The three-week siege of the small fortress of Bayazet in June 1877 entered not only the history of the Russian army, but also literature. Thanks to the novel "Bayazet" by Valentin Pikul, this story became widely known. However, the novelist, in the interests of the plot, seriously changed the story and remade the images of the characters. Meanwhile real story the siege of the fortress is no less interesting and dramatic than the book.
Today's Dogubayazit is a small town in the very east of Turkey, near the border with Armenia. The days of its fame and fortune are long gone, but centuries ago it was teeming with life. The first settlement and fortress appeared there in the era ancient world. Almost unrecognizable ruins of fortifications from the times of the kingdom of Urartu can be seen in our time. Later, there was a fortress of the Armenian kingdom, and in the Middle Ages, the Turks built another citadel, which stood for hundreds of years. To XIX century this fortress, of course, is long outdated.
Built to defend against catapult fire, it could not protect against artillery fire. However, this did not affect the well-being of the town, spread out at the foot of the fortress. Bayazet is well located on the trade route. True, in the middle of the 19th century, trade routes changed and Bayazet turned into a tree without roots. Many merchants and ordinary inhabitants left the city, Bayazet became impoverished. However, the fortress still towered among the rocks. Now it was primarily a citadel. True, the Turks did not really care about fortification work.
In 1877, Russia launched a war against Turkey for the liberation of the Balkan Christians. The Erivan detachment of the Russian army was advancing on Bayazet. There were no battles near the city then. On April 19, the city, already abandoned by the Turkish troops, was occupied by the soldiers of General Tergukasov. Tergukasov, not finding enemy soldiers in the city, left with the main forces to the west, and left a small garrison and a hospital in Bayazet.
Service in Bayazet did not promise anything interesting. A dusty town, sleepy silence is resounded only by the muezzin's daily chants. However, at the end of spring, vague rumors spread around the city about the appearance of Turkish detachments in the vicinity. Lieutenant Colonel Kovalevsky, who commanded a detachment of Russian troops in Bayazet, sent an alarming report to his superiors, and a reconnaissance detachment went into the mountains.
The scouts found no one and returned in a complacent mood. Kovalevsky himself was soon to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, so that the old commandant was already mentally sitting on his suitcases. Meanwhile, Turkish detachments were accumulating in the vicinity of Bayazet. Turkish agents operated in the city. The Russians arrested a number of agents, seized a telegraph machine and weapons, but they failed to catch all the scouts.
It was at this moment that Kovalevsky's wife, Alexandra, arrived in Bayazet. Unlike the novel heroine, the real wife of the commandant did not play any intrigues and behaved, by all accounts, in an exemplary manner.
Patsevich, who had come to take over business, decided to arrange a reconnaissance in the direction of Van. The reconnaissance took place - and ended with the encirclement of the weak detachment of Patsevich and Kovalevsky by the Turks. Thanks to the courage and discipline of the soldiers and officers, the detachment made its way back to Bayazet, but Kovalevsky received two bullet wounds in the stomach and quickly died.
The Russians showed a somewhat strange carelessness: no food and water supplies were made in the Bayazet citadel. Until the last moment, everything was delivered to the city in the current mode. Only a few days before the complete encirclement of the citadel, the commanders bothered to create at least small warehouses, and the water situation from the very beginning was almost catastrophic. However, almost all the people were taken outside the walls, including part of the Erivan militia detachment under the command of Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan.
In the novel, he is endowed with various vices, but in reality, Ismail Khan turned out to be a brave and efficient commander, one of the key figures in further defense. In Bayazet, along with him, was his son, who received a serious wound during a breakthrough into the citadel.
The Ottoman cavalry rolled down from the mountains. In the detachment that besieged the one and a half thousandth garrison of Bayazet, there were 11 thousand sabers. Moreover, in the course of the siege, new detachments approached Bayazet. The besieged had only nine days of food. The mood was the darkest. The widow of lieutenant colonel Kovalevsky even agreed with one of the doctors that if the Turks burst inside, the doctor would shoot her.
The commandant of the citadel was Captain Shtokvich, in addition, the troops as a whole were led by Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich. The fortress, occupied by the Russians, offered little protection. There were no parapets on the walls. Fortunately, the extreme weakness of the artillery of the besiegers did not allow them to simply break the walls with fire.
The Russians were perfecting their simple fortification with might and main. The gates were barricaded, the windows were blocked with stones, parapets were built at all positions for people and guns. The night passed in alarm: in the city itself, the Turks slaughtered the Gentiles. At the same time, they killed several militias who did not have time to hide in the citadel. There were skirmishes with the garrison itself.
On June 19, the Turks and Kurds began to bombard the citadel with small cannons and rifles. The garrison was given an ultimatum, which was not accepted. And the next day the assault followed.
The Turks actively, but without much result, fired, and at noon they threw people to storm the citadel. At that moment, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich lost his nerve, and he ordered the white flag to be thrown out. A soldier with a cloth climbed onto the roof. This was the critical moment of the siege. Chaos reigned. Enraged officers yelled at each other, figuring out whether to follow orders or continue fighting. Many simply did not believe that the white flag could be raised seriously, and continued to fire.
The firing from the fortress then subsided, then began again. The flag was torn down. Patsevich ran around the courtyard of the citadel, trying to stop the shooting at gunpoint. The Cossack foreman Kvanin without fuss took away the white flag from another soldier sent by Patsevich. Several officers had already decided to descend from the wall and punch a way with bayonets if there was to be a surrender. The irregulars began to break down the barricade in front of the gate, but behind it there was already a cannon aimed at the opening. The gunners were going to hit anyone who came inside with grapeshot and then fight with cold steel, but at that moment someone mortally wounded Patsevich.
The recollections of Ismail Khan and the Cossack sergeant who was present at the event leave no doubt that the unlucky lieutenant colonel was laid down from the inside: Patsevich was wounded in the back. Who fired the shot, they could not establish, and did not want to. Ismail Khan summed up the overall result: "The family has its black sheep."
The chaos lasted only a few minutes, after which a wave of fire fell on the Turks and Kurds trampling under the walls. Rapid-firing rifles tore holes through the dense crowd, the screams of the dying mingled with curses and roar. The attack faltered. At the request of the Russians, three hundred bodies remained under the walls.
A number of Caucasian irregular militias became victims on the Russian side. These unfortunates began to surrender when Patsevich raised the white flag, but the Turks did not even wait for the entire garrison to capitulate, and killed them on the spot. It is easy to imagine what would have happened if the Russians still opened the gates and capitulated everything.
After that, the defense was headed by Shtokvich and Ismail Khan. The first was formally lower in rank, but held the position of commandant and thus had the right to direct the actions of the garrison. One of the first orders was to send a truce to the Turks. Those were offered to remove the corpses of their soldiers from under the walls.
The assault failed, now it was necessary to resist against a more terrible enemy. People were thirsty. It was close to the river, but the bank was shot through. Volunteers with buckets and jugs constantly descended the ropes or climbed out through a gap in the wall. The Turks tried to shoot the water carriers, and from the loopholes they were already hitting them. These sorties were incredibly risky business, others paid with their lives for trying to save their comrades. However, there were always volunteers.
The reward was the opportunity to drink from the river. Shtokvich, seeing the success of these campaigns, arranged a sortie. The Russians fought hand-to-hand with the Turks, with sabers and bayonets, and withdrew, only having properly stocked up on precious water. After that, the enraged Turks filled up the river upstream with corpses. The Russians added bodies to them: marauders walked around the city, but they became vulnerable when they tried to drive away donkeys with looted goods from there. These drivers were shot by snipers from the fortress. Although the Turks did not climb into a decisive assault, the exchange of fire went on constantly.
One day, the defenders of Bayazet noticed a Russian detachment in the distance. What a disappointment, it was just intelligence! Soon a new truce came to the citadel - a defector. He declared that if the Russians did not surrender, they would be hanged. Ismail Khan announced that the envoy would be hanged and the white flag would not allow treason to escape punishment. The traitor was pulled up, and after new attempts to send an ultimatum to the Turks, they promised that the new delegates would be shot.
However, Ismail Khan and Shtokvich were concerned about the question: do they know about the plight of the fortress outside? The first messengers could not reach the main forces, but a trinity of Cossacks, led by a constable Sivolobov, made their way through the outposts at night and was able to convey the news of the situation of the fortress to their own. And it got worse. Due to poor water, which was also lacking, epidemics slowly flared up in the garrison. True, the Turks could not take the fortress from the battle. An attempt to drag a heavy gun under the walls ended in a duel with a Russian cannon on the wall. The Russians knocked out the Turkish cannon with a second shot. The discouraged Turks retreated, a new assault did not take place.
On the night of July 7, one of the happiest events during the siege took place: heavy rain fell over Bayazet. Water filled all the containers they could, up to the boots. Thirst receded somewhat, but the Turks resumed furious shelling. The Ottomans tried to persuade the fortress to surrender as quickly as possible. Unlike the besieged, they already knew perfectly well that help was coming.
On July 9, in Bayazet, rumblings were heard in the distance. At first, they could not say for sure whether they were coming from their own. But on the 10th, at dawn, the bayonets of Tergukasov's detachment shone in front of Bayazet. It was salvation. The Turks still maintained some numerical superiority, but the Erivan detachment consisted entirely of disciplined, well-armed infantry, which the irregular Turkish-Kurdish cavalry could not oppose.
Finally, a detachment of the most staunch soldiers made a sortie out of the fortress. The fight did not last long. The siege cost the lives of 116 soldiers of the garrison, but all were extremely exhausted by disease, hunger and thirst. The fighters who left the citadel immediately rushed to the water. The saviors and the saved mingled. Someone slipped biscuits and meat to his comrades, someone changed into clean clothes after the siege. Only the captured Turks were not happy. They got a thankless job - to dismantle the dead and clean up the fortress. The widow of the deceased commander, Alexandra Kovalevskaya, came out of the citadel, leaning on the hand of an officer. Thus ended the defense of the citadel of Bayazet and the legend began.
The defense of Bayazet from the very beginning was in the focus of public attention. Emperor Alexander II was the first to demand a report on the defense of the citadel. During this siege, not everything was perfectly organized, but in the end the fortitude and martial art of the defenders led to complete success. Subsequently, the history of the defense of the fortress was repeatedly described in documentary and fiction and in itself has become almost a legend. Meanwhile, the spouses Kovalevsky, Shtokvich, Kvanin, Ismail Khan, Sivolobov are quite real and entered into the Russian military history one of its heroic pages.
20,000 Turks against 2300 Russian soldiers, 3 weeks of siege with virtually no food, water or weapons (twenty-seven guns against three).
We recall the defense of the Bayazet fortress, which largely determined the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878.
"Courage is a virtue by virtue of which people in danger do wonderful deeds." Aristotle
What do we know about the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878? Well, yes, Shipka, Plevna (a monument in Moscow, Muscovites are aware), the liberation of Bulgaria (which many of us now regret :). However, few people know the defense of the Bayazet fortress, where the Russian garrison of 2,300 people held out against the Turks of 20,000 people for 3 whole weeks, until help arrived.
About Bayazet Fortress
Initially, in the middle of the 4th century, the city of Arshakavan was built on the site of the fortress itself; it received its name in honor of the Armenian king Arshak II, who founded this city. The city itself did not last even a decade. The city resembled a citadel (fortress), which served as a post for the protection of the Silk Road, as well as a place to store the treasury and hide the royal family.
During the Ottoman era, the city was renamed bayazit. According to one version, the city got its name in honor of the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I ( "Fulminant"), who in 1400, during the war with Tamerlane, ordered the construction of a fortress on the site of the former Armenian city.
The citadel of Bayazet itself is more a castle than a fortress, but situated on a mountain with such difficult approaches that three or four infantry battalions with a few guns can withstand a long siege. Important conditions for a successful defense were the availability of supplies of provisions, water, ammunition and, of course, the enemy's lack of strong artillery.
Engraving by M. Rashevsky. Fortress Bayazet. In the history of the Russian-Turkish wars, Bayazet was at the center of the strategic attention of both countries. Russia sought to seize it, and Turkey - to prevent this. The Turkish garrison of Bayazet at that time consisted of two weak battalions with three mountain guns and sixty horsemen. Having learned about the approach of large Russian forces, the Turks left the citadel. So, without a single shot, Russian troops calmly settle in the citadel of paradise.
The Turks are advancing - the Russians are carousing
“Those who do not think about distant difficulties will inevitably face close troubles.” Confucius
General of the 3rd Caucasian Cavalry Division Amilakhori made the following entry in his diary:
“On a high mountain, the whole city spread out like an amphitheater, crowned with a beautiful castle, a mosque with a citadel. In the crypts of the castle there are magnificent marble tombs, where the ashes of the family of the former Pasha Bayazet rest. In honor of this pasha, the city itself, built by him, is named. The citadel breathes with moisture, in the middle of a vast pool a powerful spring beats. The city of Bayazet has about 600 houses and up to 6,000 inhabitants. There are three Armenian churches and two mosques. The whole Bayazet has the appearance of a labyrinth and is so cut up by impenetrable slums that it is difficult for neighbors to communicate with each other. Mostly in the city - houses of the Asian type and in a rare case - two-story. There is a brisk trade in Persian goods in the bazaar. At the foot of the mountain, on the outskirts of the city, orchards grow green. But the main attraction of the city is abundant springs with wonderful water.”
Let us remember that on the first day of his stay in the city of Bayazet, General Amilokhvari noted that the high-mountainous Bayazet is rich in abundant water sources, and therefore there can be no problems with it.
On the same day, April 18, 1877, honorary representatives of the Muslim and Armenian population were gathered in the citadel, the former governor's residence. They announced the transfer of the city to the power of the Sovereign Emperor of Russia. The Majlis was given the right to conduct its affairs as before, but the members of the Majlis, and through them the entire population of the city, were warned of loyalty to the new government.
The local population was calm about Russian newcomers. Life in the city was in full swing. The bright sun burned all day long, and there was a bazaar such as the world had never seen before. Russian officers, proud of the elegance of their uniforms, were daily "at the sight" of beautiful and treacherous local young ladies. Life seemed so sweet. Few people even thought that "the East is a delicate matter."
We must admit the fact that the troops, despite receiving information about the offensive of the Turks, did not take it seriously, exchanging for endless festivities and debauchery. Impunity during the war has always flourished - it's no secret. Partly because of all of the above, the Russian troops failed to properly prepare, not having time to adapt to rifle and artillery defense, which caused a large loss in people in the first days of the siege.
The walls remained unprotected, the guns and the soldiers themselves were an easy target for the Turks, and only in the battle itself did the soldiers make desperate attempts to hide, defend themselves with earthen bags ... Where did the army leadership look? It's simple - they were doing the same as the rest - drinking and relaxing, so to speak - "belligerently prosperous."
A little later, recollecting themselves from endless festivities, when the Turkish cavalry steals about 1000 heads of the herd in front of the very nose of the Russian soldiers - the courage dissipated, the heads sobered up - it became clear that this was the beginning ... They began to count provisions, soldiers, doctors, weapons ...
“Our detachment is indeed formed strangely: no money, no lifting equipment, no infirmaries, no provisions, no fodder, no monotonous weapons! Real Trishkin caftan! Poverty is the greatest, as if after the enemy pogrom. Looking from the outside, right, you might think that we did nothing exactly 20 years before, how we calmly rested on the Sevastopol laurels.
June 6, 1877 was approaching. This memorable day made many in the Bayazet garrison seriously reflect on the fact that human life is far from endless.
The stubbornness and reckless military spirit of Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, who decided on unthinkable stupidity, led to a fatal mistake in this battle. Late at night, Patsevich hurriedly convenes a military council of the heads of the garrison units to answer the age-old question: what to do?
It is difficult for us to judge what Patsevich believed in and what he hoped for - all this went with him to another world. The expansive nature of Patsevich left more than one puzzle to posterity.
And instead of taking advantage of precious time and taking care of strengthening the fortress and a number of other problems, he decides on a military sortie to counterbalance the superior army of the Turks. That is, in fact - not trusting any rumors and testimonies of scouts, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, as it were, decided to see for himself what kind of forces were sent to Bayazet. Having gathered a detachment, about 1200-1300 soldiers, Patsevich advanced in search of the main concentration of Turkish forces.
I will be brief: having traveled 17 versts of the way, Patsevich's garrison landed in the thick of the enemy's superior forces, and without taking proper measures found himself on a voluntary death. When the entire garrison began to be surrounded from three sides, it was decided to retreat to the side of the fortress. Retreating, fighting off a hail of bullets alone, the garrison was treacherously attacked by the local population.
"Fifth column" of local residents.
Expecting the arrival of the Turks, the Muslim population of Bayazet managed to quickly reorient itself and assumed the role of the “fifth column”. Each house on the way of the retreating to the citadel turned into an active loophole. From the windows of their houses, the population fired with might and main at the detachment of Patskeich. Partisan actions On the part of the townspeople, the detachment did not expect at all.
“The passage between the houses has become difficult for our business. There were cases when a soldier, sitting behind a wall or behind a pile of stones, focusing on the advancing enemy, died from some boy who crept up behind him.
His majesty "case"
So the Lord ordered that reinforcements approached Bayazet during the retreat - four hundred of the Erivan cavalry regiment, led by an experienced and already elderly commander, Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan. There were about 500 riders in total. Before the eyes of Ismail Khan, as if in the palm of your hand, a dramatic panorama of the retreating detachment of Patsevich and the Turkish Kurds pursuing him with wild, joyful cries opened up.
Ismail Khan had a few seconds to think. He hurried his hundreds and took an advantageous position, from which, with well-aimed fire, he began to counteract the bypass of the enemy cavalry. This attack by Ismail Khan was so unexpected that the bypass of the enemy was actually paralyzed. The entire right flank of the fleeing Russian detachment, where there were also wounded, got the opportunity for a safer retreat to Bayazet itself.
Shocked by the sudden attack of Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan, the enemy suspended his pursuit. At this time, infantrymen from the Crimean and Stavropol battalions arrived from the citadel to help Ismail Khan, who, with their fire attack on both sides of the road, facilitated the retreat.
The fact of Ismail Khan's feat, although with some inaccuracies, is recorded for history in the most authoritative military edition of the Russian Military Encyclopedia.
“Only thanks to the evacuation from the citadel of the newly arrived Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan with 2 hundred of the Erivan irregular cavalry regiment and both companies remaining in the city, the detachment could continue moving towards the city ..”
Later in his diaries, Ismail Khan recounts:
“At about 10 o’clock in the morning, we started a heated exchange of fire with the advanced crowds of Kurds, which were joined by the Turkish infantry around noon. Against my four hundreds of militia, just recruited from the villages and not yet disciplined, and besides, tired of insomnia and a sixty-verst night march, the Turks deployed a mass of several thousand, which continued to be strengthened by new and new crowds. Nevertheless, having used up all the cartridges, I sent to the fortress for reinforcements.
They sent me 25 people from there with an officer. While with this handful we withstood the hellish fire of the Turkish infantry, crowds of Kurds began to cover my flanks and even galloped to the rear. Fearing to be cut off from the fortress, I began to retreat, and the Kurds settled so vigorously that my hundreds seemed to melt away: many were killed, others were captured, and still others fled. Only 28 people remained with me with 4 officers, among whom was my son. Then I ordered my riders to put one soldier on my saddle, and in this form I jumped into the Bayazet citadel.
"Army of rams led by a lion will always triumph over armies of lions led by a ram."
In fairness, let's clarify the aphorism of Napoleon I Bonaparte to our case: there was also no lion at the head of the enemy army of many thousands. And thank God!
In Bayazet, it has already become known about the panicked retreat of Patsevich's detachment and its pursuit by hordes of Kurds and Turkish cavalry. As they approached the garrison, this nightmarish sight was clearly visible from the height of Bayazet and sowed confusion in the garrison. At the same time, a panic began at the gates of the citadel: in such a frenzied turmoil, one's own could involuntarily become more dangerous than the enemy.
As usual, difficulties and problems do not come alone. And as mentioned above, as a result of disorderly festivities, no one bothered to fill the pools and reservoirs with water. And the time was summer - the month of June. Nobody thought to bring water from the spring either. When they missed it, there was no more water, they drank it all on the very first day of the siege. In the future, volunteers extracted water under the shelling of the Turks, from the river under the walls of the fortress - soon the Turks threw the corpses of people and horses into the river, and the besieged drank this water - there was no choice.
At the end of the siege, one (!) Spoon of water per day was given out in the diet.
Meanwhile, as soon as the remnants of the detachment took refuge in the citadel, G. M. Patsevich, as if nothing had happened, as if there was no such confusion outside the window, enjoying tea, he thought about how to take revenge. He was thinking about a new operation - to push the Turks away from the citadel. Now Patsevich has foreseen everything, whom, how much and where to send. Of course, in the heat of the retreat, perhaps he did not appreciate the strength of the enemy. He may still have been in the throes of flight, but he was still in a relentless drive to attack the enemy and drive the Turks back from the citadel. Without a doubt, this brave and honest officer stubbornly acted only according to his own understanding.
Face to death
Almost the entire, miraculously remaining garrison of Bayazet, restless Patsevich, led out of the citadel to a new, now last Stand Hastily biting and obedient soldiers of Bayazet knew that they were again turned to face death and that there was no more return. Surprisingly, no one said a word that they did not want to go to certain death. They took an oath of allegiance to the Tsar and the Fatherland, and this was enough to fulfill the order of the commander. Leaving the citadel, going into battle, as if on command, they shouted to the rest: “Farewell, brothers!” They looked at them sympathetically and answered: “God help!”
As soon as the new detachment of Patsevich went beyond the gates of the citadel, it turned out that the Turks tightly surrounded it from the side of the mountains, and their numerical strength so much exceeded the Russian detachment that it was pointless to attack the heights. All paths were already blocked.
Surprisingly, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich quickly oriented himself and, in order to avoid useless losses, again ordered to retreat and return back to the fortress.
The food was better, but not much. There should have been 2,000 poods of crackers in the warehouses, but it turned out to be 356 poods. As a result, crackers were given 200 grams per person per day, and ground barley was also given to the besieged.
The Russian bureaucracy is amazing - almost until the end of the siege, horses were not allowed to be slaughtered, because - “how can you account for them later ?!”. That is, by the beginning of the siege on June 6, 1877, there was virtually no food or water in the garrison.
Interestingly, if not for Bayazet, the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war could have been different. The general of the Turks, Faik Pasha, led a 20,000-strong army to the Caucasus, and he would calmly break in there, taking Tiflis, because there were almost no Russian troops in the southern provinces. Further, the road to Azerbaijan and Yekaterinodar would open ... in general, there would be a complete hello and “cheers”.
However, Faik Pasha foolishly reported to Istanbul about the capture of Bayazet, and could not leave until he took him. The 20,000-strong army spent three weeks under the fortress, enabling the Russians in the Caucasus to gather troops.
In fact, the Turkish general understood the gravity of taking the fortress in the conditions of unbearable summer heat. He decides to starve the fortress. He was well versed in information, and that the defenders in the citadel had literally only 2-3 days left of food supplies. Later, for such delay, he will appear before a military tribunal. But that's later.
Revelations of Colonel Ismail - Khan of Nakhichevan
“… — It could have happened worse! one young artillery officer suddenly exclaimed, standing in a crowd of others, but, unfortunately, I don’t remember his last name. - Do not die three times?! We will fight as long as our legs hold, and there, what God will send. I silently extended my hand to this officer and told the others that the main thing was not to lose heart and not to lose hope, because we would be rescued at all costs.
That same evening, I conferred with some officers about our position, and it turned out that our main grief would lie in the lack of water, for the extraction of which we had the only means left - night sorties to a small river that flowed at the foot of the Bayazet rock, steps in one and a half hundred from the walls of the citadel. But the Turks occupied all the buildings around the citadel and so vigilantly guarded the approach to the water that not one of the sorties for water undertaken by the hunters at night was not without dead or wounded. Hunger was also not slow to come into its own: people began to be given only one cracker a day.
On the fourth day of our stay, the enemy fire suddenly stopped, and a Kurd rode up to us as a truce with a letter from Ishmael Pasha, the content of which was approximately the following: “Your situation is hopeless, hope for help is in vain. Tergukasov is defeated. Follow prudent advice, surrender, earn the mercy of our magnanimous Sultan. The same was repeated several times by the Kurdish parliamentarian, who was finally instructed to convey in words that "as long as at least one soldier is alive, there can be no question of surrender." Half an hour after the removal of the Kurd, the positions of the Turks began to smoke, and their shots thundered with new bitterness ...
Over the following days, the position of the garrison worsened more and more. The number of dead and wounded grew. The dacha of crackers had to be reduced even more. People weakened, among the horses began to die. The heat, meanwhile, became unbearable, and the extraction of water is more difficult every day: opposite the very exit of the trench to the river, the Turks placed a strong guard, which bombarded every daredevil who tried to quench his thirst with a hail of bullets.
A pot of water sometimes cost several lives, and the river at the end of the trench was soon covered with such a mass of decomposing corpses that the water scooped from it could not be brought close to the nose.
The soldiers, however, not only greedily attacked this fetid poison, this almost juice from corpses, but there were cases that they drank even worse abomination, which it is inconvenient even to name. As a result of all this, various diseases appeared among people, from which they died even more than from enemy shots.
Hunger, heat and thirst did their job - and one of the first people who broke down, unfortunately, was Patsevich himself. He repeatedly gave the order to several soldiers to hang out a white canvas, and then, unable to stand it himself, got up, shouting - in broken Turkish: "enough, enough - we surrender."
An artillery officer suddenly flew in to me. He was excited. "Pacevic raised the white flag, and a huge mass of Turks was already pouring towards the gates." After that, I jumped out into the courtyard, where a mass of officers and soldiers crowded, and I really see: a white flag fluttered high on a huge pole attached to the wall of the citadel, and Patsevich and several officers were standing nearby. “Gentlemen, what are you doing?! I shouted. Did we take an oath for that, in order to dishonor ourselves and Russian weapons with a cowardly surrender!? Ashamed! As long as even a drop of blood remains in our veins, we are obliged to the King to fight and defend Bayazet. Whoever decides to do otherwise is a traitor, and I will order him to be shot immediately! Down with the flag, shoot guys!”
In response to this, there was a loud “cheers” from all those present, and I also heard several exclamations: “We will die, but we will not surrender.”
A few moments later, shots thundered from our walls and threw back crowds of puzzled Turks, who were already approaching the gates of the citadel with axes and stones. The enemy also responded immediately, and the bullets buzzed from all sides, like a swarm of bees, and Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, who died the next day, was mortally wounded, first of all.
Whether it was his own bullet or the enemy's, I can't decide. There were votes for both, but Patsevich was wounded in the back.
The mortal wound of Patsevich further strengthened the patriotic spirit of the besieged Bayazets. The surrender of the citadel was now out of the question.
Thus, by the will of the prevailing sad circumstances, without an appointment from above, Colonel Ismail Khan Nakhichevan took command of the garrison. He did not prepare for this at all, did not expect that this would happen. But, being the oldest in the fortress in rank and age (he was then 59 years old), Ismail Khan was aware of his duty not only as an officer of the Russian Army, but also as a citizen of Russia.
Ismail Khan is portrayed by Pikul in Bayazet as a coward and a traitor, and this is not true. It was Ismail Khan who ordered to hang all the Turkish truce envoys with a proposal to surrender (one was hanged, the other was thrown out of the window), and after the end of the siege he was awarded the Order of St. George.
Faik Pasha was furious that his troops could not take the fortress with a tiny garrison. Offers of surrender became more and more honorable, and assaults became more and more fierce. However, the weakened, hungry people, who fell to the floor from the recoil of a gun in the shoulder, held on. During the siege, 317 Russian soldiers died, and approximately 8,000 Turks. The Turks had 27 guns, the Russians had 3
At the very end of the siege, the situation became very bad. The garrison was exhausted from thirst, hunger, heat, lice, but did not give up, and repelled the assaults. Captain Shtokvich replied to Faik Pasha's last proposal:
“If you so strongly desire to take the fortress, come and take us by force. Russians don't give up alive."
However, the cunning Shtokvich also managed to send scouts to Tiflis (there were somehow no telephones then), and there, having learned about the position of the garrison (they had never heard of him), they deployed the army of General Tergukasov.
June 24 is the day of God's grace. Heavy rain fell on the citadel - a fabulous elixir of life. The defenders enjoyed plenty of moisture, and no longer missed the opportunity to make supplies of water, but soon there was no need for them.
It was June 28, 1877. This day became a real holiday for the surviving Bayazets. In the morning, firing began behind the fortress. A detachment under the command of Lieutenant-General A. A. Tergukasov went to the aid of the besieged.
What happened next? Shtokvich and Ismail Khan received the Order of St. George (and Shtokvich was also given a golden weapon). The artilleryman, lieutenant Tomashevsky, also acquired the St. George Cross: it was he who turned the guns to the gates after the order to open them, and to Patsevich’s threat with a tribunal, he literally answered the lieutenant colonel with noble aristocracy - “Go to ... .., do not interfere with the Russian soldier to die.”
All Bayazet's soldiers received a cash award and promotion to the next rank. But Faik Pasha was demoted from the generals, deprived of all orders, sentenced to 6 months in prison, and after serving time, he was expelled from Istanbul.
But the main award was received by Lieutenant General A. A. Tergukasov, who came to the rescue. The feat and historical role of Colonel Ismail Khan was not mentioned with the same honors.
“Do not be afraid of physical death, but beware of moral death.
Moral death never threatened Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan In this - main point his long life on earth.
On February 10, 1909, the Nakhichevan telegraph spread the sad news throughout multinational Russia: "Today at 7 o'clock in the morning, the defender of Bayazet, cavalry general Ismail-Khan Nakhichevan, died."
An obituary in the Kavkaz newspaper dated March 3, 1909 not only reminded the public of the greatness of this man. For the first time in history, the true historical role of Colonel Ismail Khan was finally declared in the distant days of the gunpowder June 1877 in Bayazet. Did the soaring soul of Ismail Khan feel that the truth, masked for so long, broke out into the white light.
From point of view military science and human capabilities, Ismail Khan did the impossible. For three weeks, a thousandth garrison under his leadership defended the fortress without food and water. These events clearly showed the whole world the heroism and glory of Russian weapons, the invincible spirit of our soldiers. The cold-blooded actions of the leadership served as an example for many future military leaders and became a living tool in the fight against betrayal within their army.
The memory of the behavior of the Russian army during the defense of Bayazet is especially relevant today. This is one of the most delightful examples on which to educate the rising generation. In the context of the decline of the national spirit, the crisis in armed forces, just like historical examples should help us raise a new generation of people devoted to the Motherland. In the face of a thousand daredevils and their brave commander, the world saw simultaneous manifestations of honor, devotion, courage, dignity, will, contempt for death and danger. Modern Russia there are not enough commanders like Ismail Khan and soldiers like those who served in his army.
Love history - be inquisitive, remember and honor the history of our ancestors, those who were fearless, did not exchange honor and pride in serving their patronymic - Great Russia!
On July 10 (N.S.) 1877, the heroic defense of the Russian troops endedFortress BayazetduringRussian-Turkish war of 1877-1878.
Prerequisites
The defense of the Bayazet fortress is one of the most heroic episodes of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. This war has become major event who provided big influence on the fate of a number of European peoples. The victory of Russia forced Turkey to abandon Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, eliminated Turkish domination in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and led to the creation of the state of Bulgaria. The main theater of operations was in the Balkans, but there was also the Caucasian front. Initially, this front was considered secondary, but even here the fighting was no less fierce. The Russian troops had to ensure the security of their territory and prevent the transfer of additional Turkish forces to the places of the main hostilities. Especially for these tasks, a special corps was created, headed by General Mikhail Loris-Melikov, who crossed the border and moved deep into enemy territory. The left flank of the front (Erivan detachment) was led by General Arzas Tergukasov, who managed to capture the Turkish fortress of Bayazet (now it is the city of Dogubayazit in eastern Turkey). A small garrison was left in the fortress, and the main troops moved towards Erzurum.
Palace of Yitzhak Pasha. Modern look fortresses
Siege of Bayazet
At the head of the garrison was Lieutenant Colonel A. Kovalevsky, who on May 24 (June 5) was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel G. Patsevich. The commandant of the fortress was Captain F. Shtokovich. The Turks knew that only a small garrison remained in the city, and the 25,000-strong detachment of Faik Pasha and Kazi-Magomed occupied the city of Bayazet. There were about 1600 people in the besieged fortress. The Russian troops were not ready for a long defense. All food remained in the captured city, there was practically no water. The Turks launched a powerful attack against the fortress. Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich and a number of officers realized that there was no way to defend the fortress, and decided to surrender it to the enemy. The officers were removed from command by Colonel Ismail-Khan Nakhichevansky, who, as a senior in rank, led the defense of the fortress. The situation of the besieged was deplorable due to lack of food and water. Water was obtained at the risk of life from a stream flowing nearby. For twenty-three days the garrison fought off the Turks, and only on June 28 (July 10) the siege was lifted by the Erivan detachment of General Tergukasov. The Turks were driven out from Bayazet.
L. F. Lagorio. The liberation of the garrison of the Bayazet citadel in 1877
Significance of the heroic defense of Bayazet
The steadfastness of the Russian soldiers defending the fortress did not allow the breakthrough of the left flank of the Caucasian army, did not allow the Turks to get into the Erivan province and, accordingly, protected the population from extermination. For heroism and initiative, Colonel Ismail-Khan Nakhichevansky was awarded the rank of major general. Both the liberators and the liberated received awards. The San Stefano peace treaty secured Bayazet and the territories adjacent to it as part of Russia. But the decision of the Berlin Congress returned Bayazet and the Alashkert valley to the Ottoman Empire. During the First World War, these lands again became a battlefield between the Russian and Turkish armies. The Russians again stormed Bayazet.
On May 28, celebrations dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 took place in the center of Moscow. And on the fountain site of the Gorka park, the Russian Military Historical Society opened .
On June 18, 1877, during the Russian-Turkish war, a heroic 23-day defense by a small Russian detachment of the Bayazet fortress began, which was completely unprepared for defense, which was important for both opponents, primarily for moral reasons.
Actions to divert enemy forces from the main direction
War between Russian and Ottoman Empires began in April 1877, and since it was fought for the liberation of the oppressed peoples of the Balkans, the main theater of hostilities was located in the southeast of Europe. The Caucasian front was secondary, where the Russian troops acted to ensure the security of their territory and divert Turkish forces from the main direction.
To this end, the corps of General Mikhail Loris-Melikov crossed the border and began to advance deep into enemy territory. On the left flank, the Erivan detachment under the command of General Arzas Tergukasov advanced. It was to his troops that Bayazet (now the city of Dogubayazit in eastern Turkey) surrendered, after which, leaving a 1,500-strong garrison and a certain amount of artillery in it, the Tergukas moved further, in the direction of Erzurum.
The commander of the Tiflis local regiment, Captain Fyodor Shtokvich, was appointed commandant of the citadel, who was subordinate to the commandant of Bayazet. The city was surrounded by mountains almost from all sides, on the ledge of one of them there was a three-storey stone palace of Ishak Pasha built in oriental style in the 18th century.
Fortress from all sides
There were no fortifications around it, and the building itself, with its large windows and flat roofs without shelters, did not provide for any defensive actions. In addition, almost the entire space of the castle was perfectly shot from nearby heights. The palace was only to become a fortress.
Tergukasov's offensive greatly alarmed the commander-in-chief of the Anatolian army, General Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha, and he ordered Faik Pasha to capture Bayazet, relying on which the Turks could not only disrupt the advance of the Russians, but also, in turn, strike at the Erivan province of Russia (now the territory of Armenia).
In turn, Faik Pasha waited for reinforcements to come to him, and after Bayazetsky joined his Van detachment, he began to act, moving his regular and irregular units (the latter consisted of Kurdish tribes) towards the enemy. The total number of infantry and cavalrymen was 11 thousand people with 11 guns.
Unsuccessful sortie of the garrison
In the early morning of June 18, units of the Russian garrison set out from the fortress to reconnoitre the nearby area and search for the enemy, who had previously left the citadel without accepting the battle. The sortie was undertaken at the insistence of the commandant Bayazet and the commander of the troops of this district, Lieutenant Colonel Grigory Patsevich, and almost ended in failure.
Taking advantage of the carelessness of the Russian detachment, which followed without reconnaissance, the soldiers and cavalrymen of Brigadier General Ahmed Faik Pasha, many times superior to the enemy in manpower, surrounded the garrison units from three sides, firing deadly fire at them.
During an attempt to organize a retreat in due order, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kovalevsky, the former commandant of Bayazet, who had been replaced by Patsevich, was mortally wounded. After he died, the soldiers of the 2nd battalion of the 74th Stavropol regiment refused to leave the body of their beloved commander and carried Kovalevsky on a stretcher to the very fortress, despite the fact that 20 people died under Turkish bullets.
Saving maneuver of Ismail Khan
Faik Pasha pursued the retreating enemy on his heels, almost broke into the palace on his shoulders. The situation was saved by the appearance of several hundred Erivan irregular cavalry regiment of Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan, whose fighters immediately entered into a heavy battle with the Turks and Kurds.
This maneuver allowed the soldiers and Cossacks to reach the fortress, the gates of which were quickly filled up with slabs and stones. However, the city itself, together with the commanding heights, fell into the hands of Faik Pasha, who ordered the immediate assault on the palace and the final victory. But repeated violent attacks, which lasted until night, did not bring success to the Turks, and at least 900 dead remained under the walls of the citadel.
The defenders urgently fortified the building, punching loopholes in the walls and laying huge windows as much as possible. On flat roofs, nests were built for prone shooting, which were lined with food bags for horses. The next morning, Turkish artillery began a methodical shelling of the Russians, who had only two guns.
Suffering from thirst and hunger
However, the subordinates of the commander of the 4th platoon of the 4th battery of the 19th artillery brigade, Lieutenant Nikolai Tomashevsky, were much better trained and answered with well-aimed fire, sweeping away the Turkish infantry with shrapnel, leading rifle fire on the citadel from the mountains and from the trenches.
The most terrible opponents of the encircled were the lack of food and the almost complete absence of water. The pool on the territory of the fortress was out of order, and when they started to repair it, the Turks diverted the water. The approaches to the stream, which was located not far from the walls of the citadel, were shot, and he himself - to be sure - was pelted with the corpses of people and horses.
June heat and a large number of people crowding among the hot walls of the building, greatly increased the suffering of the defenders. And soon the daily portion of water from one lid of the soldier's cauldron was reduced to one spoon. Hunger and thirst knocked down even the most persistent, who could hardly hold a gun in their hands.
Two shots at the traitor
Considering that the situation of the troops subordinate to him was hopeless, on the second day of the siege, June 20, Patsevich decided to capitulate. At the same time, he chose the moment when the mass of Kurds rushed to the attack, and ordered the white flag to be raised. This decision was opposed by the majority of the 34 officers of the garrison.
Ismail Khan declared that he would never agree to lay down his arms, because he took an oath and because he was a Muslim. “I know that the surrender would be attributed to this very circumstance, if even a thousand other reasons had prompted it!” he exclaimed passionately.
However, Patsevich, not paying attention to the murmur of his colleagues, climbed the wall and, waving his cap, began to shout in Turkish to the attackers that he was ready to negotiate the surrender of the fortress. At that moment, one of the Russian officers shot him twice in the back. One bullet pierced the chest, the second - the shoulder. Losing consciousness, Patsevich descended from the wall with the words: "I'm wounded, now do what you want."
© public domain
© public domain
Furious rage of the enemy
Because of this confusion, the gates nevertheless opened, and 236 people from the garrison - in the form of local militia - came out. At the same moment, crowds of Kurds attacked those who came out and mercilessly chopped everyone up, not paying attention to the fact that they loudly shouted to the killers that they were their co-religionists and asked for mercy.
At this dangerous moment, Captain Shtokvich took over the command, who ordered the gates to be urgently closed and the assault repulsed. Soldiers and Cossacks fired several well-aimed shotgun volleys at the enemy chains, which, waiting for the surrender of the citadel, stood in the open and were an excellent target. As a result, more than 300 enemy soldiers were killed on the spot.
In a rage, the Ottoman units began to take out their anger for a failed attempt to seize the palace on the Armenian population of Bayazet, sparing neither women, nor children, nor the elderly. And all this in front of the Russians, who were powerless to help the unfortunate, except for those who fled to the walls of the citadel - they were dragged there on ropes. At the same time, those Turks who dared to shelter Armenian families were also killed.
Refusal to surrender to the mercy of the conquerors
After that, the monotonous days of the siege dragged on, periodically interrupted by a skirmish between the Ottoman units and the daredevils, who risked leaving the fortress for water to the stream. Nine times the Turkish representatives offered the besieged to surrender to the mercy of the victors, and each time they received a categorical refusal.
On June 30, the Turks delivered a large-caliber field gun to Bayazet, which was supposed to destroy the Russian guns, and then, with the help of the infantry, it was supposed to launch a decisive assault on the enemy fortifications. But Tomashevsky's gunners did not doze off. Having calculated the location of the enemy cannon from the accumulation of Kurdish fighters, they carefully aimed and destroyed it with the third shot.
Meanwhile, the offensive of Loris-Melikov stopped, and he was forced to retreat with battles to the Russian border. The general refused to believe the reports about the capitulation of the garrison in Bayazet, saying that "this cannot be, the Russians do not surrender, they are hoping for our help."
Everyone understood that, despite the general retreat, duty and honor ordered them to come to the rescue of their own. In the early morning of July 10, the Erivan detachment approached Bayazet and launched an offensive. The Turks, despite the numerical superiority in manpower and artillery, were confused and after a short but fierce battle, retreated.
Defending with all your might
First of all, the soldiers and officers of the liberated garrison rushed to the water. Many of them were so exhausted that it was terrible to look at them. On July 11, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Erivan detachment left Bayazet and headed for the Russian border. Tergukasov informed the command that the fortress was liberated, and all the wounded and sick were taken out and taken with them.
The defenders of the citadel lost 164 people from the regular units of the garrison who died or died from wounds and diseases. Unfortunately, the suffering suffered did not go unnoticed, and subsequently many soldiers and Cossacks died of exhaustion. The number of losses of their enemy amounted to about 7 thousand people.
Much worse for the Turks was that they not only failed to defeat the small garrison, which showed the whole world examples of high courage and military skill, but also missed a great opportunity to invade Russia with impunity at a time when its borders were practically unprotected.
Awards found deserving
For mediocre command of the troops and general indecision, Faik Pasha was removed from his post and put on trial, which expelled him from military service and sentenced to six months imprisonment with deprivation of rank and all awards.
On the contrary, all Russian participants of the Bayazet "sitting" were awarded a silver medal "In memory of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878".
Shtokvich, promoted to major, Colonel Ismail Khan Nakhichevan and Lieutenant Tomashevsky for courage, courage and diligence were awarded the Order of St. George IV degree. In addition, Shtokvich was awarded a golden dragoon saber with the inscription "For Bravery".
Decisive actions in the Caucasian direction were waiting for the Russian army ahead.
I can say with confidence that of the huge number of fortresses and castles that I had a chance to see on my travels, this magnificent Bayazit fortress near the town of Dogubayazit in the far east of Turkey will definitely enter the top three most beautiful. The fortress was founded almost 3000 years ago, back in the days of the kingdom of Urartu, then the Armenians took possession of the fortress and it was called Arashkavan. Then there were Kurds, Turks, Russians. Yes, you heard right, the famous film "Bayazet", filmed in 2003 and dedicated to the soldiers of a small Russian garrison, who for 24 days, from June 4 to June 28, 1877, kept this fortress from the siege of the Turkish army is dedicated to this fortress.
For 23 days, the garrison courageously repulsed all the attacks of the Turks, and on June 28 was finally saved by the troops of the Erivan detachment of General Tergukasov. During the siege, the garrison lost 10 officers and 276 lower ranks killed and wounded. After the war, under the terms of the San Stefano peace treaty, Bayazet and the territories adjacent to it were ceded to Russia. But according to the decisions of the Berlin Congress, Bayazet and the Alashkert valley were returned to Turkey. To the first world war Russian troops again had to storm the fortress of Bayazet and they captured it, but only in order to finally return the fortress to Turkey three years later.
The place is extremely picturesque, but with transport everything is not easy. There is simply no public transport to the fortress, although the town of Dogubayazit is located just 10 km to the west. If you don't have your own car, you will have to take a taxi. By the way, along the way you will inevitably pass a huge tank range of the Turkish army with hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles standing behind a fence right on the road. I do not advise taking pictures of them; we almost ran into trouble with my habit of photographing military objects.
The town of Dogubayazit is well located on the road leading to the border crossing to Iran, which is less than 20 kilometers away. In addition, only 70 km away is the border crossing to the Nakhchivan enclave of Azerbaijan.
Nearby, near the town of Muradiye, there are interesting waterfalls. God knows how impressive, but it's nice to sit next to them in a cafe and relax after long road -
A funny puppy lives in a cafe, tell him hello from me -
