Siege of Erivan (1808)

Siege during the Russo-Persian War in 1808

The siege of Erivan took place in October and November 1808, during the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813. As in 1804, the Iranians successfully defended the city and forced the Russians to withdraw.^[1][3]

The Russian campaign, launched late in the season and poorly conceived and executed, failed after a six-week siege of the Iranian fortress of Erivan.^[2] The Russians had suffered 3,000 casualties with almost 1,000 deaths.^[1][2]

Russian field marshal Ivan Gudovich tried to excuse his defeat by claiming that French military officers had helped the Iranians, but Gudovich's superiors, as modern historian Alexander Mikaberidze explains, "knew better".^[2] Tsar Alexander I was severely dissatisfied; when he heard about Gudovich's failure, he named his expedition as "stupid", and without any sort of compassion, sent him into retirement.^[4]

References

1. Behrooz 2013, p. 58.
2. Mikaberidze 2020, p. 438.
3. Kettenhofen, Bournoutian & Hewsen 1998, pp. 542–551.
4. Atkin 1980, p. 77.

Sources

• Atkin, Muriel (1980). Russia and Iran, 1780-1828. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816609246.
• Behrooz, Maziar (2013). "From confidence to apprehension: early Iranian interaction with Russia". In Cronin, Stephanie (ed.). Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions Since 1800. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415624336.
• Kettenhofen, Erich; Bournoutian, George A.; Hewsen, Robert H. (1998). "EREVAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. VIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 542–551.
• Mikaberidze, Alexander (2020). The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199951062.

Further reading

• Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule: 1795-1828. Mazda Publishers. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0939214181.