Russia - TheHistoryFiles.com

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN BATTLESHIPS I

Peresvet-class battleship Russia had begun developing a major warship construction centre at St Petersburg in 1704, and by the 1880s it was capable of building its own battleships. Indeed, St Petersburg had three naval yards for battleship construction: the New Admiralty yard, the Baltic Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, and the Franco-Russian Works at Galerniy Island. […]

Russia, Warship

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN BATTLESHIPS II

Borodino-class OPERATING THE GUN The turret commander received estimated range-to-target data from the gunnery officer on the bridge by means of the system of electrical dials underneath the turret. If the gunnery officer turned his dial to “5,000 yards,” the turret commander would see his dial move to that value as well. The lay and […]

Biography, Russia

ARTAMON SERGEYEVICH MATVEYEV (1625–1682)

Military officer, diplomat, courtier, boyar. The son of a non-noble bureaucrat, Artamon Matveyev began his career at the age of thirteen as a court page and companion to the future Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He soon became colonel of a musketeer regiment and traveled much of Russia and its borderlands on military and diplomatic missions. He […]

Russia, Warship

Armored Cruiser Rurik

Between 1889 and 1893, Russian naval expenditures increased 64 percent. On the whole, Russia devoted its resources to the construction of battleships. The Russians persisted in the construction of armored cruisers rather than protected ones, but these ships numbered only three in this period. Two, Rurik and Rossiya, were large and commissioned in 1895 and […]

Biography, Russia

Denis Vasilievich Davydov (Davidov)

(1784-1839) Russian cavalry commander and guerrilla leader. Denis Vasilievich Davydov was born to a prominent Russian noble family and enlisted as an estandart junker (officer candidate or cadet) in the Chevalier Guard Regiment on 10 October 1801, rising to cornet on 21 September 1802 and to lieutenant on 14 November 1803. For writing satires about […]

Biography, Russia

Dmitry Sergeyevich Dokhturov

(1759-1816) Dmitry Sergeyevich Dokhturov, a prominent Russian military commander, was born on 12 September 1759 to a Russian noble family from the Tula gubernia (province). He began service at the imperial court, becoming a page in 1771 and a kamer page in 1775. Dokhturov enlisted as a lieutenant in the Life Guard Preobrazhensky Regiment on […]

Battle, Prussia, Russia

Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf

Map of the battle of Gross-Jägersdorf on August 30 1757 Source: Kriege Friedrichs des Grossen, volume III by the German Grosser Generalstab The Russians were moving against the East Prussian province by the end of June. East Prussia, isolated from the main Prussian province of Brandenburg/Pomerania, had at its disposal only 32,000 troops under the […]

Biography, Russia

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky

(1881-1970) Russian revolutionary leader Alexander Kerensky played a key role in toppling the czarist monarchy immediately before Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in 1917. Kerensky, the son of a headmaster, was born in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), which was also Lenin’s birthplace. Kerensky graduated in law from Saint Petersburg University in 1904. In 1905, Kerensky joined […]

Russia, Wars

Kutuzov takes Command Part II

Ney’s infantry push Russian grenadiers back from the flèches (which can be seen from the rear in the background). Detail from the Borodino Panorama. Saxon cuirassiers and Polish lancers of Latour-Maubourg’s cavalry corps clash with Russian cuirassiers. The rise of Raevsky redoubt is on the right, the steeple of Borodino church in the background. Detail […]

Russia, Wars

Kutuzov takes Command Part III

M.I. Kutuzov and his staff in the meeting at Fili village, when Kutuzov decided that the Russian army had to retreat from Moscow. As Ermolov and Kutaisov were riding past the Raevsky Redoubt on their way to Second Army they saw the Russian troops in the neighbourhood in full flight. It was crucial for the […]