The annexation of Transcaucasia to Russia was actively opposed by Iran, which in its struggle against Russia relied on the help of both France and England. Both of these powers had a common goal - to prevent Russia from strengthening in the East. However, in seeking to establish their own dominance there, they waged a fierce struggle not only with Russia, but also with each other.
In 1801, at the time of Georgia's annexation to Russia, England managed to conclude two agreements with Iran - political and trade. Iran became an ally of England and took upon itself the obligation not to maintain any relations with the French. The British were granted political and economic privileges tantamount to a regime of capitulations.
The Anglo-Iranian alliance was directed against both France and Russia. Counting on the support of the British, the Iranian Shah Fath-Ali (who replaced Agha-Mohammed in 1797, who was killed by his entourage during his second invasion of Transcaucasia) decided in 1804 to enter the war with Russia. From the very beginning of the war, the British supplied Iran with weapons through the East India Company. By that time, however, French victories in Europe and the extraordinary growth of its power had prompted Fath-Ali to enter into relations with Napoleon, who offered Iran extensive military assistance against the Russians. In May 1807, an alliance treaty was signed between France and Iran, according to which Napoleon recognized Georgia as “legally belonging” to the Shah and pledged to force the Russians to leave Transcaucasia. A French mission led by General Gardan was sent to Iran.
Although this mission arrived in Tehran after the conclusion of the Franco-Russian alliance in Tilsit, it developed active activities in Iran directed not only against England, but also against Russia. At the same time, Gardan imposed an enslaving trade agreement on Iran.
French dominance in Iran turned out to be very short-lived. In 1809, the British managed to conclude a new treaty of alliance with Iran and expel the French from there. England began to pay the Shah an annual military subsidy of 200 thousand tomans to wage war against Russia. Since 1810, the British resumed the supply of weapons to Iran on a large scale. Numerous British officers who arrived there not only continued the training of Iranian troops begun by the French, but also took direct part in military operations against Russia. British diplomacy systematically disrupted peace negotiations between Russia and Iran that began from time to time and sought to conclude an alliance with Turkey directed against Russia.
The assistance provided by the British could not, however, significantly improve the condition of Iran's armed forces and prevent its defeat. In addition, the peoples of Transcaucasia actively fought on the side of Russia. Many Georgians and Armenians fought in the ranks of the Russian troops. The Russian army included Azerbaijani and Armenian detachments, whose military merits were repeatedly noted by the Russian command. The local population offered fierce resistance to the Iranians. The population of the Kazakh district in 1805 expelled the invading Iranian troops with their own forces. The residents of Karabakh - Azerbaijanis and Armenians - also bravely resisted the repeated invasions of Iranian troops.
In October 1812, in the battle of Aslanduz, Russian troops defeated the army of the Iranian heir to the throne, Abbas Mirza, and soon captured the Lankaran fortress. The Shah's government was forced to resume peace negotiations with Russia. According to the Gulistan Peace Treaty signed in 1813, Iran recognized the annexation of the main part of Transcaucasia to Russia, but retained the Yerevan and Nakhchevan khanates under its rule. Only Russia could maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea. Merchants of both sides received the right to unhindered trade with the payment of an import duty of no more than 5% of the value of the goods.
Russian - Persian war 1804-1813
The activity of Russia's policy in the Transcaucasus was mainly associated with Georgia's persistent requests for protection from the Turkish-Iranian onslaught. During the reign of Catherine II, the Treaty of Georgievsk (1783) was concluded between Russia and Georgia, according to which Russia pledged to defend Georgia. This led to a clash first with Turkey and then with Persia (until 1935, the official name of Iran), for which Transcaucasia had long been a sphere of influence. The first clash between Russia and Persia over Georgia occurred in 1796, when Russian troops repelled an invasion of Georgian lands by Iranian troops. In 1801, Georgia, by the will of its king George XII, joined Russia.
GeorgiyXII
This forced St. Petersburg to become involved in the complex affairs of the troubled Transcaucasian region. In 1803, Mingrelia joined Russia, and in 1804, Imereti and Guria. This caused discontent in Iran, and when in 1804 Russian troops occupied the Ganja Khanate (for the raids of Ganja troops on Georgia),
After the annexation of Georgia to Russia and the granting of governance to it, which existed in other regions of the Empire, the pacification of the Caucasus became a necessary, although extremely difficult, task for Russia, and the main attention was paid to the establishment in Transcaucasia. By annexing Georgia, Russia became openly hostile towards Turkey, Persia and the mountain peoples. The petty ruling Transcaucasian princes, who managed to become independent, taking advantage of the weakness of the Georgian kingdom, under whose protectorate they were, looked with extreme hostility at the strengthening of Russian influence in the Caucasus and entered into secret and open relations with the enemies of Russia. In such a difficult situation, Alexander I chose the prince. Tsitsianov.
Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov
Realizing that for successful operations in Georgia and Transcaucasia, not only an intelligent and courageous person is needed, but also familiar with the area, with the customs and customs of the highlanders, the Emperor recalled the commander-in-chief Knorring, appointed by Paul I, and, on September 9, 1802, appointed Astrakhan military governor and the commander-in-chief in Georgia, Prince. Tsitsianova. Entrusting him with this responsible post and informing Count Zubov’s plan, which consisted of occupying lands from the Rion River to the Kura and Araks, to the Caspian Sea and beyond, Alexander I ordered: “to bring into clarity and system the confused affairs of the region, and meek, fair, but also with firm behavior, try to gain trust in the government not only of Georgia, but also of various neighboring possessions." “I am confident,” the Emperor wrote to Tsitsianov, “that, convinced of the importance of the service entrusted to you, and guided both by the knowledge of my rules for this region and by your own prudence, you will fulfill your duty with the impartiality and righteousness that I have in you I always assumed and found it."
Realizing the seriousness of the danger threatening from Persia and Turkey, Tsitsianov decided to secure our borders from the east and south and started with the Ganzhinsky Khanate closest to Georgia, which had already been conquered by the gr. Zubov, but, after the removal of our troops, again recognized the power of Persia. Convinced of the inaccessibility of Ganja and hoping for help from the Persians, its owner, Javat Khan, considered himself safe, especially since the Jarians and Elisuis, convinced by the Dagestan princes, disobeyed, despite Tsitsianov’s convictions. Javat Khan, in response to Tsitsianov’s letter inviting him to submit, declared that he would fight the Russians until he won. Then Tsitsianov decided to act energetically. Having strengthened the detachment of Gulyakov, who had a permanent post on the river. Alazani, near Aleksandrovsk, Tsitsianov with 4 infantry battalions, part of the Narva Dragoon Regiment, several hundred Cossacks, a detachment of Tatar cavalry, with 12 guns, moved towards Ganja. Tsitsianov did not have a plan of the fortress or a map of its surroundings. I had to do reconnaissance on the spot. On December 2, for the first time, Russian troops clashed with the troops of Javat Khan, and on December 3, Ganja was besieged and bombardment began, since Javat Khan refused to surrender the fortress voluntarily. Tsitsianov hesitated for a long time to storm Ganja, fearing heavy losses. The siege lasted four weeks and only on January 4, 1804, the main mosque of Ganja was already “turned into a temple to the true God,” as Tsitsianov put it in his letter to General Vyazmitinov. The assault on Ganja cost 38 people killed and 142 wounded. Among those killed by the enemy was Javat Khan.
Javat Khan
The Russians got as booty: 9 copper guns, 3 cast iron, 6 falconets and 8 banners with inscriptions, 55 pounds of gunpowder and a large grain supply.
Persia declared war on Russia. In this conflict, the number of Persian troops many times exceeded the Russian ones. Total number Russian soldiers in Transcaucasia did not exceed 8 thousand people. They had to operate over a large territory: from Armenia to the shores of the Caspian Sea. In terms of weaponry, the Iranian army, equipped with British weapons, was not inferior to the Russian one. Therefore, the final success of the Russians in this war was associated primarily with more high degree military organization, combat training and courage of the troops, as well as the leadership talents of military leaders. The Russian-Persian conflict marked the beginning of the most difficult military decade in the country's history (1804-1814), when Russian Empire had to fight along almost the entire perimeter of its European borders from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea. This required tension from the country unprecedented since the Northern War.
Campaign of 1804 .
The main hostilities of the first year of the war took place in the Erivan (Yerevan) region. The commander of the Russian troops in Transcaucasia, General Pyotr Tsitsianov, began the campaign with offensive actions.
The main forces of the Persians, under the command of Abbas Mirza himself, had already crossed the Araks and entered the Erivan Khanate.
Abbas-Mirza
On June 19, Tsitsianov approached Etchmiadzin, and on the 21st, an eighteen-thousandth Persian corps surrounded Tsitsianov, but was driven back with heavy losses. On June 25th the attack resumed and again the Persians were defeated; Abbas Mirza retreated beyond the Araks. Notifying the Erivan Khan about this, Tsitsianov demanded that he surrender the fortress and take an oath of citizenship. The treacherous Khan, wanting to get rid of the Russians and gain favor with the Persian Shah, sent to ask him to return back. The result of this was the return of the 27,000-strong Persian army camped near the village of Kalagiri.
Abbas-Mirza was making preparations here for decisive action, but Tsitsianov warned him. On June 30, a detachment of three thousand Russian troops crossed the river. Zangu and, having repelled a sortie made from the Erivan fortress, attacked the enemy, who occupied a strong position on the heights. At first the Persians stubbornly defended themselves, but in the end they were forced to retreat to their camp, located three miles from the battlefield. The small number of cavalry did not allow Tsitsianov to pursue the enemy, who left his camp and fled through Erivan. On this day, the Persians lost up to 7,000 killed and wounded, the entire convoy, four banners, seven falconets and all the treasures looted on the way. Tsitsianov's reward for the victory was (July 22, 1804) the Order of St. Vladimir 1st Art. Having won a victory over the Persians, Tsitsianov directed his forces against the Erivan Khan and besieged Erivan on July 2. At first, the khan resorted to negotiations, but since Tsitsianov demanded unconditional surrender, on July 15, part of the garrison and several thousand Persians attacked the Russian detachment. After a ten-hour battle, the attackers were repulsed, losing two banners and two cannons. On the night of July 25, Tsitsianov sent Major General Portnyagin with part of his troops to attack Abbas Mirza, whose camp was located in a new place, not far from Erivan. This time victory was on the side of the Persians and Portnyagin was forced to retreat. Tsitsianov's position became more and more difficult. Intense heat exhausted the army; convoys with provisions arrived significantly late or did not arrive at all; the Georgian cavalry, which he sent back to Tiflis, was captured by the enemy on the road and taken to Tehran; Major Montresor, who held a post near the village of Bombaki, was killed by the Persians, and his detachment was exterminated; Lezgins raided; the Karabakh people invaded the Elisavetpol district; the Ossetians also began to worry; The detachment's relations with Georgia were interrupted. In a word, Tsitsianov’s position was critical; Petersburg and Tiflis were awaiting news of the death of the detachment and Tiflis was preparing for defense. Only Tsitsianov did not lose heart. Unshakable will, faith in himself and in his army gave him the strength to continue the siege of Erivan as persistently as before. He hoped that with the onset of autumn the Persian troops would withdraw and the fortress, without their support, would be forced to surrender; but when the enemy burned out all the grain in the vicinity of Etchmiadzin and Erivan and the detachment began to face inevitable famine, Tsitsianov faced a dilemma: lift the siege or take the fortress by storm. Tsitsianov, true to himself, chose the latter. Of all the officers he invited to the military council, only Portnyagin joined his opinion; everyone else was against the assault; yielding to the majority of votes, Tsitsianov gave the order to retreat. On September 4, Russian troops set out on a return campaign. During the ten-day retreat, up to 430 people fell ill and about 150 died.
Having refused to take Erivan, Tsitsianov hoped that through peaceful negotiations he would be able to expand the borders of Russia, and his attitude towards the mountain khans and rulers was the opposite of that followed by the Russian government before Tsitsianov. “I dared,” he wrote to the chancellor, “to accept a rule contrary to the previously existing system here and, instead of paying some kind of tribute for their imaginary citizenship with salaries and gifts determined to soften the mountain peoples, I myself demand tribute.” In February 1805, Prince. Tsitsianov took the oath of allegiance to the Russian Tsar from Ibrahim Khan of Shusha and Karabakh; in May Selim Khan of Sheki took the oath; in addition, Jangir Khan of Shagakh and Budakh Sultan of Shuragel expressed their submission; Having received a report on these annexations, Alexander I awarded Tsitsianov a cash lease in the amount of 8,000 rubles. per year.
But although Tsitsianov’s troops in the battle of Kanagir (near Erivan) defeated the Iranian army under the command of Crown Prince Abass-Mirza, Russian forces were not enough to take this stronghold. In November, a new army under the command of Shah Feth Ali approached the Persian troops.
Shah Feth Ali
Tsitsianov’s detachment, which had already suffered significant losses by that time, was forced to lift the siege and retreat to Georgia.
Campaign of 1805 .
The failure of the Russians at the walls of Erivan strengthened the confidence of the Persian leadership. In June, a 40,000-strong Persian army under the command of Prince Abbas Mirza moved through the Ganja Khanate to Georgia. On the Askeran River (region of the Karabakh ridge), the vanguard of the Persian troops (20 thousand people) met stubborn resistance from a Russian detachment under the command of Colonel Karyagin (500 people), which had only 2 cannons. From June 24 to July 7, Karyagin's rangers, skillfully using the terrain and changing positions, heroically repelled the onslaught of a huge Persian army. After a four-day defense in the Karagach tract, the detachment fought its way into the Shah-Bulakh castle on the night of June 28, where it was able to hold out until the night of July 8, and then secretly left its fortifications.
Shah-Bulakh Castle
The selfless resistance of Karyagin’s soldiers actually saved Georgia. The delay in the advance of the Persian troops allowed Tsitsianov to gather forces to repel the unexpected invasion. On July 28, at the Battle of Zagam, the Russians defeated the troops of Abbas Mirza. His campaign against Georgia was stopped and the Persian army retreated. After this, Tsitsianov transferred the main hostilities to the Caspian coast. But his attempts to conduct a naval operation to capture Baku and Rasht ended in vain.
Campaign of 1806 .
P.D. Tsitsianov set out on a campaign against Baku.
The Russians moved through the Shirvan Khanate, and, in this case, Tsitsianov managed to persuade the Shirvan Khan to join Russia. Khan took the oath of citizenship on December 25, 1805. From Shirvan, the prince notified the Khan of Baku about his approach, demanding the surrender of the fortress. After a very difficult transition through the Shemakha Mountains, Tsitsianov and his detachment approached Baku on January 30, 1806.
Sparing people and wanting to avoid bloodshed, Tsitsianov once again sent the khan an offer to submit, and set four conditions: a Russian garrison would be stationed in Baku; the Russians will manage the income; the merchants will be guaranteed from oppression; The eldest son of the khan will be brought to Tsitsianov as an amanate. After quite long negotiations, the khan declared that he was ready to submit to the Russian commander-in-chief and betray himself into eternal citizenship of the Russian Emperor. In view of this, Tsitsianov promised to leave him as the owner of the Baku Khanate. The Khan agreed to all the conditions set by the prince and asked Tsitsianov to set a day for accepting the keys. The prince set February 8th. Early in the morning he went to the fortress, having with him 200 people who were supposed to remain in Baku as a garrison. Half a mile before the city gates, the Baku elders were waiting for the prince with keys, bread and salt and, presenting them to Tsitsianov, announced that the khan did not believe in his complete forgiveness and asked the prince for a personal meeting. Tsitsianov agreed, gave back the keys, wanting to receive them from the hands of the khan himself, and rode forward, ordering Lieutenant Colonel Prince Eristov and one Cossack to follow him. About a hundred paces before the fortress, Hussein-Kuli Khan, accompanied by four Baku residents, came out to meet Tsitsianov, and while the khan, bowing, brought the keys, the Baku men fired; Tsitsianov and Prince. The Eristovs fell; the khan's retinue rushed towards them and began to chop down their bodies; at the same time, artillery fire opened on our detachment from the city walls.
Body of the book Tsitsianov was first buried in a hole, at the very gate where he was killed. General Bulgakov, who took Baku in the same 1806, buried his ashes in the Baku Armenian Church, and the governor in 1811-1812. Georgian Marquis Paulucci transported him to Tiflis and buried him in the Zion Cathedral. A monument with an inscription in Russian and Georgian was erected over Tsitsianov’s grave.
I.V. Gudovich
General Ivan Gudovich was appointed commander-in-chief and continued the offensive in Azerbaijan. In 1806, the Russians occupied the Caspian territories of Dagestan and Azerbaijan (including Baku, Derbent, and Cuba). In the summer of 1806, the troops of Abbas Mirza, who tried to go on the offensive, were defeated in Karabakh. However, the situation soon became more complicated. In December 1806 it began Russian-Turkish war. In order not to fight on two fronts with his extremely limited forces, Gudovich, taking advantage of the hostile relations between Turkey and Iran, immediately concluded a truce with the Iranians and began military operations against the Turks. The year 1807 was spent in peace negotiations with Iran, but they came to nothing. In 1808, hostilities resumed.
Campaign of 1808-1809 .
In 1808, Gudovich transferred the main hostilities to Armenia. His troops occupied Etchmiadzin (a city west of Yerevan) and then besieged Erivan. In October, the Russians defeated Abbas Mirza's troops at Karababa and occupied Nakhichevan. However, the assault on Erivan ended in failure, and the Russians were forced to retreat from the walls of this fortress a second time. After this, Gudovich was replaced by General Alexander Tormasov, who resumed peace negotiations. During the negotiations, troops under the command of the Iranian Shah Feth Ali unexpectedly invaded northern Armenia (Artik region), but were repulsed. The attempt of Abbas Mirza’s army to attack Russian positions in the Ganja region also ended in failure.
A.P. Tormasov in the troops
Campaign of 1810-1811 .
In the summer of 1810, the Iranian command planned to launch an attack on Karabakh from its stronghold of Meghri (a mountainous Armenian village located in the area of the left bank of the Arak River). To prevent the offensive actions of the Iranians, a detachment of rangers under the command of Colonel Kotlyarevsky (about 500 people) went to Meghri, who on June 17, with an unexpected attack, managed to capture this stronghold, where there was a 1,500-strong garrison with 7 batteries. Russian losses amounted to 35 people. The Iranians lost more than 300 people. After the fall of Meghri, the southern regions of Armenia received reliable protection from Iranian invasions. In July, Kotlyarevsky defeated the Iranian army on the Arak River. In September, Iranian troops attempted to launch an offensive in westward to Akhalkalaki (southwestern Georgia) to join Turkish troops there. However, the Iranian offensive in the area was repulsed. In 1811 Tormasov was replaced by General Paulucci. However, Russian troops did not take active action during this period due to limited numbers and the need to fight a war on two fronts (against Turkey and Iran). In February 1812 Paulucci was replaced by General Rtishchev, who resumed peace negotiations.
Campaign of 1812-1813 .
P.S. Kotlyarevsky
At this time, the fate of the war was actually decided. Sharp turn associated with the name of General Pyotr Stepanovich Kotlyarevsky, whose brilliant military leadership talent helped Russia victoriously end a protracted confrontation.
Battle of Aslanduz (1812) .
After Tehran received news of the occupation of Moscow by Napoleon, negotiations were interrupted. Despite the critical situation and the obvious lack of forces, General Kotlyarevsky, to whom Rtishchev gave freedom of action, decided to seize the initiative and stop a new offensive by Iranian troops. He himself moved with a 2,000-strong detachment towards the 30,000-strong army of Abbas Mirza. Using the factor of surprise, Kotlyarevsky’s detachment crossed Arak in the Aslanduz area and on October 19 attacked the Iranians on the move. They did not expect such a quick attack and retreated to their camp in confusion. Meanwhile, night fell, hiding the real number of Russians. Having instilled in his soldiers an unshakable belief in victory, the undaunted general led them into an attack against the entire Iranian army. Courage trumped strength. Having burst into the Iranian camp, a handful of heroes with a bayonet attack caused an indescribable panic in the camp of Abbas Mirza, who did not expect a night attack, and put the entire army to flight. Iranian casualties amounted to 1,200 killed and 537 captured. The Russians lost 127 people.
Battle of Aslands
This victory of Kotlyarevsky did not allow Iran to seize the strategic initiative. Having crushed the Iranian army at Aslanduz, Kotlyarevsky moved to the Lankaran fortress, which covered the path to the northern regions of Persia.
Capture of Lankaran (1813) .
After the defeat at Aslanduz, the Iranians pinned their last hopes on Lankaran. This strong fortress was defended by a 4,000-strong garrison under the command of Sadyk Khan. Sadyk Khan responded to the offer to surrender with a proud refusal. Then Kotlyarevsky gave the order to his soldiers to take the fortress by storm, declaring that there would be no retreat. Here are the words from his order, read to the soldiers before the battle: “Having exhausted all means of forcing the enemy to surrender the fortress, having found him adamant to do so, there remains no longer any way to conquer this fortress with Russian weapons except by force of assault... We must take the fortress or everyone will die, why were we sent here... so let us prove, brave soldiers, that nothing can resist the power of the Russian bayonet..." On January 1, 1813, an attack followed. Already at the beginning of the attack, all the officers in the first ranks of the attackers were knocked out. In this critical situation, Kotlyarevsky himself led the attack. After a brutal and merciless assault, Lankaran fell. Of its defenders, less than 10% survived. Russian losses were also great - about 1 thousand people. (50% of the composition). During the attack, the fearless Kotlyarevsky was also seriously injured (he became disabled and left the armed forces forever). Russia has lost a bright successor to the Rumyantsev-Suvorov military tradition, whose talent was just beginning to work “Suvorov’s miracles.”
assault on Lankaran
Peace of Gulistan (1813) .
The fall of Lankaran decided the outcome of the Russian-Iranian War (1804-1813). It forced the Iranian leadership to stop hostilities and sign the Peace of Gulistan [concluded 12(24). October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now the village of Gulustan, Goranboy region of Azerbaijan)]. A number of Transcaucasian provinces and khanates (Khanate of Derbent) went to Russia, which received the exclusive right to maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea. Russian and Iranian merchants were allowed to trade freely on the territory of both states.
Tormented Europe Napoleonic Wars, the invasion of 1812, and the subsequent victorious raid of the Russian army across Europe, overshadowed the great battles of the Russo-Iranian War, which broke out in 1804, when the Russian Empire alone fought two long-term wars in Asia. And she emerged victorious from both.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the increased military power of the empire made Russian citizenship attractive to small Asian khanates and kingdoms. The voluntary annexation of Eastern Georgia and several Azerbaijani khanates and sultanates to Russia led to complications in relations with the geopolitical neighbors of the Russian empire - Iran and Turkey.
In May 1804, irritated by Russian expansion in Transcaucasia, the Shah of Iran, through his ambassador, presented an ultimatum to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Georgia, General Tsitsianov, which contained a demand for the withdrawal of troops from Transcaucasia. A month later, Abbas Mirza, the warlike heir of the khan, led the Iranian troops gathered in the vicinity of Yerevan to storm Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). The Russian army in Transcaucasia was three times smaller than the Iranians. However, in several oncoming battles, she managed to push the enemy back to Yerevan and besieged the city. In September, due to a lack of ammunition and food, the siege had to be lifted.
The army returned to Tiflis. Despite the not entirely successful campaign, its moral effect was very strong. During the year, several more khanates voluntarily joined Russia, including Karabakh. Russian garrisons were stationed on their territories.
The flaring conflict in Europe led to a rapprochement between Napoleonic France, seeking to weaken Russia, and Iran. The Shah hoped, with the support of an influential European state, to oust his Russian neighbor, weakened by the bloody war in the West, from eastern Georgia.
Fighting resumed in the summer of 1805. The Shah's army invaded Karabakh and the environs of Yerevan. Tsitsianov, aware of the enemy's multiple numerical superiority, decided to act on the defensive, distracting the enemy with amphibious landings involving the Caspian flotilla.
Successful raids of the Caspian flotilla and the persistent defense of Colonel Koryagin’s detachment in Karabakh thwarted the Iranian invasion of Georgia and made it possible for the Russian command to regroup troops. Having managed to assemble a strong army group and seizing the strategic initiative, Tsitsianov besieged the Baku fortress. During negotiations on the surrender of the fortress with the head of the Baku garrison, Mustafa Khan, in February 1806, the Russian general was treacherously killed.
The new commander-in-chief, General Gudovich, had an even harder time than his predecessor. The year 1806 was overshadowed by the beginning of another Russian-Turkish war. Previously irreconcilable neighbors Iran and Türkiye, thanks to strong diplomatic pressure from France, concluded a peace treaty. The small Russian army in Transcaucasia had to fight on two fronts.
In June 1806, Russian regiments, together with allied mountain detachments, captured Derbent without a fight. By the end of the year, the Russian army occupied Baku, the Kuban Khanate and the entire territory of Dagestan.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit, Russia and France were nominally allies. However, Napoleon continued to provide assistance to Iran, sending military advisers to the Shah to create a new type of regular army with units of sarbaz infantrymen. With the active support of France, the production of artillery pieces and the reconstruction of fortresses was established in Iran.
When, in September 1808, after the breakdown of the negotiation process, Russian troops tried to storm the fortress of Yerevan, modernized by Europeans, they suffered serious losses and retreated to Georgia.
Disillusioned with Napoleon, the Shah of Iran moved towards rapprochement with Great Britain. England, having become an enemy of Russia, took the chance to weaken the empire with a long war in Asia and provided Iran with full support.
In 1810, the restless Abbas Mirza began gathering troops in Nakhchivan to capture Karabakh. The Russian command was proactive. The ranger detachment of Colonel Kotlyarovsky stormed the impregnable mountain fortress of Migri, repulsed all attacks of Abbas Mirza, who came to the aid of the garrison, and then with a counterattack turned the superior enemy troops into a stampede.
Abbas Mirza, together with the detachments of the Erivan Khan and the Akhaltsikhe Pasha, tried to take revenge at Akhalkhalaki, but was again defeated.
Fighting resumed in September 1811. The army of the Iranian Shah was strengthened by British supplies. She received 20 thousand new rifles and 32 cannons.
General Paulucci, who replaced Gudovich, decided to finally knock out Turkish troops from Transcaucasia, capturing the last Turkish fortress in this region - the city of Akhalkalaki. A combined detachment under the command of the brilliant commander Kotlyarovsky captured the citadel during an hour and a half assault, capturing its commandant, Izmail Khan. This victory helped M.I. Kutuzov to successfully complete his diplomatic mission in Asia. In 1812, a month before the French invasion, peace was concluded between Russia and Turkey in Bucharest.
The Shah of Iran continued the war alone. In the fall of 1812, Abbas Mirza's army captured the Lankaran fortress in the Talysh Khanate. The Iranian army, numbering more than 30,000 trained soldiers, camped on the banks of the Araks River. In the early morning of October 19, it was attacked from the rear by a small detachment (about 2,000 rangers and Cossacks) of Major General Kotlyarovsky, who had bypassed it along the mountain passes the day before. The Iranians retreated in panic, losing about 10,000 people. The trophies of the Russians were cannons and several Iranian banners with the dedicatory inscription of the English monarch - From the king over kings, to the shah over shahs. Building on this success, in December 1812, General Kotlyarovsky led his combined detachment in an attack on Lenkoran. The authority of the Russian commander was so high that the equal-numbered Iranian garrison of the Arkevan fortress, which stood in the way of his detachment, did not offer him any resistance and fled, leaving behind guns and ammunition. At the end of December, Kotlyarovsky’s detachment was strengthened by the Russian naval garrison he had unblocked in the town of Gamushevan. On January 1, 1813, General Kotlyarovsky led his soldiers to storm the Lankaran fortress. The fortress was protected by an earthen rampart and massive stone walls. The Lankaran garrison numbered 4,000 people and more than 60 guns. The assault began at five o'clock in the morning in complete silence without drumming. Before the assault, the soldiers were warned that there would be no order to retreat under any circumstances. It was not possible to approach the fortress secretly - the garrison opened hurricane artillery fire on the advancing columns, preventing them from climbing the walls using the assault ladders. Kotlyarovsky, who was fighting in the front ranks, was wounded in the leg and face. The bullet knocked out the general's right eye. However, the Iranians failed to defend the fortress. When the Russian rangers burst onto the walls, the garrison wavered and ran. The soldiers, enraged by the wounding of their respected commander, destroyed all the defenders of the fortress. The thirty-year-old lieutenant general, who received three serious wounds, remained alive, having withstood almost three hundred kilometers of evacuation along mountain paths. However, this was the end of his military career. He retired with the rank of infantry general.
In the spring of 1813, Colonel Pestel's infantry carried out a pogrom of Iranian troops near Yerevan. The Shah of Iran hastened to begin peace negotiations. The Treaty of Gulistan between Russia and Iran, concluded in October 1813, secured the accession of several new khanates to Russia, including Baku. The Shah recognized the Russian territories of Dagestan and Eastern Georgia. The exclusive right of the Russian Empire to maintain a military flotilla in the Caspian Sea was also stipulated.
Russo-Persian Wars
The Russian-Persian Wars are a series of military conflicts between Russia and Persia in the 17th-20th centuries. The wars were fought primarily over the Caucasus, first the North, then the South.
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Background to the conflict
In the middle of the 16th century, Russia conquered the Astrakhan Khanate and reached the coast of the Caspian Sea and the foothills of the Caucasus. The Nogai Horde and Kabarda were also vassals of Russia.
1651-1653
In the 17th century main support The Russian state in the North Caucasus was Terki fortress.
The royal commanders and troops were located here. IN mid-17th century century, in the suburbs of the Terek city lived seventy families of Kabardian uzdeni (nobles), many merchants (Russian, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Persian) and artisans. On the right bank of the Terek at the confluence of the Sunzha River, northeast of modern Grozny, in 1635 Persian influence extended to the possessions of the Kumyk feudal lords in Dagestan. The largest was the Tarkov Shamkhalate, whose rulers had the title of ruler of Buinaksk, wali (governor) of Dagestan and for some time Khan of Derbent. Another important possession of the Kumyks was the Enderian Shamkhalate. At the beginning of the 17th century, it separated from the Tarkov Shamkhalate. In the 50s of the 17th century, the “Endereevsky owner” Murza Kazan-Alp ruled there. To the north-west of Derbent there was the Kaitag Utsmiystvo. In 1645, the Persian Shah expelled the ruler Rustam Khan, loyal to Russia, from here and appointed Amirkhan Sultan as the owner of Kaitag.
In the Caucasus, the interests of Persia inevitably collided with the interests of Russia. Shah Abbas II at the beginning of his reign, he maintained peaceful relations with Russia, offering the Tsar friendship and trade cooperation, achieving a positive response. However, soon the Shah led the struggle not only for the conquest of Dagestan, but also for the complete ousting of the Russians from North Caucasus, began to interfere in the internal affairs of the highlanders.
Two campaigns of the Persian army against the Sunzhensky fort followed. As a result of the second campaign, it was captured. Following this, the conflict was resolved. The result of the war was a slight strengthening of Persia's position in the North Caucasus.
1722-1723
Persian campaign (1722-1723)
After the end of the Northern War, Peter I decided to make a campaign on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, and, having captured the Caspian Sea, restore the trade route from Central Asia and India to Europe, which would be very useful for Russian merchants and for the enrichment of the Russian Empire. The route was supposed to pass through the territory of India, Persia, from there to the Russian fort on the Kura River, then through Georgia to Astrakhan, from where it was planned to transport goods throughout the entire Russian Empire. The reason for the start of a new campaign was an uprising in the coastal provinces of Persia.
Peter I announced to the Shah of Persia that the rebels were making forays into the territory of the Russian Empire and robbing merchants, and that Russian troops would be sent into the territory of northern Azerbaijan and Dagestan to assist the Shah in pacifying the inhabitants of the rebel provinces.
On July 18, the entire flotilla of 274 ships went to sea under the command of Mr. General Admiral Count Apraksin.
On July 20, the fleet entered the Caspian Sea and followed the western coast for a week. On July 27, the infantry landed at Cape Agrakhan, 4 versts below the mouth of the Koysu (Sulak) River.
A few days later the cavalry arrived and joined the main forces. On August 5, the Russian army continued its movement towards Derbent.
On August 6, on the Sulak River, the Kabardian princes Murza Cherkassky and Aslan-Bek joined the army with their troops.
On August 8, she crossed the Sulak River. On August 15, the troops approached Tarki, the seat of Shamkhal. On August 19, an attack by a 10,000-strong detachment of the Utyamysh Sultan Magmud and a 6,000-strong detachment of the Utsmiya of Kaitag Akhmet Khan was repulsed. Peter's ally was the Kumyk shamkhal Adil-Girey, who captured Derbent and Baku before the approach of the Russian army. On August 23, Russian troops entered Derbent. Derbent was a strategically important city, as it covered the coastal route along the Caspian Sea.
Further progress to the south was stopped by a strong storm, which sank all the ships with food. Peter I decided to leave a garrison in the city and returned with the main forces to Astrakhan, where he began preparations for the 1723 campaign. 
This was the last military campaign in which he directly took part. In September Vakhtang VI He entered Karabakh with his army, where he fought against the rebel Lezgins.
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After the capture of Ganja, Armenian troops led by Catholicos Isaiah joined the Georgians. Near Ganja, waiting for Peter, the Georgian-Armenian army stood for two months, however, having learned about the departure of the Russian army from the Caucasus, Vakhtang and Isaiah returned with their troops to their possessions. In November, a landing force of five companies was landed in the Persian province of Gilan under the command of Colonel Shipov to occupy the city of Ryashch (Rasht). Later, in March of the following year, the Ryashch vizier organized an uprising and, with a force of 15 thousand people, tried to dislodge the Shipov detachment that occupied Ryashch. All Persian attacks were repelled. During the second Persian campaign, a much smaller detachment was sent to Persia under the command of Matyushkin, and Peter I only directed Matyushkin’s actions from the Russian Empire. 15 gekbots, field and siege artillery and infantry took part in the campaign. On June 20, the detachment moved south, followed by a fleet of gekbots from Kazan. On July 6, ground forces approached Baku. To Matyushkin’s offer to voluntarily surrender the city, its residents refused. On July 21, with 4 battalions and two field guns, the Russians repulsed an attack by the besieged. Meanwhile, 7 geckbots anchored next to the city wall and began to fire heavily at it, thereby destroying the fortress artillery and partially destroying the wall. On July 25, an assault was planned from the sea through the gaps formed in the wall, but rose strong wind, which drove away the Russian ships. The residents of Baku managed to take advantage of this by sealing all the gaps in the wall, but still, on July 26, the city capitulated without a fight.
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The successes of Russian troops during the campaign and the invasion of the Ottoman army in Transcaucasia forced Persia to conclude a peace treaty in St. Petersburg on September 12, 1723, according to which Derbent, Baku, Rasht, the provinces of Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran and Astrabad went to Russia.
Russo-Persian War (1796)
In the spring of 1795, the Persians invaded Georgia and Azerbaijan, and on September 12 (23) of the same year they captured and plundered Tbilisi. Although belatedly, fulfilling its obligations under the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783, the Russian government sent the Caspian Corps (12,300 men with 21 guns) from Kizlyar through Dagestan to the Azerbaijani provinces of Iran. Having set out on April 18 (29), 1796, Russian troops laid siege on May 2 (13), and captured Derbent by storm on May 10 (21). On June 15 (26), 1796, Russian troops simultaneously entered Cuba and Baku without a fight.
In mid-November, the 35,000-strong Russian corps under the command of Lieutenant General Zubov reached the confluence of the Kura and Araks rivers, preparing for further advance into Iran, but after the death of Catherine II in the same year, Paul I ascended the throne, the Zubovs fell out of favor, There were changes in Russian policy, and in December 1796, Russian troops were withdrawn from Transcaucasia.
Russo-Persian War (1804–1813)
On September 12, 1801, Alexander I (1801-1825) signed the “Manifesto on the establishment of a new government in Georgia”; the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom was part of Russia and became the Georgian province of the empire. In 1803, Megrelia and the Imeretian kingdom joined Russia.
January 3, 1804 - storming of Ganja, as a result of which the Ganja Khanate was liquidated and became part of the Russian Empire.
June 10 Persian Shah Feth Ali (Baba Khan)) (1797-1834), who entered into an alliance with Great Britain, declared war on Russia.
On June 8, the vanguard of Tsitsianov’s detachment under the command of Tuchkov set out towards Erivan. On June 10, near the Gyumri tract, Tuchkov’s vanguard forced the Persian cavalry to retreat.
On June 19, Tsitsianov’s detachment approached Erivan and met with the army of Abbas Mirza. The vanguard of Major General Portnyagin on the same day was unable to immediately capture the Etchmiadzin Monastery and was forced to retreat.
On June 20, during the Battle of Erivan, the main Russian forces defeated the Persians and forced them to retreat.
On June 30, Tsitsianov’s detachment crossed the Zangu River, where, during a fierce battle, they captured the Persian redoubts.
On July 17, near Erivan, the Persian army under the command of Feth Ali Shah attacked Russian positions, but did not achieve success.
On August 21, at Karkalis, the Persians under the command of Sarkhang Mansur and the Georgian prince Alexander destroyed, in an ambush, a detachment of the Tiflis Musketeer Regiment numbering 124 people, including 5 officers, 1 artilleryman, 108 musketeers, 10 Armenian militia, under the command of Major Montresor.
On September 4, due to heavy losses, the Russians lifted the siege of the Erivan fortress and retreated to Georgia.
At the beginning of 1805, the detachment of Major General Nesvetaev occupied the Shuragel Sultanate and annexed it to the possessions of the Russian Empire. The Erivan ruler Mohammed Khan with 3,000 horsemen was unable to offer resistance and was forced to retreat.
On May 14, 1805, the Treaty of Kurekchay was signed between Russia and the Karabakh Khanate. Under its terms, the khan, his heirs and the entire population of the khanate came under Russian rule. Shortly before this, the Karabakh khan Ibrahim Khan completely defeated the Persian army at Dizan.
Following this, on May 21, Sheki Khan Selim Khan expressed a desire to become a Russian citizen, and a similar agreement was signed with him.
In June, Abbas Mirza occupied the Askeran fortress. In response, Karyagin’s Russian detachment knocked the Persians out of the Shah-Bulakh castle. Having learned about this, Abbas Mirza surrounded the castle and began to negotiate its surrender. But the Russian detachment did not think about surrender; their main goal was to detain the Persian detachment of Abbas Mirza. Having learned about the approach of the Shah's army under the command of Feth Ali Shah, Karyagin's detachment left the castle at night and went to Shusha. Soon, near the Askeran Gorge, Karyagin’s detachment collided with Abbas-Mirza’s detachment, but all the latter’s attempts to set up the Russian camp were unsuccessful.
On July 15, the main Russian forces released Shusha and Karyagin’s detachment. Abbas-Mirza, having learned that the main Russian forces had left Elizavetpol, set out in a roundabout way and besieged Elizavetpol. In addition, the path to Tiflis was open to him, which was left without cover. On the evening of July 27, a detachment of 600 bayonets under the command of Karyagin unexpectedly attacked Abbas Mirza’s camp near Shamkhor and completely defeated the Persians.
On November 30, 1805, Tsitsianov’s detachment crossed the Kura and invaded the Shirvan Khanate, and on December 27, the Shirvan khan Mustafa Khan signed an agreement on the transition to citizenship of the Russian Empire.
Meanwhile, on June 23, the Caspian flotilla under the command of Major General Zavalishin occupied Anzeli and landed troops. However, already on July 20 they had to leave Anzeli and head for Baku. On August 12, 1805, the Caspian flotilla dropped anchor in Baku Bay. Major General Zavalishin proposed to the Baku Khan Huseingul Khan a draft agreement on the transition to citizenship of the Russian Empire. However, the negotiations were not successful; the Baku residents decided to put up serious resistance. All property of the population was taken to the mountains in advance. Then, for 11 days, the Caspian flotilla bombarded Baku. By the end of August, the landing detachment captured the advanced fortifications in front of the city. The Khan's troops that left the fortress were defeated. However, heavy losses from the clashes, as well as a lack of ammunition, forced the siege to be lifted from Baku on September 3 and the Baku Bay was completely abandoned on September 9.
On January 30, 1806, Tsitsianov with 2000 bayonets approached Baku. Together with him, the Caspian flotilla approaches Baku and lands troops. Tsitsianov demanded the immediate surrender of the city. On February 8, the transition of the Baku Khanate to the citizenship of the Russian Empire was supposed to take place, but during a meeting with the khan, General Tsitsianov and Lieutenant Colonel Eristov were killed by the khan’s cousin Ibrahim Beg. Tsitsianov's head was sent to Feth Ali Shah. After this, Major General Zavalishin decided to leave Baku.
Appointed instead of Tsitsianov, I.V. Gudovich in the summer of 1806 defeated Abbas Mirza at Karakapet (Karabakh) and conquered the Derbent, Baku (Baku) and Kuba khanates (Cuba).
The Russian-Turkish war that began in November 1806 forced the Russian command to conclude the Uzun-Kilis truce with the Persians in the winter of 1806-1807. But in May 1807, Feth-Ali entered into an anti-Russian alliance with Napoleonic France, and in 1808 hostilities resumed. The Russians took Etchmiadzin, defeated Abbas Mirza at Karabab (south of Lake Sevan) in October 1808 and occupied Nakhichevan. After the unsuccessful siege of Erivan, Gudovich was replaced by A.P. Tormasov, who in 1809 repelled the offensive of the army led by Feth-Ali in the Gumra-Artik region and thwarted Abbas-Mirza's attempt to capture Ganja. Persia broke the treaty with France and restored the alliance with Great Britain, which initiated the conclusion of the Perso-Turkish agreement on joint operations on the Caucasian front. In May 1810, Abbas Mirza’s army invaded Karabakh, but a small detachment of P. S. Kotlyarevsky defeated it at the Migri fortress (June) and on the Araks River (July), in September the Persians were defeated near Akhalkalaki, and thus the Russian troops prevented Persians to unite with the Turks.
Kotlyarevsky changed the situation in Karabakh. Having crossed the Araks, on October 19-20 (October 31 - November 1) he defeated the many times superior forces of the Persians at the Aslanduz ford and on January 1 (13) he took Lenkoran by storm. The Shah had to enter into peace negotiations.
On October 12 (24), 1813, the Peace of Gulistan (Karabakh) was signed, according to which Persia recognized the entry into the Russian Empire of Eastern Georgia and Northern Azerbaijan, Imereti, Guria, Mengrelia and Abkhazia; Russia received the exclusive right to maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea. The war was the beginning of " Big game"between the British and Russian empires in Asia.
For more information about the Russian-Persian War of 1804-1813, see the website: For Advanced - Battles - Russian-Persian War of 1804-1813.
Russo-Persian War (1826–1828)
On July 16, 1826, the Persian army, without declaring war, crossed the borders in the Mirak region and invaded the Transcaucasus into the territory of the Karabakh and Talysh khanates. The bulk of the border “zemstvo guards,” consisting of armed horsemen and foot soldiers of Azerbaijani peasants, with rare exceptions, surrendered their positions to the invading Persian troops without much resistance or even joined them.
The main task of the Iranian command was to capture Transcaucasia, capture Tiflis and push back Russian troops beyond the Terek. The main forces were therefore sent from Tabriz to the Kura region, and auxiliary forces to the Mugan steppe to block the exits from Dagestan. The Iranians also counted on a strike from the rear by the Caucasian mountaineers against the Russian troops, who were stretched out in a narrow strip along the border and did not have reserves. Help for the Iranian army was promised by the Karabakh beks and many influential persons of neighboring provinces, who maintained constant contacts with the Persian government and even offered to slaughter the Russians in Shusha and hold it until the approach of Iranian troops.
Transcaucasian region at the start of the war (borders are indicated according to the Treaty of Gulistan and the Peace of Bucharest)
In the Karabakh province, Russian troops were commanded by Major General Prince V. G. Madatov, a Karabakh Armenian by origin. At the time of the attack, he was replaced by Colonel I. A. Reut, commander of the 42nd Jaeger Regiment, stationed in the area of the Shushi fortress. Ermolov demanded that he hold Shusha with all his might and transfer all the families of influential beks here - thereby ensuring the safety of those who supported the Russian side, and using those who were hostile as hostages.
The first blow on July 16 on Russian territory was delivered by a 16,000-strong group of Erivan Serdar Hussein Khan Qajar, reinforced by Kurdish cavalry (up to 12,000 people). Russian troops on the Georgian border, throughout Bombak (Pambak) and Shurageli (Shirak) numbered about 3,000 people and 12 guns - the Don Cossack regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Andreev (about 500 Cossacks scattered in small groups throughout the territory), two battalions of the Tiflis infantry regiment and two companies of carabinieri. The head of the border line was the commander of the Tiflis regiment, Colonel Prince L. Ya. Sevarsemidze.
Russian units were forced to fight back to Karaklis (modern Vanadzor). Gumry and Karaklis were soon surrounded. The defense of Greater Karaklis, together with Russian troops, was held by two detachments of Armenian (100 people) and Tatar (Azerbaijani) Borchali cavalry (50 people). Strong Persian troops also headed towards Balyk-chay, sweeping away scattered, small Russian posts on their way.
At the same time, Hassan Agha, the brother of the Erivan sardar, with a five-thousand-strong cavalry detachment of Kurds and Karapapakhs went over to Russian territory between Mount Alagyoz (Aragats) and the Turkish border, plundering and burning Armenian villages on the way to Gumry, seizing cattle and horses, exterminating the local Armenian residents who resisted. Having destroyed the Armenian village of Small Karaklis, the Kurds began methodical attacks on the defenders in Greater Karaklis.
On July 18, Abbas Mirza's army of forty thousand crossed the Araks at the Khudoperinsky Bridge. Having received news of this, Colonel I. A. Reut ordered the withdrawal of all troops located in the Karabakh province to the Shusha fortress. At the same time, three companies of the 42nd regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nazimka and the hundred Cossacks who joined them failed to get through to Shusha from Geryusy, where they were stationed. The Iranians and the rebel Azerbaijanis overtook them, and during a stubborn battle, half of the personnel died, after which the rest, by order of the commander, laid down their arms.
The garrison of the Shushi fortress amounted to 1,300 people (6 companies of the 42nd Jaeger Regiment and Cossacks from the 2nd Molchanov Regiment). A few days before the complete blockade of the fortress, the Cossacks drove the families of all the local Muslim nobility behind its walls as hostages. The Azerbaijanis were disarmed, and the khans and the most honorable beks were put into custody. Residents of the Armenian villages of Karabakh and Azerbaijanis who remained loyal to Russia also took refuge in the fortress. With their help, dilapidated fortifications were restored. To strengthen the defense, Colonel Reut armed 1,500 Armenians, who, together with Russian soldiers and Cossacks, were on the front line. A number of Azerbaijanis also took part in the defense and expressed their allegiance to Russia. However, the fortress did not have supplies of food and ammunition, so the soldiers had to use the grain and livestock of the Armenian peasants who had taken refuge in the fortress to provide meager food for the soldiers.
Meanwhile, the local Muslim population for the most part joined the Iranians, and the Armenians, who did not have time to take refuge in Shusha, fled to mountainous areas. Mehdi Quli Khan, the former ruler of Karabakh, again declared himself khan and promised to generously reward everyone who would join him. Abbas Mirza, for his part, said that he was fighting only against the Russians, and not against the local residents. Foreign officers who were in the service of Abbas Mirza took part in the siege. In order to destroy the walls of the fortress, according to their instructions, mines were placed under the fortress towers. The fortress was subjected to continuous fire from two artillery batteries, but at night the defenders managed to restore the destroyed areas. To create a split among the defenders of the fortress - Russians and Armenians - Abbas Mirza ordered several hundred local Armenian families to be driven under the walls of the fortress and threatened to execute them if the fortress was not surrendered - however, this plan was not successful.
The defense of Shushi lasted 47 days and had great value for the course of military operations. Desperate to capture the fortress, Abbas Mirza eventually separated 18,000 men from the main force and sent them to Elizavetpol (modern Ganja) to strike Tiflis from the east.
Having received information that the main Persian forces were pinned down by the siege of Shushi, General Ermolov abandoned the original plan to withdraw all forces deep into the Caucasus. By this time, he managed to concentrate up to 8,000 people in Tiflis. Of these, a detachment was formed under the command of Major General Prince V. G. Madatov (4,300 people), who launched an attack on Elizavetpol to stop the advance of the Persian forces towards Tiflis and lift the siege from Shusha.
Meanwhile, in the Bombak province, Russian units, repelling Kurdish cavalry raids on Greater Karaklis, began to retreat north on August 9, beyond Bezobdal, and by August 12 concentrated in the camp at Jalal-Ogly. Meanwhile, Kurdish troops spread in a wide avalanche across the nearby area, destroying villages and slaughtering the Armenian population. On August 14, they attacked the German colony of Ekaterinfeld, just 60 km from Tiflis, after a long battle they burned it and massacred almost all the inhabitants.
After several weeks of calm, on September 2, a three-thousand-strong Kurdish detachment of Hassan Agha crossed the Dzhilga River, 10 km above Jalal-Ogly (modern Stepanavan), and attacked Armenian villages, destroying them and stealing livestock. Despite the intervention of Russian units and significant losses, the Kurds managed to steal 1,000 head of cattle.
Subsequently, attacks were carried out only by small detachments. By early September the situation had changed in Russia's favor. On March 16 (28), 1827, General Paskevich was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian troops and governor in the Caucasus region, replacing General Ermolov.
In June, Paskevich moved to Erivan, on July 5 (17) he defeated Abbas-Mirza at the Dzhevan-Bulak stream, and on July 7 (19) he forced the Sardar-Abad fortress to capitulate.
At the beginning of August, Abbas Mirza, trying to prevent the Russian invasion of Azerbaijan, invaded the Erivan Khanate with an army of 25 thousand and, joining forces with the troops of the Erivan Sardar Hussein Khan, besieged Etchmiadzin on August 15 (27), defended only by a battalion of the Sevastopol Infantry Regiment (until 500 people) and a hundred cavalry from the Armenian volunteer squad. On August 16 (28), A. I. Krasovsky with a detachment (up to 3,000 soldiers with 12 guns) came to the aid of besieged Echmiadzin and the next day was attacked from all sides by the troops of Abbas Mirza and Hussein Khan (totaling up to 30 thousand infantry and cavalry with 24 guns). However, the Russian detachment, having suffered huge losses (1,154 people killed, wounded and missing), managed to break through to Etchmiadzin, after which the siege was lifted. The losses of the Persian army amounted to about 3,000. This battle went down in history as the Battle of Oshakan (or Ashtarak).
Military failures forced the Persians to negotiate peace. On February 10 (22), 1828, the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty was signed (in the village of Turkmanchay near Tabriz), concluded between the Russian and Persian empires, according to which Persia confirmed all the terms of the Gulistan Peace Treaty of 1813, recognized the transfer to Russia of part of the Caspian coast up to the river. Astara, Eastern Armenia (A special administrative entity was created on the territory of Eastern Armenia - the Armenian region, with the resettlement of Armenians from Iran there). The Araks became the border between the states.
In addition, the Persian Shah was obliged to pay an indemnity to Russia (10 kurur tumans - 20 million rubles). As for Iranian Azerbaijan, Russia has undertaken to withdraw troops from it upon payment of indemnity. The Shah of Persia also pledged to grant amnesty to all residents of Iranian Azerbaijan who collaborated with Russian troops.
For more information, see the website: For Advanced - Battles - Russian-Persian War of 1826-1828
Russian intervention in Persia 1909-1911
On April 20, 1909, to the governor in the Caucasus and commander of the troops of the Caucasian Military District, Adjutant General Rafa Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov a secret directive No. 1124 was sent, which stated: “In view of the expected attack on the consulate and European institutions and subjects in Tabriz by the revolutionaries and the population of Tabriz, driven to despair by hunger... The Sovereign Emperor ordered to immediately move a forced march to Tabriz a detachment of sufficient strength to protection of Russian and foreign institutions and subjects, supply of food to them, as well as to maintain secure communication between Tabriz and Julfa.”
Soon two battalions of the 1st Caucasian Rifle Brigade, four mounted hundreds of Kuban Cossacks, an engineer company and three eight-gun artillery batteries were sent to Persia. This detachment was commanded by the head of the 1st Caucasian Rifle Brigade, Major General I. A. Snarsky. The instructions given to him stated:
“All communications between military commanders in cities occupied by Russian troops with local Persian authorities and with the population must be carried out through diplomatic agents of the Russian Imperial Government; joint stay with Russian troops in populated areas and movement along the roads guarded by Russian troops of any armed detachments and parties whose activities were of a predatory nature is not allowed... The decision on the use of weapons depends solely on the military authorities... Once decision made must be carried out irrevocably and with full energy.”
Russian troops had to act mainly against nomads (Kurds and Yomud Turkmen), whom the weak Persian army could not cope with.
For each case of robbery and assault by the Kurds, Russian troops collected a sum of money from their tribal leaders in favor of the injured party. Murders of subjects of the Russian Empire were punishable by death sentences handed down by a Russian military court. Russian consuls reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “The merchants, together with the entire civilian population of passing villages, bless the arrival of our troops.”
After a short period of calm, in the fall of 1911 the situation escalated again - there were attacks by numerous armed groups on the Russian detachment in Tabriz, and cases of shelling of Russian consular offices and convoys in Rasht became more frequent. Nomads attacked trade caravans. In forays against Russian troops Detachments of pro-Turkish governors of the western provinces, as well as representatives of revolutionary groups in the Russian Transcaucasus, took part. On October 29 (November 11), 1911, in Tehran, the Russian ambassador presented the Persian government with an ultimatum demanding the restoration of order in Persia and the protection of Russia's economic interests. After the expiration of the ultimatum of November 11, 1911, Russian troops crossed the Russian-Persian border and occupied the city of Qazvin. On November 10 (23) in Tehran, after the occupation of northern Persia by Russian troops, the Persian government agreed to satisfy all Russian demands.
The deployment of troops was carried out in three operational directions - from Julfa, Astara and Anzali - to Tehran. Direct operational control of the Russian troops in Persia was carried out by the Quartermaster General of the headquarters of the Caucasian Military District, Major General Nikolai Yudenich. The contingent of Russian troops included: the 14th Georgian and 16th Mingrelian grenadier regiments of the Caucasian Grenadier Division, regiments from the 21st, 39th and 52nd infantry divisions (81st Absheron, 84th Shirvan, 156th Elizavetpolsky, 205th Shemakha, 206th Salyansky and 207th Novobayazetsky) with artillery and machine guns. Transportation of troops by sea, their landing in the port of Anzeli and its fire cover was carried out by Caspian military flotilla.
Communication support was provided by the 2nd Caucasian Railway Battalion and the Caucasian Automobile Team. The railway battalion began construction of the Julfa-Tehran railway line. The arrangement of temporary headquarters was carried out by the 1st Caucasian Engineer Battalion. Communications were provided by the Caucasian Spark Company.
Infantry units with attached hundreds of Kuban and Terek Cossacks were organized into detachments. At the same time, two detachments - Meshedsky and Kuchansky formed the troops of the Turkestan Military District - two battalions of the 13th and 18th Turkestan Rifle Regiments, two cavalry hunting teams from the same units, two machine gun platoons and a hundred of the Turkmen cavalry division.
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When Russian troops seized large quantities of weapons in Tabriz and Rasht, riots broke out, which led to civilian casualties. Real battles began around these cities. Turkish troops entered the western borderlands of Persia, the disputed territories, and took control of the passes in the mountain passes between Khoy and Dilman.
Russian troops began operations to oust Turkish troops from Persian territory. Russian units approached the Turkish bivouacs at dawn and, placing cannons and machine guns on the heights, demanded that they leave Persian territory. The Turks offered no resistance.
The commander of the 11th Turkish corps, Jabir Pasha, in the presence of foreign consuls, stated: “Having seen in practice what the Persian constitution is and what kind of anarchy reigns in Persia, I personally believe that the arrival of Russian troops in Persia is a manifestation of humanity and humanity, and not the result any aggressive intentions. The Russians act in Persia very skillfully and carefully, and therefore the sympathies of almost the entire population are on their side.”
After ensuring stability, most of the Russian troops left Persia, but individual Russian units remained on Persian territory until the outbreak of the First World War.
1941
Iranian operation
The Anglo-Soviet World War II operation to occupy Iran, codenamed " "Operation Countenance" was carried out from August 25, 1941 to September 17, 1941.
Its goal was to protect the Anglo-Iranian oil fields from possible capture by German troops and their allies, as well as to protect the transport corridor (southern corridor), along which the Allies carried out Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union.
These actions were taken due to the fact that, according to the assessments of the political leadership of both Great Britain and the USSR, there was a direct threat of Iran being drawn to the side of Germany as an ally in World War II.
The Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, refused Britain and the Soviet Union's request to station troops in Iran. Motivating your participation in this military operation against Iran, the Soviet government referred to paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Treaty in force at that time between Soviet Russia and Iran from 1921, which provided that in the event of a threat to its southern borders Soviet Union has the right to send troops into Iranian territory.
During the operation, the Allied forces invaded Iran, overthrew Shah Reza Pahlavi and took control of the Trans-Iranian Railway and Iran's oil fields. At the same time, British troops occupied the south of Iran, and the USSR occupied the north.
Read more about Operation “Consent” on the website: WWII - Operation “Consent” “
Expansion of European powers in Iran. Annexation of Transcaucasia to Russia.
From the end of the XVIII - early XIX centuries Iran is gaining importance in connection with the struggle between England and France for dominance in Europe and the East. Given the strategic position of Iran, they tried in every possible way to involve it in the struggle that was taking place between them. At the same time, both of these powers opposed Russia, which tried to maintain dominance in Iran and Turkey over the peoples of Transcaucasia. The advancement of Russia in Transcaucasia, the annexation of Georgia to Russia in 1801, and its intervention in the defense of the Transcaucasian peoples caused two Russian-Iranian wars.
Back in 1800, an English mission was sent to Iran, led by the captain of the East India Company troops, Malcolm. This mission was successful, since in 1801 an agreement was concluded with the Shah of Iran, according to which he undertook to send his troops to Afghanistan and stop raids on the Indian possessions of England. Further, the Shah pledged to prevent the French from entering Iran and the Persian Gulf coast. England, for its part, was supposed to supply it with weapons in the event of a war between Iran and France and Afghanistan. At the same time, a trade agreement was signed with the Iranian government, confirming the privileges of the British received earlier in 1763: the right to acquire and own land in Iran; the right to build trading posts on the coast of the Persian Gulf; the right to free trade throughout the country without paying import duties. This agreement marked the beginning of the transformation of Iran into a country dependent on England. In addition, the 1801 treaty was directed against Russia.
During the reign of Napoleon, France twice tried to pave its way to the East. Both attempts were unsuccessful. The French were defeated in Egypt, and the joint Franco-Russian campaign against India never took place. However, French diplomats did not stop their activities in Iran. On the eve of the first Russian-Iranian war, the French government invited the Shah to enter into an alliance against Russia. Hoping for England's help, the Shah rejected the French offer.
First Russian-Iranian War
After the annexation of Georgia to Russia, the tendencies of rapprochement with it intensified among Azerbaijanis and Armenians. In 1802, an agreement was signed in Georgievsk on the transfer of a number of feudal rulers of Dagestan and Azerbaijan to Russian citizenship and on a joint struggle against Iran. In 1804, Russian troops took Ganja and it was annexed to Russia. In the same year, the first Russian-Iranian war began. Meeting almost no resistance, Russian troops advanced into the Yerevan Khanate. But this war dragged on due to the fact that in 1805 Russia joined the anti-Napoleonic coalition and its main forces were turned to the fight against France.
In the war with Russia, the Shah of Iran placed high hopes to the aid of England, but the latter, having become an ally of Russia in the anti-Napoleonic coalition, was afraid to openly fulfill the terms of the treaty of 1801. This caused a deterioration in Anglo-Iranian relations. Taking advantage of this, Napoleon again offered the Shah his support in the war against Russia. The defeats of the Iranians and the seizure by Russia of Derbent, Baku and a number of other areas prompted the Shah to reach an agreement with Napoleon.
In 1807, the Treaty of Finckenstein Union was signed between Iran and France. France guaranteed the inviolability of Iranian territory and pledged to make every effort to force Russia to evacuate troops from Georgia and other territories, as well as to provide assistance to the Shah with weapons, equipment and military instructors.
The Iranian side, in turn, pledged to break off all political and trade relations with England and declare war on it; to induce the Afghans to open the road to India for the French and join their military forces to the allied French army when it sets out to conquer India. However, the stay of French officers in Iran was short-lived. After the signing of the Peace of Tilsit, the Treaty of Finkenstein lost all meaning for Napoleon.
The events in Tilsit also worried the British, who again resumed their negotiations with Iran and again offered them their assistance in the war with Russia. Pursuing its aggressive goals and fearing the French plan for a campaign against India, England is developing active diplomatic activity not only in Iran, but also in the north of India, Afghanistan and Turkey. Having concluded a peace treaty with Turkey in 1809, British diplomats persuaded it and Iran to agree on an alliance for a joint fight against Russia. But neither the help of the British nor the alliance with the Turks saved the Iranian army from defeat.
In May 1812, the Russian-Turkish Bucharest Peace Treaty was concluded. Iran has lost its ally. In July of the same year, an agreement on an alliance between England and Russia was signed in Orebro. The Iranian government asked for peace. The negotiations ended with the signing of the Gulistan Peace Treaty in October 1813.
Under this agreement, the Shah of Iran recognized the Karabakh, Ganja, Sheki, Shirvan, Derbent, Kuba, Baku and Talysh khanates, as well as Dagestan, Georgia, Imereti, Guria, Mingrelia and Abkhazia, as belonging to the Russian Empire. Russia received the exclusive right to maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea; the right of free trade was granted to Russian merchants in Iran and Iranian merchants in Russia. The Treaty of Gulistan was a further step towards the establishment of a regime of capitulations in Iran, which began with the 1763 agreement with England and the Anglo-Iranian treaty of 1801.
Second Russian-Iranian War
The Shah of Iran and his entourage did not want to put up with the loss of the Azerbaijani khanates. Their revanchist ideas were inspired by British diplomacy. In November 1814, an agreement was signed between the Iranian government and England, directed against Russia and preparing the ground for new British conquests in the Middle East. Thus, the agreement provided for British “mediation” in determining the Russian-Iranian border; Iran was provided with a substantial annual subsidy in the event of a new war with any European power. Iran pledged to start a war with Afghanistan if the latter opened military operations against British possessions in India. The conclusion of this agreement, firstly, made Iran politically dependent on England, and secondly, led it to conflict with Russia.
British diplomacy contributed in every possible way to the Iranian-Turkish rapprochement, and then to their military alliance against Russia. First, in order to persuade Russia to return the Azerbaijani khanates, an extraordinary ambassador was sent to St. Petersburg, whose diplomatic mission was not successful. In the breakdown of Russian-Iranian negotiations, no last role British diplomacy played a role. Having failed to achieve what they wanted through diplomatic means, in July 1826 Iran began military operations against Russia without declaring war. But military victory again found herself on the side of the Russian troops and the Shah asked for peace. In February 1828, a Russian-Iranian peace treaty was signed in the town of Turkmanchay.
According to the Treaty of Turkmanchay, Iran ceded the khanates of Yerevan and Nakhichevan to Russia; the Shah renounced all claims to Transcaucasia; obliged to pay indemnity to Russia; The provision on Russia's exclusive right to maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea was confirmed. Here a special act on trade between Russia and Iran was signed, which determined the procedure for resolving all controversial cases; Russian subjects were given the right to rent and buy residential premises and warehouses; a number of privileges were established for Russian merchants on the territory of Iran, which consolidated the unequal position of this country.
Huge funds spent on the war with Russia and on paying indemnities ruined the Iranian population. This discontent was used by court circles to incite hatred towards Russian subjects. One of the victims of this hatred was the Russian diplomat A. Griboedov, who was killed in 1829 in Tehran.
Herat issue
TO mid-19th V. There is a further aggravation of contradictions between England and Russia. In the 30s England took all measures to weaken Russia's strengthened positions in Iran and to tear the Caucasus and Transcaucasia away from Russia. The aggressive plans of the British concerned not only Iran, they extended to Herat and the Central Asian khanates. Already in the 30s. England, following Iran and Afghanistan, began to turn the Central Asian khanates with Herat into its sales market. Herat was of paramount strategic importance - the Herat oasis had an abundance of food, and most importantly, it was the starting point of the trade caravan road from Iran through Kandahar to the borders of India. With Herat, the British could also extend their influence to the Central Asian khanates and Khorasan.
The British sought to keep Herat in the weak hands of its Sadozai shahs and not allow it to pass to Iran or its annexation to the Afghan principalities. As for Russia, it had in Iran, in the person of the Qajar monarchy, the same ally on the western borders of Afghanistan as on its the eastern borders were the Punjab state. In order to prevent the British from establishing themselves on the approaches to the Central Asian khanates, Russian diplomacy encouraged Iran to capture Herat, preferring to see this “key of India” in the hands of the Qajars, dependent on Russia.
Iranian rulers in 1833 marched with troops to subjugate the ruler of Herat. After Mohamed Mirza was crowned Shah of Iran in 1835, the struggle between England and Russia for influence in Iran intensified. Wanting to strengthen their position, the British sent a large military mission to Iran. However, the advantage was on the side of Russian diplomacy, which encouraged Iran’s march on Herat. Therefore, in connection with the new Herat campaign, Anglo-Iranian relations sharply deteriorated.
Soon after the Iranian troops began their campaign against Herat in 1836, England broke off diplomatic relations with it. At the same time, the English squadron appeared in the Persian Gulf. By threatening to seize Iranian territories, the British succeeded in lifting the siege of Herat. This was not the only success of the British. In October 1841, England imposed on Iran new agreement, under which she received large customs benefits and the right to have her own sales agents in Tabriz, Tehran and Bandar-Bushir.
By the middle of the 19th century. Herat again acquired importance as a springboard for British conquests in Central Asia. The rich Herat region also attracted Iran. In the years Crimean War The Shah decided to take advantage of the fact that the British were tied up by the protracted siege of Sevastopol and take control of Herat. In addition, the Iranian rulers were afraid of the head of the Afghan state, Dost Mohammed, who concluded a treaty of friendship with England in 1855.
At the beginning of 1856, Iranian troops took Herat. In response, England declared war on Iran and sent its fleet into the Persian Gulf. Iran again agreed to sign an agreement with England. According to the treaty of 1857, England undertook to evacuate its troops from Iranian territory, and Iran - from Herat and the territory of Afghanistan. The Shah of Iran forever renounced all claims to Herat and other Afghan territories and, in the event of a conflict with Afghanistan, pledged to resort to English mediation. Such a rapid conclusion of the treaty and the evacuation of British troops was explained by the beginning of a popular uprising in India.