COURAGE OF TATAR REGIMENT

It is known that the Muslims of the Caucasus were not called up into the army in tsarist Russia. The authorities were probably not certain of the absolute loyalty of a people subjugated approximately a century earlier. The tendency of certain strata of Muslims in the Caucasus to gravitate towards Turkey and Iran served as grounds for such suppositions. This was not exclusively due to religious convictions, but also due to attempts by those countries, especially Turkey, to boost its influence over the peoples of the region. Russia feared that, if armed by her, the Muslims of the Caucasus might turn those weapons on her at any moment. It is difficult to judge how valid these fears were.

Volunteers

On the other hand, the vanguard of the intelligentsia in the Caucasus regarded this refusal to call them up for military service as a barrier to the integration of Muslims into Russian society with full rights. A Congress of Muslims took place in Nizhnyy Novgorod on 15 August 1905, at which Azerbaijani Muslims were represented by Alimardanbay Topcubasev, Ahmad bay Agayev, Samsi Asadullayev, Nacafbay Vazirov and S. Tagizada. 

In the third clause of the resolution adopted note "was made of "the need for Muslims and Russians to have equal rights. Muslims are to apply every effort by legal means to eliminate the existing oppression and deprivation of rights in relation to Muslims and to ensure that Muslims should be equal to Russians in political, religious and property rights.

Although, after the events of 1905-1907 (the Armenian-Azerbaijani hostilities, the workers' strikes in support of political demands, the 17 October Manifesto and so forth) the demands of the "non-Russian minorities" for equal rights with the Christian population of Russia were heard ever more frequently and loudly, they did not manage to gain real equality of rights …

In 1915 the Petrograd [now St. Petersburg] and Moscow newspapers carried upbeat articles on the successes of the Russian forces at the fronts of the war. In actual fact, the situation was not so optimistic. The fact that in 1915 they already started to recruit into the regular army those who were not due to be conscripted until 1916 can serve as proof of this. Precisely the unfavourable course of events forced Tsar Nicholai II to announce the setting up of a volunteer Caucasus cavalry division  (rank and file - author) made up of indigenous Muslims from Transcaucasia and the Northern Caucasus, on 23 August 1914. The division was composed of six regiments combined into three brigades.

A regiment consisted of four squadrons with 100 fighters in each. The tsar appointed his younger brother, Mikhail Aleksandrovich, as commander of the division. The conditions governing the formation of the division were the following: each fighter had to turn up at the assembly point on his own horse, in uniform and be armed with cold steel. The state would provide him with food and fodder for his horse and the rider would be paid 20 roubles per month. The Tatar cavalry regiment, which consisted of Azerbaijanis, mainly from the Yelizavetpol gubernia [province] and the Borchali uyezd [district, Georgia], as well as the Baku gubernia formed the second brigade along with the Chechen cavalry regiment. Lieutenant-Colonel Pyotr Polovtsev was appointed the regiment's commander, but one of his deputies was Captain Sahverdi Xan Ziyatkhanov. Colonel Prince Feyzulla Mirza Qacar was also attached to the Tatar Cavalry Regiment.

There was no problem recruiting men into the Tatar Cavalry Regiment. More than 2,000 young men wanted to become cavalrymen, while only four hundred were needed. The morale there was best described in a letter from a wounded volunteer published in one of the issues of the "Kaspi" newspaper. The author of the newspaper is not named, but points out that this is "a letter to Firuddinbay Kocarlinskiy from his nephew, a volunteer in the Tatar regiment from the war front (wounded and in hospital)". We believe that the letter was written by a relative of the head of the Azerbaijani department of the Gori teaching seminary, Firudin Kocarli, whose first name was Zulfuqar.

The soldier writes: "I only have one desire and that is to get well as soon as possible, return to my position and face up to the enemy of our dear fatherland. I have given my word that I shall either lay my bones to rest on the battlefield or, after defeating the enemy, return to my homeland covered in glory; I have already resolved to sacrifice myself for our beloved Monarch, for our dear fatherland and for the glorious Tatar people from whom I have come and the sons of whom fight bravely and instil fear in the enemy…"

It has already been mentioned above that every rider, would-be fighter, had to have his own horse and harness. Sometimes the situation arose when young men were burning with desire to join the Tatar Cavalry Regiment, but did not have a horse or harness. In such cases, wealthy individuals helped them. In February 1915 a 50-strong cavalry detachment was formed of volunteers in Lankaran to go to the front. The detachment needed 7,500 roubles for harnesses and equipment. The local population was not in a position to collect the money needed. For this reason, H. Z. Tagiyev took upon himself all the expenses of forming the Lankaran detachment. Incidentally, he and M. Nagiyev donated 100,000 roubles each to equip a field hospital for the Caucasus native cavalry division.

The "wild" division

The formation of the Tatar regiment took place in Yelizavetpol (Ganca today). The Muslim division was brought together in September 1914, after which it was sent to Podolsk gubernia, and, following its inspection in Petrograd, it was dispatched to the western front, where Russia was fighting against Austro-Hungary. The authorities did not apparently want the Caucasus Muslims fighting against the Turks who shared their belief. This was most probably done not out of any respect for national sensitivities, but owing to doubts about the Caucasus peoples' loyalty to the throne. Voluntary detachments of Armenians, who held "their own grudges" against the Turks, were sent to fight them.

Unfortunately, there are few items in the wartime press reports about the participation of the Caucasus native cavalry division, including the Tatar Cavalry regiment, in the military battles of the First World War. The fact that the division was nicknamed "the wild one" at the front is evidence of the fearlessness, bravery and courage of the Muslim fighters.

On 9 February 1915, the daily "Den Pechati" ["Press Day"] came out alongside ordinary weekly newspapers, carrying stories about war casualties. It contained an essay devoted to the Caucasus division with the title "Scarlet Hoods" by journalist Ilya Tolstoy, the son of [Russian writer] Leo Tolstoy. "I made my first acquaintance with the Caucasus native division in Lviv [Ukraine] when the commander of the corps was carrying out an inspection of it. The cavalry were riding past in line… Smartly dressed, typical horsemen, in beautiful Circassian coats filed past us with shiny gold and silver weapons, wearing bright scarlet hoods, on supple, skittish horses, to  the accompaniment of a squeaky tune played by the zurna [folk music instrument] players, who were playing their own folk war songs on their fifes. The riders were slender, dark-skinned, bearing themselves proudly and manifesting their national dignity.  Not a face, but a character; not an expression but his own expression, a personal one; not a look but might and valour. This is what these "Tatars" are like, these wild meadow flowers, magnificent in their original colour, vivid and attractive…" This is how I. Tolstoy conveyed his admiration for the Caucasian warriors. 

On location with the division, the correspondent of the Petrograd newspaper "Novoye Vremya" ["New Times"], described the military actions of the Muslim warriors in the following manner: "Everyone is talking about the deeds of the Caucasus division. The division has been engaged in endless fighting and clashes since the middle of January, and every action by the division as a whole or by individual regiments is a completely heroic feat, a manifestation of the greatest courage."

In "The Days of Growing Darkness", a book of memoirs devoted to the events in Russia in 1917, P. A. Polovtsev, the commander of the Tatar regiment and then the division's chief of staff, quotes the words of Tsar Nicholas II on the Caucasian volunteers: "Yes, the Caucasians are working well. Even here, reading reports of their exploits during offensives, it takes your breath away." The regiment carried out one of these attacks in February 1915, when "it attacked the Austrians in the forest near the village of Brin, drove them out of a number of their trenches and, in spite of the fact that their left flank had been seized and permission for them to withdraw had twice been given, they stubbornly held on to the captured location and, owing to their persistence, they made it possible to defeat the Austrian column which was going round the right flank; thus they made it easier to capture the village" (Polovtsev was awarded the Order of St. George the Victor, 4th class).

The Azerbaijani generals 

In spite of the fact that Azerbaijanis were not called up for military service, quite a few officers and generals served in the Russian army. The best known in the years of the First World War were Huseyn Xan Navcivanski, Samad bay Mehmandarov and Ali Aga Sixlinski. The Caucasus native cavalry was incidentally part of the corps commanded by Huseyn Xan Naxcivanski. The sub-units that he commanded fought successfully on the war fronts.

The greatest success in the early months of the war fell to the lot of Samad bay Mehmandarov. Back in September 1914, he was awarded the Order of St George, 3rd class, for the following: "during the fighting at Kosenice, under heavy fire from the enemy, he managed to cross the river Vistula with his division, and for three days, far away from any kind of back-up to help in holding the river… he held onto the left bank of the river with the above-mentioned brigade, fighting off  a number of attacks by the German Guards' Corps, which inflicted mighty blows on his units with their bayonets; he himself went over to the attack, in spite of the fact that the brigade was literally the target of heavy fire on all sides"  (the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz").

In January 1915, S. Mehmandarov was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class with a sword and in February the George weapon studded with diamonds. The St. Petersburg newspaper, "Russkiy Invalid" ["Russian Invalid"] wrote the following in relation to this: "For distinguished feats against the enemy, His Most Gracious Majesty the Emperor has rewarded the former head of the 21st infantry division, now commander of the Army Corps, Lieutenant-General Samad-bay Mehmandarov, for pursuing with his corps the German army defeated near Ivangrad on 9 and 10 October 1914; after encountering the Austrian forces although their numbers were superior; the latter were trying to seize the flank of our military position on the line of the Polichno-Bogutsinskiy forest, which had been taken; amidst bayonet thrusts and decisive offensives, finding himself personally on the line of troops and quite obviously risking his own life, he managed to stop the enemy in his tracks and with an attack in the flank he succeeded in putting them to flight. 

On the 11, 12 and 13 October the right flank of our military repelled repeated attempts by superior forces, which suffered heavy losses, to by-pass it, forcing the enemy to beat a hasty retreat throughout the entire front; in one day alone, 11 October 1914, we captured one staff officer, 16 high-ranking officers, 670 members of the lower ranks and one machine gun."

New volunteers kept on joining the Tatar Cavalry regiment, replacing those who had perished, the wounded and the sick. In January 1915 a detachment of Muslim volunteers numbering 200 from the Erivan gubernia headed for the scene of military operations under the command of Ali-Khan Makinsky.