ranks are incomparably younger than their senior officers in service, thereby contradicting the very order thereof, where each known number of people is assigned to the command; and just as the Cossacks have no difference with all other ordinary troops: it is reprehensible to entrust the five hundredth number, having the rank of regiment, to someone who has the rank of staff officer." Proposing, therefore, that the foremen who commanded the regiments on campaigns should be given staff officer chips, and those who will henceforth command with the rank of colonel, "to be considered mediocre juniors before the army seconds-majors, and above any captain,” while also issuing them patents for ranks, Potemkin petitioned regarding the esauls and centurions: “in due respect for the service, the All-Merciful command, in all cases, to recognize and accept them decently to the officer rank (although they will not have real officer ranks in the army), and in the punishments imposed on them for their guilt act as prescribed for officers." Having approved these assumptions of Potemkin, Catherine entrusted him with carrying them out; Moreover, according to Potemkin’s idea, she ordered foreman Ilovaisky to be the ataman instead of Sulin1).
These are the known data for understanding the transformation, which was very important in the fate of the famous Don Army. Bronevsky, in his history of this Army, supplements them only with the following note: “They say that the reason for this transformation was partly the following incident: Prince Tauride, one day walking through the camp, saw that a hussar cornet was mercilessly punishing some Cossack with whips; and having learned that it was a foreman, i.e., a regimental commander, he decided to introduce the empress, so that at least their mediocre status during the campaign can be compared with army majors2).”
Believing that any addition of new materials for the history of Catherine’s reign, as well as for the characterization of such figures of this reign as Potemkin, has its own significance, I bring to the attention of the Historical Society four documents related to the above-mentioned transformation in the Army
About P.S. 3. vol. XX, Nos. 14,251 and 14,330.
*) Bronevsky. History of the Don Army, 1834, part 2, p. 126, approx. A.
P. A. LASHKAREV,
Donskoy. These documents consist of: 1) a letter of praise to the Don Army from Count Rumyantsev; 2) from the commendable review of this Army by Prince Vasily Dolgorukov, set out in a letter to Potemkin; 3) and from the letter of commendation given to that Army, given by Count Panin, and finally, 4) from Potemkin’s letter to one of the elders of the Don Army, whom Potemkin calls Alexei Ivanovich. I found these documents in the library of the Kyiv D. Academy in a collection of decrees and some other documents relating to the reign of Catherine II1). These documents are placed there in copies. But that the copy is contemporary with the originals, 6 and this, in addition to the handwriting, is guaranteed by a) the collection itself, compiled no later than the end of 17822), and most importantly b) a note made in old handwriting on the back of the copy: “Received on the 1st day of January 1776 with a letter of December 1775 dated 20 days under L* 28e.”
I.
Certificate of Commendation to the Don Army by Count Rumyantsev.
Count Pyotr Rumyantsev, Her Imperial Majesty My Majesty General Field Marshal, commanding the army and corps located aside at Little Russia, (Little Russia) Governor General, Little Russian Collegium President, Verasir Regiment of the Military Order Colonel, Orders of Russian Imperial Saints: Alostol Andrei, military martyr and victorious George of the first class, Alexander Nevsky, and Holstein Saint Anne, cavalier.
By the Most High power of attorney of Her Imperial Majesty, I, being the leader of the army in the last war with the Turks, confirm my repeated testimonies and with this general certification about all the gentlemen elders and Cossacks of the Don Army, who were in the course of the war under my command, that their exploits against the enemy were excellently accomplished by the all-glorious
*) Dept. N. X 67.
*) The collection, already in its present form, entered the academic library, as can be seen from the inscription on its pages, on January 10, 1783.
SEVERAL documents, related to conversion in the Don troops 1775 177