… 1802-1839.
"The event which was the start for this history was not in itself anything significant. In 1802, just before another war with Persia (1804-1813), a staff-trumpeter sergeant named Samson Yakovlevich Makintsev deserted from the Nizhnii-Novgorod Dragoon Regiment (Note 1). The reason for his flight is not known. Among the Nizhnii-Novgorod men, tradition held that he had stolen the mouthpieces from the regiment's silver trumpets. That may or may not be so, but nevertheless the mouthpieces had disappeared.
Giving himself up to the Persians, Makintsev entered the shah's service and was made a naib (lieutenant) in the Erivan Infantry Regiment. The crown prince, Abbas-Mirza, was forming a regular army and gladly received Russian deserters. Makintsev set to actively recruit fugitives into his company, and soon, upon an inspection of the regiment, he earned the approval of the prince and promotion to yaver (major). Now events began to go faster. At the next review, deserters already made up one-half of the Erivan Regiment. Having again been praised, the deserters expressed their dissatisfaction with the regiment's commander, Mamed-Khan, and asked that Makintsov be assigned in his place. Abbas-Mirza compromised by organizing a separate battalion of deserters and giving command to Makintsov, who became serkheng (colonel) and took the name Samson-Khan (Note 2). Since the Russians proved to be the best trained part of his army, the prince enrolled them into his guards. Now Samson-Khan recruited not only deserters, but also local Armenians and Nestorians. For the most part the officers were fugitive Russian officers from the Transcaucasian nobility. The majority of the battalion (including Makintsov) kept their Christian faith.
In the meantime, the war between Russia and Persian reached an apogee. The Russian battalion went with Abbas-Mirza's forces to Aslanduz. Here on 19-20 October, 1812, the deserters first surrounded and then in a terrible battle practically annihilated the soldiers of General P. S. Kotlyarevskii (Note 3). Of the battalion's few survivors, some returned to Russia in accordance with the Gulistan peace treaty. The more persevering, headed by Samson-Khan, began to form a new battalion. Using enticements, money, and cunning, they quickly made up their losses. The commander of the Khoisk column reported "that… Samson, now in Abbas-Mirza's complete confidence, is trying to increase the number of Russian deserters as much as possible, and sends people out to persuade our soldiers and, when they are away from their units, ply them with wine and seize them. Our soldiers know of the trust Abbas-Mirza places in Samson, who wears general's epaulettes, and of the benefits given out to those who desert to him, and under these circumstances they are agreeable to this…" (Note 4). Such a state of affairs greatly perturbed the Russian authorities…"
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Amicalement
Armand
paints brigs for the British fleet.
