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# The Semirechye Cossacks in Eastern Iran during the First World War
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/semirechenskie-kazaki-v-vostochnom-irane-v-gody-pervoi-mirovoi-voiny/
- Published: 2026-03-01T06:03:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:26:47.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Almaty, Archive, The East, Society

The photographs of the 2nd and 3rd Separate Sotnias of the 2nd Semirechye Cossack Regiment were taken in the vicinity of the city of Mashhad in the province of Khorasan. The Semireki knew the local realities perfectly well, drawing on their experience of life in Turkestan. They found their way with ease over the terrain, at river crossings, along nomad routes, at pastures and wells, and were in effect the ideal force for controlling, patrolling and holding the steppe and mountain districts of Iran.

> During the First World War the service of the Semirechye Cossacks was spent chiefly in the province of Khorasan in Persia (Iran), where they had been present since 1911\. Under the Anglo-Russian Convention of 18 August 1907 Persia was divided between Russia and Britain into three zones. The northern part with Tehran fell within the Russian sphere of influence, and the southern part with Shiraz within the British. The introduction of units of the Russian Army into Persia began in 1909\. The core of these detachments was formed by Cossacks of the Kuban and Terek, and later also the Semirechye, Cossack Hosts. The 1st Semirechye Cossack Regiment of General Kolpakovsky was brought into Persia in December 1911, reinforcing with its sotnias the Mashhad and Quchan detachments in the province of Khorasan. In the summer of 1914, after two Semirechye regiments had entered Khorasan, the combat service of their patrols began.

> The task of the 2nd Semirechye Cossack Regiment in the Central Asian theatre of war was to control the Iranian province of Khorasan, with a view to suppressing the operations of German and Turkish expeditionary detachments.

> Russian military units were sent into Persia in 1909 to protect Russian and foreign subjects, to assist the Persian government in its confrontation with religious fanatics and revolutionaries, the fedayeen, and to combat the Kurdish nomads. The active operations of the Cossacks continued until 1912, the expeditionary detachments being built around units of the Kuban, Terek and Semirechye Cossack Hosts. The 1st Semirechye Regiment was stationed in Mashhad, the 2nd in Astarabad. The regiments were charged with preventing hostilities from the direction of Afghanistan and with guarding the state frontier and the postal roads.

The 2nd Semirechye Cossack Regiment returned from Persia in early 1918: in January the Semireki entered the city of Verny (Alma-Ata, Almaty), the capital of the Semirechye Cossack Host and the administrative centre of the Semirechye Region within the Turkestan Governor-Generalship of the Russian Empire.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_19906@01-03-2026_09-03-01.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_19907@01-03-2026_09-03-01.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_19908@01-03-2026_09-03-01.jpg)