In the Russian Empire, Imperial Russian Guard units ("Leib-Guards", лейб-гвардия, leyb-gvardiya), derived from German 'Leibwächter' (body-guards), were intended to ensure the security of the sovereign, initially, that of Peter the Great in the 1690s. These were based on the Prussian Royal Life Guards. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Imperial Guards consisted of 13 infantry, 4 rifles and 14 cavalry regiments and a few other support units, they were abolished in 1918.
The Imperial Russian Guard units were not exclusively composed of Russian troops, they also included Lithuanian, Finnish and Ukrainian personnel.
Read more about this topic: Russian Guards
Famous quotes containing the words imperial, russian and/or guard:
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye
Is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly lust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 21:34.35.