Russian Imperial Guard

The Russian Imperial Guard, officially known as the Leib Guard (Russian: Лейб-гвардия Leyb-gvardiya, from German Leib "body"; cf. Life Guards / Bodyguard), were combined Imperial Russian Army forces units serving as counterintelligence for preventing sabotage of important imperial palaces, personal guards of the Emperor of Russia and the Russian imperial family, public security in the capital and leaders in spearheading attacks on the battlefield. Peter I founded the first such units in 1683 to replace the politically-motivated Streltsy.

The Imperial Guard subsequently increased in size and diversity to become an elite corps of all branches within the Imperial Russian Army, rather than household troops in direct attendance on the Tsar. Numerous links were however maintained with the imperial family, and the bulk of the Imperial Guard's regiments were stationed in and around the capital, Saint Petersburg, in peacetime. The Imperial Guard was disbanded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution.

Tsar Peter I (later to become known as "Peter the Great") first established the two senior units of the eventual Imperial Guard, the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky infantry regiments, as part of his so-called "toy army" in the 1680s. Peter later built on both regiments as part of his professionalization of the Russian Army after its disastrous defeat in 1700 by the Swedes at the Battle of Narva, during the early phases of Great Northern War of 1700-1721. He was influenced too by his distrust of the streltsy, who had risen against him repeatedly, both during his childhood, which traumatised him, and during his reign.

In 1730, Empress Anna (r. 1730–1740) formed the Izmailovsky Regiment (recruited from her former domain, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia) out of distrust of the other guard regiments (especially the Preobrazhensky) as a result of her paranoia of losing power. The Izmaylovsky Regiment became the official palace guards during her reign.

The term "Leib" was not used until the reign of Empress Elizabeth (1741-1762) during her formation of the Leib Company made up of the grenadiers (especially the Preobrazhensky), who had helped put her on the throne.

The Imperial Guard played a key role in suppressing the Revolution of 1905, most particularly at Saint Petersburg on Sunday, 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905 (Bloody Sunday). The Semyonovsky Regiment subsequently repressed widespread disturbances in Moscow. However, a full battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment mutinied in June 1906.

During the February Revolution of 1917, the garrison of Saint Petersburg included 99,000 soldiers of the Imperial Guard. They were reserve battalions, made up of a mixture of new recruits and of veterans from the regiments of the Imperial Guard serving at the Eastern Front of World War I. While generally still recruited from rural districts, the Guards' rank and file were no longer the reliable instruments of Tsarist autocracy that their predecessors had been during the abortive revolution of 1905. About 90% of the officers of the reserve units had been commissioned during the war, and they were often militarily inexperienced and sometimes sympathetic towards the need for political reform. The overall morale and leadership of the Saint Petersburg troops was poor although they still enjoyed the status of the historic regiments that they represented.

During the early days of rioting in Saint Petersburg, the Semyonovsky, Pavlovsky and Volinsky Regiments obeyed their officers and fired on the crowds of demonstrators. However, on 27 February, the Volinsky and then the Semyonovsky, Moskovsky, and Izmailovsky Regiments defected in large numbers to what had now become a revolution. Some officers were killed. An estimated 66,700 guardsmen in the capital had deserted or defected within about two days. This mass defection from units of the Imperial Guard marked the end of the Tsarist régime.