On October 25, 1917, the last victory of the Russian Imperial Army was won in the deserts of Iran. A detachment of the Caucasian expeditionary corps under the command of the military foreman of the 1st Gorsko-Mozdok regiment Lazar Bicherakhov forced 2,500 Persian gendarmes to surrender.In World War I, the vast expanses of Mesopotamia turned out to be the arena of hostilities. In Iraq, at Al-Kut, the Turks defeated the 31,000-strong British corps - 8,000 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner led by the commander General Townsend. Neutral Iran was involved in the war zone, where Islamist groups and regular Turkish troops hunted.
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To save the British allies in 1915, the corps of General Nikolai Baratov entered Persia. However, two years later, units of the Caucasian corps found themselves in a difficult situation - the Turks and Persians intended to cut communications between the Russians and the British.
"General Baratov got Bicherakhov to advance to the Diale River and intercept the three thousandth enemy army, which was trying to cut communications between the Russians and the British. The Russian Empire was no longer there, the army was crumbling, and Bicherakhov's detachment turned out to be the only force capable of carrying out such a complex operation," writes in his research, the candidate of historical sciences Aleksey Bezugolny.
In August 1917, the formation of the detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Lazar Bicherakhov began in the Persian city of Kermanshah. In the "partisans" - so in the Russian army then army special forces were called, only volunteers were enrolled. Soon, under the command of Bicherakhov, there were 1000 Terek and Kuban Cossacks with 30 officers. It was armed with a large number of cannons and machine guns.
The detachment was given the task, as stated in the order, "to unite the Russian Persian and British Mesopotamian fronts." Lazar Fyodorovich did the job brilliantly. In a week, his Cossacks made a difficult march through the waterless mountainous terrain and reached the town of Kasri-Shirin, where they occupied both banks of the Diale River. A few days later, units of the Persian gendarmerie approached the same place.
"Having tried to break through to the water, the gendarmes met fierce resistance from Bicherakhov's fighters. The gendarmes could not retreat back into the desert - there was no water. On October 25, 1917, when the revolution was taking place in Petrograd, the last victory of the Russian army was won in Persia - 2500 thirsty Persians The gendarmes surrendered to Bicherakhov's detachment. The threat to the Expeditionary Force was removed, "writes Bezugolny.
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However, it was necessary to establish contact with the British. The detachment set off on a march in the direction of the city of Mendeli. Since they had to take numerous prisoners for rations, food soon ran out, water was running out. Emaciated, hungry and thirsty, people and horses struggled to overcome the steep ridges of southern Persia. “There was no end to them and as soon as one was overcome, another would grow before our eyes,” one of the officers recalled.
After a week of difficult transition, during which people died from thirst and jaundice, the detachment met with the forward patrols of the British Hindu Cavalry Regiment, which was already waiting for it. The British met the Cossacks with an orchestra and arranged a solemn parade for them.
