Monument to the Black Hussars (Samara)

The Monument to the Black Hussars is a bronze sculpture in central Samara, at 7 Shostakovicha Street, next to the district House of Officers. It honours the 5th Alexandria Hussar Regiment, which was stationed in Samara on the eve of the First World War and became known as the "Black Hussars" for its black uniform. The monument was unveiled on 7 September 2018.

The regiment in Samara

The 5th Alexandria Hussar Regiment of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was transferred to Samara in 1910 and quartered in the city's barracks. In the summer of 1914, when the First World War began, the hussars left for the front.

The regiment was recognisable by its black uniform and its emblem of immortality, the "Adam's head", a skull and crossbones, which also earned it the nickname of the "Immortal Hussars". Nikolai Gumilyov, Mikhail Bulgakov and Carl Gustaf Mannerheim served in it, as did members of Samara noble families: the Princes Urusov, the Karamzins and the Alasheyevs.

What to see

The bronze figure is the work of Samara sculptor Ivan Melnikov and stands about 2.5 metres tall without the pedestal. A hussar in full dress leads his horse by the reins, coming home to Samara from the war. The model was a real man, the Samara nobleman Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov, who served in the regiment, so the monument honours both one soldier and the whole regiment. It was paid for by private sponsors.

Legends

Many stories are told about the regiment in Samara. One says that the standard of the "Immortal Hussars" survived and is kept somewhere in France; there is no documentary evidence for this.

Good to know

The monument is in the city centre, within walking distance or a short ride by public transport along Shostakovicha Street. Samara also has a museum of the 5th Alexandria Hussar Regiment, with weapons, documents, letters and equipment of the hussars. Apart from the sculpture by the House of Officers, the regional government granted a subsidy to a non-profit organisation for a separate memorial to the Alexandria Hussars; according to local press, it opened at the end of 2022.