In Tsarist Russia, Cossacks often served as bodyguards for the imperial family, unlike today when this role is performed by FSO officers. One such devoted servant was Kuban Cossack Timofey Yashchik from the Novominskaya stanitsa. At the age of 22, he joined the Yeisk regiment in Tiflis, where he caught the attention of General Golitsyn. One day, when mountaineers kidnapped the general, Yashchik managed to rescue him and return him to the regiment with his squad. Impressed, Golitsyn recommended him for service in the imperial convoy. Timofey Ksenofontovich accompanied Nicholas II at all official events and was his reliable protector. "I tried to master the art important for a life-guard Cossack: to be inconspicuous, but always ready to appear at the right moment," he recalled. Yashchik accompanied the emperor to the front, and in 1916 he was assigned to guard Empress Maria Feodorovna. After the revolution, he helped her emigrate and then was tasked with finding her daughter Olga and bringing her to Denmark. Despite the chaos of the Civil War, Yashchik found Olga and transported her to safety. He tried to evacuate his family as well, but unsuccessfully, not knowing that his wife had been shot. In Denmark, he continued to guard Maria Feodorovna until her death, sleeping at her door on a burka, keeping a loaded Nagant at hand. After her passing, he stood guard at her coffin for three days. Timofey Yashchik died at the age of 68 and was buried in Copenhagen.