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For the Russian army, the beginning of 1806 was marked with a number of deplorable events – the perfidious murder of Knyaz Pavel Tsitsianov under the walls of Baku fortress, the rise of all the rebellious elements hiding in those places, the demand of Solomon, the king of Imereti, that the Russian troops leave Kutaisi, followed by the Erivani Khan, who was going to seize the Shuragel oblast from the Russian Empire, the Persian troops’ advance towards the borders of Karabakh, and Ibrahim khan’s betrayal, who was in secret negotiations with the commander of the Persian troops, Abbas Mirza, promising him to surrender Shushi to him and give him up the podpolkovnik Lisanevich’s detachment standing there. The events are described in the fundamental research ‘The First Volunteers of Karabakh,’ http://www.rulit.me/books/pervye-dobrovolcy-karabah-v-epohu-vodvoreniya-read-20422-1.html (Tiflis, 1902) by General of the Russian army Vasily Aleksandrovich Potto, a military historian referred to as the ‘Nestor’ of the history of the Caucasus, who recounts the Persian troops’ consecutive attempts to occupy Karabakh in 1806 and 1813.

“Fortunately, the conspiracy was revealed in time, and Lisanevich killed Ibrahim Khan, who was already going to join the Persian cavalry. The Persian army, however, was already in Karabakh, and we needed to strongly tense our forces to stop the Persian horde. A small detachment, which was in Elisabethpol, moved in forced marches under General Nebolsin’s command toward Shushi to face Abbas Mirza’s army of twenty thousand,” Potto writes.

A jagers’ unit led by Colonel Karyagin was in general Petr Nebolsin’s detachment, and Melik Vani-Yuzbashi Atabekov, a Karabakh Armenian, was again voluntarily conscripted to that unit. Meanwhile, Karabakh was in trouble. Ibrahim Khan’s murder was a signal for rebel to the Karabakh beks, while there were serious doubts over the faithfulness of the killed khan’s relatives. As a result, none of the residents of the khanate dared to openly support the small Russian detachment. In these circumstances, the services of the prominently brave and faithful Atabekovs family became even more valuable. In a bloody fight on the river Khanatin on 13 June 1806, Nebolsin’s detachment utterly destroyed Abbas Mirza, who was forced to flee from Karabakh.

Count Gudovich, Colonel Aseev and podpolkovnik Snaksarev, commander of the troops in Karabakh, gave diplomas and certificates of merit to Vani Yuzbashi, which evidence his prominent participation in that fight and his further and ‘not lesser venerable’ activities, Potto writes.

In 1812, the Russian government took out several regiments from the Caucasus and deployed them to the defence of the western borders of the Empire in view of Napoleon’s invasion. ‘The remote Caucasus areas’ were left for ‘the valour and courage of the remaining few troops,’ who were supposed to repel the Persians and Turks’ attacks. Vani Yuzbashi and killed Ibrahim Khan’s successor, Mehdi Kuli Khan, who later became a general of the Russian army, were among them.

Taking advantage of the abatement of the Russian forces at the beginning of 1813, the Persians entered Karabakh by unfolding a sudden attack against the battalion of the Troitsky Regiment. Vani Yuzbashi had more than once warned them against this. Major Jini, the regiment commander, and the majority of the officers were killed in the unsuccessful defence. The ‘cowardly captain Olovyashnikov’ became a commander and started negotiations with the Persians disregarding Vani Yuzbashi and Mehdi Kuli Khan’s persuasions to withdraw to Shushi in accord with the advice of Vani, a brave and experienced soldier.

According to Potto, Olovyashnikov demanded that both Khan and Vani left the regiment saying that he knew what to do. “The catastrophe was inevitable, and the Khan had no other choice but to take his handful of nukers and flee to Shushi to avoid getting into Persian captivity. Vani also left the regiment, but he went to Shah Bulah. Major Ilyashenly’s two companies, sent from Shushi to help Troitsky Battalion, were there at that time. Still, the Troitsky Battalion did not exist anymore; at dawn, Olovyashnikov set a white flag, and the battalion laid down their arms handing bath the cannonry and the flag to the foe. This was the only Russian flag to adorn the Persian Shah’s palace,” he writes.

Meanwhile, Shah Bulah fortress was also besieged by Persian troops. “Ilyashenly’s situation was growing hopeless but he trusted in Vani without hesitating, and the faithful Armenian once again became the saviour of the Russian regiment. He took out the companies from the castle at night, and led them near the Persian watches along mountainous tracks through the village Farukh. The big road to Shushi started beyond it. Showing Ilyashenly the shortest way to Shushi from here, Vani took only one soldier and rushed to the post in Khojaly, which was 20 versts from there. Our team of 60 people under an officer was there. Vani led them, too, to the Shushi road through hidden ways, and caught up with Ilyashenky by the bridge Agha Kerpi, which was five versts from the fortress. The whole process was carried out so swiftly and noiselessly that the Persians were amazed to find the castle empty in the morning. It was too late to chase them. Shusha was already getting ready for a defence, paralysing the first successes of the Persians,” Potto writes. (1 verst is 1.07 kilometres)

Potto also writes about an episode, which describes Vani Yuzbashi’s human qualities among others. Angered at Olovyashnikov’s surrender, commander-in-chief Markiz Paulucci rushed to Shushi, spilling the first wave of ire on Mehdi Kuli Khan and suspecting him of betrayal. The circumstances were against the Khan as the Russian battalion’s destruction in his residence and his flee with nukers served enough base to accuse him. As a result, the Khan was taken under house arrest at his cousin Jafar Kuli Agha’s house. Vani also appeared as a witness in the building of the khanate court, where a military council was summoned to decide Mehdi Kuli Khan’s fate. Vani was not in friendly terms with the Khan, because the latter had attempted to take away Vani’s richpars (farmers). As a result, Vani went to Tiflis to complain of the Khan, who received a strong reprimand from there.

“Now Vani’s one word would be enough to ruin his adversary but Vani was too honest to take advantage of such a weapon. When asked, ‘How is Khan guilty in the battalion’s destruction?’ he answered respectfully, ‘Sardar! Khan is not guilty at all. He did everything to save the Russians. Yet they ignored him. What else could he do? If he did not run away from the camp, he would not be here now, but in the Persian camp,’” Potto writes.

Further, the author renders the scene from the words of Aslanbek Rustabekov, Mehdi Kuli Khan’s closest person: “Vani found him sitting cross-legged on a caret and smoking shisha deep into thoughts in one of the rooms. Seeing Vani enter, the Khan rose his head and asked, ‘Armenian, is the news good?’ ‘It is,’ Vani answered and told him everything that had happened at the council. The Khan was deeply touched. ‘I owe everything to you,’ he said. ‘You will be my best friend. I will not even cut a piece of bread without you.’ He kept his word and did not cease doing most touching turns of friendship to Vani to the end of his life (and he died when he was quite old,” Potto writes.
To be continued.

Vasily Potto’s research ‘The First Volunteers of Karabakh in the Period of Establishment of the Russian Dominion (Melik-Vani and Hakop-Yuzbashi Atabekovs),’ dedicated to the history of the Atabekovs’ family, is based on various sources. This enabled the author to describe more precisely the history and images of the brave Armenian volunteers from the ancient Armenian dynasty of Atabekyans, as well as to cover the period of the annexation of Eastern Armenia into the Russian Empire and the historical events of the first quarter of the 19th century.