Colonel Karyagin: biography, personal life, exploits, photos. An incredible story about Colonel Karyagin’s detachment, 17th Karyagin Jaeger Regiment
Colonel Karyagin's campaign against the Persians in 1805 does not resemble the real one military history. It looks like a prequel to "300 Spartans" (20,000 Persians, 500 Russians, gorges, bayonet attacks, "This is madness! - No, this is the 17th Jaeger Regiment!"). A golden, platinum page of Russian history, combining the carnage of madness with the highest tactical skill, amazing cunning and stunning Russian arrogance
In 1805 Russian empire fought with France as part of the Third Coalition, and fought unsuccessfully. France had Napoleon, and we had the Austrians, whose military glory by that time it had long since sunk, and the British, who had never had a normal ground army. Both of them behaved like complete losers, and even the great Kutuzov, with all the power of his genius, could not switch the “Fail after Fail” TV channel. Meanwhile, in the south of Russia, Ideyka appeared among the Persian Baba Khan, who was purring as he read reports about our European defeats. Baba Khan stopped purring and went against Russia again, hoping to pay for the defeats of the previous year, 1804. The moment was chosen extremely well - due to the usual production of the usual drama “A crowd of so-called crooked allies and Russia, which is again trying to save everyone,” St. Petersburg could not send a single extra soldier to the Caucasus, despite the fact that there were from 8,000 to 10,000 soldiers. Therefore, having learned that 20,000 Persian troops under the command of Crown Prince Abbas-Mirza are coming to the city of Shusha (this is in today's Nagorno-Karabakh. You know Azerbaijan, right? Bottom left), where Major Lisanevich was located with 6 companies of rangers. that he was moving on a huge golden platform, with a bunch of freaks, freaks and concubines on golden chains, just like Xerxes), Prince Tsitsianov sent all the help he could send. All 493 soldiers and officers with two guns, the superhero Karyagin, the superhero Kotlyarevsky (about whom is a separate story) and the Russian military spirit.
They did not have time to reach Shushi, the Persians intercepted ours on the road, near the Shah-Bulakh River, on June 24. Persian avant-garde. A modest 4,000 people. Without being at all confused (at that time in the Caucasus, battles with less than a tenfold superiority of the enemy were not considered battles and were officially reported in reports as “exercises in conditions close to combat”), Karyagin formed an army in a square and spent the whole day repelling fruitless attacks 
Persian cavalry, until only scraps remained of the Persians. Then he walked another 14 miles and set up a fortified camp, the so-called Wagenburg or, in Russian, a walk-city, when the line of defense is built from baggage carts (given the Caucasian impassability and the lack of a supply network, the troops had to carry significant supplies with them). The Persians continued their attacks in the evening and fruitlessly stormed the camp until nightfall, after which they took a forced break to clear the piles of Persian bodies, funerals, weeping and writing cards to the families of the victims. By morning, after reading the manual sent by express mail " Military art for dummies" (“If the enemy has strengthened and this enemy is Russian, do not try to attack him head-on, even if there are 20,000 of you and 400 of him”), the Persians began to bombard our Gulyai-city with artillery, trying to prevent our troops from reaching the river and replenish water supplies. The Russians responded by making a sortie, making their way to the Persian battery and blowing it to hell, throwing the remains of the cannons into the river, presumably with malicious obscene inscriptions. However, this did not save the situation. After fighting for another day, Karyagin began to suspect. that he would not be able to kill the entire Persian army with 300 Russians. In addition, problems began inside the camp - Lieutenant Lisenko and six more traitors ran over to the Persians, the next day they were joined by 19 more hippies - thus, our losses from cowardly pacifists began. exceed the losses from the inept Persian attacks. Thirst, again. Bullets and 20,000 Persians around.
At the officers' council, two options were proposed: or we all stay here and die, who's in favor? No one. Or we get together, break through the Persian ring of encirclement, after which we STORM a nearby fortress while the Persians are catching up with us, and we are already sitting in the fortress. It 'warm over there. Fine. And flies don't bite. The only problem is that we are no longer even 300 Russian Spartans, but around 200, and there are still tens of thousands of them and they are guarding us, and all this will be like the game Left 4 Dead, where a tiny squad of survivors is surrounded by crowds of brutal zombies. . Everyone loved Left 4 Dead already in 1805, so they decided to break through. At night. Having cut off the Persian sentries and trying not to breathe, the Russian participants in the “Staying Alive When You Can’t Stay Alive” program almost escaped the encirclement, but stumbled upon a Persian patrol. A chase began, a shootout, then a chase again, then ours finally broke away from the Mahmuds in the dark, dark Caucasian forest and went to the fortress, named after the nearby river Shah-Bulakh. By that time, the golden aura of the end was shining around the remaining participants in the crazy “Fight as long as you can” marathon (let me remind you that it was already the FOURTH day of continuous battles, sorties, duels with bayonets and night hide-and-seeks in the forests), so Karyagin simply smashed the gates of Shah-Bulakh with a cannon core, after which he tiredly asked the small Persian garrison: “Guys, look at us. Do you really want to try? Really?” The guys took the hint and ran away. During the run-up, two khans were killed, the Russians barely had time to repair the gates when the main Persian forces appeared, concerned about the disappearance of their beloved Russian detachment. But this was not the end. Not even the beginning of the end. After taking inventory of the property remaining in the fortress, it turned out that there was no food. And that the food train had to be abandoned during the breakout from the encirclement, so there was nothing to eat. At all. At all. At all. Karyagin again went out to the troops: 
Friends, I know that this is not madness, not Sparta, or anything for which human words were invented. Of the already pitiful 493 people, 175 of us remained, almost all of them were wounded, dehydrated, exhausted, and extremely tired. There is no food. There is no convoy. Cannonballs and cartridges are running out. And besides, right in front of our gates sits the heir to the Persian throne, Abbas Mirza, who has already tried to take us by storm several times. Do you hear the grunting of his tame monsters and the laughter of his concubines? He is the one waiting for us to die, hoping that hunger will do what 20,000 Persians could not do. But we won't die. You won't die. I, Colonel Karyagin, forbid you to die. I order you to have all the nerve you have, because this night we are leaving the fortress and breaking through to ANOTHER FORTRESS, WHICH WE WILL STORM AGAIN, WITH THE ENTIRE PERSIAN ARMY ON YOUR SHOULDERS. And also freaks and concubines. This is not a Hollywood action movie. This is not an epic. This is Russian history, little birds, and you are its main characters. Place sentries on the walls who will call to each other all night, creating the feeling that we are in a fortress. We'll head out as soon as it gets dark enough!
It is said that there was once an angel in Heaven who was in charge of monitoring the impossibility. On July 7 at 10 p.m., when Karyagin set out from the fortress to storm the next, even larger fortress, this angel died of bewilderment. It is important to understand that by July 7, the detachment had been fighting continuously for the 13th day and was not so much in the state of “the Terminators are coming”, but rather in the state of “extremely desperate people, using only anger and fortitude, are moving into the Heart of Darkness of this insane, impossible, incredible, unthinkable journey." With guns, with carts of wounded, it was not a walk with backpacks, but a large and heavy movement. Karyagin slipped out of the fortress like a night ghost, like a bat, like a creature from That Forbidden Side - and therefore even the soldiers who remained calling to each other on the walls managed to escape from the Persians and catch up with the detachment, although they were already preparing to die, realizing the absolute mortality of their task. But the Peak of Madness, Courage and Spirit was still ahead.
A detachment of Russian... soldiers moving through darkness, darkness, pain, hunger and thirst? Ghosts? Saints of War? faced a ditch through which it was impossible to transport cannons, and without cannons, an assault on the next, even better fortified fortress of Mukhrata, had neither meaning nor chance. There was no forest nearby to fill the ditch, and there was no time to look for forest - the Persians could overtake them at any moment.
But the resourcefulness of the Russian soldier and his boundless self-sacrifice helped him out of this misfortune.
Guys! - the battalion singer Sidorov suddenly shouted. - Why stand and think? You can’t take the city standing, better listen to what I tell you: our brother has a gun - a lady, and the lady needs help; So let’s roll her over with guns.” 
An appreciative noise went through the ranks of the battalion. Several guns were immediately stuck into the ground with bayonets and formed piles, several others were placed on them like crossbars, several soldiers supported them with their shoulders, and the improvised bridge was ready. The first cannon flew over this literally living bridge at once and only slightly crushed the brave shoulders, but the second one fell and hit two soldiers on the head with its wheel. The cannon was saved, but people paid for it with their lives. Among them was the battalion singer Gavrila Sidorov.
On July 8, the detachment entered Kasapet, ate and drank normally for the first time in many days, and moved on to the Muhrat fortress. Three miles away, a detachment of just over a hundred people was attacked by several thousand Persian horsemen, who managed to break through to the cannons and capture them. In vain. As one of the officers recalled: “Karyagin shouted: “Guys, go ahead, go save the guns!” Everyone rushed like lions..." Apparently, the soldiers remembered at WHAT price they got these guns. Red again splashed onto the carriages, this time Persian, and it splashed, and poured, and flooded the carriages, and the ground around the carriages, and carts, and uniforms, and guns, and sabers, and it poured, and it poured, and it poured until until the Persians fled in panic, unable to break the resistance of hundreds of ours. Hundreds of Russians.
Mukhrat was easily taken, and the next day, July 9, Prince Tsitsianov, having received a report from Karyagin, immediately set out to meet the Persian army with 2,300 soldiers and 10 guns. On July 15, Tsitsianov defeated and drove out the Persians, and then united with the remnants of Colonel Karyagin’s troops. 
Karyagin received a golden sword for this campaign, all the officers and soldiers received awards and salaries, Gavrila Sidorov silently lay down in the ditch - a monument at the regiment headquarters, and we all learned a lesson. Ditch lesson. A lesson in silence. Crunch lesson. Red lesson. And the next time you are required to do something in the name of Russia and your comrades, and your heart is overcome by apathy and the petty nasty fear of a typical child of Russia in the era of Kali Yuga, actions, upheavals, struggle, life, death, then remember this ditch.
At a time when the glory of the Emperor of France Napoleon was growing on the fields of Europe, and the Russian troops fighting against the French were performing new feats for the glory of Russian weapons, on the other side of the world, in the Caucasus, the same Russian soldiers and officers were accomplishing no less glorious deeds. Colonel of the 17th Jaeger Regiment Karyagin and his detachment wrote one of the golden pages in the history of the Caucasian Wars.
The situation in the Caucasus in 1805 was extremely difficult. The Persian ruler Baba Khan was eager to regain the lost influence of Tehran after the Russians arrived in the Caucasus. The impetus for the war was the capture of Ganja by the troops of Prince Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov. Because of the war with France, St. Petersburg could not increase the size of the Caucasian Corps; by May 1805 it consisted of about 6,000 infantry and 1,400 cavalry. Moreover, the troops were scattered over a vast territory. Due to illness and poor nutrition, there was a large shortage, so according to the lists in the 17th Jaeger Regiment there were 991 privates in three battalions, in fact there were 201 people in the ranks.
Having learned about the appearance of large Persian formations, the commander of Russian troops in the Caucasus, Prince Tsitsianov, ordered Colonel Karyagin to delay the enemy’s advance. On June 18, the detachment set out from Elisavetpol to Shusha, consisting of 493 soldiers and officers and two guns. The detachment included: the patron battalion of the 17th Jaeger Regiment under the command of Major Pyotr Stepanovich Kotlyarevsky, a company of the Tiflis Musketeer Regiment of Captain Tatarintsov and the artillerymen of Second Lieutenant Gudim-Levkovich. At this time, Major of the 17th Jaeger Regiment Lisanevich was in Shusha with six companies of Jaegers, thirty Cossacks and three guns. On July 11, Lisanevich’s detachment repulsed several attacks by Persian troops, and soon an order was received to join the detachment of Colonel Karyagin. But, fearing an uprising of part of the population and the possibility of the Persians capturing Shushi, Lisanevich did not do this.
On June 24, the first battle took place with the Persian cavalry (about 3000) who crossed the Shah-Bulakh River. Several enemy attacks trying to break through the square were repulsed. Having walked 14 versts, the detachment camped at the mound of the Kara-Agach-BaBa tract on the Askaran River. In the distance the tents of the Persian armada under the command of Pir Quli Khan could be seen, and this was only the vanguard of the army commanded by the heir to the Persian throne, Abbas Mirza. On the same day, Karyagin sent Lisanevich a demand to leave Shusha and go to him, but the latter, due to the difficult situation, could not do this.
At 18.00 the Persians began to storm the Russian camp, and the attacks continued intermittently until nightfall. Having suffered heavy losses, the Persian commander withdrew his troops to the heights around the camp, and the Persians installed four falconette batteries to conduct shelling. WITH early morning On July 25, the bombing of our location began. According to the recollections of one of the participants in the battle: “Our situation was very, very unenviable and became worse hour by hour. The unbearable heat exhausted our strength, thirst tormented us, and shots from enemy batteries did not stop..." Several times the Persians suggested that the detachment commander lay down his arms, but was invariably refused. In order not to lose the only source of water, on the night of June 27, a group was launched under the command of Lieutenant Klyupin and Second Lieutenant Prince Tumanov. The operation to destroy enemy batteries was successfully carried out. All four batteries were destroyed, some of the servants were killed, some fled, and the falconets were thrown into the river. It must be said that by this day 350 people remained in the detachment, and half had wounds varying degrees gravity.
From the report of Colonel Karyagin to Prince Tsitsianov dated June 26, 1805: “Major Kotlyarevsky was sent by me three times to drive away the enemy who was in front and occupied elevated places, drove away strong crowds of them with courage. Captain Parfenov, Captain Klyukin throughout the battle in different cases were sent by me with riflemen and struck the enemy with fearlessness.”
At dawn on June 27, the main forces of the Persians arrived to storm the camp. The attacks were again carried out throughout the day. At four o'clock in the afternoon an incident occurred that would forever remain a black spot in the glorious history of the regiment. Lieutenant Lisenko and six lower ranks ran over to the enemy. Having received information about the difficult situation of the Russians, Abbas Mirza launched his troops into a decisive assault, but having suffered heavy losses, he was forced to abandon further attempts to break the resistance of a desperate handful of people. At night, 19 more soldiers ran over to the Persians. Realizing the gravity of the situation, and the fact that the transition of his comrades to the enemy creates unhealthy moods among the soldiers, Colonel Karyagin decides to break through the encirclement, go to the Shah-Bulakh River and occupy a small fortress standing on its bank. The commander of the detachment sent a report to Prince Tsitsianov, in which he wrote: “... in order not to expose the remainder of the detachment to complete and final destruction and to save people and guns, he made a firm decision to break through with courage through the numerous enemy who surrounded him on all sides...”.
The guide in this desperate enterprise was local, Armenian Melik Vani. Leaving the convoy and burying the captured weapons, the detachment set out on a new campaign. At first they moved in complete silence, then there was a collision with an enemy cavalry patrol and the Persians rushed to catch up with the detachment. True, even on the march, attempts to destroy this wounded and mortally tired, but still fighting group did not bring the Persians any luck; moreover, most of the pursuers rushed to plunder the empty Russian camp. According to legend, the Shah-Bulakh castle was built by Shah Nadir, and received its name from the stream that flowed nearby. There was a Persian garrison (150 people) under the command of Emir Khan and Fial Khan in the castle; the outskirts were occupied by enemy posts. Seeing the Russians, the guards raised the alarm and opened fire. Shots from Russian guns were heard, a well-aimed cannonball broke the gate, and the Russians burst into the castle. In a report dated June 28, 1805, Karyagin reported: “... the fortress was taken, the enemy was driven out of it and from the forest with little loss on our part. On the enemy side, both khans were killed... Having settled down in the fortress, I await the commands of your Excellency.” By evening there were only 179 men in the ranks and 45 gun charges. Having learned about this, Prince Tsitsianov wrote to Karyagin: “In unprecedented despair, I ask you to reinforce the soldiers, and I ask God to reinforce you.”
Meanwhile, our heroes suffered from lack of food. The same Melik Vani, whom Popov calls “The Good Genius of the detachment,” volunteered to get the supplies. The most amazing thing is that the brave Armenian coped with this task superbly; the repeated operation also bore fruit. But the position of the detachment became more and more difficult, especially since Persian troops approached the fortification. Abbas Mirza tried to knock the Russians out of the fortification on the move, but his troops suffered losses and were forced to blockade. Convinced that the Russians were trapped, Abbas Mirza invited them to lay down their arms, but was refused.
From the report of Colonel Karyagin to Prince Tsitsianov dated June 28, 1805: “Lieutenant Zhudkovsky of the Tiflis Musketeer Regiment, who, despite his wound, volunteered as a hunter during the capture of the batteries and acted like a brave officer, and of the 7th Artillery Regiment, Second Lieutenant Gudim-Levkovich, who, when almost all his gunners were wounded, he himself loaded the guns and knocked out the carriage under the enemy cannon.”
Karyagin decides to take an even more incredible step, to break through the hordes of the enemy to the Mukhrat fortress, which is not occupied by the Persians. On July 7 at 22.00 this march began; a deep ravine with steep slopes appeared on the detachment’s route. People and horses could overcome it, but guns? Then Private Gavrila Sidorov jumped to the bottom of the ditch, followed by a dozen more soldiers. The first gun flew to the other side like a bird, the second fell off and the wheel hit Private Sidorov in the temple. Having buried the hero, the detachment continued its march. There are several versions of this episode: “... the detachment continued to move, calmly and unhindered, until the two cannons that were with it were stopped by a small ditch. There was no forest nearby to make a bridge. Four soldiers volunteered to help the cause, crossed themselves, lay down in the ditch, and the guns were transported across them. Two survived, and two paid with their lives for heroic self-sacrifice.”
On July 8, the detachment arrived in Ksapet, from here Karyagin sent forward carts with the wounded under the command of Kotlyarevsky, and he himself followed them. Three versts from Mukhrat the Persians rushed at the column, but were repulsed by fire and bayonets. One of the officers recalled: “... but as soon as Kotlyarevsky managed to move away from us, we were brutally attacked by several thousand Persians, and their onslaught was so strong and sudden that they managed to capture both of our guns. This is no longer a thing at all. Karyagin shouted: “Guys, go ahead, go ahead, save the guns!” Everyone rushed like lions, and immediately our bayonets opened the road.” Trying to cut off the Russians from the fortress, Abbas Mirza sent a cavalry detachment to capture it, but the Persians failed here too. Kotlyarevsky's disabled team drove back the Persian horsemen. In the evening, Karyagin also came to Mukhrat; according to Bobrovsky, this happened at 12.00.
Having received a report dated July 9, Prince Tsitsianov gathered a detachment of 2371 people with 10 guns and went out to meet Karyagin. On July 15, Prince Tsitsianov’s detachment, having driven the Persians back from the Tertara River, set up camp near the village of Mardagishti. Having learned about this, Karyagin leaves Mukhrat at night and goes to join his commander.
Having completed this amazing march, Colonel Karyagin’s detachment attracted the attention of almost 20,000 Persians for three weeks and did not allow them to go into the interior of the country. For this campaign, Colonel Karyagin was awarded a golden sword with the inscription “For bravery.” Pavel Mikhailovich Karyagin in service from April 15, 1773 (Smolensk coin company), from September 25, 1775, sergeant of the Voronezh infantry regiment. Since 1783, second lieutenant of the Belarusian Jaeger Battalion (1st battalion of the Caucasian Jaeger Corps). Participant in the assault on Anapa on June 22, 1791, received the rank of major. Chief of the defense of Pambak in 1802. Chief of the 17th Jaeger Regiment from May 14, 1803. For the storming of Ganja he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
Major Kotlyarevsky awarded the order St. Vladimir, 4th degree, surviving officers with the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. Avanes Yuzbashi (melik Vani) was not left without a reward; he was promoted to ensign and received 200 silver rubles as a lifelong pension. The feat of Private Sidorov in 1892, the year of the 250th anniversary of the regiment, was immortalized in a monument erected at the headquarters of the Erivants Manglis.
A true story from the 19th century that is very similar to Spartan self-sacrifice. The feat was accomplished by Colonel Karyagin together with his detachment of 500 people in Karabakh. Their goal was to contain and distract the enemy forces, while Prince Tsitsianov would gather the entire army together. At the height of the battle, Russian soldiers not only fought bravely, but also made several tactical maneuvers, and were also able to preserve their cannons while crossing the river.
Persian conflict of interest
Russia sought to seize the Transcaucasian territories, which is why the Russian-Persian War began in 1804, which from the first minutes became successful for the Russian side. The very next year, 2 khans surrendered: Sheki and Karabakh, recognizing the protectorate of Russia. This fact could not help but anger the Persian Shah Feth-Ali. In response, he gathered 40 thousand soldiers, placing Crown Prince Abbas Mirza at its head. The task was to take revenge on the traitor khans, return the territories, and also, with a successful outcome, return Georgia, which had already belonged to Russia for 4 years.
Having learned about the Persian plans, the Russian command did not waste time. The commander-in-chief, Prince Pavel Tsitsianov, who was in Transcaucasia, could count on only 8 thousand soldiers. It was important to take into account that these 8 thousand had to be collected throughout the occupied territory. It would take time, and the enemy was already close. Due to the risk of being defeated, in the most short time The 17th Jaeger Regiment was formed with 493 soldiers plus 2 cannons.
17th Jaeger Regiment
Karyagin had extensive combat experience. He fought under the command of Suvorov against the Turks. On June 21, 1805, the regiment set out from Ganja to the Shushi region, where it encountered the Persian vanguard. Using the method of constructing a square (in the form of a square or rectangle), the regiment repelled attacks for more than a day, after which it fortified itself in a “walk-city” cart (a 4-5-meter wooden tower, moved along beams), and held the defense for another 3 days. The number of Russian fighters during this time decreased significantly: 200 people died or were wounded. The next day, Karyagin broke through the blockade and was able to lead his soldiers to the accidentally abandoned Shakhbulag fortress. Here, of course, it was safer, but provisions were running out, requiring some action to be taken. The main forces of the enemy - 20 thousand Persians - had already approached the fortress.
Deciding to lull the Persians' vigilance, the Russians began negotiations for surrender - a cunning move by Karyagin. Well, while they were negotiating, on July 8 Karyagin secretly transferred his fighters to the nearest fortress Mukhrat. And during this time the messenger reached Russian borders and brought sad news about the difficult situation with the 17th Jaeger Regiment.
Private Sidorov
Don't forget about important event, which happened to the remaining detachment near the Tertary stream during the transition from Shahbulag to Muhrat. When the Russians were ready to say goodbye to two guns, Private Sidorov suggested a way to transport them to the other side. It’s a pity that all the circumstances of the case are unknown to us, but we know that Gavrila Sidorov proposed to build a bridge from guns and people along the bottom of the stream. Thus, the guns were transported directly over them. Of course, there were injuries here, and Gavrila himself, unfortunately, received injuries incompatible with life. A monument was erected in his honor at the regimental headquarters.
At a time when the glory of the French Emperor Napoleon was growing on the fields of Europe, and the Russian troops who fought against the French were performing new feats for the glory of Russian weapons, on the other side of the world, in the Caucasus, the same Russian soldiers and officers were accomplishing no less glorious deeds. Colonel of the 17th Jaeger Regiment Karyagin and his detachment wrote one of the golden pages in the history of the Caucasian Wars.
The situation in the Caucasus by 1805 was extremely difficult. The Persian ruler Baba Khan was eager to regain the lost influence of Tehran after the Russians arrived in the Caucasus. The impetus for the war was the capture of Ganja by the troops of Prince Tsitsianov.
The moment was chosen extremely well: St. Petersburg could not send a single extra soldier to the Caucasus. In one of the reports to the emperor, Prince Tsitsianov complained about the lack of troops to carry out the will of the monarch to capture the Erivan and Baku khanates during the spring and autumn of 1804. In May 1804, Tsitsianov undertook a campaign against the Erivan Khanate, for which Russia was competing with Persia. The Persian Khan did not answer and in June 1804 sent a detachment led by Abbas Mirza there. After a series of clashes with the Persians, the assault on Erivan began. The literature describes a number of Russian exploits associated with these events, “the likes of which can only be found in the epic works of Greece, and in the glorious Caucasian War of the times of Tsitsianov and Kotlyarevsky.” For example, it talks about Major Nold, who with 150 men defended an earthen redoubt from attacks by several thousand Persians and managed to defend it. After the arrival of Baba Khan with reinforcements of 15 thousand people, Tsitsianov at the end of summer - beginning of autumn retreated from Erivan to Georgia, where the unrest that had also begun required his presence.
Because of the war with France, St. Petersburg could not increase the size of the Caucasian Corps; by May 1805 it consisted of about 6,000 infantry and 1,400 cavalry. Moreover, the troops were scattered over a vast territory. Due to illness and poor nutrition, there was a large shortage. So, according to the lists in the 17th Jaeger Regiment, there were 991 privates in three battalions - in fact, there were 201 people in the ranks.
In June 1805, the Persian prince Abbas Mirza launched an attack on Tiflis. In this direction the Persians had a huge superiority in forces. Georgia faced the threat of repeating the massacre of 1795. Shah Baba Khan vowed to slaughter and exterminate all Russians in Georgia before last person. The campaign began with the enemy crossing Arak at the Khudoperin crossing. The battalion of the seventeenth Jaeger Regiment covering it, under the command of Major Lisanevich, was unable to hold off the Persians and retreated to Shusha. On the part of Erivan, its actions were limited only by the fact that Mehdi Khan of the Qajar on June 13 brought a three-thousand-strong Persian garrison into the fortress and, having arrested the old ruler Mamed, himself accepted the title of Erivan Khan.
Having learned about the appearance of large Persian formations, the commander of the Russian troops in the Caucasus, Prince Tsitsianov, sent all the help he could send (all 493 soldiers and officers with two guns, Karyagin, Kotlyarevsky (which is a separate story) and Russian military spirit), ordering Colonel Karyagin delay the enemy's advance. The strength of both detachments together, even if they managed to unite, would not exceed nine hundred people, but Tsitsianov knew well the spirit of the Caucasian troops, knew their leaders and was calm about the consequences.
The Shusha fortress lay only 80 versts from the Persian border and gave the enemy the opportunity to concentrate significant forces under its cover to act against Georgia. Unrest had already begun in Shusha, which broke out, of course, not without the participation of Persian politics, and Lisanevich clearly saw that in the absence of troops, treason could easily open the fortress gates and let the Persians in. And if the Persians had occupied Shusha, then Russia would have lost the Karabagh Khanate for a long time and would have been forced to wage war on its own territory. Tsitsianov himself was aware of this.
So, on June 18, Karyagin’s detachment set out from Elisavetpol to Shusha, consisting of 493 soldiers and officers and two guns. The detachment included: the patron battalion of the 17th Jaeger Regiment under the command of Major Kotlyarevsky, a company of the Tiflis Musketeer Regiment of Captain Tatarintsov and the artillerymen of Second Lieutenant Gudim-Levkovich. At this time, Major of the 17th Jaeger Regiment Lisanevich was in Shusha with six companies of Jaegers, thirty Cossacks and three guns. On July 11, Lisanevich’s detachment repulsed several attacks by Persian troops, and soon an order was received to join the detachment of Colonel Karyagin. But, fearing an uprising of part of the population and the possibility of the Persians capturing Shushi, Lisanevich did not do this. Tsitsianov’s fears were justified. The Persians occupied the Askaran castle and cut off Karyagin from Shusha.
On June 24, the first battle took place with the Persian cavalry (about 3000) who crossed the Shah-Bulakh River. Without being at all confused (at that time in the Caucasus, battles with less than a tenfold superiority of the enemy were not considered battles and were officially reported in reports as “exercises in conditions close to combat”), Karyagin formed an army in a square and continued to go his way until the evening repelling fruitless attacks by the Persian cavalry. Having walked 14 versts, the detachment settled into a camp, the so-called Wagenburg or, in Russian, a walk-city, when the line of defense is built from convoy carts (given the Caucasian impassability and the lack of a supply network, the troops had to carry significant supplies with them), near the mound (and Tatar cemetery) of the Kara-Agach-Baba tract on the river. Askaran. Numerous tombstones and buildings (gumbet or darbaz) were scattered on the hilly area, providing some protection from shots.
In the distance the tents of the Persian armada under the command of Pir Quli Khan could be seen, and this was only the vanguard of the army commanded by the heir to the Persian throne, Abbas Mirza. On the same day, Karyagin sent Lisanevich a demand to leave Shusha and go to him, but the latter, due to the difficult situation, could not do this.
At 18.00, the Persians began to storm the Russian camp, the attacks continued intermittently until the night, after which they took a forced break to clear the piles of Persian bodies, funerals, crying and writing cards to the families of the victims. The Persian losses were enormous. There were also losses on the Russian side. Karyagin held out in the cemetery, but it cost him one hundred and ninety-seven men, that is, almost half of the detachment. “Neglecting the large number of Persians,” he wrote to Tsitsianov that same day, “I would have made my way with bayonets to Shusha, but the great number of wounded people, whom I do not have the means to raise, makes any attempt to move from the place I occupied impossible.” By morning, the Persian commander withdrew his troops to the heights around the camp.
Military history does not provide many examples where a detachment, surrounded by a hundred times stronger enemy, would not accept honorable surrender. But Karyagin did not think of giving up. True, at first he counted on help from the Karabakh khan, but soon he had to abandon this hope: they learned that the khan had betrayed him and that his son with the Karabakh cavalry was already in the Persian camp. Several times the Persians suggested that the detachment commander lay down his arms, but was invariably refused.
On the third day, June 26, the Persians, wanting to speed up the outcome, diverted water from the besieged and placed four falconette batteries above the river itself, which fired at Gulyai-city day and night. From this time on, the position of the detachment becomes unbearable, and losses quickly begin to increase. According to the recollections of one of the participants in the battle: “Our situation was very, very unenviable and became worse hour by hour. The unbearable heat exhausted our strength, thirst tormented us, and shots from enemy batteries did not stop..." Karyagin himself, already shell-shocked three times in the chest and head, was wounded by a bullet through the side. Most of the officers also dropped out of the front, and there were not even one hundred and fifty soldiers left fit for battle. If we add to this the torment of thirst, unbearable heat, anxious and sleepless nights, then the formidable tenacity with which the soldiers not only irrevocably endured incredible hardships, but also found enough strength in themselves to make sorties and beat the Persians, becomes almost incomprehensible.
From the report of Colonel Karyagin to Prince Tsitsianov dated June 26, 1805: “Major Kotlyarevsky was sent by me three times to drive away the enemy who was in front and occupied elevated places, drove away strong crowds of them with courage. Captain Parfenov, Captain Klyukin, throughout the battle, on different occasions, were sent by me with riflemen and struck the enemy with fearlessness.”
In order not to lose the only source of water, in one of these forays on the night of June 27, soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Ladinsky (according to other information - Lieutenant Klyukin and Second Lieutenant Prince Tumanov), penetrated even to the Persian camp itself and, having captured four batteries on Askoran, They not only destroyed the batteries and obtained water, but also brought with them fifteen falconets. However, this did not save the situation. It must be said that by this day 350 people remained in the detachment, and half had wounds of varying degrees of severity.
The success of this foray exceeded Karyagin’s wildest expectations. He went out to thank the brave huntsmen, but, unable to find words, ended up kissing them all in front of the whole detachment. Unfortunately, Ladinsky, who survived the enemy batteries during his daring feat, was seriously wounded by a Persian bullet in his own camp the next day.
For four days a handful of heroes stood face to face with the Persian army, but on the fifth 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. At dawn on June 27, the main forces of the Persians arrived to storm the camp. The attacks were again carried out throughout the day. In this extreme situation, Karyagin decided to send forty people to forage in the nearest villages so that they could get meat, and if possible, bread. At four o'clock in the afternoon an incident occurred that would forever remain a black spot in the glorious history of the regiment. The foraging team went under the command of an officer who did not inspire much confidence in himself. It was a foreigner of unknown nationality, who called himself by the Russian surname Lisenkov (Lysenko); He alone of the entire detachment was apparently burdened by his position. Subsequently, from the intercepted correspondence it turned out that he was indeed a French spy. Lieutenant Lisenko and six lower ranks ran over to the enemy.
By dawn on the twenty-eighth, only six people from the sent team appeared - 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 our guns, take off our ammunition and walk through the huts. I reported to him that it is not good to do this in enemy land, because at any moment the enemy might come running. But the lieutenant shouted at me and said that we had nothing to fear. I dismissed the people, and, as if sensing something evil, I climbed onto the mound and began to examine the surroundings. Suddenly I see the Persian cavalry galloping... “Well,” I think, “it’s bad!” He 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 quickly get their guns out. Somehow I managed to do this, and we gathered in a heap and 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 came after us, but we received them in such a way that they soon left us alone.”
There are other versions of this event - Lysenko’s betrayal. This was an officer who distinguished himself during the storming of Ganja and in the battle of June 24, 1805 in repelling Pir-Kuli Khan, when Karyagin himself recommended him “especially,” just two days before his betrayal. In view of this, it seems more likely to admit simply carelessness on Lysenko’s part. It is noteworthy that about future fate Lysenko there is no positive information.
Having received information from defectors about the difficult situation of the Russians, Abbas Mirza launched his troops into a decisive assault, but, having suffered heavy losses, was forced to abandon further attempts to break the resistance of a desperate handful of people.
The fatal failure with foraging made a striking impression on the detachment, which lost thirty-five selected young men from the small number of people remaining after the defense. At night, 19 more soldiers ran over to the Persians.
But Karyagin’s energy did not waver. After fighting for another day, Karyagin began to suspect that he would not be able to kill the entire Persian army with 300 Russians. Realizing the gravity of the situation, and the fact that the transition of his comrades to the enemy creates unhealthy moods among the soldiers, Colonel Karyagin decides to break through the encirclement and go to the river. Shah-Bulakh and occupy a small fortress standing on its shore. The commander of the detachment sent a report to Prince Tsitsianov, in which he wrote: “... in order not to expose the remainder of the detachment to complete and final destruction and to save people and guns, he made a firm decision to break through with courage through the numerous enemy who surrounded him on all sides...”.
The Armenian Yuzbash (melik Vani) undertook to be the detachment’s guide in this desperate enterprise. 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 a resident of Elizavetpol, whose son fell in love with Karyagin so much that he was always with him on all campaigns and, as we will see, played a prominent role in all of them. further events. Another favorable factor was the lack of proper guard duty among the Persian troops, when their camp location was never guarded at night.
Having left the convoy and buried the captured falconets, prayed to God, loaded the guns with grapeshot, took the wounded onto stretchers and quietly, without noise, at midnight on the twenty-ninth of June, set out from the camp on a new campaign. Due to the lack of horses, the huntsmen dragged the guns on straps. Only three wounded officers were riding on horseback: Karyagin, Kotlyarevsky and Lieutenant Ladinsky, and only because the soldiers themselves did not allow them to dismount, promising to pull out the guns in their hands where it was needed. And we will see further how honestly they fulfilled their promise.
At first they moved in complete silence, then there was a collision with an enemy cavalry patrol and the Persians rushed to catch up with the detachment. True, even on the march, attempts to destroy this wounded and mortally tired, but still fighting group, did not bring success to the Persians. Impenetrable darkness, a storm, and especially the dexterity of the guide once again saved Karyagin’s detachment from the possibility of extermination. Moreover, most of the pursuers rushed to plunder the empty Russian camp. By daylight he was already at the walls of Shah-Bulakh, occupied by a small Persian garrison. According to legend, the Shah-Bulakh castle was built by Shah Nadir, and received its name from the stream that flowed nearby. There was a Persian garrison (150 people) under the command of Emir Khan and Fial Khan in the castle; the outskirts were occupied by enemy posts.
Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was still sleeping there, not thinking about the proximity of the Russians, Karyagin fired a volley from his guns, smashed the iron gates and, rushing to attack, captured the fortress in ten minutes. Its leader, Emir Khan, a relative of the crown Persian prince, was killed, and his body remained in the hands of the Russians. The garrison fled. In a report dated June 28, 1805, Karyagin reported: “... the fortress was taken, the enemy was driven out of it and from the forest with little loss on our part. Both khans were killed on the enemy side... Having settled down in the fortress, I await the commands of your Excellency.” By evening there were only 179 men in the ranks and 45 gun charges. Having learned about this, Prince Tsitsianov wrote to Karyagin: “In unprecedented despair, I ask you to reinforce the soldiers, and I ask God to reinforce you.”
The Russians barely had time to repair the gate when the main Persian forces appeared, concerned about the disappearance of their beloved Russian detachment. Abbas Mirza tried to knock the Russians out of the fortification on the move, but his troops suffered losses and were forced to blockade. But this was not the end. Not even the beginning of the end. After taking inventory of the property remaining in the fortress, it turned out that there was no food. And that the food train had to be abandoned during the breakout from the encirclement, so there was nothing to eat. At all. At all. At all. For four days the besieged ate grass and horse meat, but finally these meager supplies were eaten.
The same melik Vanya, whom Popov calls “The Good Genius of the Detachment,” volunteered to get the supplies. The most amazing thing is that the brave Armenian coped with this task superbly; repeated operations also bore fruit. Several such excursions allowed Karyagin to hold out for another whole week without going to extremes. But the position of the detachment became more and more difficult. Convinced that the Russians were in a trap, Abbas Mirza invited them to lay down their arms in exchange for great rewards and honors if Karyagin agreed to go into Persian service and surrender Shah-Bulakh, and promising that not the slightest offense would be caused to any of the Russians. Karyagin asked for four days to think, but so that Abbas Mirza would provide the Russians with food supplies during all these days. Abbas Mirza agreed, and the Russian detachment, regularly receiving everything it needed from the Persians, rested and recovered.
Meanwhile, the last day of the truce had expired, and in the evening Abbas Mirza sent to ask Karyagin about his decision. “Tomorrow morning let His Highness occupy Shah-Bulakh,” replied Karyagin. As we will see, he kept his word. Karyagin decides to take an even more incredible step, to break through the hordes of the enemy to the Mukhrat fortress, which is not occupied by the Persians.
It is said that there was once an angel in Heaven who was in charge of monitoring the impossibility. This angel died on July 7 at 10 p.m., when Karyagin set out with a detachment, led by Yuzbash, from the fortress to storm the next, even larger fortress, Mukhrat, which, due to its mountainous location and proximity to Elizavetpol, was more convenient for defense. It is important to understand that by July 7, the detachment had been fighting continuously for the 13th day.
Using roundabout roads, through the mountains and slums, the detachment managed to bypass the Persian posts so secretly 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. Even the soldiers who remained calling to each other on the walls managed to escape from the Persians and catch up with the detachment.
If Karyagin and his soldiers had not been imbued with a truly heroic spirit, then, it seems, local difficulties alone would have been 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.
On the route of the detachment, a deep ravine or ravine arose (according to the description of Lieutenant Gorshkov - the bed of the Kabartu-chai River) with steep slopes. People and horses could overcome it, but guns?
Guys! - the battalion singer Sidorov suddenly shouted. - Why stand and think? You can’t take the city standing, better listen to what I tell you: our brother has a gun - a lady, and the lady needs help; So let’s roll her over with guns.”
Private Gavrila Sidorov jumped to the bottom of the ditch, followed by a dozen more soldiers.
There are several versions of this episode: “... the detachment continued to move, calmly and unhindered, until the two cannons that were with it were stopped by a small ditch. There was no forest nearby to make a bridge; four soldiers volunteered to help the cause, crossed themselves, lay down in the ditch and transported the guns along them. Two survived, and two paid with their lives for heroic self-sacrifice.” In an earlier book, Potto retells the description as follows: guns were stuck into the ground with bayonets as a kind of piles, other guns were placed on them as crossbars, and the soldiers supported them with their shoulders; During the crossing, the second cannon fell off and hit two soldiers, including Sidorov, on the head with its wheel. The soldier only had time to say: “Farewell, brothers, do not think ill of me and pray for me, a sinner.”
No matter how much the detachment was in a hurry to retreat, the soldiers managed to dig a deep grave into which the officers lowered the bodies of their dead colleagues in their arms.
On July 8, the detachment arrived in Ksapet, from here Karyagin sent forward carts with the wounded under the command of Kotlyarevsky, and he himself followed them. Three versts from Mukhrat the Persians rushed at the column, but were repulsed by fire and bayonets. One of the officers recalled: “... but as soon as Kotlyarevsky managed to move away from us, we were brutally attacked by several thousand Persians, and their onslaught was so strong and sudden that they managed to capture both of our guns. This is no longer a thing. Karyagin shouted: “Guys, go ahead, go save the guns!” Everyone rushed like lions, and immediately our bayonets opened the road.” Trying to cut off the Russians from the fortress, Abbas Mirza sent a cavalry detachment to capture it, but the Persians failed here too. Kotlyarevsky's disabled team drove back the Persian horsemen. In the evening, Karyagin also came to Mukhrat; according to Bobrovsky, this happened at 12.00.
Only now 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 inform you that when fighting the enemy, they do not seek mercy except traitors; and I, who have turned gray under arms, will consider it a blessing to shed my blood in the service of His Imperial Majesty.”
In Mukhrat, the detachment enjoyed comparative peace and contentment. And Prince Tsitsianov, having received a report on July 9, assembled a detachment of 2371 people with 10 guns and went out to meet Karyagin. On July 15, Prince Tsitsianov’s detachment, having driven the Persians back from the Tertara River, set up camp near the village of Mardagishti. Having learned about this, Karyagin leaves Mukhrat at night and goes to the village of Mazdygert to connect with his commander.
There the commander-in-chief received him with extreme military honors. All the troops, dressed in full dress uniform, were lined up in a deployed front, and when the remnants of the brave detachment appeared, Tsitsianov himself commanded: “On guard!” “Hurray!” thundered through the ranks, drums beat the march, banners bowed...
It must be said that as soon as Tsitsianov left Elizavetpol, Abbas-Mirza, counting on the weakness of the garrison left there, broke into the Elizavetpol district and rushed to the city. Although Karyagin was exhausted from the wounds received at Askorani, the sense of duty was so strong in him that, a few days later, the colonel, neglecting his illness, again stood face to face with Abbas Mirza. The rumor about Karyagin’s approach to Elizavetpol forced Abbas Mirza to avoid meeting with Russian troops. And near Shamkhor, Karyagin, with a detachment not exceeding six hundred bayonets, put the Persians to flight. This is the finale that ended the Persian campaign of 1805. “You are accomplishing fabulous deeds,” Count Rostopchin wrote to Prince Pavel Tsitsianov, “hearing about them, you marvel at them and rejoice that the name of the Russians and Tsitsianov thunders in distant countries...”
Having completed this amazing march, Colonel Karyagin’s detachment attracted the attention of almost 20,000 Persians for three weeks and did not allow them to go into the interior of the country. The courage of Colonel Karyagin bore enormous fruit. By detaining the Persians in Karabagh, it saved Georgia from being flooded by its Persian hordes and made it possible for Prince Tsitsianov to gather troops scattered along the borders and open an offensive campaign. And although in February 1806 Prince Tsitsianov was treacherously killed during the alleged transfer of the keys to the city of Baku, in general the campaign of 1805 ended with Russia’s conquest of the Sheki, Shirvan, Kuban and Karabakh (and in October 1806, Baku) khanates.
For his campaign, Colonel Karyagin was awarded a gold sword with the inscription “For bravery.” Major Kotlyarevsky was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree, and the surviving officers were awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. Avanes Yuzbashi (melik Vani) was not left without a reward; he was promoted to ensign and received gold medal and 200 rubles in silver for a lifelong pension. The feat of Private Sidorov in 1892, the year of the 250th anniversary of the regiment, was immortalized in a monument erected at the headquarters of the Erivan Manglis.
Continuous campaigns, wounds, and especially fatigue during the winter campaign of 1806 upset Karyagin’s health. He fell ill with a fever that turned into yellow putrid fever, and on May 7, 1807, this “gray-haired under arms” hero passed away (excluded from the army lists on July 31, 1807). His last award was the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree, received a few days before his death. Historian Caucasian War V.A. Potto wrote: “Amazed by his heroic exploits, the fighting offspring gave Karyagin’s personality a majestic legendary character, creating from him the favorite type in the military Caucasian epic.”
Finally, a painting by F.A. Roubaud (1856-1928) “The Living Bridge, an episode from Colonel Karyagin’s campaign to Muhrat in 1805,” created by a battle painter for the Tiflis museum, which depicts an embellished image of this event of the campaign (“The path was blocked by a deep ravine, which could be overcome by the two guns in the detachment They couldn’t. There was neither time nor materials for building the bridge. Then Private Gavrila Sidorov, with the words: “The gun is a soldier’s lady, we need to help her,” ten more people rushed after him. The guns were transported over the bodies of the soldiers. At the same time, Sidorov himself died from a cranial injury."). Not surprising, because the picture was painted by the artist in 1892, and was first demonstrated 93 years after the campaign - in 1898. From statements on one military-historical forum: “It is not clear why Roubaud’s guns lie to the side, instead of putting them on top and distributing them load. And then you can see how one crazy person actually lay down under the wheels with his stomach up”; “The horses had already been eaten, the guns were dragged along the mountain paths by the soldiers themselves”; “Rubeau’s is heightened for drama, although, in my opinion, there was already enough of that.”
P.S. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a portrait of Karyagin, but I found a portrait of Kotlyarevsky.
On June 24, 214 years ago, a detachment of Colonel Pavel Mikhailovich Karyagin - 493 rangers (translated from German as hunters, a type of infantry that operated small detachments). Then there will be 3 weeks of continuous battle with 20 thousand Persians and simply magical examples of the famous Suvorov style (continuous maneuver, unexpected actions on the counter and a bayonet attack). 150 rangers will survive (among them the heroes of the Caucasian War Pyotr Ladinsky and Pyotr Kotlyarevsky) and Karyagin himself, wounded three times. Well, yes, as a result of this incredible raid, Georgia will be saved. We all love to watch films about heroism that Hollywood shows us: “300 Spartans”, “ The Last Samurai", "Commando", "The Expendables", etc. But this story is really cooler.
This happened during the Russian-Persian War (1804-1813). Even before this episode, 48-year-old Colonel Karyagin was known as a brave commander who always acted proactively. With the same Major Lisanevich, he showed himself powerfully during the assault on Ganja in January 1804, playing a key role in the success of the assault. Karyagin's unit had to simulate an attack in order to divert the enemy's attention from the main attack. But the attack of the main forces fizzled out, and then Karyagin and his soldiers climbed onto the walls of the fortress where no one was waiting for them, made their way down to the gate (at the same time Lisanevich hacked to death the head of the Ganja Khanate, Javad Khan), and opened the gate from the inside, which is what they decided outcome of the assault.
And it was precisely Karyagin’s detachment that Prince Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov sent to help Lisanevich. Not because he was his army friend, of course. There was simply no one else. At the disposal of Tsitsianov, who at that moment headed the Russian troops in the Transcaucasus, half of the two thousand on the payroll were lying with a fever. A descendant of a noble Armenian family, Hovhannes, who became friends with Karyagin in Ganja, volunteered to guide the detachment.
Three days later, not far from the Shahbulag fortress (modern Nagorno-Karabakh) Karyagin was attacked by a Persian vanguard of four thousand horsemen led by the fierce Pir-Kuli Khan, who was right hand 16-year-old Persian Crown Prince Abbas Mirza. But the rangers, having formed a square, continued to move forward, repelling attack after attack. However, when the main forces of the Persian army arrived - 20 thousand people led by Abbas Mirza - it became impossible for the Russian detachment to continue further movement. Karyagin, looking around, ordered to occupy a high mound with a Tatar cemetery spread out on it on the banks of the Askeran - a place convenient for defense.
As soon as the rangers hastily dug in a ditch and blocked all access to the mound with carts from their convoy, the Persians again went on the attack. Fierce attacks followed one after another without a break until nightfall. Karyagin held the cemetery, but this cost the detachment the lives of 197 people.
The Persian losses were also enormous. And Abbas Mirza, not wanting to lose people in vain, ordered water to be taken away from the besieged and placed four falconette batteries above the river itself, which fired at the camp day and night.
Soon the position of the detachment became unbearable, only 150 combat-ready rangers remained, Karyagin (at that time already wounded in the chest, side and head) gave the order for a night sortie for water, led by the hero of the Caucasian War, Lieutenant Pyotr Ladinsky. In a terrible bayonet attack, several hundred Persians were killed, and the rangers, without losing a single person, not only obtained water, but also took with them all fifteen falconets.
But the detachment suffered significantly greater losses the next day, when Karyagin sent 40 people to the nearest villages for food under the command of a certain lieutenant Lisenkov. By dawn, only six returned with the news of Lisenkov’s betrayal, who ordered the collection of food, laying down their arms - at that moment the Russians were attacked.
A search of the lieutenant's personal belongings showed that he was a French agent. France, interested in Russia's defeat in the Caucasus, did not sit idly by.
At the military council, Karyagin decided to storm the nearby Shakhbulag fortress. And there was no other choice, since the cartridges had run out, and there were only 19 charges left for the guns.
At midnight on June 28, leaving the convoy to be plundered by the enemy, the soldiers, having prayed to God, loaded the guns with grapeshot and taken the wounded onto stretchers, quietly set out from the camp. Almost all the horses were killed, the three remaining were ridden by the wounded Karyagin, Kotlyarevsky and Ladinsky, and the huntsman’s guns were dragged on straps.
Taking advantage of the darkness of the night and the mountain slums, Hovhannes led the detachment completely silently. The Persians noticed the disappearance of the detachment and followed the trail, but impenetrable darkness and a storm saved the detachment from trouble.
And in the morning, the huntsmen with a salvo from two guns smashed the iron gates of Shahbulag, the soldiers, rushing into a bayonet attack, took possession of the fortress within 10 minutes, and Emir Khan, who was the nephew of Abbas Mirza, died during the assault.
As soon as the rangers occupied the fortress, the entire Persian army appeared at its gates, literally on its heels. Karyagin began to prepare for battle - fortunately, there was an abundance of gunpowder and bullets in the fortress, but a few hours later, instead of assault columns, Persian envoys appeared in front of the castle walls, through whom Abbas Mirza asked to hand over his murdered relative.
Karyagin replied that he could exchange his nephew’s body for the soldiers captured in Lisenkov’s expedition and Lisenkov himself. The parliamentarian, however, said that this was impossible, since everyone was killed. This was a lie, since Lisenkov himself was in the Persian camp. Nevertheless, Karyagin ordered the body of the murdered khan to be handed over, adding: “Tell the prince that I believe him, but we have an old proverb: whoever lies, let him be ashamed, - the heir to the vast Persian monarchy, of course, will not want to blush in front of us.” " 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 Russian huntsmen ate grass and horse meat, when Hovhannes suggested sneaking into the Armenian village. The huntsmen crept into the village, left a message for Tsitsianov about the position of the detachment, and returned back with two bags of provisions.
The supply is enough for a day, Hovhannes leads the rangers on a new foray for food, during the third foray the Russian column stumbles upon an enemy horse patrol, but, taking advantage of the thick fog, in a few seconds exterminates all the Persians without a single shot, with only bayonets, taking the horses with them, the blood falls asleep on the ground, and the dead are dragged into the ravine.
Several such forays made it possible to hold out for another whole week! Then Abbas Mirza, having lost patience, offers Karyagin rewards and honors if he agrees to go over to the Persians and surrender Shahbulag, promising that none of the rangers will be harmed. Karyagin asks for four days to think - on the condition that the Persians will supply them with food all these days.
By the evening of the fourth day of the truce, Abbas Mirza sends a parliamentarian to ask about the decision, and Karyagin gives him his word that tomorrow Abbas Mirza will be able to occupy Shahbulag.
But as soon as night falls, the entire detachment leaves Shahbulag, deciding to move to the Muhrat fortress, which, due to its mountainous location and proximity to Ganja, is more convenient for defense.
Karyagin leaves several rangers in Shakhbulag, who must imitate the activity (by the way, they managed to leave alive, having completed the task). Using roundabout roads, the main detachment manages to bypass the Persian posts so secretly that the enemy notices Karyagin’s trick only in the morning, when Kotlyarevsky’s vanguard, composed exclusively of wounded soldiers and officers, was already in Mukhrat.
When the detachment's path crosses a deep ravine, battalion singer Gavrila Sidorov suggests making a living bridge and is the first to jump into the ditch. The first cannon flies over without any problems, but the second one breaks down, as a result Gavrila and another huntsman die. It is this episode that is depicted in the painting “The Living Bridge” by Franz Roubaud.
No matter how much the detachment is in a hurry to retreat, the soldiers still bury their comrades in arms in a deep grave.
Already on the approach to Mukhrat, the Persians overtake the detachment, a difficult battle ensues, and Russian guns change hands several times. But in the end, having repelled the attacks, the rangers with cannons enter Mukhrat, and it is the cannons that allow Karyagin to hold the fortress while Prince Tsitsianov rushes to his aid, who managed to gather 2,371 men and 10 guns.
Having driven the Persians back from the Terter River, Tsitsianov’s detachment camped near the village of Mazdygert. Having learned about this, Karyagin leaves Mukhrat at night and moves to Mazdagert, where he reunites with his people.
It was the fact that Karyagin’s detachment chained such significant Persian forces to itself for three whole weeks that allowed Prince Tsitsianov to group his forces and inflict one defeat after another on the Persians, which decided the outcome of this campaign.
Two weeks after the events described, a small Russian transport traveling from Tiflis to Ganja was attacked by five thousand fighters of Pir-Kuli Khan and surrounded it from all sides. The head of transport, Lieutenant Dontsov, responds to the proposal to lay down arms: “We will die, but we will not surrender!”
But it was at this moment that Karyagin, passing by, intervened with his battalion. Russian rangers quickly attacked the main camp of the Persians, took possession of the battery, turned the recaptured cannons towards the enemy and opened fire.
The Persians, only hearing that the same Karyagin was attacking them, retreated in horror.
For this campaign, Karyagin received a golden sword with the inscription “For bravery.” Continuous campaigns, wounds, and especially fatigue during the winter campaign of 1806 upset Karyagin’s health. He fell ill with a fever, and on May 7, 1807, this “gray-haired under arms” hero passed away.
P.S. This incredible story has interested me for a long time, and while studying at the Screenwriting Workshop of Alexander Molchanov in 2015, I wrote a pilot for the 8-episode film “Colonel Karyagin’s Detachment.” During the same period, I wrote three more scripts for Molchanov: “Team” (a full-length film about the battle between scooter riders and aliens), “The King of Judo” (an adaptation of a children’s story by Albert Ivanov) and a short film “Bright Blue Fingers.” I sent all these scripts to the VIII Pitching of Debutants, which was held by the Youth Center of the Union of Cinematographers. But imagine my surprise when “Colonel Karyagin’s Detachment” was not included in the long list of this competition! And for the script “Bright Blue Fingers” I received an incentive prize - a consultation with Ilya Sherstobitov, screenwriter and producer.
Ilya told me why “Colonel Karyagin’s Detachment” in the form in which I submitted it did not interest the jury. First of all, because this is a series. After the experience of the series “Bayazet”, no one will dare to shoot such an expensive costume series. This is a plot for a feature film. But here, too, this project is promising only in the form of a franchise, for example, “Victory of Russian Weapons.” History knows many stunning victories of Russian weapons, when, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, Russian soldiers defeated the enemy - Ataman Platov, the Azov Seat, the defense of Albazin, the siege of Smolensk, Suvorov's raids, the Osovets fortress (Attack of the Dead) and much more. You can’t count on two hands the numerous episodes in which the Russian army emerged victorious precisely due to the highest military skill and fortitude.
By the way, it is curious that in Karyagin’s detachment there was an ancestor of the famous film director, head of the Mosfilm film concern Karen Shakhnazarov, which was first reported by the children’s federal publication “Cool Magazine” https://www.classmag.ru/news/20099436