. Only with the help of the Countess could the estate have a very low frequency of communication with the outside world, which gave the Marshal the opportunity to concentrate on writing.

Meanwhile, Prince Volkonsky was at home, living a boring winter life. He had nowhere to go for hunting, but he noticed that the young adjutant was often reading, and his collection of books was within his scope.

Diligent young man, Prince Volkonsky thought so, and he did not interfere too much, but returned to his bedroom. A lot of things happened in the winter of 1796 to 1797. Drastic changes occurred in northern Italy, and the political situation in Russia also changed.

Prince Dmitri Volkonsky himself is about to be promoted and leave the Moscow Grenadiers, which he himself does not know. For Mikhail Soloviev, this is a good opportunity to enrich his knowledge and take this time to get familiar with the world of 1797.

At present, the so-called "trend" of history is nothing compared to the huge network of relationships encountered in Russia. Now Tsar Paul on the stage has to move some of the civil and military officials left by his mother, especially those who oppose his Prussian military reforms. Many of them were cleared out one after another when the coronation came, but when he arrived in St. Petersburg, he should be surprised why Kutuzov and Bagration were fine?

At this point, we can see the difference between Kutuzov and Suvorov. The general's wife was well-informed in the social circles of the upper class, and he himself was always slow and smooth. After returning to the court in Petersburg from the Black Sea front, he ignored the age gap and made friends with Count Zubov, a favorite of Catherine II. At the same time, he was also quite trusted in his position as the garrison commander and the principal of the military academy in Finland. After the death of the empress and the crown prince Paul becoming the new tsar, he quickly changed his mind, unlike his old superior Suvorov who mocked the "Prussian military reform" in public.

In his eyes, being able to protect himself at this time is already a victory. The relationship with Count Zubov, the current lieutenant general of the army, may be closer than Suvorov. When the old marshal married his daughter, he had already chosen a son-in-law, but it was the favor of the empress that made his daughter "Suvorochka" marry the most favored close minister. He himself had some opinions about the count, that is, on one side was the empress's favorite, and on the other side was the empress's powerful fist, so nothing happened.

Kutuzov's problem was that he had a close relationship with Count Zubov. This was his personal problem. Of course, now that there was a new emperor, he also transferred his loyalty and flattery in the court to Tsar Paul. Although this was a bit annoying, it also preserved his personal status. At the same time, he was very good to his old superior, which was sincere. It was just that the new emperor did not allow the old marshal to have any contact with relatives and designated people. He could not find any way to get in touch with the ancestral manor of the Suvorov family in Novgorod.

Bagration is now only the commander of a chariot regiment and a colonel of infantry. Although Suvorov attaches great importance to him, the current Petersburg affairs have nothing to do with him. In addition, he is a member of the Georgian royal family and a soldier of the emperor. In addition to being a subject, he is also a guest, so naturally he will not be involved. Moreover, Tsar Paul's actions are all aimed at those old men. Even Rumyantsev, who died some time ago, his sons have encountered some minor troubles, but they are only minor troubles. After all, the emperor still has to show his kindness. After all, in the eyes of the peasants and some nobles, the Tsar is still "their little father, Pavel Petrovich."

The Moscow Grenadiers was an infantry regiment established in 1642. Since 1727, it has been called the 1st Moscow Infantry Regiment. It participated in the war against Turkey and the Seven Years' War. In 1785, it was reorganized into a Grenadiers Regiment. In 1790, it merged with the Yekaterinoslav Grenadiers Regiment. In 1791, it was rebuilt according to the order of Catherine II.

In 1794, the regiment participated in the three-nation partition of Poland and the military operations to suppress the uprising in eastern Poland. As for 1796, the reserve and some companies drawn from the regiment formed the Pavlovsk Grenadiers Regiment. Subsequently, the regiment participated in Suvorov's Italian expedition, the Fourth Coalition War, the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Sixth Coalition War, and participated in the battle to block the French cavalry charge in the Battle of Leipzig.

After that, it participated in all of Russia's foreign wars. Even in the Russo-Japanese War, a company was incorporated into the 22nd East Siberian Infantry Regiment to participate in the battle. In January 1918, it joined the Red Army and established a soldier committee, called the Moscow Revolutionary Grenadiers Regiment. It was disbanded according to orders in March 1918.

The regiment's commander at this time was Prince Dmitri Petrovich Volkonsky (1764-1812). After 1800, until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the regiment's leader was always a member of the Mecklenburg Prince family who was related to the Russian royal family.