Nikolaev, Stepan Stepanovich

He was born in 1789 and came from the chief officer children of the Don Cossack Army ; his father was a centurion and a Cherkasy Cossack of the village of Skorodumovskaya. Nikolaev entered the service in 1803 as an ordinary Cossack , in the same year he was promoted to the rank and file.

In 1809, he was serving in St. Petersburg , and from 1810 he was appointed to the army, which was entrusted with the defense of the shores of the Gulf of Finland . In 1811, Nikolaev was promoted to cornet .

His military activity began in 1812: this year he took part in battles against the French at the city of Troki , near Vilna , in Vilna itself, carrying out constant attacks on his enemy cavalry with his detachment; then in the battles of Sventsyany, near Vitebsk and Smolensk and in the battle of Borodino . Assigned to be under Lieutenant General Count Orlov-Denisov , Nikolaev commanded outposts of the Russian army and distinguished himself in battles at the villages of Chirikov, Tarutin , Voronova near Vyazma and other numerous cavalry skirmishes and battles. He took a close part in the perfect extermination of two enemy cavalry regiments, marching from Zamost to Lyakhov, and in capturing General Augereau with his corps; in this case Nikolaev was wounded.

Awarded with a golden saber with the inscription “For Courage” on June 3, 1813 and transferred to His Majesty’s own convoy , Nikolaev in the Foreign Campaigns of 1813 and 1814 continued to take part in battles with the French near Lucen , Bautzen , Leipzig and others and distinguished himself in the capture of Paris .

Upon his return to Russia, Nikolaev continued to serve in the ranks of the Don Cossack army , in 1816 he was promoted to staff captain , in 1819 - to captain , in 1820 - to lieutenant colonel , in 1823 - to colonel and from 1833 to 1836 he was commander of the life -guards of the Cossack Cossack Regiment , and in 1831 received the rank of Major General . On December 1, 1835, he was awarded the Order of St. for the immaculate length of service of 25 years in officer ranks. George 4th degree (No. 5109 according to the cavalier list of Grigorovich - Stepanov). In the years 1833-1835. served as chief of staff of the Don Army.

In 1836, he was appointed field ataman of the Don Cossack regiments located on the Caucasian line , then the Black Sea regiments 1 and 2 of the regiments located in the Caucasus were subordinate to him, and on October 31, 1837 he was appointed punishment ataman of the Caucasian Linear Cossack Army . He held this post to death and left the memory of an energetic administrator. During over eleven-year command and control of the army, he cared a lot about his internal improvement and set up the correct combat organization of the active units. In 1843, Nikolaev was promoted to lieutenant general .

Stepan Stepanovich Nikolaev died on February 16, 1849 in Stavropol , and was buried in the church of the village of Mikhailovskaya. He was married to Evdokia Petrovna (nee Bartelishanova) and had a son, Peter , who served in the Life Guards Cossack Regiment . Gregory Phillipson in his memoirs of service in the Caucasus reports that Nikolaev was a schismatic and secretly held to the old faith.

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  • The Caucasus, 1849, No. 13
  • "Russian invalid", 1849, No. 96 and 97
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• Stepanov V.S., Grigorovich P.I. In memory of the centennial of the imperial Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George. (1769-1869). SPb., 1869
• Phillipson G. I. Memoirs // The Siege of the Caucasus. SPb., 2000