Early Life
Yermolov was born to a Russian noble family from the Orlov gubernia. He graduated from the boarding school of the Moscow University and enlisted in the Life Guard Preobrazhensky Regiment on 16 January 1787. Four years later, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to the Nizhegorod Dragoon Regiment with the rank of captain. He briefly taught at the Artillery and Engineer Cadet Corps in 1793 before being sent to fight the Polish insurgents in the Polish campaign of 1794. He participated in the assault on Praga and received the Order of St. George (4th class) on 12 January 1795. The next year, Yermolov took part in the Persian Campaign along the Caspian Sea. However, he was arrested on 7 January 1799 for alleged participation in conspiracy against the Tsar and spent two years in exile to Kostroma, where he taught himself Latin.
After the assassination of Paul I in 1801, the new emperor, Alexander I, pardoned Yermolov, who returned to the military and began studying the works of Alexander Suvorov, whose disciple he now considered himself. Yermolov was appointed to the 8th Artillery Regiment on 13 May 1801; he then transferred to the horse artillery company on 21 June 1801.
Read more about this topic: Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov
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