The Transformation of a Veliko-Russian-Obsessed General into a Fake Caucasian Patriot: Lazar Bicherakhov

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This week marks the 107th anniversary of the liberation of Petrovsk (now Makhachkala) (6-8 November 1918) from the invading Bicherakhov gangs. We will commemorate the event by exploring Lazar Bicherakhov's life story, who, despite being ethnically Caucasian, caused the deaths of thousands of Caucasians for the sake of the ideal of a “One and Indivisible Russia”. This post also features never-before-published photographs of Lazar Bicherakhov, along with 73 pages from his autobiography, which he started to write but could not finish.

Senior Sergeant Fyodor (Saban) Bicherakhov, father of Lazar and Georgy Bicherakhov. An ethnic Ossetian officer of the Terek Cossack Host. He served in His Imperial Majesty's Own Convoy in the 1890s.  Lazar Feodorovich was born on November 15, 1882, in St. Petersburg and spent his childhood playing in Tsarskoye Selo. Even more interesting is that his playmates were his peer, Olga, and her older brother, Mikhail Alexandrovich by patronymic and Romanov by surname, the Grand Duchess and Grand Duke, the youngest children of Alexander III. It is said that their mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, was Lazar Bicherakhov's godmother. 
When the time came for Lazar to start his primary education, he was registered at the Real School number one. He received full board and lodging, and Lazar lived there, in a building on Vasilievsky Island. He struggled academically, especially in mathematics. Apparently, abstract sciences seemed worthless to the realist. What need did a Cossack have for mathematics? A military career was preordained.   The Alekseevsky Military School in Moscow, from which Lazar Bicherakhov graduated. The school was one of the three most prestigious in the Russian Empire, along with the Pavlovsk and Aleksandrovsky Military Schools.   "Bichi" was Lazar's nickname at school. He was a sports enthusiast, his favorite being belt wrestling. In 1905, Lazar Bicherakhov graduated from the school. The 1st Gorno-Mozdok Cossack Regiment was the first place of service for the newly minted ensign Bicherakhov. During peacetime, the regiment was stationed in the town of Olty in the Kars region (now part of Erzurum Municipility of Turkey). In 1909, the 1st Gorno-Mozdok Regiment was sent to Persia. When the Civil War broke out after the February  Revolution, the Cossacks were sent to Persia.   Lazar Bicherakhov distinguished himself on more than one occasion. For example, on October 27, 1911, Captain Bicherakhov led a convoy of 20 Cossacks. They had to fight off a hundred Kurds. Bicherakhov was wounded three times, but he remained in the fight. Captain Bicherakhov was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree, with swords and bow.  
However, a court of honor, following a fight sparked by Lazar's affair with a married woman, caused Captain Bicherakhov’s forced retirement. The resignation was short-lived. The Great War began.     Officers of the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division, or as it was more commonly known, the Wild Division, were formed from Caucasians not subject to conscription, mostly Muslims. Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov, a childhood friend of Lazar Bicherakhov, was the commander of the division. The Tsar's younger brother asked Lazar Bicherakhov to lead his personal escort.  In January 1916, Lazar Bicherakhov found himself on the Caucasus Front, already holding the rank of troop sergeant major, equivalent to an army lieutenant colonel. The 1st Caucasian (Expeditionary) Cavalry Corps, under the command of General Baratov, was heading to Northern Persia to prevent the entry of Turkish troops, allies of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Bicherakhov, an expert in local conditions, was tasked with forming a partisan detachment to operate behind enemy lines and on Persian territory. Bicherakhovtsy   Baratov's corps included several partisan detachments. Bicherakhov's detachment was considered large for its time: a thousand Cossacks. The detachment's emblem was adorned with a bear and the motto, "No one will touch me with impunity. On November 28, 1917, the decrees of the new government reached the Expeditionary Force. The Russian Army's senior sergeant major, Lazar Bicherakhov, wrote to his commander, General Baratov, regarding the Decree on Peace:   I have decided:

1) to remain at the front;
2) to continue fighting;
3) not to participate in the armistice;
4) to consider all negotiations treasonous...

This is my decision, and I alone will answer for it before Russia.   The expeditionary force was disintegrating. Shkuro's detachment, for example, had completely disbanded, and its commander was making his way to the Caucasus dressed in rags.   Lazar Bicherakhov's unit remained combat-ready. Bicherakhov's detachment ensured the evacuation of corps property in 1918. Furthermore, the detachment received funds from the British to support the military operations. Lazar Bicherakhov had plenty of money at his disposal, as well as Russian medals from the Corps's property. Bicherakhov celebrated the detachment's exit from Persia by awarding virtually all of his subordinates the St. George Cross. 
Meanwhile, the Terek region was engulfed in its own local civil war. In June 1918, the Cossack-Peasant Congress of Soviets in Mozdok elected the socialist Georgy Bicherakhov, Lazar's brother, as chairman of the Provisional People's Government of the Terek region. The Terek people protested under the slogan "Soviets without Bolsheviks."   Lazar Bicherakhov was a staunch opponent of civil war, for which he suffered from both the Reds and the Whites. The fighting Terek Cossacks received weapons, ammunition, and money from Bicherakhov.   He also paid his soldiers enviable salaries, more than in Denikin's Southern Russian Armed Forces, and certainly much more than in the Red Army. Everything was for the victory of a united and indivisible Russia. 

In 1918, Lazar Bicherakhov received the rank of major general from the Provisional All-Russian Government. A little later, this rank was confirmed by Admiral Kolchak. The British King rewarded Bicherakhov with the rank of major general of the British forces for his assistance in Persia and in the hope of similar assistance in Azerbaijan. The British needed a large and organized force, practically an army: Baku oil was a powerful magnet. First, they needed to expel the Turks from Baku. Bicherakhov stood firm in his position: no civil war, fighting only against Turks and North Caucasian Highlanders. He ignores Denikin's pleas to join the fight against the Reds. Indeed, Denikin and Bicherakhov were fighting different wars: one against the Bolsheviks, the other for Russia; one was fighting a civil war, the other was still fighting a world war. The difference in their interpretation of military operations also resulted in a difference in the awards policy. Denikin made a point of not awarding anyone, while Bicherakhov handed out awards generously. Enough disagreements between the generals had accumulated, and when the British again summoned Bicherakhov and his troops to Baku, Denikin was only too pleased. Bicherakhov's detachment made a second raid on Baku at the suggestion of the British.
Thus, he arrived in Baku. In Bicherakhov's eyes, the Soviets were a completely legitimate authority. Lazar Bicherakhov saw them as practically the heirs to imperial grandeur—the Bolshevik Soviets were the only force opposing the separatism of the national outskirts.   The Bolsheviks at that time also valued the Cossack army elder. Stepan Shaumyan had won Bicherakhov over to their side! From the end of May 1918, Lazar Bicherakhov was, no less, Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Red Army. The detachment was so vital to the Soviets that Shaumyan forbade revolutionary agitation within it.     But the ban on agitation, rallies, and other revolutionary activities did not apply to other military units defending Baku. This was compounded by disagreements within the leadership of the city's defenders against the advancing Turks. As a result, Bicherakhov's unit remained virtually alone in its positions. He, too, was forced to retreat. 
Bicherakhov led his detachment north to Dagestan—he considered the Terek and Kuban to be their ultimate destination. He withdrew to Dagestan on July 30 and entered Derbent on August 15.  By the time Bicherakhov's detachment left Baku, it had a huge sum in its coffers—6 million gold rubles. Besides cash, Lazar Bicherakhov had many other valuables at his disposal: weapons, uniforms, transportation, food, and forage. The detachment was constantly replenished, or rather, grew by leaps and bounds. By September 1918, the detachment had become a 30,000-strong Caucasian Army with ample supplies, transport, armored cars, aircraft, and its own fleet of nine ships. Bicherahov's troops captured Port-Petrovsk (today's Makhachkala) on September 2. Petrovsk became the base of the zone controlled by Bicherakhov. It was a convenient location: close to both Baku and his native Terek. Having seized control of the Temirkhan Shura, Bicherahov began arresting the Mountain Government officials stationed there. As these events unfolded, Nuh-Bek Tarkovsky, who had previously been loyal to the Mountaineers’ Government, started cooperating with Bicherakhov.
National forces of the Union of the United Highlanders of the North Caucasus invited the Turkish army for assistance. Bicherakhov had shown a firm resistance against the Ottomans’ Caucasian Islamic Army and the North Caucasian national forces.   Derbent, which was surrounded by the Caucasian Islamic Army and the North Caucasian National Forces, fell into the hands of the Mountaineers less than 24 hours after the clashes that began at noon on October 5th.  The forces loyal to Bicherahov left Temirhan Shura without a fight, and the Parliament of the North Caucasus Republic resumed its work there as of October 24. The president of the North Caucasus Republic's parliament, Abdulmecid Chermoy, sent a note to Bicherahov warning him that if he did not evacuate Petrovsk within four days, national troops would attack the city. In his reply, Bicherahov, on the evening of October 16, declared that not only would he not evacuate Petrovsk, he would also attack Derbent again. Starting from October 20, the Ottoman 15th Infantry Division and nationalist forces divided into two and began besieging Petrovsk. Despite artillery fire from both sea and land by Bicherahov's forces, the siege continued to tighten for days.  The final ultimatum sent to Bicherahov on the morning of October 29th promised that if he evacuated the city, the Russians, Cossacks, Armenians, and Ossetians under his command would be spared and sent home. It was announced that if he did not respond to this note by 8:00 a.m. the next morning, the final assault would be launched.

 Bicherahov, in his reply, which was delivered on November 3, 1918, stated that World War I had ended and a treaty had been signed. The treaty in question was the Armistice of Mudros, dated October 30, 1918. The Caucasus Command responded that the Commander-in-Chief had not yet received any communication on this matter, that the war being fought there was being waged against the Republic of the Union of the United Highlanders of the North Caucasus, and had no connection with the ceasefire agreement. It was also stated that the operation would continue unless Petrovsk was evacuated immediately. In the fighting on November 7, Bicherahov's forces suffered heavy losses, and the remaining forces set sail on ships. The numerous weapons, ammunition, machine guns, artillery, locomotives, and armored wagons were captured. On the morning of November 8, Petrovsk was recaptured by the Caucasian Islamic Army and the National Forces.
Since September 1918, the Turks had been in control of Baku, which displeased both the British, who had lost their chance to exploit the oil, and Bicherakhov, who viewed the Turks as invaders and enemies in the war.  While the Caucasian Army was making its way to Baku on its own ships, the situation there had changed dramatically. The Ottoman Empire acknowledged its defeat in World War I and withdrew its troops from Azerbaijan by mid-November 1918. But the Turkish-backed Azerbaijan Democratic Republic remained. Lazar Bicherakhov was ready to fight, but the British decided to act not by force, but by persuasion and promises.  Bicherakhov's request to use force was denied.  Instead, General Thomson sent a directive to Lieutenant Colonel Rowlandson, with a copy to Alikhan Kantemir and General Lazar Bicherahov, defining the boundaries of the spheres of influence of Bicherahov and the Government of the Union of the United Caucasus Mountaineers Republic on December 31, 1918. Bicherakhov complied, but expressed his dissatisfaction openly.   After the Bolsheviks’ conquest of the Caucasus, he spent some time in Georgia with the other immigrant groups, and then he was removed from the volatile region by the British.

 He spent some time in Istanbul under the occupation of the Entente. Then, he received an invitation to pay an official visit to London. The desperate commander, Bicherakhov, lost the battle against diplomats and bureaucrats, and with a couple of trusted men, departed for the capital of the British Empire. He never returned to Russia.
In London, Bicherakhov lost another battle against the bureaucrats. The combat-ready general, inexperienced in the machinations of the bureaucracy, was hustled from one office to another, meeting with various officials, even the highest-ranking ones – for example, Lord Curzon – but he received no support for his intention to fight for the Russian Empire.  The intransigent Bicherakhov protested and demanded, but to no avail. Ultimately, he was denied funding. He spent the remainder of his once-immeasurable resources. The money ran out, and he had to start earning money.
Lazar Bicherakhov moved from England to Paris, France. He did everything from driving a taxi, a typical job for a former Russian officer, to breeding exotic earthworms and exporting them to Britain. He also worked as a cook for a fellow Ossetian in a small restaurant run by drivers.

When the conflict between political groups within the North Caucasian Political Émigré groups began to intensify in 1927, Said Shamil planned to strengthen the relations of the Caucasian Mountaineers Popular Party with international circles and Cossack political emigration, and decided to invite ethnic Ossetian Lazar Bicherakhov to the board of the party. Said Shamil did not inform his plans to the party cadres of his plans and appointed Bicherakhov as the highest political representative of the party in Europe. The announcement caused a huge scandal in all Caucasian national centers. Bicherakhov’s attempt to gain a place among the North Caucasian émigré groups and to infiltrate the structures struggling for the independence of the Caucasus was a serious irony. The powerful Cossack commander, who had caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers of the Mountaineers’ Union in Dagestan in 1918, was now acting under the guise of a defender of the Mountaineers’ Union, having the seven stars of the Mountaineers’ Union embroidered on his Cherkeska, which was covered in Tsarist Orders, and posing in interesting poses for photographers.

Said Shamil’s audacity caused a great reaction, and the Caucasian Mountaineers Popular Party held an extraordinary general assembly of the party on May 12, 1929, where Central Committee members Mehmed Girei Sunsh, Bahaeddin Khursh, and General Bicherakhov were expelled from the party together with Said Shamil. It was also decided that they should be tried by the party disciplinary committee to determine the damage they caused during their term of office.  In an intelligence report issued by the Paris Police in August 1931, Bicherahov's name was mentioned along with Said Shamil and Andrey Shkuro as untrustworthy individuals who committed fraud for financial gains.
On May 6, 1932, French President Paul Doumer was assassinated by a former Volunteer Army soldier named Paul Gorgulov. Lazar Bicherahov, like many other former Russian officers, was questioned as a suspect.

A difficult, yet measured life continued until the outbreak of World War II. And then... The Germans entered Paris and subjugated part of France. Work disappeared, and communications with England were severed. Bicherakhov received an offer to resettle in Germany. The now elderly Lazar Bicherakhov might have been happy to ignore it, but he couldn't.

As per Said Shamil’s initiative, Lazar Bicherakhov came on the agenda of Caucasian émigré groups once again. Said Shamil has insisted on including him in the North Caucasian Committee, where Ahmed Nabi Magoma was the chairperson and Alikhan Kantemir was the spokesperson. Shamil wanted the German intelligence to appoint Bicherakhov at the head of the Special Military Units (Sonderstab Kaukasus), which was going to consist of the soldiers of various Caucasian nations. As a result of the fierce objections of the Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Armenian committees, especially the North Caucasian National Committee, General Bicherakhov was replaced by General Sultan Klych Girei.
He was in an extremely difficult position—after all, he was a general in the British Army, the army of the Reich's enemy in the war. To avoid being sent to a camp, the nearly 60-year-old Bicherakhov moved to Berlin.   This might have saved his life.      At the end of the war, Lazar Bicherakhov moved south to the Alps with a group of fellow Caucasians. There, he was captured by the Americans. However, Lazar Bicherakhov was not handed over to the Soviet authorities, as he had not been found to have collaborated with the Nazis. He was released after two years of investigation and a stint in an American prison, and resettled in South Germany.  As anti-Soviet political émigré groups began to revive from 1950 onwards, Germany became the center of all US-backed anti-Soviet work. North Caucasian political émigré organizations also regrouped under the leadership of Alihan Kantemir and Ahmet Nabi Magoma, the heir to Haidar Bammate's Kavkaz movement.  Meanwhile, Lazar Bicherakhov, together with isolated figures such as Abdurrahman Avtorkhanov, attempted to establish an alternative organization that aimed to once again bring the Caucasian national movement under the hegemony of the Russian Menshevik liberation movement. To this end, he unsuccessfully attempted to hold a congress in Schwabach, Germany, in mid-1951. Many of the congress participants later expressed regret about attending the event. At the Congress of the Representatives of North Caucasian Political Immigration held in Munich on September 16, 1951, with the participation of 200 representatives, Bicherahov's initiative was strongly condemned, and precautionary measures were taken to prevent him from participating in the North Caucasus Political émigré organizations again. This controversial political profile of the Caucasus appeared in the political arena for the last time in the last months of 1951 with an article published in the magazine "Free Caucasus" by Aburrahman Avtorkhanov.

During the last months of his life, Lazar Bicherakhov ended up in a nursing home in the German town of Dornstadt, near Ulm.     He started writing his memoirs, which he could not complete before his death.
Lazar Bicherakhov died in Dornstadt, Germany, on July 22, 1952, and was buried there.

Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 6 November 2025

References; (Click on the links to access the e-copies of the referred works)
— Aleksey Yuriyevich Bezugolnyy - General Bicherakhov i Yego Kavkazskaya Armiya Neizvestnyye Stranitsy P i Istorii Grazhdanskoy Voyny i  Interventsii na Kavkaze 1917-1919, Moscow, 2011, pp.211-223.
— Cem Kumuk, “Said-Bek Shamil…Hero or an Adventurer?”, Istoricheskii Vestnik, No.39, Moscow, 2022, pp.188-217.
— Cem Kumuk, Düvel-i Muzzama’nın Kıskacında Kafkasya Dağlıları, Istanbul, 2022, pp.322-352, 599-610, 694-736.
— Cem Kumuk, Bir Hanzadenin Kafkasya’dan Moskova’daki Darağacına Uzanan Trajik Yaşam Öyküsü – General Sultan Kılıç Girey, Istanbul, 2023, pp.96-104,135-159.
— Nâsır Yüceer, Birinci Dünya Savaşı'nda Osmanlı Ordusu'nun Azerbaycan Ve Dağıstan Harekâtı, Ankara, 1996.