How did the expression "Hussars don't take money!" appear?

The phrase "Hussars don't take money!", which is well known to us from frivolous anecdotes about Lieutenant Rzhevsky, appeared not at the whim of a writer or a writer of jokes, but by the will of a monarch. It has an interesting and quite real story, which itself could become a piquant anecdote from the life of the brave Hussars.

The author of the expression "Hussars do not take money!" - the sovereign Emperor Paul I himself . He said it for a very serious reason — it concerned the honor and dignity of three brilliant Hussar officers who were accused of fraud under very interesting circumstances.

This story began in the house of the sister of the famous Russian naturalist Pavel Georgievich Demidov, who married General Lavrov. The general was not yet old and loved card games, noisy companies and homeric drinking. For all these pleasant worries, he completely forgot about Mrs. Lavrova, who was forced to seek solace on the side.

A young and wealthy lady quickly found kindred spirits in three hussars of the Horse Guards Regiment at once - desperate, witty and incredibly attractive. All three tried very hard to brighten up the loneliness of the general's wife, for which the grateful woman decided to encourage them with money.

They say that the novels of his wife did not cause the brave soldier any special questions, but he demanded a strict report for the money spent. The fact of the transfer of a huge sum at that time to some daring Hussars drove Lavrov into a frenzy. The general did not believe that there was a woman in the world who was ready to pay such money for carnal pleasures and got it into his head that the Hussars had forged bills of exchange.

The deceived husband decided that the bills were for 3 thousand rubles, and the cunning ladies-in-waiting simply drew zero on each. Without thinking twice, the general wrote a complaint to The Senate, which met Lavrov halfway and recognized the securities as forged, and the Hussars as fraudsters. All three were demoted from the officers and sentenced to prison.

The court session in The Senate

Fortunately, there is justice in the world, and this time it triumphed thanks to the intervention of Paul I himself. Having learned the circumstances of the case, the sovereign ordered that no action be taken against the accused until the investigation in the regimental court was fully completed.

Emperor Paul I

But they rejoiced early. The Emperor saved them from prison casemates, and, perhaps, from hard labor, but he did not want to see them in the ranks of the Horse Guards Regiment anymore. He personally signed a document on their dismissal and, according to historians, said the catch phrase "The Hussars do not take money." However, eyewitnesses wrote that Paul I was outraged and verbose because of this. But still, the essence of his speech boiled down to the fact that it is not appropriate for officers to take money from ladies for amorous pleasures.

It must be said that the Hussars, whom everyone used to idealize, were not always noble and loving heroes. There were also very unpleasant personalities among them, such as ... the great Russian poet and writer M.Y. Lermontov.