Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment

Categories / Army. Navy/Garrison
SEMENOVSKY LIFE GUARDS REGIMENT, one of the two oldest infantry guards regiments (along with Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment), its history dates back to 1683 (from "poteshny (toy, amusement) regiments" of Tsar Peter the Great), in 1700 designated the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment (after a village of Semenovskoe near Moscow, where it was initially stationed). During the Great Northern War 1700-21 the regiment fought heroically at Narva in 1700, in 1703 excelled in the siege of Nyenschantz and capture of the Swedish fleet at the mouth of the Neva River, took part in the Prut campaign 1711; a number of its sub-divisions operated in the wars with Turkey (1735-39) and Sweden (1741-43 and 1788-90). The entire regiment participated in the wars with France (1805, 1806-07, 1812-14), and Turkey (1828-29 and 1877-78). During WW I of 1914-18 the regiment was dispatched to the South-Western front as part of the 1st Guards Infantry Division; the reserve battalion, which remained in Petrograd, was added in the summer 1917 into the guards Semenovsky reserve regiment. Unrest occurred in the regiment in 1820 (see Semenovskaya Affair, 1820). By the decree of Emperor Alexander I the regiment was disbanded and raised anew from soldiers of grenadier regiments. In 1905 the Semenovsky regiment participated in quelling of the December armed uprising in Moscow, its detachment carried out a punitive expedition along the Moscow-Kazan railway. Regiment commander Major General G.A. Min, who conducted this operation, was killed by a member of the Socialist revolutionary Party Z.V. Konnoplyannikova on the platform of New Peterhof train station in 1906. In March 1918 the Semenovsky regiment returned from the battlefront to Petrograd and both regiments were disbanded the same month. From 1723 the regiment was quartered in St. Petersburg, from 1739 - in the regiment settlement on the territory between the present day Zagorodny Avenue, Zvenigorodskaya Street, Obvodny Canal and Moskovsky Avenue (see Semenovtsy ). In 1797-1809 on the territory around the regiment parade grounds (nowadays Pionerskaya Square), regimental barracks were built (architect F.I. Volkov under the guidance of architect F. I. Demertsov) along Zagorodny Avenue, Ruzovskaya Street and Zvenigorodskaya Street. The regimental chapel is the Presentation of the Holy Virgin Cathedral, destroyed in 1932. The Semenovsky Regiment gave names to the Semenovsky Bridge over the Fontanka River and the Semenovskaya Square.

References: Дирин П. Н. История лейб-гвардии Семеновского полка: В 2 т. СПб., 1883; Антонов Б. И. Императорская гвардия в Санкт-Петербурге. СПб., 2001.

A. N. Lukirsky. Alexander I, Emperor
Demertsov Fedor Ivanovich
Konoplyannikova Zinaida Vasilievna
Min Georgy Alexandrovich
Peter I, Emperor
Volkov Fedor Ivanovich
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Pionerskaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Ruzovskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Semenovskaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Zagorodny Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city
Zvenigorodskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Антонов Б. И. Императорская гвардия в Санкт-Петербурге. СПб., 2001
Дирин П. Н. История лейб-гвардии Семеновского полка: В 2 т. СПб., 1883 Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment
Semenovsky Story 1820
Presentation of the Holy Virgin Cathedral
1820