Formation of the St. Petersburg State Mobile Militia and its Participation in Military Operations in 1855–1856

The article presented to your attention is devoted to a little-researched topic — the participation of the State Mobile Militia in the Crimean War of 1853–1856. The author examines in this work the history of the formation of only the capital’s squads in 1855. Moreover, not a single work has been published on the mobile militia of the St. Petersburg province to date. In total, by the end of the Crimean, or as it was also called the Eastern War, 196 squads were formed in 18 provinces of Russia. Of this number, only 5 squads were formed in the St. Petersburg province, which never ended up in the main theaters of military operations. According to the decision of the authorities, they were to participate in repelling enemy landing operations on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. However, the Anglo-French forces, after several such weak and unsuccessful attempts to seize a springboard in the Vyborg region for an invasion of the northwestern borders of the country, decisively abandoned such plans, fearing complete defeat. Thanks to the indecisiveness of the enemy, the capital's squad managed to attend only one military clash. However, in this skirmish the St. Petersburg militia most likely witnessed the clash, since they failed to use their weapons.