19th-Century Headquarters Complex of the Grenadier Crown Prince of Prussia Regiment

The Novoselitsy military town grew out of Alexander I’s army reforms and the system of military settlements overseen by Count Alexei Andreyevich Arakcheev. Novoselitsy became the headquarters town of the 4th District of Military Settlements and housed the Pernov Grenadier Crown Prince of Prussia Regiment. The regimental headquarters complex was built from 1820 to 1831 around a large rectangular parade ground. Its largest building was the riding and drill hall, slightly smaller than the Moscow and Mikhailovsky halls in St. Petersburg. Major General Lev Lvovich Carbonnier was sent to design and build such halls. The vast interior had side arcades with light openings and timber roof trusses with 11 uprights and braces beneath a suspended coffered ceiling. In 1946 a fire almost completely destroyed the roof. In the early 1950s an intermediate floor was installed and part of the building adapted for a training-battalion barracks and gym; another part remained unrestored, with only walls surviving and arched openings boarded up. A church was attached on the east, while north and south end blocks housed reserve-battalion barracks, a cantonist school and a hospital. Officers lived in 2-story rectangular red-brick houses around the parade ground. Today Novoselitsy is described as the best-preserved military settlement built in the first half of the 19th century and is protected as an architectural monument. From 1834 to 1866 it housed Count Arakcheev’s Novgorod Cadet Corps, officially opened on 15 March 1834 after A. A. Arakcheev’s financial contribution to the Imperial Treasury. Most buildings from that period still survive. From 1866 to 1914 the 87th Neishlot Infantry Regiment was stationed here: headquarters and the 1st and 2nd battalions in Novoselitsy, the 3rd battalion in Bronnitsa. After October 1917 various cavalry, artillery and tank units were based here. From 1915 to 1921 the Arakcheev Military Hospital operated in the town. During World War II the settlement lay near the front, which ran 10–15 km north of Novoselitsy near Posad-Markovo. Sources list an NKVD regiment, headquarters of the 229th Rifle Division, the Army Military Trade Administration, the 386th Night Bomber Novgorod Aviation Regiment of the Order of Kutuzov III Class, and mobile field hospitals and medical battalions among units based here. From 21 December 1948 to 10 January 1949, the 72nd Separate Air Force Signal Training Regiment was formed at Novoselitsy as part of the 13th Air Army of the Leningrad Military District. In 1980 the 159th Warrant Officer School relocated here from Samarkand. On 1 November 1981 the 159th Warrant Officer School (military unit 21733) and the 72nd Separate Air Force Signal and Radio Technical Support Training Regiment (military unit 22558) were reorganized as the 834th Training Center for Air Force Signal and Radio Technical Support Troops, military unit 22558. Over 55 years the center trained more than 150 officers, 18 thousand warrant officers and 70 thousand junior signal and radio-support specialists. In December 2009 the Training Center was relocated to Stavropol. Photo gallery.