Why was the Kamchatka Regiment sent?
score:4
(Note: I'm not very knowledgeable about this period in Russia. I'm piecing this together from a few sources.)
Somov's regiment was not sent due to the Napoleonic threat, but was part of the existing task of defending the enormous and sparsely populated Russian frontier.
In the larger context of the Russian Empire in 1800 this makes more sense. Russia is very large and had threats on all sides: "Tartar, Turk, Pole, Prussian and Swede" and now the French. Transporting an army in 1800 was very slow, mobilization could take months. Russia was too large to have a centrally located "reaction force" to respond to crisis. They had to have units in prepared positions near every potential hot spot to slow an invasion, or react to a raid, or put down a rebellion.
While they faced large, traditional, concentrated Western armies on in the West, in the east and south they faced disbursed raiding parties of Turks and Tartars. The southern and eastern fronts of Russia in 1800 were more like the frontier armies of the United States than the armies of Napoleon. They filled many governmental roles in sparsely populated areas: military garrison, police, civil engineers, and labor force.
To deal with this, Peter the Great instituted large standing armies and deployed them to potential trouble spots. Supplying and concentrating them across such large distances, and such sparsely populated land particularly in the east, was difficult. Catherine the Great dealt with this by creating a Military Commission who created administrative divisions close to the areas being defended. A large mass of troops was garrisoned in Moscow, centrally located on the Russian transport system, to quickly (for the time) reinforce hot spots. Tsar Paul further organized divisions into "Inspectorates" to deal with corruption. The divisions would now be overseen by inspectors reporting directly to the Tsar.
"Somov's Regiment" raised and sent one or two battalions to Kamchatka for what became the Kamchatskii Garnizonnyi batalion (Kamchatka Garrison Battalion). This was part of the larger Siberia Inspectorate of about 10 battalions in 1796. It was assigned certain hamlets, "cantons", which they defended, aided, and relied upon. Soldiers would help with the labor and farming in exchange for supplies and shelter. In addition, the regimental commander acted as a military government, parallel to the civilian one, within their territory.
Sources
Upvote:1
There is a potential that this is true.
First (as mentioned in the comments) Russian intelligence was suspect at times leading to events such as What made the Russian Fleet suspect Japanese Torpedo boats were in North Sea in 1904/5?
What the Russians may have been reacting to here is Napoleon in Egypt and his 1798 - 1801 campaign there. Napoleon entered Egypt and advanced into Syria, most likely with the goal of marching a French/Ottoman army into India to aid the Maratha empire with their struggles vs the British. If Napoleon could challenge and ultimately usurp British rule in India, then Napoleon could have asserted French control over India. French control of India would be a stepping point to Kamchatka (though I doubt the intent was ever there).
Unfortunately for Napoleon, the English captured his ships carrying his artillery and the military campaign was halted in Acre forcing Napoleon to turn back, so the event they (may have been) reacting to never came to be.
More post
- 📝 What is the oldest graphic depiction of Attila?
- 📝 What is the oldest European royal house?
- 📝 Can someone tell me more about this dagger with a bronze hilt?
- 📝 When did streets get names?
- 📝 What is the extent to which Malcolm X's activism was influenced by his Muslim beliefs?
- 📝 What were the effects of US foreign policy in the South East Asian region in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s on states with capitalist economies?
- 📝 What happens to interned military personnel if war is declared post-internment?
- 📝 Did Nathan Bedford Forrest wear a wig or dye his hair?
- 📝 Why has monarchy appeared just about everywhere?
- 📝 Did Farmers Survive Communist Famines?
- 📝 Why wasn't Monaco unified with France?
- 📝 Were the Swedish holdings in northern Germany accepting or resentful of their overlord after the Peace of Westphalia?
- 📝 What examples from history are there of a dictator successfully annexing countries by force over the long term?
- 📝 At the peak of the American whaling industry, what share of the workforce were involved in it?
- 📝 How did St Sebastian become a gay male icon?
- 📝 Why didn't Syria operate the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank?
- 📝 When was this picture taken?
- 📝 How did Rome's legal system work?
- 📝 Military training in the Hijaz during early Islamic era
- 📝 How do I learn more about untitled artworks on the internet? (like this specific Basquiat painting)
- 📝 What were common crew ranks on US Navy flying boats and bombers?
- 📝 Did the USSR have any position on global warming?
- 📝 Why doesn't Eusebius of Caesarea mention Julian calendar in his Chronicle?
- 📝 What are the modern names of the nations mentioned in Ystoria Mongalorum?
- 📝 How did lay people understand logic in the Greco-Roman world?
- 📝 Are there any remaining existant texts that describe the styles and techniques of Medieval European swordsmanship?
- 📝 Who were the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Western Europe?
- 📝 How did encasillado work?
- 📝 If the prices for cotton increased during the Industrial Revolution, how would the increase affect the market for farm land?
- 📝 Monotheism/Atheism in Polytheistic societies
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why was the Kamchatka Regiment sent?
- 📝 Why was the US table tennis team sent to communist China even after a difference in ideology?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why was Poland spared from the Black Death?
- 📝 Why was Africa colonized last of the continents in the Age of Discovery?
- 📝 Why was the Scout movement so successful?
- 📝 Why was the Council of Nicea held in Nicea rather than Rome or Constantinople?
- 📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
- 📝 In the Soviet Union, why was the Cheka renamed so many times?
- 📝 Why was "leaping into the river" a valid trial outcome to prove one's innocence?
- 📝 Why was the Japanese Army's fatalities inflicted:suffered ratio so low in the Pacific theatre?
- 📝 Why was capturing the south of Okinawa necessary?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 Why was there a surge in the US incarceration rate during the 1990s?
- 📝 Why was the Treaty of Versailles so harsh?
- 📝 If the Ch’in dynasty was so short-lived, why was China named for it?
- 📝 Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?
- 📝 Why was sugar cultivation more profitable in the Caribbean/Brazil than West Africa?
- 📝 Why was PTSD not written about as much before the 20th century?
- 📝 Why was Kaliningrad placed under the Russian SFSR rather than the Lithuanian SSR?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 Why was the northern boundary of the Mongol empire set where it was?
- 📝 When and why was the samurai class abolished?
- 📝 Why was uranium mined in the 1500s, but only "discovered" in 1789?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 Why were troops with bayonets often effective against enemy cavalry even though the bayonet was a "secondary" weapon?
- 📝 Why was the bald eagle chosen as the national bird of the United States?
- 📝 Why was the US so pro-China and so anti-Japan before WW2?
- 📝 Why was the Red Army successful against the Japanese in 1939 but perform poorly against Finland 1939-40 and early part of WW2?