Russian-Persian wars. History of Russia XIX–XX centuries

"- Russian blood shed on the banks of the Araks and the Caspian Sea is no less precious than that shed on the banks of Moscow or the Seine, and the bullets of the Gauls and Persians inflict the same suffering on soldiers. Feats for the glory of the Fatherland should be judged by their merits, and not by a geographical map ... "
many probably read, but still decided to post one of my favorites
miniatures.
Valentin Savvich Pikul Warrior, like a meteor

In the winter of 1792, General Ivan Lazarev made his way with an adjutant from Kyiv to the Caucasus. Somewhere beyond Konotop his wagon whirled, swirled in a lost steppe blizzard. The horses, standing against the wind, trembled with sharp ears, and the driver lowered the reins:

There was no way ... They are circling, your syasestvo. The root neighed. Around the lonely cat flickered the lights of the wolf's unsatisfied eyes. Lazarev took out a case with pistols from under the seat. Cursing, he thrust round frozen bullets into them.

Bay too! - shouted to the adjutant ...

The horses rushed - straight into the blizzard. And wolf eyes rushed nearby, the roar of an animal terrified the soul. In the ravine, the horses stood up, breathing heavily. Not a trace of the road - deserted. The travelers wrapped themselves in sheepskins and clung to each other. If death, then sweet - in a dream. And suddenly a distant echo of the gospel of the church entered this dream.

Lazarev brushed off the snow, threw off his hood:

Does he wonder? Hey, coachman, haven't you died yet? Wake up... At the hum of the bells, the horses tore the snowdrifts with their chests. Soon a wattle fence and an outer hut appeared from the whirlwinds of a snowstorm. The priest of the village was awakened by a roar - in the hallway Lazarev knocked over buckets, tumbled into the shepherd's miserable hut, all covered in purged fur.

Well, father, God have mercy ... Will you give us tea? All night long, a relentless alarm rang over the steppe, promising travelers hope for salvation. In the morning the blizzard subsided at once, the bell fell silent, and a youth-bursak entered the hut. From the threshold he bowed solemnly.

Behold my child, said the priest. - Now he learns rhetoric with homiletics in the bursa. Do not scold, Petro, tell the verse to the guests!

Lazarev hugged the boy, kissing him on his frost-cold cheeks:

Did you preach the gospel at night in the bell tower? So know that you saved my life for the things you need. And believe me - I will not forget you ...

He wrote down the name of the Bursatsky - Pyotr Stepanov, the son of the shepherd Kotlyarevsky from the village of Olkhovatki, born in 1782 - after which the general drove off safely, and they forgot about him. But Lazarev did not forget the boy ... Quite unexpectedly, an elderly furier appeared in Olkhovatka with a formidable package from his superiors:

Pyotr Kotlyarevsky ..., does this grow here? Ordered to lead him to Kapkaz. Why are you crying, father? And the flight of years will not pass, as the son returns as a general with a pension ... Let's go!

The boy was brought to Mozdok, and Lazarev led him to a bookcase. Bursat learning has now been replaced by the deeds of the generals of the past. Kotlyarevsky was enlisted in the infantry as an ordinary soldier, and the lad obediently threw a heavy gun on his shoulder. Fourteen years old, raving about Hannibal, he had already sniffed gunpowder in the Persian campaign.

One day, the widow of the Georgian king, Maria, called Lazarev to her place. The general came to the palace with the Tiflis commandant, Prince Saakadze. The queen was sitting on an ottoman, the princes stood on either side of her. Lazarev approached the woman, and she, drawing a dagger, pierced him to death. Saakadze rushed to the queen.

Killed by the daggers of the princes, the commandant of Tiflis shouted frantically:

Queen! Who has darkened your mind? Do not destroy friendship with Russia! Or do you want our Georgia to be in blood and dust again? ..

So Kotlyarevsky lost his patron. The lone soldier did not yet know that a high-profile fate awaited him, and he would go down in the history of Russia's military glory as a meteor general.
***

In 1795, the malicious eunuch Baba Khan came from Persia with an army; his soldiers defeated the soldiers of Georgia, Baba Khan invaded Tiflis, sat on high mountain Sololake, and from its top the beast looked, like a flame poured through the streets, as if in torment cruelest torture the population was dying ... There was no agreement in the thousand-year-old Bagration dynasty, which is why disasters terrified Georgia. But when one day the ambassadors of Persia appeared in Tiflis, the tsar received them, standing under the portrait of the Russian Emperor Paul I, and the tsar said prophetic and ominous words to the Persians:

From now on and forever and ever, send your ambassadors to Petersburg, for the kingdom of Georgia has ended, our land has become subject to great Russia, and Georgians with Russians are now brothers!

The blood shed by Baba Khan was the last blood.

Tiflis has entered an era of prosperity and tranquility. But now there was no respite for the Russian soldiers, they shed blood for the Georgian people in rivers, the war with the Persians dragged on for many, many years, and it was in these wars that Kotlyarevsky glorified himself ...

For the first time he was wounded in the rank of captain during the assault on Ganzha; then he was twenty years old, but fame had not yet come to him. She touched his brow, already in the rank of major. An army of thousands of Persians, led by Abbas Mirza, rushed to the borders of Karabakh. Kotlyarevsky was leading a battalion of rangers when Abbas Mirza attacked him with the whole army. The heroes occupied the graveyard, hiding behind the slabs of Muslim graves. A battle broke out - unlike any other: a battalion against an entire army! By morning, half of the soldiers were gone, Kotlyarevsky himself was wounded, and Abbas closed them in a cruel siege.

Let's wait, - said the prince, - until they die themselves ...

150 men stood against 40,000 Persians. Legendary! At night, Kotlyarevsky gave the order:

Guys! Flatten the ground over the graves of the fallen, so that the enemy does not outrage our comrades. Wrap cannon wheels with overcoats. The hike will be scary and ..., let's kiss!

Everyone kissed. The legend continued: as noiseless as snow leopards, the rangers from the siege ring rushed towards the Shah-Bulakh castle. Kotlyarevsky decided to take this fortress in order to sit in it, otherwise they would be killed in a bare field. They were already approaching the castle when Abbas Mirza raised his army in alarm - in pursuit.

Guns ahead! - called Kotlyarevsky to storm.

They fired cannonballs at the gates of the castle, and they fell off their hinges. They knocked out the garrison from there and sat there themselves. Closed. The huntsmen ate two horses in the siege, then they tore dry grass in the yard ...

Abbas Mirza sent an envoy to Kotlyarevsky:

O grass-feeding lions! Our Prince Abbas offers you all a high position and wealth in the service of the Persians. Surrender, and let this promise be holy in the name of the Most Serene Shah.

Four days, - answered Kotlyarevsky, - and we will give an answer ...

The shots stopped. And not far away, in the middle impregnable mountains, there was another fortress - Mukhrat. If only I could jump over there! The term of the truce was coming to an end, Kotlyarevsky climbed the tower.

We agree to surrender! he shouted. - But tomorrow morning!

All night there was rejoicing in the camp of Abbas Mirza. Kotlyarevsky kept his word: in the morning the Persians entered the fortress, but it was already empty - the Russians quietly left. Abbas Mirza overtook them five miles from Mukhrat. A fierce battle began on the mountain paths. The Persians climbed en masse on the cannons, the rangers did not give them cannons. The battalion went to the castle "for a breakdown"! And suddenly ..., moat, do not go further. Then the huntsmen began to lie down in the ditch, anointing it with their bodies. "Go!" they shouted. And a battalion passed over the living bodies and dragged even guns. Two rose from the ditch (the rest were crushed). Secluded in Mukhrat, they kept under siege for another eight days, until help came from Tiflis. The banners of the Caucasian regiments, fanned with glory, bowed to the ground before such heroism ...

And then Kotlyarevsky distinguished himself at Migri. Again, he has a battalion under his command, and against him - a whole army. "Let's go!" - decided Kotlyarevsky and stormed the impregnable fortress from the most impregnable. Abbas Mirza in anger ordered to change the course of the river in order to divert water from the Russian garrison. "We must defeat Abbaska!" And Kotlyarevsky boldly led his soldiers out of the fortress into the open field. The battalion gave battle to the army. Not by superiority, but only by the art of war, completely defeated her. Enemies in horror crowds rushed into Arak, so damming it with bodies that the river overflowed its banks ... Again a legend!

What is the secret of your victories? - asked Kotlyarevsky.

I think coldly, but I act hotly...

The year 1812 found him in the rank of major general, and even then everyone knew him as a “meteor general”!

Far from the thunder of Borodin, our entire Caucasian army was in danger of complete defeat. Prince Abbas Mirza threatened Russia with countless hordes because of the Araks. Napoleon advised him to demand all of Georgia back from the Russians, and for the Russian troops to move away - as far as the Terek! The commanders of the Persian regiments were the British ... These days, Kotlyarevsky was called to his place by the commander in chief in the Caucasus - the old man General Rtishchev:

Moscow, my friend, we gave to the Frenchman. Things are bad. Georgia will also have to be left to Abbaska. I know that your guys are dashing: cut anyone - blood will not even drip! But now you tighten your tails. Otherwise, they will beat you for a sweet soul ...

Does a warrior have the right to violate the order of the main command?

Obviously yes! Kotlyarevsky arbitrarily, violating the order, opened the war, stepped over Arak, and invaded the Persian borders. Death or Victory! He began the first battle at Aslanduz - on the foamy fords across the Arak. It was late autumn, it was quickly getting colder, and the forces of Abbas Mirza were ten times higher than the forces of Kotlyarevsky: for one Russian warrior - ten enemies each ...

Persian historians write:

“Prince Abbas Mirza himself rushed to the batteries in order to arouse courage in the soldiers. Picking up the skirts of his dressing gown by the belt, he fired a cannon with his own hands, and in this way darkened the whole world of God. But the Iranian soldiers considered it best to retreat to another position to rest, and at night the fiercely formidable Kotlyarevsky launched a secondary attack on them.

Before the second attack, Kotlyarevsky addressed the soldiers:

It is not the boss who orders the warrior to die, but the fatherland itself commands. There are a lot of enemies, but ... when did we have few of them? Remember: Tiflis is behind us, Moscow is behind us, Russia is behind us!

Persian historians write:

“On this gloomy night, when Prince Abbas Mirza wanted to make the hearts of his warriors passionate to repulse Kotlyarevsky, the prince’s horse stumbled, which is why His Highness, Prince Abbas Mirza, deigned with very great dignity to transfer his high nobility from the saddle to a deep pit ... "

The Persian army scattered in flight, immediately ceasing to exist. Kotlyarevsky's victory was complete! But from the banks of the Araks, he turned his eyes to the coast of the Caspian Sea: the fortress of Lenkoran is the main support of Persian power in Azerbaijan. Lankaran is the key to all the Shah's possessions. The winter was frosty, and in front of Kotlyarevsky lay the impassability of the waterless steppes of Mugan; The "meteor general" sharply pulled his cloak around him.

Went! - he said, and the bayonets of the veterans swung behind him ... On December 26, they saw Lankaran: a formidable citadel rose in the masonry, on top of which the battlements of the walls stuck out, the muzzles of guns looked at the newcomers from a height. First, Kotlyarevsky sent a truce, offering the garrison to surrender without bloodshed.

Sadiq Khan, the commandant of the citadel, proudly answered:

The misfortune of Prince Abbas will not serve as an example for us. The Great Allah knows better than anyone who owns Lankaran...

Well, we'll have to take away Lankaran from Allah himself! Kotlyarevsky spent the night by the fire. He thought. And he gave the order for the assault - the shortest: "There will be no retreat." At dawn, his troops descended into the ditch and climbed the walls. The Persians threw them down, all the officers were killed at once. Enemies threw burning bundles of cloaks soaked in oil at the Russians. Kotlyarevsky drew a golden sword, on which the words were inscribed in Slavic script:

For courage.

Now let me go! - he said. - Let me perish, but posterity will rejoice in zeal for the glory of their predecessors.

Rhetoric and homiletics - he had not yet forgotten them and expressed himself in a florid manner. The soldiers saw Kotlyarevsky ahead of the attackers ...

Persian historians write:

“The battle in Lankaran was so hot that the muscles of the hands from swinging and lowering the sword, and the fingers from the continuous cocking of the hammers for six hours in a row were deprived of any opportunity to enjoy themselves by collecting sweet grains of relaxation ...”

Only one Persian survived from the Lankaran garrison.

Go home, the victors told him. - Go and tell everyone how we Russians take cities. Go, go! We won't touch you...

Smoky mercilessly, the oil torches of the cloaks were burning down. Rummaging through the rubble of the dead, whose wounds were smoking in the frosty air, the soldiers also found the body of Kotlyarevsky. His leg was shattered, two bullets were lodged in his head, his face was twisted from a saber blow, his right eye leaked out, and broken skull bones protruded from his ear.

So he was honored, - the soldiers crossed themselves over him. Kotlyarevsky half-opened his surviving eye:

I have died, but I hear everything and have already been informed of our victory...

With two blows, he knocked Persia out of the war, and Persia hastily made peace in Gulistan, ceding all of Transcaucasia to Russia, and no longer coveted Dagestan and Georgia.

In Tiflis, the old man Rtishchev sat down at Kotlyarevsky's box and said:

You violated my order, but ... well violated! For the battle on the Araks - lieutenant general to you. And for the capture of Lankaran, I grant you the Knights of St. George... Try to survive. Take heart!

And no one heard from him a single groan.

A warrior should not complain about pain, - he said ... Peaceful stars trembled in the Ukrainian sky, as if coarse salt was sprinkled on a loaf of black bread.

An old priest from the village of Olkhovatka was awakened in the middle of the night by the creak of wheels and the sound of weapons. He opened the door of the hut, and two grenadiers led under the arms of a gray-haired, wounded general in orders. With one eye he looked at the priest, and that eye shed a tear of joy:

So your son returned - a general with a pension. And you didn’t expect him, father, a flight of years ... Rather, I returned!

The "Meteor General" sat down on a creaking bench, where he once played in his childhood. Looked at the home oven. They took him away from here as a boy, and he became a soldier. For thirteen years of battles he rose to the rank of lieutenant general. Not once (not once!) did Kotlyarevsky meet an opponent equal in strength to him: there were always more enemies. And not once (not once!) did he know defeat ...

Kotlyarevsky was summoned to Petersburg. In the Winter Palace, the “Meteor General” was almost lost in a brilliant retinue. White doors opened, all in gold. Alexander I put a lorgnette to his eyebrowless eye. He determined exactly who Kotlyarevsky was here, and took him to his office. And there, alone, the emperor said:

Nobody hears us here, and you can be quite frank with me. You are only thirty-five years old. Tell me, who helped you make your career so fast? Name your patron.

Your Majesty, - Kotlyarevsky answered in confusion, - my patrons are only those soldiers whom I had the honor to command. I owe my career to their courage!

The Emperor recoiled slightly from him in disbelief.

You are a direct warrior, but you didn’t want to answer me honestly. He hid his patron. He did not want to open it in front of me ...

Kotlyarevsky left the tsar's office as if spat upon. He was suspected, as if not by blood, but with a strong hand in the "tops" he made his career - an ambulance, like a meteor flight. The pain of this insult was so unbearable that Pyotr Stepanovich immediately resigned ... A complete invalid, he thought he would die soon, and therefore he ordered a seal for himself, which depicted a skeleton with a saber and with Kotlyarevsky orders among his bare ribs.

He did not die, but lived another thirty-nine years in retirement, sullenly and silently suffering. It was not life, but sheer inhuman torture. They wrote about him then in such expressions:

“Hurrah - Kotlyarevsky! You have turned into a precious bag in which your heroic bones are kept in chips, beaten, heroic ... "

For thirty-nine years man has lived for only one thing - pain! Day and night he experienced only pain, pain, pain ... She filled him all, this pain, and did not let go. He knew no other feelings than this pain. At the same time, he read a lot, conducted extensive correspondence and housekeeping. Kotlyarevsky had one trait: he did not recognize bridges, roads and paths, always following straight to the goal. He forded rivers, made his way through the bushes, did not look for bypassing deep ravines ... This is very typical for him!

In 1826, Nicholas I awarded Kotlyarevsky the rank of infantry general and asked him to take command of the army in the war with Turkey. “I am sure,” the emperor wrote, “that your name alone will be enough to inspire the troops ...”

Kotlyarevsky refused command:

Alas, I am no longer able ... A bag of bones! The last feat of Kotlyarevsky's life took place just in 1812, when the attention of all Russia was focused on the heroes of Borodin, Maloyaroslavets, Berezina ... The heroism of Russian soldiers under Aslanduz and Lenkoran went almost unnoticed.

Pyotr Stepanovich said the following on this occasion:

Russian blood shed on the banks of the Araks and the Caspian is no less precious than that shed on the banks of Moscow or the Seine, and the bullets of the Gauls and Persians inflict the same suffering on soldiers. Feats for the glory of the Fatherland should be judged by their merits, and not by a geographical map...

He spent his last years near Feodosia, where he bought himself an uncomfortable house on the bare salt marsh of the deserted coast. It was empty in his rooms. Receiving a very large pension, Kotlyarevsky lived as a poor man, because he did not forget about the same invalids as himself, about his heroic soldiers who received a pension from him personally.

Kotlyarevsky showed the box to the guests, shaking it in his hands, and inside something dry and loud pounded.

Forty bones of your "meteor general" are knocking here! Pyotr Stepanovich died in 1852, and there was not even a ruble in his wallet for burial. Kotlyarevsky was buried in the garden near the house, and this garden, grown by him on the salt marsh, in the year of his death already gave a shadow ... Even during his lifetime, Prince M. S. Vorontsov, a great admirer of Kotlyarevsky, erected a monument to him in Ganzha - in the very place where the "Meteor General" shed his first blood in his youth. The famous marine painter I. K. Aivazovsky, a native of Feodosia, was also an admirer of Kotlyarevsky. He collected 3,000 rubles by subscription, to which he added his own 8,000 rubles, and with this money he decided to perpetuate the memory of the hero with a mausoleum-chapel. This mausoleum, according to the plan of Aivazovsky, was rather a museum of the city. From the tomb of Kotlyarevsky, the visitor entered the hall of the museum, the entrance to which was guarded by two ancient griffins raised by divers from the bottom of the sea. The Mausoleum of Kotlyarevsky was built by the artist on a high mountain, from which the open spaces of the sea open up and all of Feodosia is visible. Through the efforts of the townspeople, a shady park was laid out around the mausoleum-museum ...

Aivazovsky created the museum, but death prevented the artist from fulfilling his plan to the end: the ashes of Kotlyarevsky remained lying in the garden, which he himself planted.

Oh Kotlyarevsky! Eternal glory

You lit up the Caucasian bayonet.

Let's remember his bloody path -

His regiments victorious click ...

How little I have said about him!

Does anyone have information on this matter?

More like the Russian-Iranian war ....
"Russian-Iranian wars of the 19th century between Russia and Iran for dominance in the Transcaucasus. Even as a result of the Persian campaign of 1722-23, Russia annexed part of Dagestan and Azerbaijan, however, due to the aggravation of Russia's relations with Turkey, the Russian government, trying to get the support of Iran, as well as from -due to lack of forces, it abandoned the occupied territories in Dagestan and Azerbaijan in 1732-35.At the end of the 18th century, Iran, supported by Great Britain and France, made an attempt to seize Georgia (the invasion of Agha Mohammed Khan in 1795), to which Russia responded with the Persian campaign of 1796 In 1801 the main territory of Georgia (Kartli and Kakheti), then Megrelia (1803), Imereti and Guria (1804) voluntarily joined Russia. D. Tsitsianov, the Ganja Khanate was occupied. This led to the Russian-Iranian war of 1804-1813. Iran in May 1804 presented an ultimatum to Russia, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transcaucasia, and in June began hostilities. The Iranian army several times outnumbered the Russian troops in Transcaucasia, but was significantly inferior to them in military art, combat training and organization. Main fighting took place on both sides of Lake Sevan in two directions - Erivan and Ganja, where the main roads to Tiflis (Tbilisi) passed. In 1804, Tsitsianov's troops defeated the main forces of Abbas-Mirza at Kanagir [near Erivan (Yerevan)], in 1805 Russian troops also repelled the attacks of Iranian troops. In 1805, a Russian naval expedition was undertaken to capture Baku and Rasht, but it ended in vain. In November 1805, Tsitsianov moved to Baku, but in February 1806 he was treacherously killed during negotiations with the Baku khan under the walls of the Baku fortress. General I.V. Gudovich was appointed commander-in-chief. In the summer of 1806, the Iranian troops of Abbas Mirza were defeated in Karabakh, Russian troops occupied Nukha, Derbent, Baku and Cuba. In connection with the beginning of the Russian Turkish war 1806-12, the Russian command was forced to agree to a temporary truce with Iran, which was concluded in the winter of 1806. However, peace negotiations were slow. In 1808 hostilities resumed. Russian troops occupied Etchmiadzin and laid siege to Erivan, and in the eastern sector they defeated the troops of Abbas Mirza at Karababa (October 1808) and occupied Nakhichevan. After the unsuccessful assault on Erivan, Gudovich was replaced by General A.P. Tormasov, who resumed peace negotiations, but the troops under the command of Feth-Ali Shah unexpectedly invaded the Gumra-Artik region. The Russian troops managed to repel the invasion of the Shah's troops, as well as the troops of Abbas-Mirza, who was trying to capture Ganja (Elizavetpol, now Leninakan). In 1810, Colonel P. S. Kotlyarevsky defeated the troops of Abbas Mirza at Meghri (June) and on the Araks (July), and in September the offensive of Iranian troops in the west at Akhalkalaki was repulsed and their attempt to unite with the Turks was thwarted. In July 1811, General F. O. Paulucci was appointed to replace Tormasov, who was replaced in February 1812 by General N. F. Rtishchev, who began peace negotiations. However, in August 1812, the troops of Abbas Mirza captured Lankaran, and the negotiations were interrupted, as news was received in Tehran that Napoleon had occupied Moscow. Kotlyarevsky, moving from 1.5 thousand. detachment r. Araks, defeated at Aslanduz (October 19-20) 30 thousand. Iranian army, and on January 1, 1813 captured Lankaran by storm. Iran was forced in October to conclude the Gulistan peace treaty of 1813, according to which it recognized the annexation of Dagestan and Northern Azerbaijan to Russia.

That's how the topic was touched. A long time ago I downloaded several books on the Caucasian wars, read it and, frankly, I forgot to think ... now I barely dug it out in the bowels of the computer))))))))))

Here is an excerpt from Vasily Alexandrovich Potto's book "CAUCASUS WAR"

THE FEAT OF COLONEL KARYAGIN
In the Karabakh Khanate, at the foot of a rocky hillock, near the very road from Elizavetopol to Shusha, stands an ancient castle surrounded by a high stone wall with six dilapidated round towers.
Near this castle, striking the traveler with its grandiosely massive contours, the spring of Shah-Bulakh beats, and a little further, about ten or fifteen versts, the Tatar cemetery sheltered, spread out on one of the roadside mounds, of which there are so many in this part of the Transcaucasian region. The high spire of the minaret attracts the attention of the traveler from afar. But not many people know that this minaret and this cemetery are silent witnesses of a feat, almost fabulous.
It was here, in the Persian campaign of 1805, that a Russian detachment of four hundred men, under the command of Colonel Karyagin, withstood the attack of a twenty-thousandth Persian army and with honor came out of this too unequal battle.
The campaign began with the fact that the enemy crossed the Arak at the Khudoperin crossing. The battalion of the 17th Jaeger Regiment, which was covering it, under the command of Major Lisanevich, was unable to hold back the Persians and retreated to Shusha. Prince Tsitsianov immediately sent another battalion and two guns to help him, under the command of the chief of the same regiment, Colonel Karyagin, a man hardened in battles with the highlanders and Persians. The strength of both detachments together, if they had managed to unite, did not exceed nine hundred people, but Tsitsianov knew the spirit of the Caucasian troops well, knew their leaders and was calm about the consequences.
Karyagin set out from Elizavetpol on the twenty-first of June and three days later, approaching Shah-Bulakh, he saw the advanced troops of the Persian army, under the command of Sardar Pir-Kuli Khan.
Since there were no more than three or four thousand here, the detachment, curled up in a square, continued to go its own way, repelling attack after attack. But in the evening, the main forces of the Persian army appeared in the distance, from fifteen to twenty thousand, led by Abbas Mirza, the heir to the Persian kingdom. It became impossible for the Russian detachment to continue further movement, and Karyagin, looking around, saw a high mound on the bank of Askoran with a Tatar cemetery spread on it - a place convenient for defense. He hurried to occupy it and, having hastily dug in a moat, blocked all accesses to the mound with wagons from his convoy. The Persians did not hesitate to attack, and their fierce attacks followed one after another without interruption until nightfall. Karyagin held out at the cemetery, but it cost him one hundred and ninety-seven people, that is, almost half of the detachment.
“Neglecting the large number of Persians,” he wrote to Tsitsianov on the same day, “I would have paved my way with shtakami to Shusha, but the great number of wounded people whom I have no means to raise makes it impossible for any attempt to move from the place I have occupied.”
The Persian losses were enormous. Abbas-Mirza saw clearly what a new attack on the Russian position would cost him, and therefore, not wanting to waste people in vain, in the morning he limited himself to cannonade, not allowing the thought that such a small detachment could hold out for more than a day.
Indeed, military history does not provide many examples where a detachment, surrounded by a hundred times the strongest enemy, would not accept an honorable surrender. But Karyagin did not think to give up. True, at first he counted on help from the Karabakh khan, but soon this hope had to be abandoned: they learned that the khan had betrayed and that his son with the Karabakh cavalry was already in the Persian camp.
Tsitsianov tried to turn the Karabakh people to the fulfillment of the obligations given to the Russian sovereign, and, pretending to be unaware of the betrayal of the Tatars, called in his proclamation to the Karabakh Armenians: “Have you, the Armenians of Karabakh, hitherto famous for their courage, changed, become effeminate and similar to other Armenians, engaged only in commercial crafts ... Come to your senses! Remember your former courage, be ready for victories and show that you are now the same brave Karabakh people as you were before fear for the Persian cavalry.
But everything was in vain, and Karyagin remained in the same position, without hope of receiving help from the Shusha fortress. On the third day, the twenty-sixth of June, the Persians, wishing to speed up the denouement, diverted water from the besieged and placed four falconet batteries over the river itself, which fired at the Russian camp day and night. From that time on, the position of the detachment becomes unbearable, and losses quickly begin to increase. Karyagin himself, already shell-shocked three times in the chest and in the head, was wounded by a bullet through the side. Most of the officers also left the front, and there were not even a hundred and fifty soldiers left fit for battle. If we add to this the torments of thirst, unbearable heat, anxious and sleepless nights, then the formidable persistence with which the soldiers not only irrevocably endured incredible hardships, but still found enough strength in themselves to make sorties and beat the Persians becomes almost incomprehensible.
In one of these sorties, the soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Ladinsky, penetrated even to the very Persian camp and, having mastered four batteries on Askoran, not only got water, but also brought fifteen falconets with them.
“I can’t remember without emotional tenderness,” says Ladinsky himself, “what wonderful Russian fellows the soldiers in our detachment were. There was no need for me to encourage and excite their courage. My whole speech to them consisted of a few words: “Let's go, guys, with God! Let us recall the Russian proverb that two deaths cannot happen, but one cannot be avoided, but, you know, it is better to die in battle than in a hospital. Everyone took off their hats and crossed themselves. The night was dark. With lightning speed we ran across the distance separating us from the river, and, like lions, rushed to the first battery. In one minute she was in our hands. On the second, the Persians defended themselves with great stubbornness, but were stabbed with bayonets, and on the third and fourth, everyone rushed to flee in panic fear. Thus, in less than half an hour, we ended the battle without losing a single man on our side. I ruined the battery, yelled water and, having captured fifteen falconets, joined the detachment.
The success of this sortie exceeded Karyagin's wildest expectations. He went out to thank the brave rangers, but, finding no words, ended up kissing them all in front of the whole detachment. Unfortunately, Ladinsky, who survived on enemy batteries while performing his daring feat, was seriously wounded by a Persian bullet the next day in his own camp.
For four days a handful of heroes stood face to face with the Persian army, but on the fifth day there was a shortage of ammunition and food. The soldiers ate their last crackers that day, and the officers had long been eating grass and roots.
In this extreme, Karyagin decided to send forty people to forage in the nearest villages so that they could get meat, and if possible, bread. The team went under the command of an officer who did not inspire much confidence in himself. It was a foreigner of unknown nationality, calling himself the Russian surname Lisenkov; he was the only one of the entire detachment who was apparently weary of his position. Subsequently, from the intercepted correspondence, it turned out that it was indeed a French spy.
A premonition of some kind of grief seized absolutely everyone in the camp. They spent the night in anxious expectation, and only six people from the sent team came to the light of the twenty-eighth, with the news that they were attacked by the Persians, that the officer was missing, and the rest of the soldiers were hacked to death.
Here are some details of the unfortunate expedition, recorded then from the words of the wounded sergeant major Petrov.
“As soon as we arrived in the village,” said Petrov, “lieutenant Lisenkov immediately ordered us to pack up guns, remove ammunition and go along the sacks. But the lieutenant shouted at me and said that we had nothing to fear, that this village lay behind our camp, and it was impossible for the enemy to get in here, that it was hard to climb the barns and cellars with ammunition and guns, but we had nothing to delay and we had to quickly return to camp. "No, - I thought. - it all turns out somehow wrong. " Not so, it happened, our former officers did: it happened, half of the team always remained in place with loaded guns; but there was no need to argue with the commander. people, and he himself, as if sensing something unkind, climbed onto the mound and began to examine the surroundings.Suddenly I see: the Persian cavalry is galloping... "Well, I think, it's bad!" I rushed to the village, and the Persians were already there. I began to fight back with a bayonet, and meanwhile I shouted for the soldiers to rescue their guns as soon as possible. Somehow I managed to do this, and, having gathered in a heap, rushed to make our way.
“Well, guys,” I said, “strength breaks straw; run into the bushes, and there, God willing, we’ll also sit out!” - With these words, we rushed in all directions, but only six of us, and then wounded, managed to get to the bush. The Persians were about to come after us, but we received them in such a way that they soon left us in peace.
Now,” Petrov finished his sad story, “everything that remains in the village, either beaten or captured, there is no one to help out.”
This fatal failure made a striking impression on the detachment, which lost here, from a small number of people left after the defense, thirty-five selected fellows at once; but Karyagin's energy did not waver.
“What to do, brothers,” he said to the soldiers gathered around him, “you won’t correct misfortune by mourning. Go to bed and pray to God, and at night there will be work.
The words of Karyagin were understood by the soldiers that at night the detachment would go to make its way through the Persian army, because the impossibility of holding on to this position was obvious to everyone, since crackers and cartridges came out. Karyagin, indeed, gathered a military council and offered to break through to the Shah-Bulakh castle, take it by storm and sit there waiting for the proceeds. The Armenian Yuzbash undertook to be the guide of the detachment. For Karyagin, in this case, the Russian proverb came true: "Throw bread and salt back, and she will find herself in front." He once did a great favor to one Elizabethan resident, whose son fell in love with Karyagin so much that he was always with him in all campaigns and, as we shall see, played a prominent role in all subsequent events.
Karyagin's proposal was accepted unanimously. The convoy was left to be plundered by the enemy, but the falconets obtained from the battle were carefully buried in the ground so that the Persians would not find them. Then, having prayed to God, they loaded the guns with grapeshot, took the wounded onto a stretcher, and quietly, without noise, at midnight on the twenty-ninth of June, set out from the camp.
Due to the lack of horses, the huntsmen dragged guns on straps. Only three wounded officers rode on horseback: Karyagin, Kotlyarevsky and Lieutenant Ladinsky, and even then because the soldiers themselves did not allow them to dismount, promising to pull out guns on their hands where necessary. And we will see further how honestly they fulfilled their promise.
Taking advantage of the darkness of the night and the mountain slums, Yuzbash led the detachment completely secretly for some time. But the Persians soon noticed the disappearance of the Russian detachment and even attacked the trail, and only the impenetrable darkness, the storm, and especially the dexterity of the guide once again saved the Karyagin detachment from the possibility of extermination. By daybreak, he was already at the walls of Shah-Bulakh, occupied by a small Persian garrison, and, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was still sleeping there, not thinking about the proximity of the Russians, fired a volley of guns, broke the iron gates and, rushing to attack, ten minutes later took over the fortress. Its head, Emir Khan, a relative of the Persian crown prince, was killed, and his body remained in the hands of the Russians.
As soon as the peals of the last shots died down, the entire Persian army, chasing Karyagin on the heels, appeared in sight of Shah Bulakh. Karyagin prepared for battle. But an hour passed, another agonizing wait - and, instead of assault columns, Persian truces appeared in front of the castle walls. Abbas-Mirza appealed to Karyagin's generosity and asked for the body of a murdered relative to be handed over.
- I will gladly fulfill the desire of his highness, - answered Karyagin, - but so that all our captured soldiers captured in Lisenkov's expedition would be given to us. Shah-Zade (heir) foresaw this, - the Persian objected, - and instructed me to convey his sincere regret. The Russian soldiers, to the last man, lay down on the battlefield, and the next day the officer died of a wound.
It was a lie; and above all, Lisenkov himself, as was known, was in the Persian camp; nevertheless, Karyagin ordered the body of the murdered khan to be handed over and only added:
- Tell the prince that I believe him, but that we have an old proverb: "Whoever lies, let him be ashamed", but the heir to the vast Persian monarchy will not want to blush in front of us, of course.
Thus the negotiations ended. The Persian army surrounded the castle and began a blockade, hoping to force Karyagin to surrender by starvation. For four days the besieged ate grass and horse meat, but at last these meager supplies were also eaten. Then Yuzbash appeared with a new invaluable service: he left the fortress at night and, having made his way to the Armenian villages, informed Tsitsianov about the situation of the detachment. “If Your Excellency does not rush to help,” Karyagin wrote at the same time, “then the detachment will die not from surrender, which I will not proceed to, but from hunger.”
This report greatly alarmed Prince Tsitsianov, who had neither troops nor food with him to go to the rescue.
“In unheard of despair,” he wrote to Karyagin, “I ask you to strengthen the spirit of the soldiers, and I ask God to strengthen you personally. If by the miracles of God you somehow get relief from your fate, which is terrible for me, then try to reassure me because my grief exceeds all imagination.
This letter was delivered by the same Yuzbash, who returned safely to the castle, bringing with him a small amount of provisions. Karyagin divided this request equally among all the ranks of the garrison, but it was only enough for a day. Yuzbash began to leave then not alone, but with whole teams, which he happily spent at night past the Persian camp. Once a Russian column, however, even stumbled upon an enemy cavalry patrol; but, fortunately, thick fog allowed the soldiers to set up an ambush. Like tigers they rushed to the Persians and in a few seconds they exterminated everyone without a shot, with only bayonets. To hide the traces of this massacre, they took the horses with them, covered the blood on the ground, and dragged the dead into a ravine, where they threw earth and bushes. In the Persian camp, they did not learn anything about the fate of the deceased patrol.
Several such excursions allowed Karyagin to hold out for another whole week without any particular extremity. Finally, Abbas-Mirza, having lost his patience, offered Karyagin great rewards and honors if he agreed to transfer to the Persian service and surrender Shah-Bulakh, promising that not the slightest insult would be inflicted on any of the Russians. Karyagin asked for four days for reflection, but so that Abbas-Mirza would feed the Russians with food during all these days. Abbas Mirza agreed, and the Russian detachment, regularly receiving everything they needed from the Persians, rested and recovered.
Meanwhile, the last day of the truce had expired, and by evening Abbas-Mirza sent to ask Karyagin about his decision. “Tomorrow morning, let His Highness occupy Shah Bulakh,” Karyagin answered. As we shall see, he kept his word.
As soon as night fell, the entire detachment, again led by Yuzbash, left Shakh-Bulakh, deciding to move to another fortress, Mukhrat, which, due to its mountainous location and proximity to Elizavetpol, was more convenient for protection. By roundabout roads, through the mountains and slums, the detachment managed to bypass the Persian posts so covertly that the enemy noticed Karyagin's deception only in the morning, when Kotlyarevsky's vanguard, composed exclusively of wounded soldiers and officers, was already in Mukhrat, and Karyagin himself with the rest of the people and with guns he managed to pass dangerous mountain gorges. If Karyagin and his soldiers were not imbued with a truly heroic spirit, then it seems that local difficulties alone would be enough to make the whole enterprise completely impossible. Here, for example, is one of the episodes of this transition, a fact that stands alone even in the history of the Caucasian army.
At a time when the detachment was still walking through the mountains, the road was crossed by a deep gully, through which it was impossible to transport the guns. They stopped in front of her in disbelief. But the resourcefulness of the Caucasian soldier and his boundless self-sacrifice helped out of this disaster.
Guys! the battalion leader Sidorov suddenly shouted. Why stand and think? You can’t take the city standing, better listen to what I’ll tell you: our brother has a gun - a lady, and a lady needs help; so let's roll it on guns."
Approving noise went through the ranks of the battalion. Several guns were immediately stuck into the ground with bayonets and formed piles, several others were laid on them like beams, several soldiers propped them up with their shoulders, and the makeshift bridge was ready. The first cannon at once flew over this literally living bridge and only slightly wrinkled the valiant shoulders, but the second fell off and hit two soldiers with a wheel on the head with all its might. The gun was saved, but the people paid for it with their lives. Among them was the battalion singer Gavrila Sidorov.
No matter how the detachment was in a hurry to retreat, however, the soldiers managed to dig a deep grave, into which the officers lowered the bodies of their dead colleagues in their arms. Karyagin himself blessed this last refuge of the deceased heroes and bowed to him to the ground.
"Farewell! he said after short prayer. - Farewell, truly Orthodox Russian people, faithful royal servants! May you have eternal memory!”
“Pray, brothers, God for us,” the soldiers said, crossing themselves and sorting out their guns.
Meanwhile, Yuzbash, who had been observing the surroundings all the time, gave a sign that the Persians were not far away. Indeed, as soon as the Russians reached Kassanet, the Persian cavalry had already settled on the detachment, and such a heated battle ensued that the Russian guns changed hands several times ... Fortunately, Mukhrat was already close, and Karyagin managed to retreat to him at night with little loss. From here, he immediately wrote to Tsitsianov: “Now I am completely safe from the attacks of Baba Khan, due to the fact that the location here does not allow him to be with numerous troops.”
At the same time, Karyagin sent a letter to Abbas-Mirza in response to his offer to transfer to the Persian service. “In your letter, please say,” Karyagin wrote to him, “that your parent has mercy on me; and I have the honor to notify you that, when fighting with the enemy, they do not seek mercy, except for traitors; and I, who have turned gray under arms, will consider it a happiness to shed my blood in the service of His Imperial Majesty.
Colonel Karyagin's courage bore enormous fruit. Detaining the Persians in Karabagh, it saved Georgia from being flooded by Persian hordes and made it possible for Prince Tsitsianov to gather troops scattered along the borders and open an offensive campaign.
Then Karyagin finally had the opportunity to leave Mukhrat and retreat to the village of Mazdygert, where the commander-in-chief received him with extraordinary military honors. All the troops, dressed in full dress, were lined up in a deployed front, and when the remnants of a brave detachment appeared, Tsitsianov himself ordered: "On guard!" “Hurray!” thundered through the ranks, the drums beat the march, the banners bowed ...
Walking around the wounded, Tsitsianov asked with participation about their situation, promised to report on the miraculous exploits of the detachment to the sovereign, and immediately congratulated Lieutenant Ladinsky as a Knight of the Order of St. George 4th degree.
The sovereign granted Karyagin a golden sword with the inscription "For Courage", and the rank of ensign to the Armenian Yuzbash, gold medal and two hundred rubles for life pension.
On the very day of the solemn meeting, after the evening dawn, Karyagin led the heroic remnants of his battalion to Elizavetpol. The brave veteran was exhausted from the wounds received on Askorani; but the consciousness of duty was so strong in him that, a few days later, when Abbas-Mirza appeared at Shamkhor, he, neglecting his illness, again stood face to face with the enemy. On the morning of the twenty-seventh of July, a small Russian transport en route from Tiflis to Elizavetpol was attacked by Pir Kuli Khan's considerable forces. A handful of Russian soldiers and with them poor but brave Georgian drovers, having made a square of their carts, defended themselves desperately, despite the fact that each of them had at least a hundred enemies. The Persians, having overlaid the transport and smashed it with guns, demanded surrender and threatened otherwise to exterminate every single one. The chief of transport, Lieutenant Dontsov, one of those officers whose names involuntarily stick in my memory, answered one thing: “We will die, but we will not surrender!” But the position of the detachment was becoming desperate. Dontsov, who served as the soul of the defense, received a mortal wound; another officer, warrant officer Plotnevsky, was captured due to his temper. The soldiers were left without commanders and, having lost more than half of their men, they began to waver. Fortunately, at this moment Karjagin appears, and the picture of the battle instantly changes. The Russian battalion, five hundred men, swiftly attacks the crown prince's main camp, breaks into its trenches and takes possession of the battery. Not allowing the enemy to come to his senses, the soldiers turn the repulsed cannons on the camp, open fierce fire from them, and - with the name of Karyagin quickly spreading in the Persian ranks - everyone rushes to flee in horror.
The defeat of the Persians was so great that the trophies of this unheard-of victory, won by a handful of soldiers over the whole Persian army, were the entire enemy camp, the convoy, several guns, banners and many prisoners, including the wounded Georgian prince Teimuraz Iraklievich.
Such was the finale that brilliantly ended the Persian campaign of 1805, launched by the same people and under almost the same conditions on the banks of the Askoran.
In conclusion, we consider it not superfluous to add that Karyagin began his service as a private in the Butyrsky infantry regiment during the Turkish war of 1773, and the first cases in which he participated were the brilliant victories of Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. Here, under the impression of these victories, Karyagin for the first time comprehended the great secret of controlling the hearts of people in battle and drew that moral faith in the Russian man and in himself, with which he later, like an ancient Roman, never considered his enemies.
When the Butyrsky regiment was moved to the Kuban, Karyagin found himself in the harsh environment of the Caucasian near-linear life, was wounded during the storming of Anapa, and since that time, one might say, has not left the enemy’s fire. In 1803, after the death of General Lazarev, he was appointed chief of the seventeenth regiment, located in Georgia. Here, for the capture of Ganja, he received the Order of St. George of the 4th degree, and the exploits in the Persian campaign of 1805 made his name immortal in the ranks of the Caucasian Corps.
Unfortunately, constant campaigns, wounds, and especially fatigue during the winter campaign of 1806 completely upset Karyagin's iron health; he fell ill with a fever, which soon developed into a yellow, rotten fever, and on May 7, 1807, the hero died. His last award was the Order of St. Vladimir of the 3rd degree, received by him a few days before his death.
Many years passed over the untimely grave of Karyagin, but the memory of this kind and likeable person is sacredly kept and passed down from generation to generation. Struck by his heroic deeds, the fighting offspring gave Karyagin's personality a majestic-legendary character, created from him the favorite type in the military epic of the Caucasus.

Alexander Kibovsky "Bagaderan" (part of an article from the Zeikhgauz magazine)

The event that marked the beginning of this story had nothing remarkable in itself. In 1802, on the eve of another war with Persia (1804-13), headquarters-trumpeter Sergeant Samson Yakovlevich Makintsev fled from the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment. The reason for his escape is not known. There was a legend among the inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod that it was he who stole the mouthpieces from the regimental silver pipes. Like it or not, mouthpieces have indeed disappeared.
Having surrendered to the Persians, Makintsev entered the Shah's service and was enlisted as a naib (lieutenant) in the Erivan infantry regiment. Crown Prince Abbas Mirza, forming regular army, willingly accepted Russian deserters. Makintsev began to actively recruit defectors into his company, and soon earned the approval of the prince and the rank of yaver (major) at the regimental review. Now things have moved faster.
At the next review, deserters already made up 1/2 of the Erivan regiment. Once again praised, the deserters expressed dissatisfaction with the regiment commander Mamed Khan and asked to appoint Makintsev instead. Abbas Mirza cheated by organizing a separate battalion from deserters and entrusting it to Makintsev, who became a serkheng (colonel
com) and took the name Samson Khan. Since the Russians turned out to be the most trained part of the army, the prince enrolled them in his guard.
Now Samson Khan recruited not only defectors, but also local Armenians and Nestorians. The officers were mainly appointed fugitive Russian officers from the Transcaucasian nobles. Most of the battalion (including Ma-
Kintsev) preserved the Christian faith.
Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Persia reached its climax. With the troops of Abbas Mirza, the Russian battalion is sent to Aslanduz. Here, on 19-20.X.1812, the deserters were surrounded and practically destroyed by soldiers in a fierce battle.
General P.S. Kotlyarevsky.3 Of the few survivors, some returned to Russia in accordance with the Gulistan peace treaty. The stubborn, led by Samson Khan, began to form a new battalion. Acting with promises, money and cunning, they quickly made up for the losses. The commander of the Khoy detachment reported, "that ... now located at Abbas-mir-
ze in a big power of attorney, Samson, trying to increase the number of Russian fugitives as much as possible, sends soldiers to persuade them and, giving them wine to drink when the soldiers are on a business trip, captures them. Our soldiers
you, knowing in what power of attorney Abbas Mirza has this Samson wearing general's epaulettes and about the benefits of those who fled to him, agree to
this at convenient occasions ... ". This state of affairs greatly worried the Russian authorities.
In 1817, deserters met the embassy of General A.P. Yermolov near Tabriz: “This battalion was one of the big ones; the officers were from Russian soldiers. All were dressed in Persian uniforms with long hair and in
hats. Persons cheated on these scoundrels; the people are all beautiful, tall, clean and old. This battalion is called Engi-Muslims
(new Muslims - A.K.). They had already fought against us, and the prisoners taken from them by Kotlyarevsky were hanged and stabbed to death. Now all the people are asking to go back, and we have hopes that you will return them .. "- wrote
staff captain N.P. Muravyov, who had an assignment with Colonel G.T. Ivanov to interview deserters. The Persians promised not to hold back the fugitives who wanted to return, but they themselves secretly withdrew the battalion from Tabriz, locked it in the barracks and stuffed stocks on the soldiers. Yermolov was informed that the battalion went to pacify the Kurds. Seeing the obvious deception, Yermolov quarreled with Abbas Mirza and refused to recognize him as heir to the throne. The frightened prince sent 40 deserters, but Yermolov did not even accept them, demanding that Makintsev be hanged first. As a result, the negotiations ended in nothing.
The efforts to return the fugitives were continued in 1819 by the secretary of the Russian mission, A.S. Griboyedov. He managed to get the deserters questioned, and although the Persian officials secretly “preached them with debauchery, seduced them with girls and drunkenness,” he persuaded 168 people to return. In a paradoxical parting word on August 30, Abbas Mirza “instructed the soldiers to
to live forward by faith and truth to their sovereign, just as they served him, meanwhile he gave me (A.S. Griboyedov - A.K.) instructions about their future good, so that they would feel good in Russia. This interlude ended
gave. Abbas Mirza called Makintsev. But Griboedov "could not stand it and announced that it should not only be a shame to have this
rogue between his associates, but even more ashamed to show him to a noble Russian officer ... - "He is my nuker." - "Even if he were your general, for me he is a scoundrel, a scoundrel, and I should not see him."
On September 4, 1819, Griboyedov's detachment left Tabriz, and already on September 12. 155 former deserters crossed the Russian border (several on the way
lagged behind). Those who returned were forgiven and sent away "for free living in their homeland." Of those who remained in Persia, most (about 2/3) converted to Islam, which saved them from being extradited to Russia.
they never learned and were habitually baptized at sacred services.