by Kirill Zolotarev
[REGNUM] 110 years ago, on the morning of February 16 (February 3, Old Style), 1916, an airplane bearing the Imperial tricolor landed at the headquarters of the Caucasian Army. The pilot, Lieutenant Boris Meyer, reported to the commander, General Nikolai Yudenich: the city and fortress of Erzurum had been captured, most of the Turkish garrison had been killed, many prisoners had been taken, and the remaining Ottoman forces were retreating deep into the Anatolian mountains.
Reporters telegraphed: the commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, who was at the front, bowed before the line of soldiers and, turning to the front commander, proclaimed: "To the hero of Erzurum, General Yudenich—hurrah!" The officers and enlisted men of the infantry and artillery units responded with three cheers...
Former pilot and former Kolchak officer Boris Mertsalov (aviator Meyer changed his German surname to a Russian one in 1916) lived out his days as a penniless emigrant in Warsaw.
The former commander of the White Northwestern Army, Yudenich, and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (who had once been a contender for the throne) also died abroad, albeit in the more “fashionable” Cannes and Antibes.
Before their death (and they died at about the same time, in 1929-33), the heroes could well have recalled one of the main victories in their lives and in the history of the Great War.
But during Soviet times, the Battle of Erzurum disappeared from collective memory, like many other events of the "imperialist massacre." Even today, this battle of World War I is rarely remembered.
However, for the Ottoman Empire, the defeat at Erzurum (or Erzurum, as the city is now known) was more than just the surrender of a single fortified area to the 3rd Army. And it wasn't just trouble for the commander of the Turkish Caucasian Army, Abdulkerim Pasha, who was immediately dismissed from his post by the enraged Minister of War Enver Pasha.
It was a blow to the control center of the defensive line in Turkish Armenia, which the Ottomans themselves and their allies, the Germans, were accustomed to considering a “lock without a key.”
MORE IMPORTANT THAN IT SEEMED ON THE MAP
The historiography of the Erzurum operation often emphasizes that this was a first-class fortress, protected by the Gyaur-Dag (Infidels' Mountain) ridge and other natural heights. These were complemented by rings of forts that formed a defensive belt.
The result was even more significant: Russian troops broke through the fortified line and took the city, opening the way for an offensive deep into Turkish territory.
The dry numbers spoke louder than any "lyrical details." The 3rd Ottoman Army lost more than half its strength: 66,000 men killed, wounded, and captured. Of those, 13,000 Turks were taken prisoner. The enemy lost 315 guns.
For comparison: after the offensive on Erzurum and the storming of the fortifications, our Caucasian army lost 2.3 thousand killed and 14.7 thousand wounded.
Russian losses were also serious, but the strategic gain was incomparable: the Ottoman Empire suffered a defeat that had an impact on the entire campaign.
Erzurum was the gateway to the roads and valleys that connected the Ottoman Empire's Caucasus front. It provided access to the Black Sea port of Trebizond (Trabzon) and further to the coast, the interior of Eastern Anatolia, and the cities.
The loss of such a point meant the front would begin to disintegrate, reserves would be delayed, and command would collapse. Therefore, the capture of the fortress was not a local success, but an event that changed the balance of power across the entire theater of war.
The region of Armenia occupied by Russian troops by the summer of 1916
In this sense, Erzurum is one of those examples where the Russian military machine acted not out of habit, but unpredictably.
Yudenich's army struck in winter, when the enemy least expected the Russians to launch a major offensive in the mountains in the piercing cold. But this "impossible" choice of season was precisely part of the commander's plan. The Turks were shocked by our army's unexpected onslaught and retreated.
Moreover, Yudenich launched an offensive on a section of the front where the enemy was confident of the security of its fortified lines. And that is precisely why this episode is a painful historical event for Turkey.
HELP FOR ARMENIANS
It's impossible to discuss the Caucasian Front of 1915–1916 without mentioning the Armenian Question. By that time, the Turks were already carrying out genocide against the Christian, primarily Armenian, population of Asia Minor.
In May 1915, the Ottoman Empire's parliament, the Majlis (controlled by Enver Pasha and his fellow Young Turks), approved the "Deportation Law," which became the basis for mass reprisals against Armenians. According to the most conservative estimates, 664,000 people fell victim to the mass deportations and murders. Modern historical studies cite 1.2 million to 1.5 million deaths.
The peak of ethnic cleansing occurred in the months preceding the Russian army's offensive.
Under these conditions, the advance of our troops into Eastern Anatolia, including the occupation of Erzurum and the subsequent advance westward, became a chance for Armenian Christians who had escaped the massacres to survive, receive shelter, medical care, food, and protection.
Sources from the First World War record the fact that thousands of Armenians found refuge in territories occupied by the Russian army in 1916, including the regions of Erzincan and Erzurum.
The Russian administration and state-supported structures provided aid to refugees—on a scale that was colossal for the time. This doesn't diminish the gravity of the overall catastrophe, but it does highlight a simple point: wherever the Russian army arrived, Christians had a chance to survive the war.
For Armenian communities, Russia's victory in this area was perceived as liberation from the "Turkish yoke"—such rhetoric was already heard in letters and public addresses.
Thus, the general of the Russian Imperial Army, later a military figure of the first Republic of Armenia (1918-1920) Andranik Ozanyan emphasized:
"The Caucasian peoples must treat the Russian people with understanding, taking into account that they were protected from the barbarian invasion by Russian soldiers."
The address of the head of the Armenian Diocese of Georgia, Bishop Mesrop (Ter-Movsisyan), stated: “From now on, Armenia is freed from the terrible Turkish yoke, and the Armenian people, blessing your name as holy, pass it on to their future generations.”
And this is where an important point, often overlooked, emerges: Russia's victory had not only military but also humanitarian implications. It limited the space where the Ottoman government could pursue its policy of extermination and displacement with impunity.
In 1916, Russia inflicted a defeat on Turkey that, in terms of scale and planning, ranks alongside the best operations of World War I. The Russian army demonstrated its ability to fight, its capability for complex winter offensives, and its ability to breach "impregnable" fortresses.