Samson Makintsev

Historian Stephanie Cronin states that the reason for his desertion is not definitely known, but the men of his regiment apparently believed that he had stolen the mouthpieces from the regiment's silver trumpets.[1] After fleeing the regiment in 1802, then 22 years old,[3] he gave himself up to the Iranians, entered Abbas Mirza's service, and was appointed a lieutenant in one of the new Nezam-e-Jadid (lit. "new army") regiments, the fawj-i-Erivan (the Erivan regiment), named after one of Iran's threatened Caucasian provinces.[5]

Through his efforts, which included the enlisting of other fugitives into the ranks, Makintsev earned promotion to the rank of major.[6] Soon one half of the Erivan regiment was made up of deserters.[6] Seemingly having noticed Abbas Mirza's approval, the Russians expressed their dissatisfaction with the regiment's Iranian commander and to ask that he be replaced by Makintsev.[6] Abbas Mirza, who was unwilling to place a mixed unit that included Muslim Iranians under direct Russian rule, instead formed the deserters into a separate unit, giving its command and the rank of colonel, and later general, to Makintsev, who took the name Samson Khan.[6]

Makintsev quickly gained the complete confidence of Abbas Mirza, who gave the Russians the name Bahadoran (heroes) and used them to constitute his palace guard.[6] The most reliable element in the Nezam-e-Jadid, they were better trained and more regularly paid than the native troops, and the king (Fath Ali Shah Qajar), and Abbas Mirza in particular, relied on them to suppress domestic rebellions. They were especially used in any issue related to "discontent with a religious flavour".[6]

At first Makintsev recruited amongst the Russians whom he found in Tabriz – deserters, prisoners of war, and even runaway peasants.[6] As Cronin notes, after his regiment suffered severe losses in the 1804–1813 Russo-Persian War, Makintsev started an active approach.[6] Not waiting for deserters to arrive in Tabriz of their own accord, he made every effort to encourage the flight of soldiers in the Russian army then occupying the Iranian territory that is modern-day Azerbaijan.[6] He employed a range of methods, including "enticements, money and cunning", and he organized schemes to encourage troops to desert their Russian units. Persuasion was tried first, and then Makintsev's men would ply the Russians "with wine and seize them".[6]

The reputation of Makintsev, now with the rank of general, as a trusted soldier of the crown prince and commander-in-chief, Abbas Mirza, and the welcome awaiting for those who deserted by this time well known among the Russian troops, led to a constant stream of deserters.[6] Several hundred Russian prisoners of war were also enlisted into the Bahadoran regiment of the Nezam-e Jadid.[6] Cronin notes that as time passed, the sons of deserter-troops who had married in Iran were, in a continuation of the Russian practise, also enlisted into the regiment.[6]

The strength of the regiment fluctuated. In 1822 they were estimated to number 800–1,000 troops, but after the second Russo-Iranian War (1826–1828) it was reported that there were as many as 3,000.[6] In 1833 alone, 400 new deserters arrived from Russia.[6] Compared to the native Nizam troops, this was a comparatively substantial number, which, though also fluctuating and uncertain, probably amounted to around 12,000 by the early 1830s, according to Cronin.[6] Some decided to settle permanently in Iran, integrating into local society, their habitual drunkenness apparently presenting no impediment to social acceptance.[7] Some yearned to return home,[8] but many married and established families. Makintsev himself married and had children, and those who married were given land and apparently lived well.[8] Makintsev inhabited a large house in the Tabriz arg (citadel), having made an extremely advantageous marriage to the daughter of Prince Alexander of Georgia, a Georgian exile, who was living in Iran proper as well.[8]

The regiment of Makintsev was the fighting core of the Nizam-i-Jadid, and appears to have possessed a considerable military capacity.[8] During the Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813, Makintsev's regiment accompanied other regiments to the decisive Battle of Aslanduz in October 1812.[8] Though overall a disaster for the Iranians, the deserters under Makintsev appear to have engaged the troops under General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky with some success, reportedly nearly annihilating them.[8] Kotlyarevsky on the other hand acted quickly to take revenge, for the deserters amongst the prisoners were hanged and bayoneted.[8] By the time of the 1826–1828 war, the deserters had developed qualms, and Makintsev tried to avoid a direct confrontation in the fighting, declaring that the "Russians had sworn on the Holy Gospel that they would not fire on fellow Christians".[8] Abbas Mirza, however, was determined to use his expertise and made him his military adviser, and the regiment subsequently went on campaign on the condition that it would be kept in reserve, though it eventually was involved in military operations.[8] After the campaign, Makintsev retired from active service. He then appointed his new son-in-law, Yevstafii Vasilievich Skryplev, a non-commissioned officer recently deserted from the Nasheburg infantry regiment, the new colonel and regimental commander.[8]

Russia had been making extensive efforts and appeasement policies for years towards the deserters to repatriate them, with, eventually, relatively high success.[9] Makintsev himself declined the offer, however, apparently out of fear that he would be treated differently from the other deserters, tried separately, and punished. He died in 1849 and was buried under the altar of an Orthodox church (Saint John Church of Sohrol) that he himself had built.[9]

By the early 1850s the deserter regiment of which Makintsev had once been part had vanished, its remnants in Iran absorbed into the native Nizam units.[10]