Yevstafii Skryplev

Yevstafii Vasilievich Skryplev Евстафий Васильевич Скрыплев
Born	Russian Empire
Died	Early 1860s Russian Empire
Allegiance	Russian Empire (until 1828) Persian Empire (1828-1839)  Russian Empire (upon return in 1839)
Service/branch	Imperial Russian Army Qajar Iranian Army (from 1828) Imperial Russian Army (upon return in 1839)
Rank	Officer (up to 1828) Commander (1828-1839) Yesaul (upon return), Ataman (upon return)
Unit	Infantry, Cavalry
Commands held	Bogatyr batallion Russian batallion of the Persian army Chamlyksk Cossack settlement
Battles/wars	Numerous domestic engagements in Qajar Iran Caucasian War

Yevstafii Vasilievich Skryplev (Russian: Евстафий Васильевич Скрыплев) was a Russian military officer that defected to Qajar Iran, where he became commander of the Bogatyr batallion of the Qajar army. Upon repatriation to Russia, he became a successful Cossack commander in the Caucasian Host, eventually gaining the rank of ataman as well.

Biography

Not much is known regarding Skryplev's early life. Before his defecting, he was a non-commissioned officer in the Nasheburg infantry regiment.^[1] In 1828, he decively moved to the Iranian camp.^[2] He entered the shah's service and married the daughter of Samson Makintsev, better known as Samson-Khan, a Russian commander that had defected to the Iranians some years earlier.^[3] Makintsev made his son-in-law a colonel and commander of the Bogatyr batallion (Bahadoran).^[1] He himself, being already a general, took the position of the battalion's honorary colonel-in-chief, as he had decided to retire from active service following the Russo-Iranian War of 1826-1828.^[4][1]

"Entry into Tabriz of the battalion of Russian deserters returning to the fatherland, January 22, 1838." Painted by F. Colombari.

After the Bogatyr batallion on insisting policies of the Russian government was eventually slowly but surely disbanded, which had included the extensive encouragement of repatriation,^[5] as well as a proclamation of general amnesty by Tsar Nicholas I himself,^[5] relatively many of its Russian soldiers (with their wives and children) were eventually forced to move back to the Russian territories. Makintsev's successor in the Iranian ranks as head of the Bogatyr batallion repatriated as well, as he was pardoned. On 6 December 1838, the battalion celebrated the name day of Nicholas I.^[6] Overcome by the ceremony as reported by historian Aleksandr Kibovskii, Skryplev decided to go to Russia.^[7] This news stunned Samson-Khan: his daughter – the pregnant wife of Skryplev – miscarried out of fear, but followed her husband.^[8] On 22 December, the battalion marched out of Tehran and in exactly one month arrived in Tabriz. Here it stayed 15 days, collecting the wives of deserters, after which it went on further. On 11 February, the battalion crossed the Russian border singing and with drums beating, and it conducted a prayer service for its safe exit from Persia. On 5 March 1839, the deserters arrived in Tiflis.^[9] In all, 1084 persons came out of Persia on 5 March 1839: 597 "bogatyrs", 206 wives, and 281 children.^[10][5] Those who remained continued in the military service of the Iranian king (shah), but no longer formed an independent unit.^[5]

The fates of the returned deserters were varied. The married men were enrolled in the Caucasian Line Cossack Host and settled in cossack villages.^[11] Bachelors were assigned to Finnish line battalions and the Archangel Garrison Battalions (their years in Persian service were counted as being in the Russian army).^[12] Thirty old and decrepit men were released to their motherland. The Polish officers went home. All those who had converted to Islam received church dispensation of their "renunciation of the faith, caused by long sojourn in Persia and extreme circumstances".^[13] Skryplev was fully pardoned, became a sotnik (Cossack lieutenant) in the Caucasian Host and settled in the Lana line,^[14] where he eventually, as a result of his bravery in operations against the Caucasian mountaineers, rose to the rank of yesaul (Cossack captain) and became ataman of the Chamlyksk Cossack settlement,^[15] the other former Russian deserters from Iran in the Caucasian Voiska continuing to regard him as their leader, his word being "absolute law for us Persian Cossacks".^[16] By the end of his life, Skryplev's eyesight had begun to fail, supposedly because of his "constant use of henna to colour, Iranian-style, his eyebrows and eyelids".^[16]

The Iranian experiences of Skryplev and the other deserters and the intimate knowledge gained thereby of the kind of society that Russia was attempting to conquer and annex made them a valuable asset and ideal for integration into the Cossack Voiska planted into Muslim territories.^[17] The life of Skryplev back in Russia, Makintsev's son-in-law and his successor as colonel of the regiment, provides a vivid illustration of the ease with which the deserters abandonded and embraced different roles and loyalties.^[17] He readily entered Cossack life, and so successful was he in his new environment, and so noted for his bravery against the Caucasian resistance, that he rose to the rank of yesaul and ataman.^[17]

Skryplev died in the early 1860s, full of memories of his days of power in Iran.^[18]

References

Sources

• Cronin, Stephanie (2013). Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions Since 1800. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415624336.