Cossack
Louis Alexander Andrault Langeron
(1763-1831) Russian general and corps commander. He was born Louis Alexander Andrault, chevalier comte de Langéron (to mention but one of many other aristocratic titles) and enlisted at the age of fifteen as a sous-lieutenant in the French Guards (Gardes Français). He later served at Caracas and St. Domingue in 1782-1783. In 1786 he was promoted to assistant colonel of…
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Warlord Period – Foreign Advisors & Mercenaries
1927: a White Russian crewman of the Northern Warlords Army armoured train ‘Shantung’. He is wearing exactly the same uniform as his Chinese comrades, and, unlike White Russians serving in other armies, has no distinguishing insignia of nationality. (This train would later be captured by the NRA, and served in…
Grand Duchy of Muscovy
Pomest’e cavalry. In the Muscovite system, servitors (‘‘pomeshchiki’’ or ‘‘pomest’ia’’) held land from the tsar in exchange for a lifetime of military obligation. Such men usually supplied their own mounts and served as the tsarist cavalry. Their numbers grew greatly with acquisition of Novgorod and redistribution of its lands. Still…
Berezhany Castle
In 1534, a Polish military commander and politician named Mikołaj Sieniawski decided to build a massive fortress near Berezhany, western Ukraine. Sieniawski wanted to create a place that was impenetrable, so he selected a patch of marshy land that was located on a small island near the Złota Lipa River.…
Russia’s victory at Poltava (1709)
Russia’s victory at Poltava (1709) led to the fall of the Swedish empire in northern Europe. Casualty rates in the battles of this period were formidable. At Poltava the Swedes suffered terrible casualties, as their attack on well-defended Russian posit ions exposed them to superior forces and artillery. Only 14…
The Russian Army of 1812
The Russian Army of 1812 was, in many respects, quite different from the one Napoleon faced in 1805 and 1807. The lessons of Austerlitz, Eylau and Friedland led the Russian government to realize the need for change and to pursue a modernization through military reforms. It was a lengthy process,…
Siberia and the Mongol Empire
The demand for falcons and furs from the “Peoples of the Forest” brought Mongol conquerors north to the Arctic. The peoples of the Mongolian steppe had long maintained intimate relations with the peoples of the Siberian taiga (forest). They called those in the forest “People of the Forest” (Oi-yin Irged),…