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Russo-Persian War (1826–1828)

The Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828[b] was the last major military conflict between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran, which was fought over territorial disputes in the South Caucasus region.

Initiated by Russian expansionist aims and intensified by Iranian resistance, the war witnessed significant military engagements, including the Battle of Ganja and Capture of Erivan. The Iranians were initially successful, catching the Russian forces of Yermolov off-guard. They were aided by local uprisings against Russian garrisons in Talish, Ganja, Shirvan, Shakki, and other areas. However Russian reinforcements under the newly appointed General Ivan Paskevich turned the war decisively in Russia's favor, capturing the important city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran.


The war concluded with the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, which stripped Iran of its last remaining territories in the Caucasus, which comprised all of modern Armenia, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Iğdır Province in Turkey. The treaty also allowed Russia a say in Iranian politics, as the Iranian shah (king) now required Russia's acknowledgment of the person he wanted to name as heir apparent.


Iran was potentially saved from further loss and submission, possibly even from losing all of Iranian Azerbaijan or even becoming a Russian vassal, either due to the persistence of the Iranian negotiators with the help of the British or the Russians' desire to quickly make peace since another war with the Ottomans was likely nearing. After the war, the Qajar state would never again face Russia on an equal footing or be treated as an equal by European countries.

Background[edit]

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834), the second shah (king) of Iran's newly found Qajar dynasty, was embroiled in a conflict with Russia over the Caucasus as soon as he came to power in 1797. After many years of being subject to Iranian rule, the Christian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (located in Eastern Georgia) decided to reject their rule. It made the decision to look to Russia for defense against Iran after rejecting rule by the Qajars. Since the previous shah Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797) had been slain in the Caucasus during a military campaign, this was an important matter for the Qajar dynasty.[1]


The reign of the Russian tsar (emperor) Alexander I (r. 1801–1825) saw an increased desire on the part of the Russians to increase their presence and influence in the Caucasus, where they had already shown interest since the 1760s. Any infringement of Iran's control over the Caucasus was not something that the Qajar administration could just ignore. Since 1502, Iran had controlled the Caucasus and the Iranians saw it as a natural extension of their country. The war of 1804–1813 soon erupted between the two countries as result of the Russian invasion of the Iranian city Ganja and massacre of its residents.[1]


The Iranians ended losing the war and forced to sign the Treaty of Gulistan. Per the terms of the treaty, Iran conceded to Russia the sultanates of Shamshadil, Qazzaq, Shuragol, and the khanates of Baku, Derbent, Ganja, Shakki, Quba, Shirvan, Karabakh, and the northern and central part of Talish.[2][3] Moreover, Iran also had to abandon its claims over Georgia.[4]


The treaty's territorial arrangements were unclear, for example, in Talish, where it was left up to the mutually appointed administrators to "determine what mountains, rivers, lakes, villages, and fields shall mark the line of frontier." If one of the participants to the treaty felt that the other party had "infringed on" territorial possessions claimed in accordance with the status quo principle, even the limits laid forth in the treaty could be changed. This essentially ensured that territorial conflicts would persist after the treaty's authorization. The region between Lake Gokcha and the city of Erivan remained one of the most disputable.[5]

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I.B. Tauris

Amanat, Abbas (2017). Iran: A Modern History. Yale University Press.  978-0300112542.

ISBN

(2023). Iran at War: Interactions with the Modern World and the Struggle with Imperial Russia. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0755637379.

Behrooz, Maziar

(1992). The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule: 1795–1828. Mazda Publishers. ISBN 978-0939214181.

Bournoutian, George

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Taylor & Francis

Bournoutian, George (2021). From the Kur to the Aras: A Military History of Russia's Move into the South Caucasus and the First Russo-Iranian War, 1801–1813. . ISBN 978-9004445154.

Brill

Cronin, Stephanie, ed. (2013). Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions since 1800. Routledge.  978-0415624336.

ISBN

Daniel, Elton L. (2001). . In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume XI/1: Giōni–Golšani. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 86–90. ISBN 978-0-933273-60-3.

"Golestān Treaty"

(2014). Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1850432708.

Kashani-Sabet, Firoozeh

Hambly, Gavin R. G. (1991). "Iran during the reigns of Fath 'Alī Shāh and Muhammad Shāh". In ; Hambly, Gavin R. G.; Melville, Charles Peter (eds.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 144–173. ISBN 0-521-20095-4.

Avery, Peter

Pourjavady, Reza (2023). . Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 20. Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus (1800-1914). Brill.

"Russo-Iranian wars 1804-13 and 1826-8"

(1997). Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52158-336-7.

Tapper, Richard