Portnyagin, Semyon Andreevich

Simon Portnyagin was born in 1764, came from nobles; he entered the service on August 8, 1778 as a private in the Vladimir Infantry Regiment , on January 9, 1779 he was enlisted as a cadet and was transferred to the Sumy Hussar Regiment on the same date; On December 17, 1781 he was promoted to the first officer rank, leaving in the same regiment located at that time in Poland and taking part in the fight against the Confederates .

With the outbreak of the Turkish War , on May 25, 1788, Portnyagin arrived at Ochakov , where for occupying the Ochakov gardens on September 29, he was promoted to captain, and for the difference in the storming of the Ochakov fortress on December 6, in second-majors with a gold badge for wearing in a buttonhole.

The next 1789, Portnyagin spent in Moldova , and in 1790, under the command of Suvorov, on December 11 participated in the siege and assault of Izmail ; During the assault, the head of the assault convoy, Lt. Col. Leslie, was wounded, and Portnyagin, having taken command after him, was the first to enter the enemy’s battery and take possession of it. For the difference in this matter, Portnyagin was promoted to prime majors and awarded a gold badge for wearing in his buttonhole.

Three ranks received by Portnyagin for the difference in battles, and a number of partisan feats in Poland during the uprising of 1792 paid special attention to him, and Emperor Paul , upon ascending the throne, transferred him to the Kharkov cuirassier regiment on May 8, 1797, where Portnyagin was promoted to lieutenant colonel, colonel for three years, and on October 15, 1800, to major general with the appointment of chief of the Narva Dragoon Regiment .

In 1803, Portnyagin, together with the Narva Dragoon Regiment, was transferred to the Caucasus line. With the arrival in the Caucasus, the continuous combat activity of this "bravest of the brave" begins, as he was called by the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, Prince Tsitsianov.

The Narva Dragoon Regiment was appointed to the siege corps, blocking the Persian fortress of Ganja and during the assault of the fortress, on January 3, 1804, Portnyagin, commanding an assault column, was the first to climb the wall and mainly contributed to the capture of the fortress. "The title of the brave, Prince Tsitsianov informed the sovereign, - I’m not giving Major General Portnyagin, but the soldiers they were led to, unanimously proclaimed in the army after the assault." For this feat Portnyagin February 24, 1804 was awarded the Order of St. George 3rd degree. The rescript said

After the capture of Ganja, Prince Tsitsianov decided to move to Erivan . On May 31, 1804, the Narva Dragoon Regiment and its chief arrived at the assembly point in Saganlug . Having stocked up provisions, Tsitsianov’s corps moved to the Echmiadzin Monastery, near which a three-day battle with the Persian army took place from June 20 to 22, during which Portnyagin commanded the main square, and three days later, on June 25, during the battle on the Zanna River, he occupied a small the number of troops the enemy Wagenburg in view of the entire Persian army.

After that, one episode of the Erivan campaign made the name of Portnyagin famous and formidable to the very limits of Persia . On July 2, Russian troops overlaid Erivan, and the Persian army, which attacked the blockade corps under the walls of the fortress, was defeated and driven back partly to Kalaahir, partly to Garni-tea; Commander-in-Chief Prince Tsitsianov decided to take advantage of the separation of enemy forces and ordered Portnyagin, with a detachment of 900 infantry and cavalry, to attack Garni Chai, where the camp of the Crown Persian Prince Abbas Mirza was located. Having learned about the movement of Portnyagin, the Persian Shah Baba Khan, who was in Kalaahir, managed to connect with his son and in the morning of July 24, 1804, Portnyagin found himself face to face with the 40,000th Persian army. Reconstructing in a square, he slowly, step by step, began to retreat, fighting off for 20 miles for 14 and a half hours from the enemy surrounding him from all sides. The retreat was carried out in such a way that not a single trophy remained in the hands of the Persians - even the bodies of the dead were brought to the camp. Reporting this matter to the emperor, Prince Tsitsianov in a report dated June 27, 1804 wrote: “The city (Erivan) has already shot Victoria, having received from Babkhan that he will take all the living Russians, but he was amazed afterwards, seeing the square completely returning ". For this feat, Portnyagin was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 1st degree.

The siege of Erivani, meanwhile, continued. The besieged corps felt a strong lack of food, and the commander in chief due to this circumstance convened a military council of six generals on August 31, including Portnyagin, to decide on a further course of action. The council was supposed to lift the blockade and retreat. On the decision of the military council, Prince Tsitsianov informed the sovereign: “I foresee the harmful consequences that may occur from the lifting of the blockade, but, obeying the law, I have no right to take responsibility for the assault when only General Portnyagin is on my side.”

In November 1805, Prince Tsitsianov, taking a campaign in Baku , where he was treacherously killed, appointed Portnyagin to temporarily command all forces in the Caucasus, and he corrected this post until September 1806.

The new commander in chief was appointed Count Gudovich . The arrival of the Turkish War coincided with his arrival.

May 8, 1807 there was an unsuccessful assault on Akhalkalak . After our assault columns were recaptured, Portnyagin again put his squad in order and so quickly rushed to the attack that he managed to take control of the tower on the fortress wall and capture the cannon and the banner in it. From here a handful of daredevils descended into the fortress, and Portnyagin, not supported by Gudovich, held his position for 5 hours and retreated only because the enemy had blown up the tower in the air.

Having departed from Akhalkalak, on June 8, 1807, after 7 hours of stubborn battle, Gudovich defeated the Turkish army at the Arpachaya River. In this battle, Portnyagin commanded the left flank of the Russian troops and successfully repulsed the Yusuf Pasha attack directed at him.

In June of the next 1808, he took command of a detachment located in the village of Amamlah and at the same time participated from October 3 to November 30 in the new siege of Erivani undertaken by Count Gudovic.

During 1810, Portnyagin defended the Pombak and Suragel provinces and made a very successful raid on Persian possessions. In the same year, on the appointment of the new commander-in-chief, General Tormasov , he participated in the commission for equalizing the taxes in Karabag, and after that he was moved by General Tormasov from the Bombak province to Turkey near Akhaltsyh. For the differences that Portnyagin rendered during the expedition from November 2 to 26, 1810 in the Akhaltsykh Pashalyk, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir of the 2nd degree.

In the fall of 1811, Portnyagin was appointed head of the Kakheti district . In January 1812, an uprising broke out in Kakheti, caused by executions to procure forage and provisions by the troops. The rebelled Kakhetians proclaimed king Tsarevich George, a lame, narrow-minded person. George began to publish outrageous proclamations; villages one after another joined the rebels. The uprising was so unexpected and spread so quickly that Portnyagin, who was at that time at the headquarters of the Narva Dragoon Regiment in Sagoreggio, could gather only 150 people from the entire regiment and with them was surrounded by insurgents. Two companies of the Kherson grenadier regiment that arrived in the morning gave Portnyagin the opportunity to retreat and go to Tiflis to organize the defense of this city until the commander-in-chief arrived. Despite the reasonable and vigorous measures taken by Portnyagin to suppress the uprising, the commander-in-chief, Marquis Paulucci , on arrival in Tiflis, in a decree of February 21, made a remark to Portnyagin that, having left Kakheti, he retreated to Tiflis. Offended by this injustice, Portnyagin filed a report on the disease and did not take further part in suppressing the uprising.

Meanwhile, already at that time, instead of the Marquis Paulucci, General Rtishchev was appointed the head of Georgia and the entire Caucasian line, to whom Emperor Alexander I wrote in a reprise dated February 16, 1812: “I command you to go immediately to Tiflis, and entrust the management on the Caucasian line with Major Portnyagin. " With the same rescript, Portnyagin was appointed head of the 19th Infantry Division and commander of troops on the Caucasian line.

Portnyagin's predecessor in this position, General Bulgakov , fell victim to intrigues from the civilian authorities on the line. Portnyagin did not escape the same fate. The Nogai bailiff, Major General Mengli-Giray, displeased with Portnyagin, whom he suspected of connivance in the escape of Prince Loov, who was arrested for the murder of Mengli-Girey’s brother, Bakhty-Girey, began to worry the Nogais. Portnyagin removed Mengli-Girey from his post, which was a big mistake on his part, as it caused displeasure of the local population.

The riots that appeared on the line, the unrest among the Nogais and their removal, including 27,000 souls beyond the Kuban to Turkey , as well as the complaint of Sultan Mengli-Girey, who was put off by Portnyagin from the Nogai bailiff service, prompted Rtishchev to appoint Major General Delpozzo to investigate Portnyagin. On the basis of the report presented by Delpozzo, Rtishchev wrote to Prince Gorchakov in relation to December 14, 1813 that “until Major General Portnyagin remains the commander of the troops on the Caucasian line and does not change his behavior, until then there can be no peace and tranquility. I I earnestly ask you to take him from my team, so that I can’t answer for the unrest and henceforth which on the "Caucasian line can follow him in command."

Due to the presentation of General Rtishchev, Alexander I ordered Portnyagin to be brought to justice for illegal acts, and Major General Delpozzo was appointed head of the Caucasian line.

Dismissed by court from service, Portnyagin retired to Tiflis and lived there for several years in need and without any work, but with the arrival in Georgia in 1816, Yermolov was again enlisted in the service and on October 10, 1822 he was appointed district general of the 8th district inner guard. Far from the army, among which he spent the best years of his life and in the ranks of which he made a number of feats, Portnyagin died on April 20, 1827 and was buried in the cemetery of the Assumption Monastery, near Ufa .

In the spring of 1911, the officers of the units of the 48th Infantry Division put the tomb of the hero in order and restored the tombstone.

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