The first regiment of the Cuirassiers was created from the Vyborg Dragoons on November 18, 1731. New regiment was named after the initiator of this reform FM count Minikh. Next year, on November 1 1732, two more Dragoon regiments were converted to Cuirassiers: Neva became Leib-Cuirassiers & Yaroslavl - the 3-rd Cuirassier. Later the last was renamed after Prince Anton-Ulrikh v. Braunshveig-Bevern-Luneburg (regiment was called Bevern), then Karl v. Braunshveig-Bevern-Luneburg (regiment was called Braunshveig). Minikh planed to create 10 Cuirassiers regiments, but completed were only 3 & after the death of Empress Anna their forming was stopped.

The completing of Cuirassiers proceeded very slow because of the lack of horses & ammunition, & the first war, they took part in, was Turkish war 1736-39. One squadron of Minikh's regiment was in 1737 in the Russian field army in Moldavia, but they didn't distinguished during that campaign & didn't took part in the campaigns of 1738 & 1739. Cuirassiers also took part in the War with Sweden 1741-43. In 1741 they guarded the coast in the case of Swedish landing & then they (1640 men in 3 regiments, end of May 1742) fought in campaign of 1742 in Finland & presented at Helsingforce.

The text below covered Russian Cuirassiers in 1731-42 & based on the outstanding work about Russian uniform by Wiskovatov.

Cuirassier regiment had staff similar to Dragoons & consisted of 10 coys in 5 squadrons.

Source: [1]

New-formed Cuirassier regiments received their own uniform Regulation, directed 2 kinds of dress: "line" & "everyday".

"Everyday" dress was similar to Dragoon one, & included coat, vest & breeches. Blue or cornflower coat with horizontal pockets & red turn-down collar, round cuffs, lining & facing of the buttonholes. Buttons: 3 on each cuff & flap of the pocket, 2 on bodice, 8 on coat-breast. Coat skirts were turned back. Red vest in Cuirassier regiments differed from Dragoon one. It was without sleeves & buttons, in place of them were claspers. Elk leather breeches.

 

Left: Cuirassier in "line" dress, 1731-42. Based on illustration # 271 from Vol. II of Wiskovatov.

 

 

"Line" dress included Kolet, Podkoletnik & breeches. Kolet was a short tight elk-leather coat with small turn-down collar & cuffs. Skirts were turned back. Kolet was hooked up with claspers & trimmed with red cloth. Podkoletnik was a short elk-leather kamsol, also trimmed with red cloth. Breeches were of elk leather.

Right: Cuirassier in full equipment 1731-42. Based on illustration # 272 from Vol. II of Wiskovatov.

Cuirassier ammunition consisted of:

• cuirass, consisted of two plates
• sword in black leather scabbards with elk leather sword-belt of Dragoon pattern
• carbine with shoulder-belt.
• a pare of pistols with cartouche of Dragoon pattern

Cuirasses were blackened, with gold fittings & edged with red.

The shoulder-belt was of elk leather, edged with red.

NCO's differed from privates only in ammunition, the uniform was the same:

• Corporal - ammunition the same as privates
• Gefreitor-corporal - didn't have a carbine
• Captenarius - the same as above with addition of big cartouche pouch
• Vakhmistr - the same as Gefreitor-corporal

3. Standards.

Cuirassier regiment had 10 standards, one for each company. The standard of the first, Lieb, company had white field, other 9 - blue. Other details were the same: Russian state eagle in the centre, monograms in the corners, gold lace & fringe.

Cuirassier standards didn't have any regimental distinguishes.

Sources:

1. Maslovskiy D.F., Field & drill service of the Russian army since the Reign of Emperor Peter the Great till Empress Elisabeth. Moscow, 1883.
2. Wiskovatov, Historical description of the Russian Military uniforms, Vol. II,

Last update: 1 December 00