“If my desire to be useful is recognized...” (Petition of A. P. Baryatinsky on the creation of a cavalry training squadron)

Abstract

The article contains a publication of a petition by the Decembrist A. P. Baryatinsky addressed to the commander-in-chief of the Second Army P. Kh. Wittgenstein. Aleksandr Baryatinsky served in the Life Guards Hussar Regiment from 1817 and was appointed adjutant to P. Kh. Wittgenstein at the beginning of 1820 under the patronage of his relatives. That same year he joined the Southern Secret Society, becoming a close friend of P. I. Pestel. During his six years of service in Tulchin, Baryatinsky, as he himself writes, “was not honored to be used in any way”. The petition is dedicated to the idea of creating a cavalry training squadron in order to unify the cavalry. The document was created in the fall of 1825 and did not receive approval from his superiors. At the same time, it contains valuable information about both Baryatinsky himself and the state of the cavalry in the Russian army in the mid-1820s. The idea of a training squadron follows the initiatives that P. D. Kiselev, in collaboration with P. I. Pestel, had carried out for the infantry several years earlier. The petition became known during the investigation of the Decembrists; Baryatinsky denied the connection of this idea with the plans of the secret society, although such a possibility cannot be ruled out.