On formation the regiment joined the 14th Infantry Division which was in turn part of the I Army Corps based around the city of Orël.

The uniform consisted of a light green tunic, with white collars, cuffs, and shoulder straps with red edging, yellow buttons and buff turnbacks.

On 5 and 6 June however, the regiment was back in the frontline under command of General Leving August, Graf von Bennigsen's field army was engaged at the Battle of Guttstadt-Deppen.

However, after a short skirmish the Russians were unable to cross the bridgehead and the French VI Corps under Marshal Michel Ney withdrew.

[9] On 7 June a false document was captured by the Russians indicating that Ney's forces would soon attack Bennigsen's army from the rear.

[10] After a short rest the army was on the move again, and on 10 June the forces of Emperor Napoleon and the Graf von Bennigsen met at the field of Heilsberg.

[10][11] On 14 June, the main Russian army was engaged at the Battle of Friedland, though a large force under command of Major General Nikolay Borozdin was detached to the garrison in Allenburg.

[12] Following the Treaties of Tilsit, Bennisgen's Army was withdrawn back into European Russia and its troops redistributed to their divisional garrison areas The Finnish Dragoons were subsequently moved to the Polotsky Uyezd in the Vitebsk Governorate where it had been raised.

[3] Following around a year of peacetime garrison service and training, the regiment was transferred to the Baltic coast in preparation for the coming Finnish War.

Following the Russian takeover of Åbo, a division was detached from the Baltic region comprising the following units: Nevsky, Libavsky, and Brest Musketeer Regiments (6 x companies each), Pernovsky Regiment (1 x battalion), Grodno Hussars (1 x squadron), 2 x squadrons of the Finnish Dragoons, 1 x artillery battery, and 15 x gunboats.

[13] On 2 March 1808 a Russian field army commanded by the drunken General Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden began a two month long siege on the 'Gibraltar of the North', the Sveaborg Fortress just off the coast from Helsingfors.

Historian Digby Smith notes that, "[the fall of the fortress] in such a shameful way dealt a crushing blow to Swedish morale and led to the abandonment of Finland to Russia".

During the battle, the regiment formed part of the cavalry force of the 17th Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Prince Andrey Gorchakov and comprised 4 x squadrons of 23 officers and 631 other ranks.

[16] By 19 June, the regiment landed on the mainland of Swedish Finland and advanced westwards towards the town of Kaarina where a small Russian force took up defensive positions along the coast.

On 20 June, a squadron of the Finnish Dragoons arrived in the area together with 3 x companies of the Brest Musketeer Regiment and 2 x guns from the 25th Artillery Brigade.

As a consequence of the treaty, the Grand Duchy could only raise militia and local forces in times of invasion, and the Imperial Russian Army became responsible for its defence.

The regiment also became the sole Finnish unit and began to recruit more Finns, in addition to setting up a new headquarters and depot in Vilmanstrand.

In the Grand Duchy of Finland, a new semi-autonomous 'Finnish Army' was created which comprised several local rifle battalions and along with a new dragoon regiment.

After a vote by the State Duma, and later a decree by Emperor Nicholas II, the Finns were forced to adopt the new law, and the autonomy of the Duchy brought into question.

This law was one of many which began undermining Finnish autonomy in addition to bring the army's ability to make its own decisions into question, something which would have a profound impact on the Russian Revolution.

[1][23][24][25] On 4 December 1901, the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment was formed in Vilmanstrand by merging several 'troops' of different dragoon regiments, including: Moscow, Novorossiysk, Kargopol, Kinburn, Novotroitsky-Yekaterinoslav, Glupovskoye, Astrakhan, Saint Petersburg, Smolensky, Lithuanian, Kurlyandsky, Kharkov, Volynsky, Voznesensky, Sumy, Elisavetgrad, Alexandria, Belarussky, Pavlogradsky, Mariupol, Klyastitsky, and Lubensky.

Sometime in 1913 or 1914, the regiment joined the recently formed 22nd Army Corps, which oversaw all units within the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Because the regiment formed part of the Finland Inspectorate for administrative purposes, an "ef" (Ф) roughly equivalent to an English "F" was added with crimson stencilling below.

[36] In August 1914, the regiment (along with all other Finnish units, except that of the Guards) were under the command of the 22nd Army Corps, which had its headquarters in Helsingfors in the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Like so many other Russian cavalry regiments, the Finnish Dragoons remained in reserve and were only really used for breakout, reconnaissance, and dismounted guard duties.

[27] In June 1915, an operation was planned so that the 4th Cavalry Brigade along with several infantry divisions would assault the German positions behind the frontlines with support from the Baltic Fleet.