This particular question cropped up a number of times from FE11 onwards. Those asking it were Tim Franklin, UK (FE11), Geert van Uythoven, Netherlands (FE12) and Bryce Simon, Australia (FE15). Apologies to anyone I have left out.

The first thing I must acknowledge is the generosity of Mark Conrad, the translator of Viskovatov Vol 10 which is the principle source used here. [1] Mark has very kindly given permission to FE to quote freely from his work. I also thank him for patiently answering my questions and providing a considerable amount of additional material. [2] His translation is still available and I really do recommend it to those with any kind of interest in the Russian army.

The question of Russian place names is a venerable 'mine-field', the reasons for which are several. Unfortunately I do not have any significant knowledge of Russian although I was able to enlist the help of a Russian speaking colleague, who was very helpful, even if he did think my interest in late 18th Century Russian regimental names was a bit sad! Initially, then, a bit about my methodology.

In the first place, because there is no international standardization in the context of the various ways in which letters of the Latin alphabet are pronounced, there are a variety of spellings when non-Latin scripts are transliterated into various Latin alphabet-based languages. There are also, apparently, a number of different conventions where certain vowels are concerned when transliterating Russian into English, and a simplified version allowing certain omissions, such as the apostrophe indicating soft and hard signs. What this means is that there is, it seems, no agreed single transliterated spelling of numerous place names. The modern city of Gor'kiy, for example, may also be encountered as Gorki, Gorkiy, Gorkii or Gorky and even Gorkij, the last, I suspect, being German in origin.

Orthography, that is to say the widespread conventional spellings of place names in one language for the names in another, the French Londres for London, or English Cologne for Koln, for example. To persevere, the transliteration of the name of the capital of Russia is Moskva, but is rendered as Moscow in the anglicised form, Moskau in the German and Moscou in the French. Strictly speaking, I suppose, none of these is incorrect but it can lead to considerable confusion when a secondary, or tertiary, author is using a number of sources of different linguistic origin. This tends to be less of a problem with familiar places. However, Old Ingermanland transliterates as Staroingermanlandski, German orthography renders it Alt-Ingermannlandisches, French as Vieil Ingeurmanland and so it goes on.

This is not the end of the problem because changes to place names occurred from time to time, especially during the Soviet period when either 'Russianization' of ethnic place names took place, or where non-Russian place names were adopted, leading to the problem of double transliteration, or where Soviet names, of political figures or institutions, were used to replace traditional ones, the latter, to all intent and purposes, disappearing. Finally, in 1944 many of the names of German origin were abolished, for reasons that are understandable and obvious; modem Petrokrepost, for example, was once Schlusselberg (or Schlisselberg).

As far as the names of the chefs are concerned, most of the problems described already also apply. Here, however, the question of double transliteration is a real issue, where a foreign name has been transliterated at some time into Russian, and then transliterated from the Cyrillic back into a latinized version. There are, therefore, inconsistencies, numerous variations of a theme, and some reservations in this context. What I am saying, in so many words, is that I have done my best!

I did, however, take the liberty of comparing Mark Conrad's renditions of place names against the gazetteer in The Times Atlas of the World (TAW) [3] which follows the opinion of Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Permanent Committee on Geographical Names. [4] I have conformed to the RGS rendition as far as possible and my comparison has only resulted in eight minor adjustments to Mark's versions.

I have also retained conventional British/English common orthography, preferring Moscow, Dnieper and Kiev, for example, rather than Moskva, Dnepr and Kiyev respectively, even though the RGS does not approve! There are, however, some names that do not appear in TAW and I have been unable to identify Phanagoria, Nasheburg, Taurica, Kexholm, Tenginsk and Navaginsk in modern Russia, in which cases I have followed Mark's transliterations. I did find a Tenginsk in Papua New-Guinea though, somehow, I don't think it was the one I was looking for!

The Changes of Regimental Names in 1801

Prior to the accession of Paul I, regiments were known by geographical place names. Briefly, in 1796, they were, according to Tessin, also known by numbers, possibly a reflection of the seniority of their respective chef [5] but this is not clear. From 20 August 1798, however, they were known by the name of their chefs. This naming of regiments after their chefs resulted in frequent changes as individuals' relinquished or took up appointments. When Alexander I succeeded Paul I to the throne on 12 March 1801 the infantry regiments were still known by the name of their chefs and the order of 29 March 1801 was essentially a reversion to previous geographic place names and, in the case of Jager regiments, numeric designations, in which context I have been unable to identify the names of Jager regiments between 1796 and 1800. In 1801 the regiments were organized into inspections. This is also reflected shown in the following relevant tables.

Footnotes:

Other sources used were as follows:

[1] Murray, W.H. The Russian Imperial Army, 1805-1815. USA, 1965.
Stein, F v. Geschichte des Russischen Heeres von Ursprung desselben bis zur Thronbesteigung des Kaiser Nikolai I. Pawlovitsch. Hannover, 1885.

Also consulted were:

Nafziger, G. The Russian Army: 1800-1815. Cambridge, Ontario, 1983.
Falzone, I. L'Esercito Russo 1805/1815 Fantena. Milan, 1986.

[2] Tessin, G. Regimenter der europaischen Staaten der Ancien Regime. Osnabruck, 1987. I have not seen this work and Mark Conrad has pointed out a number of errors in it.

[3] The Times Atlas of the World Comprehensive Edition. 9th Edition, London, 1992, (hereinafter TAW).

Other sources consulted were:

Howe, G.M. The Soviet Union - A Geographical Survey. London, 1983.
Shabad, T. Geography of the USSR. New York, 1957.
Lyndolph, P.E. Geography of the USSR, 2nd Edition. New York, 1970.
Atlas SSSP, Moskva, 1955.

[4] This is the authority for place names world-wide in most of the English speaking world, except in the USA where the United States Board on Geographic Names does not always agree!!

[5] Colonel in chief is the English equivalent, as in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment for example. The German word inhaber means the same thing in this context.

Table 1: The Life-Guards Regiments

1798	1801
His Imperial Majesty's Regiment	Preobrazhenskii Regiment
His Imperial Highness Alexander Pavlovich's Regiment	Semenovskii Regiment
His Imperial Highness Nicholas Pavlovich's Regiment	Izmailovskii Regiment
The Life-Guards Jager Battalion	No change

Table 2: The Grenadier Regiments[1]

Pre-1796	1796	1798	1799	1800	1801	Inspection
Leib	1	Leib	-	-	-	St Petersburg
Pavlov	2	Amme's	-	Kerbit's	Pavlovsk	St Petersburg
Astrakhan	3	Vorozdin's	Herditary Prince of Mecklenburg's	-	Astrakhan	Moscow
St Petersburg	4	Golitsyn 2nd's	-	Volkonskii 3rd's/ Safonov's	Saken 1st/ St Petersburg	Livonia
Taurica[2]	5	Benkendorf's	Savalishin's	-	Taurica	Livonia
Moscow	6	Prince Carl of Mecklenburg's	Danzas'	-	Moscow	Smolensk
Phanagoria[3]	7	Sherebzov's	Mamaev's	-	Phanagoria	Smolensk
Yekatennoslav/ Pskov	8	Saken's	Palintsyn's	-	Yekatennoslav	Lithuania
Little Russia[4]	9	Ralt's	-	Berkh's	Little Russia	Ukraine
Kiev	10	Beklesdov's	Passek's	-	Kiev	Ukraine
Siberia	11	Lyapyunov's	-	Bakhmetev 3rd's	Siberia	Dniester
Kherson	12	Galberg's/ Titov 1st's	-	-	Kherson	Dniester
Caucasas	13	Markov's/ Tuchkov 2nd's	-	-	Caucasas	Caucasas

Footnotes:

[1] All place names after TAW except as otherwise noted.
[2] MC
[3] MC
[4] Transliteration - Malorossiiskii.

Table 3: Musketeer Regts.; Table 4: Jager Regts.

Back to Aide de Camp

More on Russian Regt. Names: Two letters in FE31 Dispatches.
More on Russian Regt. Names: FE32 Aide De Camp.