Kornilov flags

[Mark Plant]

This is a Kornilotsy reunion in France.



I recognise the red-black with skull as the standard of the Kornilov Shock Regiment (although reversed from WW1)

Then there is the St George's Battalion flag.

Then the "Nikolai" style that Wrangel gave in the Crimea.

But what is the fourth one, at the back? It's in shock regiment colours with an ornate double "K" logo. It is the colours of the 2nd or 3rd Regiment perhaps?

[madman]

Do you have a source for images and explanations or users of RCW flags?

[Mark Plant]

It is sourced here, among others: https://www.vexillographia.ru/russia/beloe.htm

I'm not sure what you mean by source for explanations. The flags simply are the flags they had : there isn't really an explanation to them.

If you mean explaining "what is a Nikolai" etc? then the question isn't really aimed at you, but this might help https://pygmywars.com/rcw/whites/flags/imperialflags.html

[madman]

Sorry half asleep at the end of the day. What I did mean was close though. Curious why or what the background to the designs related to. In the one on the left for instance is the death's head just the usual or perhaps the unit design of the first commander's old regiment. Similar with the saying, as in what does it say and possible reasons for it. Further the next one has a crest, of what and what does the writing say?. For both is there significance to the colours. Sorry to sound stupid but genuinely curious. Just starting an interest in the RCW. Thank you.

[Mark Plant]

The red-black colours and skull were common to the "shock" battalions created at the end of WWI. The Kornilov Shock Regiment of the White armies in the south were a direct descendent of the 1st Shock Regiment of WWI and carried its banner (it literally says "1st Shock Detachment" on it).

There were also "St George's battalions" formed at the end of WWI, from decorated men. Men from one of those units was absorbed into the Kornilov Regiment, and inherited the flag. The colours of orange and black are those of St George. The eagle is the normal double headed imperial one. (The back is, incidentally, totally different, carrying a representation of the Cross of St George on red, with the SG cipher in the corners.)

The third flag is a banner given to the Kornilovtsy in 1920. It is in the form of a Nikolai, but without the imperial cipher for Nicholas, as Wrangel wasn't super Monarchist. I don't think it was ever carried into battle, so my interest in it is slight.

The fourth one is the one I have never seen before, or even heard mentioned. I'm trying to work out if it is an RCW era banner, or from the emigration period (perhaps Bulgaria, because that is the only place I have seen the intertwined Ks.

The 2nd and 3rd Kornilov Regiments must have had banners, and it is inconceivable that they weren't taken out on emigration, so why do they never appear?

[cuprum]

Hi, Mark.

I can't remember anything about the banner you're interested in... I think your assumption that this banner was created during the emigration period is correct. This banner is not in the photo of the Kornilov Regiment's banner group in Gallipoli in 1921. The photo and description show seven banners of the Kornilov Regiment (Division): the banner of the Kornilov Shock Detachment (awarded in 1917), 3 "Nikolaev" banners (awarded in September 1921), the banner of the St. George Battalion at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in the war of 1914-17 (awarded in 1921 together with the Nikolaev banners), banners of the 75th Sevastopol and 133rd Simferopol Infantry Regiments of the Imperial Army (These banners were accepted together with the reinforcements that arrived from Poland, from the army of General Bredov in 1921).
So it turns out that the only known banner that existed throughout the regiment's entire combat path was the banner of the shock detachment, awarded by Kornilov himself in 1917.



And you are wrong about the double-headed eagle. This is not the Tsar's eagle, this is the eagle of the Russian Republic, formed after the first revolution (February) of 1917. It is easily distinguished by the absence of symbols of Tsarist power - crowns and scepter...



Coats of arms of Russia (not to be confused with the USSR)

[Mark Plant]

Thanks for the correction on the eagle Cuprum. I shall correct my flag.

I'd still like to know the origin of the "KK" symbol. The only other place I have seen it is in the Church in Bulgaria where all the banners were stored.

And it remains weird that the 2nd and 3rd Regiments' standards just disappear.

[cuprum]

If there is no mention of them, maybe they did not exist at all?

I found out what flag is in your photo. It is the flag of the headquarters of the Kornilov Shock Division. Information from here (at the end of the publication, where the story is about the anniversary of the Konilovsky Regiment).

https://statehistory.ru/books/pod-red--S--Volkova_Russkaya-Armiya-v-izgnanii/16

[Mark Plant]

Thank-you so much Cuprum! That is quite a find.

I can't believe that the 2nd and 3rd Regiments had no flags. Even the "coloured" artillery brigades had them, as that article notes.

[cuprum]

Alas, I have not seen any references ... You can only assume. Suppose they could “forget” about them if they were captured by the enemy. But the Reds also have no information about such a fact. This is some kind of mystery.