3rd HER
IMPERIAL
HIGHNESS
GRAND
DUCHESS
OLGA
NIKOLAEVNA'S
Yelisavetgrad Hussar Regiment.
[From the article in Sytin’s c. 1913 Voennaya Entsiklopedia on
the 3-i Gusarskii Yelisavetgradskii
EYA
IMPERATORSKAGO
VYSOCHESTVA
VELIKOI
KNYAGINI
OL’GA
NIKOLAEVNA polk.]
On 10 May 1784 the Yelisavetgrad Light-Horse Regiment, also called the Yelisavetgrad Regiment of Yekaterinoslav mounted troops, consisting of 6 squadrons, was formed by Major General Ferzen from the Kherson and Yelisavetgrad lancer regiments settled in the New-Russia territory. Immediately after being formed the Yelisavetgrad Regiment took part in the 2nd Turkish War of 1787-91 as part of the Yekaterinoslav Army (under Prince Potemkin), which was tasked with protecting our borders. On 2 February 1788 a detachment of horse jägers was established in the regiment. On 25 May the Yelisavetgrad Regiment marched to Ochakov and on 6 December took part in the capture of that fortress. On 21 September 1789 the regiment, upon being combined with a detachment of horse jägers from the Yekaterinoslav Cuirassier Regiment (later the 4th Novotroitsk-Yekaterinoslav Dragoons) and all the light-horse regiments of the Yekaterinoslav mounted troops, was renamed the Yelisavetgrad Horse-Jäger Regiment. On 30 October of that same year the regiment took part in the capture of Bendery fortress. On 4 June 1790 the regiment was brought to a strength of 10 squadrons. On 6 October the Yelisavetgrad Regiment took part in the attack on Kilia. In 1792 the regiment participated in military operations in Lithuania and Poland and especially distinguished itself in battle at Ostrog in Volhynia on 14 and 15 June. On 26 May 1794 the regiment took part in the affair at Szczekocin, on 29 September—at Maciejowice, and on 24 October—in the storming of Praga.
On 29 November 1796 the regiment was titled General-of-Cavalry Dunin’s Hussar Regiment and brought to a strength of 2 battalions each of 5 squadrons. On 13 March 1798 it became Major General Voropanskii’s Hussar Regiment, on 27 April 1799—Major General Sukharev’s, on 10 December 1800—Major General Saken 3rd’s, and on 29 March 1801—the Yelisavetgrad Hussars.
On 16 May 1803 two squadrons of the regiment were taken away to help form the Belorussia Hussar Regiment (later the 7th Belorussia Hussars), and to replace them two new ones were formed. During the 1805-1807 campaigns the Yelisavetgrad Regiment was in Graf Buxhöwden’s corps and took part in the battles of Austerlitz, Mohrungen, Wolfsdorf, and Preusisch-Eylau.
In the Patriotic War the Yelisavetgrad Regiment was in Baggehufwudt’s 2nd Corps and especially distinguished itself at Lubin on 7 August 1812, while at Borodino it participated in the successful attack on the French army’s left wing. The Yelisavetgrad Regiment were in the 1813-14 foreign campaigns as part of Baron Wintsengerode’s corps.
In the 1828-29 war with Turkey the Yelisavetgrad Regiment operated especially successfully at the battle at the village of Kulevcha and at the capture of Adrianopol. In 1831, while putting down the Polish revolt, the regiment was in Palen 2nd’s 2nd Infantry Corps, and distinguished itself at the affair at Igane (near Siedlice) and at the capture of Warsaw.
On 21 March 1833 the Yelisavetgrad Regiment absorbed the 1st and 2nd Active Squadrons of the Olviopol Hussar Regiment and was thus brought to a strength of eight active and one reserve squadron with a noncombatant company (the Olviopol Regiment had been formed on 10 May 1784). On 1 January 1845 Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was named Chef of the regiment, which was then ordered to taker her name and lay down the title of Yelisavetgrad. In 1849 the regiment took part in the campaign against the Hungarians and, as part of Lieutenant General Kupriyanov’s center column especially distinguished itself on 11 June in battle at the village of Samos (Shamosh) and on 8 July at the village of Tur. On 19 March 1857 the regiment was renamed Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna’s Yelisavetgrad Hussars. On 1 January 1861 the crown prince of Württemberg (later King Carl) was placed on the rolls of the regiment, remaining so until 6 October 1891. On 25 March 1864 the Yelisavetgrad Regiment was assigned the number 3, and on 13 June of the same year it was titled the 3rd Her Majesty the Queen of Württemberg’s Hussar Regiment. On 18 August 1882 the regiment changed its name to the 9th Dragoons. On 24 October 1892, upon the death of its honorary colonel, the regiment became the 9th Yelisavetgrad Dragoons. On 6 December 1907, it became the 3rd Yelisavetgrad Hussar Regiment and on 11 July 1909 the 3rd Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna’s Yelisavetgrad Hussars.
Order No. 588 of 1911 provided Highest Authority for the regiment’s lower ranks to wear a white pelisse. The Yelisavetgrad Hussars has the following insignia: 1) simple standard with an Alexander jubilee ribbon and the inscription “1764-1864”; 2) 25 St.-George silver trumpets inscribed “For distinction during the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Russia in 1812 and for the pacification of Hungary in 1849” (Highest orders of 13 April 1813 and 25 December 1849); and 3) badges on headdresses with the inscription “For excellence”—awarded for deeds performed in the war with the French in 1812-14 (Highest order of 19 November 1814). The regimental holiday is the Feast of the Holy Trinity.
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Translated by Mark Conrad, 2006. The Library of Congress holds a copy of M. K. Sokolovski’s short (51 pages) Pamiatka 3-go gusarskago I.E.V. Vel. Kniazhny Ol’gi Nikolaevny polka, published in St. Petersburg in 1914.