It was in the past a fundamental branch of the army, passing through the foot troops, like a knife through butter. Any cavalry regiment was able to attack ten times superior enemy foot forces, as it had maneuverability, mobility and the ability to swift and powerful strike. Cavalry could not only fight in isolation from the rest of the troops, it could cover long distances in the shortest time, appearing in the rear and on the flanks of the enemy. The cavalry regiment could instantly turn around and regroup depending on the situation, change one type of action to another, that is, the soldiers knew how to fight on foot and on horseback. Tasks were solved in all the variety of combat situations - both tactical, operational, and strategic.
Cavalry Classification
Just like in the Russian infantry, there were three groups. The light cavalry (hussars and ulans, and since 1867 the Cossacks joined them) was intended for reconnaissance and guard service. Linear was represented by dragoons - they were originally called dragons when the infantry had just been mounted on horses. Subsequently, it became precisely the cavalry regiment, which can operate on foot. Dragoons gained special fame under Peter the Great. The third group of cavalry - irregular (in translation - wrong) and heavy - consisted of Cossacks and Kalmyks, as well as heavily armed cuirassiers who were masters of closed attacks.
In other countries, cavalry was divided more simply: into light, medium and heavy, which depended primarily on the mass of the horse. Light - horse rangers, ulans, hussars (a horse weighed up to five hundred kilograms), medium - dragoons (up to six hundred), heavy - knights, reytars, grenadiers, carabinieri, cuirassiers (a horse in the early Middle Ages weighed more than eight hundred kilograms). Cossacks of the Russian army have long been considered irregular cavalry, but gradually fit into the structure of the army of the Russian Empire, taking their place next to the dragoons. It was the Cossack cavalry regiment that became the main threat to the enemy in the wars of the nineteenth century. Horse troops were divided into units according to command requirements and assigned tasks. This is a strategic, tactical, front-line and army cavalry.
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rus knew two kinds of troops - infantry and cavalry, but it was with the help of the latter that battles were won, engineering and transport work was carried out, the rear was covered, although the main place was occupied, of course, by infantry. Horses were used to transport warriors to the area. This happened until the eleventh century. Further, the infantry for some time on an equal footing won the victory with the riders, then the cavalry began to dominate. Perhaps it was then that the first cavalry regiment appeared. Constant failures in the war with the steppes taught the Kiev princes a lot, and soon the Russians became riders no worse: disciplined, organized, united, brave.
Then the main victories of the Russian army began. So, in 1242, the cavalry played a huge role in the defeat of the Teutonic Order (Battle of the Ice). Then there was the Battle of Kulikovo, where the ambush reserve cavalry regiment of Dmitry Donskoy predetermined the outcome of the battle with the horde army. The Tatar-Mongols had a shock, light cavalry, perfectly organized (tumens, thousands, hundreds and tens), perfectly wielding a bow, and in addition, a spear, saber, ax and club. The tactics were partly Persian or Parthian - the approach of light cavalry to the flanks and rear, then an accurate and prolonged shelling from Mongolian long-range bows, and finally an attack of crushing force, which was already carried out by heavy cavalry. Tactics are proven and almost invincible. Nevertheless, in the fifteenth century, Russian cavalry was already formed so that it could withstand it.
Firebolt
The sixteenth century highlighted the light cavalry armed with firearms, due to this, the methods of warfare and the methods of its use in battle have changed. Previously, a separate cavalry regiment attacked the enemy with knives, now firing ranks directly from the horse was organized. The line of the regiment was deep enough, up to fifteen or more lines, which were advanced alternately from the battle formation to the front row.
It was then, in the sixteenth century, that dragoons and cuirassiers appeared. The 17th century Swedish cavalry consisted entirely of them. On the battlefield, King Gustavus Adolphus built cavalry in two lines of four lines, which gave the army tremendous powerful force, capable of decisively attacking and flexibly maneuvering in a strike. It was from there that the composition of the army from squadrons and cavalry regiments appeared. In the seventeenth century, cavalry made up more than fifty percent of the army in many countries, and in France there were one and a half times less infantry.
We have
In Russia, in these centuries, cavalry was already divided into heavy, medium and light, but much earlier, in the fifteenth century, local mobilization of people and horses was created, and its development greatly distinguished the training of Russian horsemen and Western European. This manning system replenished the Russian troops with a very large noble cavalry. Already under Ivan the Terrible, she became the leader in the arms of the army, numbering eighty thousand people, and more than one Cossack cavalry regiment participated in the Livonian War .
The composition of the Russian cavalry was gradually changing. Under Peter Pev, a regular army was created, where the cavalry was more than forty thousand dragoons - forty regiments. It was then that the guns were handed over to the riders. The Northern War taught the cavalry to act independently, and in the Battle of Poltava, Menshikov’s cavalry very ingeniously acted on foot. Then the irregular cavalry, which consisted of Kalmyks and Cossacks, became the decisive outcome of the battle.
Charter
Peter's traditions were revived in 1755 by Queen Elizabeth: a cavalry charter was developed and introduced, which greatly improved the combat use of cavalry in battle. Already in 1756, the Russian army belonged to the Guards Cavalry Regiment, six cuirassier and six grenadier regiments, eighteen regular dragoon regiments and two regiment regiments. In the irregular cavalry there were again Kalmyks and Cossacks.
The Russian cavalry was trained no worse, and in many cases better, than any European, which was confirmed by the Seven Years' War. In the eighteenth century, the number of light cavalry increased, and in the nineteenth, when mass armies appeared, the cavalry was divided into military and strategic. The latter was intended for combat, both independently and together with other types of troops, and the army entered from infantry to a whole regiment in infantry formations and was needed for protection, communications and reconnaissance.
Nineteenth century
Napoleon had four cavalry corps - forty thousand horsemen. The Russian army had sixty-five horse regiments, including five guards, eight cuirassiers, thirty-six dragoons, eleven hussars and five ulans, that is, eleven divisions, five corps plus separate cavalry corps. The Russian horsemen fought purely on horseback, and they played the most significant role in the defeat of the Napoleonic army. In the second half of the century, the power of artillery fire training increased many times, and therefore the cavalry suffered huge losses. Then the necessity of its existence came into question.
The US Civil War, however, showed the success of this type of troops. Naturally, if the combat training is appropriate and the commanders are literate. The raids on the rear and communications were deep and highly successful, despite the fact that the revolvers and carbines were not just gunshots, but also rifled ones. Americans at that time practically did not use knives. In the United States, army history is still held in high esteem. So, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Dragoon, 2nd Cavalry Regiment ) was created in 1836 and gradually, without changing its name, became first a rifle, then a motorized infantry. Now it is located in Europe, being part of the contingent of US troops.
World War I
In the twentieth century, even at its beginning, cavalry amounted to about ten percent of the number of armies, with its help tactical and operational tasks were solved. However, the more saturated the armies with artillery, machine guns and aircraft, the cavalry units suffered more and more huge losses, and therefore became practically ineffective in battle. For example, the German command demonstrated the unsurpassed ability to engage in combat, carrying out the Sventsian breakthrough when six cavalry divisions were used. But this is perhaps the only positive example of such a plan.
The Russian cavalry of the First World War was numerous - thirty-six divisions, two hundred thousand well-trained horsemen - but the successes even at the beginning of the war were very insignificant, and when the position period began and the maneuvers ended, the fighting for this kind of troops practically stopped. All cavalrymen dismounted and went into the trenches. The changed conditions of the war in this case, the Russian command did not teach anything: ignoring the most important areas, it sprayed cavalry along the entire length of the front and used highly qualified fighters as supplies. The exercises were devoted to attacks in a closed formation in the saddle, and offensives on foot were practically not worked out. After the war, the armies of Western countries were motorized and mechanized, the cavalry was gradually eliminated or reduced to a minimum, as in France, Italy, Great Britain and others. Only in Poland there were eleven full cavalry brigades.
"We are the red cavalry ..."
The formation of the Soviet cavalry began with the creation of the Red Army, which in 1918 was difficult to do. Firstly, all areas supplying the Russian army and horses and riders were occupied by foreign interventionists and White Guards. Experienced commanders were not enough. After the end of World War I, only three cavalry regiments of the old army became fully part of the Soviet. With weapons and equipment was also very bad. Therefore, as such, the first cavalry regiment of the new formations did not appear immediately. At first there were simply horse-drawn hundreds, detachments, squadrons.
For example, B. Dumenko created in 1918 a small partisan detachment in the spring, and in the fall it was already the First Don Cavalry Brigade, then - on the Tsaritsyn Front - the combined cavalry division. In 1919, the newly created two horse corps were involved against the army of Denikin. The Red Cavalry was a powerful striking force, not devoid of independence in operational tasks, but also proved to be excellent in interaction with other formations. In November 1919, the First Cavalry Army was created , in July 1920, the Second. The associations and formations of the Red Cavalry beat everyone: Denikin, Kolchak, and Wrangel, and the Polish army.
Cavalry forever
After the end of the Civil War, cavalry for a long time remained numerous in the Red Army. The division was into strategic (corps and divisions) and military (units consisting of rifle units). Also, from the 1920s, the Red Army was attended by national units - traditionally Cossacks (despite the restrictions lifted in 1936), cavalry of the North Caucasus. By the way, after the decision of the People's Commissar of Defense in 1936, the cavalry units became exclusively Cossack. Despite the opposite information, which has been ubiquitous since perestroika, that the country had no tips before the Great Patriotic War cavalry, it is necessary to restore the objective truth: the documents say that there was no "Budyonny lobby", and the cavalry by 1937 already reduced by more than two times, then - by 1940 it disappeared even faster.
However, off-road is everywhere, and it has no edge. Zhukov repeatedly noted in the first weeks of the war that cavalry was underestimated. And this was subsequently corrected. In the summer and especially in the winter of 1941, the cavalry regiment of the Second World War was simply necessary almost everywhere. Five horse divisions carried out raids near Smolensk in the summer. Assistance to the rest of our troops was not only substantial, it simply could not be overestimated. And then near Yelnya, already in a counterattack, it was the cavalry that delayed the approach of the fascist reserves, and that is why success was ensured. In December 1941, a quarter of the composition of the divisions near Moscow were cavalry. And in 1943, almost two hundred and fifty thousand horsemen fought in twenty-six divisions (in 1940 there were only 13, and all with a smaller number). The Don Cossack Corps liberated Vienna. Kuban - Prague.
11th Separate Cavalry Regiment
Without him, our favorite films would not have appeared. This compound, just like all the others, belonged to the Armed Forces of the country, but was used for filming a movie. 11th separate cavalry regiment - 55605 number of the military unit formed in 1962. The initiator was director Sergei Bondarchuk. The first masterpiece, without the help of this regiment would not have taken place, the most famous and beautiful epic film "War and Peace." It was in this regiment that the actors Andrey Rostotsky and Sergey Zhigunov served. Up to the 90s, Mosfilm paid for the upkeep of the "cinema" military, then, naturally, he could not continue it.
The number of riders was reduced tenfold, there were a little more than four hundred of them, and less than one and a half horses. The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation agreed to contain the regiment in this composition. But still the question of complete disbandment was very acute. Only the appeal of Nikita Mikhalkov to the president helped to save the 11th cavalry regiment. This helped him make the film "The Barber of Siberia." In 2002, it was no longer the Presidential Cavalry Regiment, but an honorary escort as part of the Presidential Regiment. It must be remembered that film masterpieces were born with its help! “Prince Igor”, “The White Sun of the Desert”, “Waterloo”, “On the Poor Hussar ...”, “Run”, “Battle for Moscow”, “First Horse”, “Bagration”, “Black Arrow”, “Peter Great".