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The Russian Military Mission and the Birth of the Persian Cossack Brigade: 1879–1894

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Uzi Rabi  and
Nugzar Ter-Oganov
Uzi Rabi
Affiliation:
Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University
Nugzar Ter-Oganov
Affiliation:
Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University
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Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Qajar dynasty (1797–1925) of Iran engaged in a continuous process to build a regular army under the leadership and tutelage of professional European military missions. These continuous attempts at military reform and Europeanization reached a peak with the creation of the Persian Cossack Brigade (1879–1921) by the Russian military mission. This article focuses on the genesis of the Brigade and the Russian military mission, which followed some of the previously unsuccessful European military missions. The scholarly literature has paid little attention to the fitful beginnings of the Brigade. This article, however, deals with the early challenges faced by the Brigade during the period between 1879 and 1894, at the end of which it was on the verge of dissolution. The article tackles formative issues raised in under-explored Russian archival material and supplemented by Russian-language primary sources, as well as other relevant sources. It attempts to re-evaluate the origins of the Persian Cossack Brigade and provide a well-balanced portrait of the Brigade in light of the changing regional politics of the period.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , June 2009 , pp. 445 - 463
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2009

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References

1 Teymuri, Ebrāhim, Asr-e bikhabari ya tarikh-e emtiazat dar Iran (Tehran, 1332): 311(in Persian)Google Scholar.

2 In the interest of narrative clarity, the article will continue to refer to the unit as the “Persian Cossack Brigade,”, despite its post-1916 status as a “division.”

3 Domantovich, A.I., “Vospominanie o prebivanii pervoi russkoi voennoi missii v Persii,” Russkaia starina, nos. 2, 3, 4, (St Petersburg, 1908): 331–340Google Scholar, 575–583, 211–216, respectively.

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10 Ebrāhim Teymuri, Asr-e bikhabari yā tārikh-e emtiāzāt dar Irān, 311.

11 Mahmud, Mahmud, Tārikh-e ravābet-e siāsi-ye Irān va Englistan dar qarn-e nuzdāhom-e milādi (Tehrān, 5 vols, 1328–1329), 4: 904 (in Persian)Google Scholar.

12 See, for example: Ivanov, M. S., Iranskaia revolutsia 1905–1911 godov (The Iranian Revolution of 1905–1911), (Moscow, 1957)Google Scholar.

13 It should be noted that all correspondence between the commanders of the Persian Cossack Brigade and Headquarters of the Caucasian military district was composed in Russian and at present is available in the Russian Archives.

14 See, for instance, Kazemzadeh, Firuz, “The Origin and Early Development of the Persian Cossack Brigade,” American Slavic and East European Review, 15, no. 3 (October 1956): 351–363CrossRefGoogle Scholar. (hereafter: Kazemzadeh, “The Origin”)

15 Major-General Frankini, “Memorandum on the present state of the Persian army and on the measures to be taken to correct shortcomings,” October 1877; See Rossiiskii gosudarstvennii voenno-istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Military History Archive] (heretofore: RGVIA), fond 446, bez opisi, delo 42

16 Ibid: fond 446, bez opisi, delo 41: 2–14.

17 Ibid: 20

18 Ibid: 16 rev.

19 Ibid: 16–16 rev.

20 RGVIA: fond 446, delo 42: 1–12.

21 Ibid: 18–18 rev.

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26 The Iranian researcher Jahāngir Qāem Maqāmi assumes that somebody probably inspired Nāser ed Din Shah to invite the Russian instructors. See Qāem Maqāmi, Jahāngir, Tahavvolāt-e siāsi-ie nezām-e Irān (Tehrān, 1947): 91–92Google Scholar.

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29 For instance, Iranian author Mohammad Ali Jamālzādeh regarded the issue of the Persian Cossack Brigade as a concession given to the Russians. See Jamālzādeh, Mohammad Ali, Ganj-e shāigān yā ouzā eqtesādi-ye Irān (Berlin, 1956): 105Google Scholar.

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32 In Safavid, Iran, ghulāms were captives or slaves of Circassian, Georgian and Armenian origin who converted to Islam. In 1588, Shah Abbās the Great, countering the Qizilbāsh tribes' omnipotence while carrying out his military reforms, drew the ghulāms, belonging to the royal household, into the civil and military administration. Shah Abbās formed a corps of cavalry, consisting of 10,000–15,000 ghulāms, under the command of the influential Qullar-āghāsi. See Savory, Roger, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge, 1980): 65, 79Google Scholar; see also Tadhkirat al-Muluk. A Manual of Safavid Administration, ed. Minorsky, Victor, (Cambridge, 1980): 37, 44Google Scholar. Since that time, over the course of two centuries, royal ghulāms or ghulām-shah constituted the most efficient, privileged and well-paid military detachment—the Shah's bodyguard. While in the first half of the nineteenth century, 2,000–4,000 ghulām-shahs were at the disposition of the first Qājār Shahs, at the end of the century only a thousand remained. See, for instance, Malcolm, John, A History of Persia from the most early Period to the Present Time, (London, 1815), 2: 497Google Scholar; Holmes, William, Sketches on the Shores of the Caspian (London, 1845): 585Google Scholar; also Hasan, Mohammad, Dowleh, Khān Sani od, Al-māser ua al-asār (Tehran, 1306): 36Google Scholar.

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34 I. A. Zinoviev was one of the most prominent and experienced Russian diplomats. He served in Iran from 1856 to 1883. From 1876 to 1883 he exercised the duties of Russian Envoy Plenipotentiary to Tehran, and later, from 1883 to 1891, he headed the powerful Asiatic Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See Zinoviev, I. A., Rossia, Anglia i Persia (St Petersburg, 1912): 5–6Google Scholar.

35 Kosogovskii, “Ocherk”: 212–214.

36 While referring to the Iranian officers' salaries, a Russian archival source indicates that “the amount of the salary is not fixed, and it depends on the who the officer is, especially his tribal origin”. RGVIA: fond 446, bez opisi, delo 43, 103–103 rev.

37 26,280 Pound Sterling (1 Tomān = 0.36 Pound Sterling)

38 See, RGVIA: fond 446, delo 44: 19

39 V. A. Kosogovskii, “Ocherk razvitia persidskoi kazachei brigady”: 391

40 RGVIA: fond 446, delo 43: 104 rev.–105. It should be noted that 1,200 cavalry mohājers were already employed at that time (in 1877) in the service of the Iranian Government, see Frankini, General, “Zapiska o persidskoi armii,” Sbornik materialov po Azii, iv (1883): 20Google Scholar.

41 On July 15 1908, the Cossack Brigade held a parade to commemorate the anniversary of its formation, as documented by Russian Envoy in Tehran N. Hartwig. See Sbornik diplomaticheskikh dokumentov, kasaiuschiekhsya sobitii v Persii, (St Petersburg, 1911), I: 244Google Scholar.

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43 RGVIA: 106.

44 RGVIA: fond 446, delo 43:105–6 rev.

45 Bast is a sanctuary or asylum. In Iran, a person or group oppressed by the authorities and seeking justice, or someone with another sort of demand, traditionally took refuge in a bast. Sanctuaries such as the Imām-zādeh or tomb of Sayyid, residence of the cleric or Valiahd, as well as foreign missions (during Qājār's rule) were considered as bast—inviolable places of refuge. People who sat in bast stayed there for indefinite periods until the problem was resolved. See, for instance, Tigranov, L.F., Iz obschestvenno-ekonomicheskikh otnoshenii v Persii (Tiflis, 1905): 63–64Google Scholar.

46 V. A. Kosogovskii, “Ocherk razvitia persidskoi kazachei brigady”: 392.

47 While according to Reza Ra'iss Tousi, “The Brigade was made up of detachments of mohajers (immigrants).” See Tousi, Reza Ra'iss, “The Persian Army, 1880–1907,” Middle Eastern Studies, 24, no. 2 (1988): 219CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Misl-Rustem, Persia pri Nasr ed Din Shakhe s 1882 po 1888 g. Ocherki v Rasskazakh (StPetersburg, 1897): 141Google Scholar.

49 Lieutenant Colonel Henry Picot argued that the original budget of the Persian Cossack Brigade constituted 97,000 tumāns. See British Documents on Foreign Affairs, 13: 225; see also his Report on the Organization of the Persian Army, Enclosure in Sir Mortimer Durand's No.1, 18 January 1900; F.O.60/629 in Tousi, Reza Ra'iss, “The Persian Army, 1880–1907”, Middle Eastern Studies, 24, no. 2 (1988): 219Google Scholar. Nevertheless, according to Iranian researcher Ebrāhim Teymuri, the Brigade's budget from March 1882– March 1883 constituted only 66,536 tomāns. See Ebrāhim Teymuri, Asr-e bikhabari yā tārikh-e emtiāzāt dar Irān: 310.

50 M. P. Pavlovich, “Ocherki politicheskoi borbi v Persii”: 85.

51 RGVIA: fond 446, delo 44: 2–3 rev.

52 V. A. Kosogovskii, “Ocherk razvitia persidskoi kazachei brigady”: 392.

53 RGVIA: fond 401, opis 4/928, delo 57: 21.

54 See Kazemzadeh, “The Origin”: 356.

55 See F. Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia: 168.

56 Ibid: 9–9 rev.

57 RGVIA: fond 446, delo 44: 9–9 rev.

58 Ibid: 16.

59 For the Persian text of the contract see Jahāngir Qāem Maqāmi, Tahavvolāt-e siāsi-ye nezām-e Irān: 242–244.

60 Ibid: 52.

61 Alikhanov-Avarskii, V Gostiakh u Shakha. Ocherki Persii (Tiflis, 1898): 222Google Scholar.

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67 See Misl-Rustem, Persia pri Nasr ed Din Shakhe s 1882 po 1888 g, Ocherki Raskazakh, 148.

68 Along with Don, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberia, Semirechinsk, Zabaikalsk, Amur and Usuri Cossacks Kuban and Terek Cossacks constituted the separate troops. See Rossia v kontse XIX veka (St Petersburg, 1900): 956Google Scholar.

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71 See RGVIA: fond 2000, opis I, delo 6949: 204.

72 RGVIA: fond 401, opis 4/928, delo 57: 1–2, 18 rev. Kuzmin-Karavaev had already consented to occupy the position at hand, and earlier, in July 1885, the Russian minister of war had agreed to Kuzmin-Karavaev's appointment.

73 Ibid: 6–9.

74 Ibid: 21.

75 See Kosogovskii, “Ocherk”: 393.

76 Misl-Rustem, Persia pri Nasr ed Din Shakhe: 146.

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83 V. A. Kosogovskii, “Ocherk razvitia persidskoi kazachei brigady”: 393–394.

84 Ibid.

85 A. Domantovich, “Vospominanie o prebivanii pervoi russkoi voennoi missii v Persii,” Russakaia starina, (February, 1908), 2: 333.

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