The three-week siege of the small fortress of Bayazet in June 1877 went down not only in the history of the Russian army, but also in literature. Thanks to Valentin Pikul's novel "Bayazet" this plot became widely known. However, the novelist, in the interests of the plot, seriously changed the story and remade the images of the heroes. 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. Its days of glory and wealth are long behind us, but centuries ago it was bustling with life. The first settlement and fortress appeared there in the era of the 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 there, and in the Middle Ages the Turks built another citadel, which stood for hundreds of years. TO 19th century this fortress, of course, has long been outdated.

Built to protect against catapult fire, it could not protect against artillery fire. However, this did not have much effect on the well-being of the town, located at the foot of the fortress. Bayazet was successfully 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 poor. 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 began a war against Turkey for the liberation of 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 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 hospital in Bayazet.

The service in Bayazet did not promise anything interesting. A dusty little town, the sleepy silence is echoed only by the daily chants of the muezzin. However, at the end of spring, vague rumors spread around the city about the appearance of Turkish troops 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 to the mountains.

The scouts did not find anyone and returned in a complacent mood. Kovalevsky himself was soon to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, so the old commandant was already mentally sitting on his suitcases. Meanwhile, Turkish troops accumulated in the vicinity of Bayazet. Turkish agents operated in the city. The Russians arrested a number of agents, seized telegraph equipment and weapons, but failed to catch all the infiltrators.

It was at this moment that Kovalevsky’s wife, Alexandra, arrived in Bayazet. Unlike the novel's heroine, the commandant's real wife did not have any affairs and, by all accounts, behaved in an exemplary manner.

Patsevich, who arrived to take over business, decided to conduct reconnaissance in the direction of Van. The reconnaissance mission took place and ended in 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: there were no supplies of food and water in the Bayazet citadel. Until the last moment, everything was delivered to the city as usual. Only a few days before the complete encirclement of the citadel, the commanders bothered to create at least small warehouses, and the water situation was almost catastrophic from the very beginning. However, almost all the people were taken behind 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 managerial commander, one of the key figures in further defense. In Bayazet, with him was his son, who received a serious wound during the breakthrough into the citadel.

The Ottoman cavalry rolled down from the mountains. The detachment that besieged the one and a half thousand garrison of Bayazet numbered 11 thousand sabers. Moreover, as the siege progressed, new troops approached Bayazet. The besieged had only nine days of food. The mood was very gloomy. 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, provided weak protection. There weren't even parapets on the walls. Fortunately, the extreme weakness of the besiegers' artillery did not allow them to simply smash the walls with fire.

The Russians were doing their best to improve their simple fortification. The gates were barricaded, the windows were blocked with stones, and parapets were built at all positions for people and guns. The night passed in alarm: in the city itself the Turks were slaughtering non-believers. At the same time, they killed several militiamen who did not have time to take refuge in the citadel. There were skirmishes with the garrison itself.

On June 19, the Turks and Kurds began shelling 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 fired actively, but without much result, and at noon they sent men 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 banner climbed onto the roof. This was the critical moment of the siege. Chaos reigned. Enraged officers shouted at each other, trying to decide whether to carry out orders or continue fighting. Many simply did not believe that the white flag could be raised seriously and continued to fire.

The shooting from the fortress either subsided or began again. The flag was torn down. Patsevich ran around the courtyard of the citadel, trying to stop the shooting at the threat of a revolver. Cossack foreman Kvanin easily took the white flag from another soldier sent by Patsevich. Several officers have already decided to descend from the wall and fight their way out with bayonets if there is a capitulation. The irregulars began to break down the barricade in front of the gate, but behind it there was already a cannon pointed 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 memories of Ismail Khan and the Cossack constable who was present at the event leave no doubt that the unlucky lieutenant colonel was killed from the inside: Patsevich was wounded in the back. They couldn’t determine who fired the shot, and they didn’t want to. The overall result was summed up by Ismail Khan: “There is a black sheep in a family.”

The chaos lasted only a few minutes, after which a wave of fire fell on the Turks and Kurds trampling under the walls. Rapid-fire rifles made holes in the dense crowd, the screams of the dying mixed with curses and roar. The attack failed. According to 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’s easy to imagine what would have happened if the Russians had opened the gates and everyone had capitulated.

After this, the defense was led 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 parliamentarian to the Turks. They were asked to remove the corpses of their soldiers from under the walls.

The assault had failed, and now it was necessary to resist a more terrible enemy. People were thirsty. The river was within easy reach, but the bank was under fire. Volunteers with buckets and jugs were constantly climbing down ropes or climbing out through a gap in the wall. The Turks tried to shoot the water carriers, and from the loopholes they attacked them themselves. These forays were incredibly risky, and some 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, organized a sortie. The Russians fought the Turks hand-to-hand, with sabers and bayonets, and retreated only after properly stocking up on precious water. After this, the enraged Turks filled the river upstream with corpses. The Russians added more bodies to them: looters walked around the city, but they became vulnerable when they tried to drive away the donkeys with the stolen goods. These drivers were shot by snipers from the fortress. Although the Turks did not attempt a decisive assault, fire was constantly exchanged.

One day, the defenders of Bayazet noticed a Russian detachment in the distance. What a disappointment, it was just a reconnaissance! Soon a new parliamentarian - a defector - appeared in the citadel. He said 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 him to escape punishment for treason. The traitor was strung up, and the Turks, after new attempts to send an ultimatum, were promised that the new delegates would be shot.

However, Ismail Khan and Shtokvich were worried about the question: do people outside know about the plight of the fortress? The first messengers were unable to reach the main forces, but a trio of Cossacks, led by sergeant Sivolobov, made their way through the outposts at night and were able to convey the news about the position of the fortress to their own. And it got worse. Due to poor water, which was also in short supply, epidemics slowly flared up in the garrison. True, the Turks could not take the fortress from battle. An attempt to drag a heavy weapon under the walls ended in a duel with a Russian cannon on the wall. The Russians knocked out a Turkish cannon with a second shot. The discouraged Turks retreated, and a new assault did not take place.

On the night of July 7, one of the happiest events during the siege occurred: heavy rain fell over Bayazet. They filled every container they could with water, right down to their boots. Thirst subsided somewhat, but the Turks resumed their furious bombardment. 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, they heard peals in the distance. At first they couldn’t say for sure whether they were our own. But on the 10th, at dawn, the bayonets of Tergukasov’s detachment began to shine in front of Bayazet. It was a salvation. The Turks still retained 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 persistent soldiers made a sortie from the fortress. The battle did not last long. The siege cost the lives of 116 garrison soldiers, but all were extremely exhausted by disease, hunger and thirst. The soldiers who emerged from the citadel immediately rushed to the water. The saviors and the saved are mixed up. Some people slipped crackers and meat to their comrades, others changed into clean clothes after the siege. Only the captured Turks were not happy. They got the thankless job of dismantling the dead and cleaning up the fortress. Leaning on the arm of an officer, the widow of the deceased commander, Alexandra Kovalevskaya, emerged from the citadel. Thus ended the defense of the Bayazet citadel 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. Not everything was perfectly organized during this siege, but ultimately the fortitude and military skill of the defenders led to complete success. Subsequently, the history of the defense of the fortress was described many times in documentary and fiction literature and in itself turned almost into a legend. Meanwhile, the spouses Kovalevsky, Shtokvich, Kvanin, Ismail Khan, Sivolobov are quite real and have been included in Russian military history one of her heroic pages.

IN On this day in 1877, the heroic defense of the Bayazet fortress ended.
This event occurred during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. The fortress occupied by Russian troops found itself deep in the rear of the Turkish army, but refused to surrender. Turkish attempts to take the citadel by storm or force the Russian garrison to lay down their arms were unsuccessful...

Our detachments of Major P.P. Kryukov and Major General Kelbali Khan Nakhichevan also failed to break through the Turkish cordons to help the besieged. Here's how it happened...

Bayazet, due to his geographical location, was of great operational and strategic importance. For the Turks, it served as a stronghold for the attack on the Erivan province, for the Russians it was the extreme south-eastern stronghold.

The Russians entered the city without a fight, practically abandoned by hostility, who believed that the enemy had a large detachment. The Cossacks did not touch the Muslim population, which then (when the Kurds arrived) retaliated for this with shots in the back. A detachment of Cossacks and local police occupied Bayazet. But soon the Turks arrived with large forces. I had to fight a retreat, set aside the city and close myself in the fortress.
Alas, initially no one expected to withstand a long siege in the fortress and therefore it was simply not prepared for a siege and the Turks knew about it. The main problem there was no water supply for the garrison. The Turks diverted the source that led to the fortress. There was no time to fill the internal tanks. Water was delivered to the citadel by hunters from a stream flowing 60-65 steps from the walls. Soon the Turks filled that stream with corpses of people and animals, as a result of which the water was contaminated with cadaveric poison and emitted a corresponding smell, but the Russians drank it. The portion of water per person per day decreased over time and amounted to: from June 6 - 1 lid of a soldier's pot.

The number of Faik Pasha's forces besieging the Bayazet fortress was constantly changing. New reinforcements arrived periodically, usually from the Kurds of the Bayazet Sanjak and the Alashkert Valley. Their number (only irregular troops) reached 20,000 - 21,000 people and 27 guns.

After the first unsuccessful assault, frantic robberies and wholesale massacres of the Armenian population began in the city in front of the eyes of the entire garrison. After the houses were looted, they were immediately set on fire, and their owners, after cruel torture, were thrown into the fire while still alive. Kurdish women also took an active part in the beating and massacre of Armenians. Some Armenians fled to the citadel. Soldiers and Cossacks, driving away the Kurds by shooting, lifted those fleeing on ropes onto the walls. In the city, according to various sources, from 800 to 1,400 city residents (mainly Armenians) were massacred. 250-300 Armenian women and children were taken by the Kurds to their villages as slaves.

On June 24 (July 6) it started pouring rain at night. The garrison soldiers “caught” water with all kinds of utensils - bowler hats, boots, tarpaulins, handfuls and even their mouths. Several people fell to each puddle, as many as it could accommodate. The sentries, unable to leave their post, sucked their wet uniforms.

F. E. Shtokvich

Despite the extreme lack of food and water, the Russian garrison under the leadership of Captain Shtokvich, Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan, military foreman Kvanin and Lieutenant Tomashevsky rejected any terms of surrender and continued to hold the defense for 23 days, until its liberation by the Erivan detachment of the Russian army.

20,000 Turks against 2,300 Russian soldiers, 3 weeks of siege with virtually no food, water or weapons (twenty-seven guns versus three).

about the type of Kamchatka, I’ll tell you another story :) This story is a little more famous, but still not to that extent.

What do we know about the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878? Well, yes, Shipka, Plevna (there is a monument in Moscow, Muscovites are aware), the liberation of Bulgaria (which many of us regret right now:). 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 as much as 3 weeks until help arrived.

As usual, the difficulties of the siege of the garrison in Bayazet arose due to the traditional Russian ***********. For example, when they saw the armada of the Turkish army, no one bothered to stock up on water in the terrible heat (and there were huge pools and reservoirs in the fortress). No one thought to bring water from the spring either. When they had enough, there was no more water, they drank it all on the first day of the siege. Subsequently, water was extracted by volunteers under Turkish fire, 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, the ration included one (!) spoon of water per day.

The food was better, but not much. There should have been 2,000 pounds of crackers in the warehouses, but it turned out to be 356 pounds of crackers - it turned out that sutler Sarkiz aga-Mamukov supplied 6 times (!) less food for a bribe, paying money to the receiving army quartermasters - one hundred rubles each (yes, that too during the war). As a result, they received 200 grams of crackers 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, the quartermasters did not allow horses 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.

It is interesting that if it were not for Bayazet, the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war could have been different. Ottoman General Faik Pasha led a 20,000-strong army to the Caucasus, and would have calmly burst in there, taking Tiflis, because there were almost no Russian troops in the southern provinces. Then the road would open to Azerbaijan and Yekaterinodar... in general, there would be complete hello and “hurray”. However, Faik Pasha foolishly reported to Istanbul about the capture of Bayazet, and could not leave until he took it. An army of 20,000 remained under the fortress for three weeks, giving the Russians in the Caucasus the opportunity to gather troops.

On June 8, the Turks stormed the citadel, and the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, decided to capitulate. He ordered the gates to be opened and started to wave the white flag - at this romantic moment one of the garrison defenders uncivilly shot him in the back and mortally wounded him. Patsevich uttered the historical phrase - “I’m wounded, now do what you want,” and the Turks who poked their way through the gates mentally received *****. The leadership of the fortress was taken over by Captain Shtokvich as commandant, and Azerbaijani Ismail Khan as head of the garrison. Ismail Khan in Pikul’s “Bayazet” is depicted as a coward and a traitor, and this is not true. It was Ismail Khan who ordered all the Turkish envoys to be hanged 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 ******* that his troops cannot take a fortress with a tiny garrison. Offers of surrender became more and more honorable, and the assaults became more and more fierce. However, the weakened, hungry people, who fell to the floor from the recoil of the gun in the shoulder, held on. During the siege, 317 Russian soldiers and approximately 8,000 Turks died. The Turks had 27 cannons, the Russians had 3, they later found another one in the fortress (an old “unicorn” from Catherine’s times), and adapted it for firing. What is most surprising is that from this “unicorn” they destroyed a modern Krupp gun, which the Turks had specially brought for the siege, during the famous “Bayazet artillery duel”, commanded by a gunner named Postny. He himself died in this duel, but he also butchered the Krupp cannon like God cut up a turtle.

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. To Faik Pasha’s last proposal, Captain Shtokvich replied: “If you so badly want to take the fortress, come and take us by force. The Russians don’t give up alive.” However, the cunning Shtokvich also managed to send spies to Tiflis (there were no telephones then), and there, having learned about the position of the garrison (they had never heard of it), they deployed the army of General Ter-Gukasov. On June 28, he came to Bayazet, put the Turkish troops to flight and lifted the siege, thereby ending the “Bayazet Sitting”.

What happened next? Shtokvich and Ismail Khan received the Order of St. George (and Shtokvich was also given a golden weapon). St. George's Cross The artilleryman, Lieutenant Tomashevsky, also gained it: it was he who turned the guns to the gates after the order to open them, and to Patsevich’s threat of a tribunal, he literally answered the lieutenant colonel with noble aristocratism - “Go to *****, don’t stop the Russian soldier from dying.” By the way, Pikul Tomashevsky, bred under the name of Major Potresov, died for some reason. But Pikul, as I said above, did not get along with Ismail Khan. All Bayazet's soldiers received a monetary reward and promotion to the next rank.

20,000 Turks against 2,300 Russian soldiers, 3 weeks of siege with virtually no food, water or weapons (twenty-seven guns versus three).

We recall the defense of the Bayazet fortress, which largely determined the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878.

“Courage is the virtue by which people in danger perform wonderful deeds.” Aristotle

What do we know about the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878? Well, yes, Shipka, Plevna (there is a monument in Moscow, Muscovites are aware), the liberation of Bulgaria (which many of us regret now :). 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 guarding the Silk Road, as well as a place for storing the treasury and sheltering the royal family.

During the Ottoman era the city was renamed Bayazit. According to one version, the city got its name in honor of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid 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 of a castle than a fortress, but located on a mountain with such difficult approaches that three or four infantry battalions with several guns could withstand a long siege. Important conditions for a successful defense were the availability of supplies of food, water, ammunition and, of course, the enemy’s lack of strong artillery.

In the history of the Russian-Turkish wars, Bayazet was the center of strategic attention of both countries. Russia sought to master it, and Türkiye sought 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 firing a single shot, Russian troops calmly settled in the paradise citadel.

The Turks are moving forward - the Russians are having fun

“He who does not think about distant difficulties will inevitably face near troubles.” Confucius

General Amilakhori of the 3rd Caucasian Cavalry Division made the following entry in his diary:

“On a high mountain, the entire city spreads 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. The city itself, built by him, is named after this pasha. The citadel breathes moisture; in the middle of a vast pool there is a powerful spring. The city of Bayazet has about 600 houses and up to six thousand residents. There are three Armenian churches and two mosques. The whole of Bayazet has the appearance of a labyrinth and is cut up by impassable slums so much that it is difficult for neighbors to communicate with each other. Mostly in the city there are houses of Asian type and, in rare cases, two-story ones. There is a brisk trade in Persian goods at the bazaar. At the foot of the mountain, on the outskirts of the city, there are green orchards. But the main attraction of the city is the abundant springs with wonderful water.”

Let us remember that on the first day of his stay in the city of Bayazet, General Amilohvari noted that the highland Bayazet is rich in abundant sources of water, 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 shone all day long, and there was a market the likes of which the world had never seen. Russian officers, proud of the elegance of their uniforms, were every day “in the crosshairs” 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 Turkish advance, did not take it seriously, exchanging it for endless festivities and rowdy behavior. Impunity during war has always flourished - it is 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 was the reason for the large loss of men in the first days of the siege.

The walls remained unprotected, the guns and the soldiers themselves were easy targets for the Turks, and only in the battle itself did the soldiers make desperate attempts to take cover, to defend themselves with earthen bags... Where were the army leadership looking? Everything is simple - they were doing the same thing as the rest - drinking and relaxing, so to speak - “militantly prospering.”

A little later, having recovered from the endless festivities, when the Turkish cavalry was stealing about 1000 heads of herd right under the noses of 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 truly formed in a strange way: no money, no lifting equipment, no infirmaries, no provisions, no fodder, no monotonous weapons! A real Trishkin caftan! The greatest poverty, as if after an enemy pogrom. Looking from the outside, really, you might think that we had done nothing exactly 20 years before and were calmly resting on the Sevastopol laurels.”

June 6, 1877 was approaching. This memorable day made many in the garrison of Bayazet seriously think about 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 hastily convenes a military council of garrison unit commanders to answer the eternal 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 into another world. Patsevich’s expansive nature left more than one puzzle for his descendants.

And instead of taking advantage of the precious time and taking care of strengthening the fortress and a number of other problems, he decides to launch a military raid against the superior army of the Turks. That is, in fact, not trusting any rumors and testimonies of spies, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich seemed to decide to see for himself what kind of forces were heading towards Bayazet. Having assembled a detachment of about 1200–1300 soldiers, Patsevich set out in search of the main concentration of Turkish forces.

I’ll be brief: having traveled 17 miles, Patsevich’s garrison found itself in the very thick of the enemy’s superior forces, and without taking the proper measures, they found themselves in voluntary death. When the entire garrison began to be surrounded on three sides, it was decided to retreat towards the fortress. Retreating, fighting off a hail of bullets alone, the garrison was treacherously attacked by the local population.

"Fifth Column" of local residents.

While awaiting the arrival of the Turks, the Muslim population of Bayazet managed to quickly reorient itself and assumed the role of a “fifth column.” Every house on the way of the retreating to the citadel turned into an active battlement. From the windows of their houses, the population fired at Patskeich's detachment with might and main. The detachment did not expect partisan actions on the part of the townspeople.

“The passage between houses has become difficult for us. There were cases where a soldier, sitting behind a wall or behind a pile of stones, focusing his attention on the advancing enemy, was killed by some boy sneaking up behind him.”

His Majesty "case"

The Lord so ordered that it was during the retreat that reinforcements approached Bayazet - four hundred Erivan Cavalry Regiment, led by an experienced and already elderly commander, Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan. There were about 500 horsemen in total. Before Ismail Khan’s eyes, a dramatic panorama of Patsevich’s retreating detachment and the Turkish Kurds pursuing him with wild, joyful cries opened up in full view.

Ismail Khan had only a few seconds to think. He dismounted his hundreds and took up an advantageous position, from which he began to counter the outflanking of the enemy cavalry with well-aimed fire. This attack by Ismail Khan was so unexpected that the enemy’s outflanking was virtually paralyzed. The entire right flank of the fleeing Russian detachment, which included the wounded, was given the opportunity for a safer retreat all the way to Bayazet.

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 made the retreat easier with their fire attack on both sides of the road.

The fact of Ismail Khan’s feat, although with some inaccuracies, was recorded for history in the most authoritative military publication of the Russian Military Encyclopedia.

“Only thanks to the pouring out of the citadel of the newly arrived Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan with 2 hundred of the Erivan Cavalry Irregular Regiment and both companies remaining in the city, the detachment could continue to move towards the city..”

Later in his diaries, Ismail Khan will say:

“About 10 o’clock in the morning we had a hot firefight with the advanced crowds of Kurds, who were joined by Turkish infantry around noon. Against my four hundreds of militia, just recruited from the villages and not yet disciplined, and, moreover, tired from lack of sleep and a sixty-mile night march, the Turks deployed a mass of several thousand, which continued to grow in strength with 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 that I would be cut off from the fortress, I began to retreat, and the Kurds attacked so vigorously that my hundreds seemed to melt away: many were killed, others were captured, and others fled. Only 28 people with 4 officers remained with me, including my son. Then I ordered my horsemen to put one soldier on my saddle, and in this form I jumped into the citadel of Bayazet.”

“An army of rams led by a lion will always triumph over an army of lions led by a ram.”

In fairness, let us clarify the aphorism of Napoleon I Bonaparte for our case: there was no lion at the head of the enemy army of many thousands either. And thank God!

In Bayazet it had already become known about the panicky retreat of Pacevich’s detachment and its pursuit by hordes of Kurds and Turkish cavalry. As they approached the garrison, this terrible sight was clearly visible from the heights of Bayazet and sowed confusion in the garrison. At the same time, panic began at the gates of the citadel: in such frenzied turmoil, one’s own could unwittingly become more dangerous than the enemy.

As usual, difficulties and problems do not come alone. And as mentioned above, due to the chaotic festivities, no one bothered to fill the pools and reservoirs with water. And it was summer time - the month of June. No one thought to bring water from the spring either. When they had enough, there was no more water, they drank it all on the first day of the siege. Subsequently, water was extracted by volunteers under Turkish fire, 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, the ration included one (!) spoon of water per day.

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 turmoil outside the window, enjoying tea, thought about how to take revenge. He was contemplating a new operation - to push the Turks back from the citadel. Now Patsevich had already foreseen everything: who, how many and where to send. Of course, in the heat of retreat, perhaps he did not appreciate the enemy’s strength. He may still have been in the throes of flight, but he was still in a relentless quest to attack the enemy and drive the Turks from the citadel. Without a doubt, this brave and honest officer stubbornly acted only according to his own understanding.

Facing Death

Almost the entire garrison of Bayazet, miraculously remaining, was led out of the citadel by the restless Patsevich for a new, now last battle. Bayazet’s hastily snacked and obedient soldiers knew that they had again been turned to face death and that there was no longer any return. Surprisingly, no one said a word that they did not want to go to certain death. They took the oath of allegiance to the Tsar and the Fatherland, and this was enough to carry out the order of the commander. Leaving the citadel and going into battle, as if on command, they shouted to those remaining: “Farewell, brothers!” They looked at them sympathetically and answered: “God help!”

As soon as Patsevich’s new detachment left the gates of the citadel, it turned out that the Turks had tightly surrounded it from the mountains, and their numerical strength was so much greater than the Russian detachment that it was pointless to attack the heights. All roads were already blocked.

Surprisingly, Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich quickly found his bearings and, in order to avoid useless losses, again ordered a retreat and return back to the fortress.

The food was better, but not much. There should have been 2,000 pounds of crackers in the warehouses, but it turned out to be 356 pounds. As a result, they received 200 grams of crackers 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 they did not allow horses 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.

It is interesting that if it were not for Bayazet, the outcome of the Russian-Turkish war could have been different. Turkish General Faik Pasha led a 20,000-strong army to the Caucasus, and would have calmly rushed there, taking Tiflis, because there were almost no Russian troops in the southern provinces. Then the road to Azerbaijan and Yekaterinodar would open... in general, there would be complete hello and “hurray”.

However, Faik Pasha foolishly reported to Istanbul about the capture of Bayazet, and could not leave until he took it. An army of 20,000 remained under the fortress for three weeks, giving the Russians in the Caucasus the opportunity to gather troops.

In fact, the Turkish general understood the severity of taking the fortress in conditions of unbearable summer heat. He decides to starve the fortress out. He had excellent information, and that the defenders in the citadel had literally only 2-3 days of food left. Later, for such a delay, he will appear before a military tribunal. But that's later.

Revelations of Colonel Ismail - Khan of Nakhichevan

“... - Worse could have happened! - suddenly exclaimed one young artillery officer, standing in a crowd of others, but whose name, unfortunately, I don’t remember. - After all, you can’t die three times?! We will fight as long as our legs hold up, and then whatever God sends, we will fight. I silently extended my hand to this officer and told the others that the main thing is not to lose heart and not lose hope, since they will help us out at all costs.

That same evening I consulted about our situation with some officers, and it turned out that our main grief would be the lack of water, for the extraction of which we had the only means left - night forays to a small river that flowed at the base of the Bayazet rock, steps away 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 a single foray for water made by hunters at night was without killing or wounded. Hunger was also not slow to take hold: people began to be given only one cracker per day.

On the fourth day of our sitting, the enemy fire suddenly stopped, and a Kurd approached us as an envoy 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 the prudent advice, surrender, earn the mercy of our magnanimous Sultan." The same thing 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 Kurd was removed, the Turkish positions began to smoke, and their shots rang out with new ferocity...

Over the next days, the position of the garrison worsened more and more. The number of killed and wounded grew. The supply of crackers had to be reduced even more. People weakened, and deaths began among the horses. The heat, meanwhile, became more unbearable, and obtaining water became more difficult every day: right next to the exit of the trench to the river, the Turks placed a strong guard, which showered a hail of bullets on every daredevil who tried to quench his thirst.

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 closer to the nose.

The soldiers, however, not only greedily pounced on this fetid poison, this almost juice from corpses, but there were cases that they drank an even worse abomination, which it is inconvenient to even name. As a result of all this, various diseases appeared among people, from which even more people died than from enemy shots.”

Hunger, heat and thirst took their toll - and one of the first people to break down, unfortunately, was Patsevich himself. He repeatedly ordered several soldiers to hang up the white canvas, and then, unable to stand it, he stood up, shouting in broken Turkish: “enough, enough - we surrender.”

An artillery officer suddenly flew towards me. He was excited. “Pacevich raised the white flag, and a huge mass of Turks was already pouring towards the gate.” After that, I jumped out into the courtyard, where a mass of officers and soldiers were crowding, and I really saw: on a huge pole attached to the wall of the citadel, a white flag was flying high, and Patsevich and several officers were standing nearby. “Gentlemen, what are you doing?! - I shouted. Did we take the oath to disgrace ourselves and Russian weapons by cowardly surrender!? Ashamed! As long as there is even a drop of blood left 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 “hurray” 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 drove back crowds of puzzled Turks, who were already approaching the gates of the citadel with axes and stones. The enemy also responded immediately, and 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 the bullet killed him was his own or the enemy’s, I cannot decide. There were votes for both, but Patsevich was wounded in the back.

Patsevich's mortal wound further strengthened the patriotic spirit of the besieged Bayazeti people. There could now be no question of surrendering the citadel.

Thus, due to the prevailing sad circumstances, without appointment from above, Colonel Ismail Khan of Nakhichevan took command of the garrison. He had not prepared for this at all, did not expect this to happen. But, being the oldest in the fortress in terms of 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 in Pikul’s “Bayazet” is depicted as a coward and a traitor, and this is not true. It was Ismail Khan who ordered all the Turkish envoys to be hanged 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 the assaults became more and more fierce. However, the weakened, hungry people, who fell to the floor from the recoil of the gun in the shoulder, held on. During the siege, 317 Russian soldiers and approximately 8,000 Turks died. The Turks had 27 guns, the Russians - 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. To Faik Pasha’s last proposal, Captain Shtokvich replied:

“If you want to take the fortress so badly, come and take us by force. The Russians don’t give up alive.”

However, the cunning Shtokvich also managed to send spies to Tiflis (there were no telephones then), and there, having learned about the position of the garrison (they had never heard of it), they deployed the army of General Tergukasov.

June 24 is the day of God's grace. Torrential rain fell on the citadel - a fabulous elixir of life. The defenders enjoyed the moisture to their heart's content and did not miss the opportunity to stockpile water, but soon there was no need for them.

The date arrived June 28, 1877. This day became a real holiday for the surviving Bayazeti people. In the morning, firing began behind the fortress. A detachment under the command of Lieutenant General A. A. Tergukasov came 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 received the St. George Cross: it was he who turned his guns towards the gates after the order to open them, and in response to Patsevich’s threat of a tribunal, he literally answered the lieutenant colonel with noble aristocratism - “Go to ....., don’t stop the Russian soldier from dying.”

All Bayazet's soldiers received a monetary reward and promotion to the next rank. But Faik Pasha was demoted from general, deprived of all orders, sentenced to 6 months in prison, and after serving time, 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. This is the main meaning of 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.”

The obituary in the Kavkaz newspaper on March 3, 1909 not only reminded the public of the greatness of this man. For the first time in history, the true truth was finally declared historical role Colonel Ismail Khan in the distant days of gunpowder June 1877 in Bayazet. Did the soaring soul of Ismail Khan feel that the truth, hidden for so long, had burst into the white light?

From point of view military science and human capabilities, Ismail Khan accomplished the impossible. For three weeks, a thousand-strong garrison under his leadership defended the fortress without food or 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 guide to combating 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 younger generation. In conditions of decline in national spirit, crisis in armed forces, it is such historical examples that should help us raise a new generation of people devoted to the Motherland. In the faces of thousands of brave men 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 such soldiers as served in his army.

Love history - be inquisitive, remember and honor the history of our ancestors, those who were fearless, did not waste their honor and pride while serving their patronymic - Great Russia!

The three-week siege of the small fortress of Bayazet in June 1877 went down not only in the history of the Russian army, but also in literature. Thanks to Valentin Pikul's novel "Bayazet" this plot became widely known. However, the novelist, in the interests of the plot, seriously changed the story and remade the images of the heroes. Meanwhile, the real history of 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. Its days of glory and wealth are long behind us, but centuries ago it was bustling with life. The first settlement and fortress appeared there in the era of the 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 there, and in the Middle Ages the Turks built another citadel, which stood for hundreds of years. By the 19th century, this fortress, of course, was long outdated.

Built to protect against catapult fire, it could not protect against artillery fire. However, this did not have much effect on the well-being of the town, located at the foot of the fortress. Bayazet was successfully 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 poor. 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 began a war against Turkey for the liberation of 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 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 hospital in Bayazet.

The service in Bayazet did not promise anything interesting. A dusty little town, the sleepy silence is echoed only by the daily chants of the muezzin. However, at the end of spring, vague rumors spread around the city about the appearance of Turkish troops 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 to the mountains.

The scouts did not find anyone and returned in a complacent mood. Kovalevsky himself was soon to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Patsevich, so the old commandant was already mentally sitting on his suitcases. Meanwhile, Turkish troops accumulated in the vicinity of Bayazet. Turkish agents operated in the city. The Russians arrested a number of agents, seized telegraph equipment and weapons, but failed to catch all the infiltrators.

It was at this moment that Kovalevsky’s wife, Alexandra, arrived in Bayazet. Unlike the novel's heroine, the commandant's real wife did not have any affairs and, by all accounts, behaved in an exemplary manner.

Patsevich, who arrived to take over business, decided to conduct reconnaissance in the direction of Van. The reconnaissance mission 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: there were no supplies of food and water in the Bayazet citadel. Until the last moment, everything was delivered to the city as usual. Only a few days before the complete encirclement of the citadel, the commanders bothered to create at least small warehouses, and the water situation was almost catastrophic from the very beginning. However, almost all the people were taken behind 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 managerial commander, one of the key figures in further defense. In Bayazet, with him was his son, who received a serious wound during the breakthrough into the citadel.

The Ottoman cavalry rolled down from the mountains. The detachment that besieged the one and a half thousand garrison of Bayazet numbered 11 thousand sabers. Moreover, as the siege progressed, new troops approached Bayazet. The besieged had only nine days of food. The mood was very gloomy. 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, provided weak protection. There weren't even parapets on the walls. Fortunately, the extreme weakness of the besiegers' artillery did not allow them to simply smash the walls with fire.

The Russians were doing their best to improve their simple fortification. The gates were barricaded, the windows were blocked with stones, and parapets were built at all positions for people and guns. The night passed in alarm: in the city itself the Turks were slaughtering non-believers. At the same time, they killed several militiamen who did not have time to take refuge in the citadel. There were skirmishes with the garrison itself.

On June 19, the Turks and Kurds began shelling 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 fired actively, but without much result, and at noon they sent men 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 banner climbed onto the roof. This was the critical moment of the siege. Chaos reigned. Enraged officers shouted at each other, trying to decide whether to carry out orders or continue fighting. Many simply did not believe that the white flag could be raised seriously and continued to fire.

The shooting from the fortress either subsided or began again. The flag was torn down. Patsevich ran around the courtyard of the citadel, trying to stop the shooting at the threat of a revolver. Cossack foreman Kvanin easily took the white flag from another soldier sent by Patsevich. Several officers have already decided to descend from the wall and fight their way out with bayonets if there is a capitulation. The irregulars began to break down the barricade in front of the gate, but behind it there was already a cannon pointed 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 memories of Ismail Khan and the Cossack constable who was present at the event leave no doubt that the unlucky lieutenant colonel was killed from the inside: Patsevich was wounded in the back. They couldn’t determine who fired the shot, and they didn’t want to. The overall result was summed up by Ismail Khan: “There is a black sheep in a family.”

The chaos lasted only a few minutes, after which a wave of fire fell on the Turks and Kurds trampling under the walls. Rapid-fire rifles made holes in the dense crowd, the screams of the dying mixed with curses and roar. The attack failed. According to 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’s easy to imagine what would have happened if the Russians had opened the gates and everyone had capitulated.

After this, the defense was led 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 parliamentarian to the Turks. They were asked to remove the corpses of their soldiers from under the walls.

The assault had failed, and now it was necessary to resist a more terrible enemy. People were thirsty. The river was within easy reach, but the bank was under fire. Volunteers with buckets and jugs were constantly climbing down ropes or climbing out through a gap in the wall. The Turks tried to shoot the water carriers, and from the loopholes they attacked them themselves. These forays were incredibly risky, and some 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, organized a sortie. The Russians fought the Turks hand-to-hand, with sabers and bayonets, and retreated only after properly stocking up on precious water. After this, the enraged Turks filled the river upstream with corpses. The Russians added more bodies to them: looters walked around the city, but they became vulnerable when they tried to drive away the donkeys with the stolen goods. These drivers were shot by snipers from the fortress. Although the Turks did not attempt a decisive assault, fire was constantly exchanged.

One day, the defenders of Bayazet noticed a Russian detachment in the distance. What a disappointment, it was just a reconnaissance! Soon a new parliamentarian - a defector - appeared in the citadel. He said 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 him to escape punishment for treason. The traitor was strung up, and the Turks, after new attempts to send an ultimatum, were promised that the new delegates would be shot.

However, Ismail Khan and Shtokvich were worried about the question: do people outside know about the plight of the fortress? The first messengers were unable to reach the main forces, but a trio of Cossacks, led by sergeant Sivolobov, made their way through the outposts at night and were able to convey the news about the position of the fortress to their own. And it got worse. Due to poor water, which was also in short supply, epidemics slowly flared up in the garrison. True, the Turks could not take the fortress from battle. An attempt to drag a heavy weapon under the walls ended in a duel with a Russian cannon on the wall. The Russians knocked out a Turkish cannon with a second shot. The discouraged Turks retreated, and a new assault did not take place.

On the night of July 7, one of the happiest events during the siege occurred: heavy rain fell over Bayazet. They filled every container they could with water, right down to their boots. Thirst subsided somewhat, but the Turks resumed their furious bombardment. 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, they heard peals in the distance. At first they couldn’t say for sure whether they were our own. But on the 10th, at dawn, the bayonets of Tergukasov’s detachment began to shine in front of Bayazet. It was a salvation. The Turks still retained 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 persistent soldiers made a sortie from the fortress. The battle did not last long. The siege cost the lives of 116 garrison soldiers, but all were extremely exhausted by disease, hunger and thirst. The soldiers who emerged from the citadel immediately rushed to the water. The saviors and the saved are mixed up. Some people slipped crackers and meat to their comrades, others changed into clean clothes after the siege. Only the captured Turks were not happy. They got a thankless job - dismantling the dead and cleaning up the fortress. The widow of the deceased commander, Alexandra Kovalevskaya, came out of the citadel, leaning on the officer’s hand. Thus ended the defense of the Bayazet citadel 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. Not everything was perfectly organized during this siege, but ultimately the fortitude and military skill of the defenders led to complete success. Subsequently, the history of the defense of the fortress was described many times in documentary and fiction literature and in itself turned almost into a legend. Meanwhile, the spouses Kovalevsky, Shtokvich, Kvanin, Ismail Khan, Sivolobov are quite real and wrote one of its heroic pages in Russian military history.