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The Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723, known in Russian historiography as the Persian campaign of Peter the Great,[9] was a war between the Russian Empire and Safavid Iran, triggered by the tsar's attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, the Ottoman Empire, from territorial gains in the region at the expense of declining Safavid Iran.

The Russian victory ratified for Safavid Iran's cession of their territories in the North Caucasus, South Caucasus and contemporary northern Iran to Russia, comprising the cities of Derbent (southern Dagestan) and Baku and their nearby surrounding lands, as well as the provinces of Gilan, Shirvan, Mazandaran and Astarabad conform the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723).[8]

The Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 23 September [O.S. 12 September] 1723[1][2] concluded the Russo-Persian War of 1722-1723 between Imperial Russia and Safavid Iran. It ratified Iran's forced ceding of its territories in the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, and contemporary mainland Northern Iran, comprising Derbent (Dagestan), Baku, the respective surrounding lands of Shirvan, as well as the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad.[3] The treaty further specified that the Iranian king would receive Russian troops for domestic peacekeeping.[4]

As the Cambridge History of Iran states;

"On 23 September 1723, his ambassador in Saint Petersburg, Ismail Beg, signed a humiliating treaty which stipulated that the Tsar would accord the shah friendship and help against rebels and would maintain the shah in tranquil possession of his throne. In return the shah promised to permanently cede to Russia: ... the towns of Darband (Derbent), Baku, with all the territories belonging to them, as well as the provinces: Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad

Peter was determined to keep the newly conquered Iranian territories in the Caucasus and northern mainland Iran. However, he was concerned about their safety and thus ordered the fortifications at Derbent and Holy Cross to be strengthened.[8] He was determined to attach Gilan and Mazandaran to Russia.[8] In May 1724, the Tsar wrote to Matiushkin, Russian commander in Rasht, that he should invite "Armenians and other Christians, if there are such, to Gilan and Mazandaran and settle them, while Muslims should be very quietly, so that they would not know it, diminished in number as much as possible."[8]

The 1804–1813 Russo-Persian War was one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, and began like many of their wars as a territorial dispute. The new Persian king, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, wanted to consolidate the northernmost reaches of his kingdom—modern-day Georgia—which had been annexed by Tsar Paul I several years after the Russo-Persian War of 1796. Like his Persian counterpart, the Tsar Alexander I was also new to the throne and equally determined to control the disputed territories.

The war ended in 1813 with the Treaty of Gulistan which ceded the previously disputed territory of Georgia to Imperial Russia, and also the Iranian territories of Dagestan, most of what is nowadays Azerbaijan, and minor parts of Armenia.

The Treaty of Gulistan (Russian: Гюлистанский договор; Persian: عهدنامه گلستان) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gulistan (now in the Goranboy District of Azerbaijan) as a result of the first full-scale Russo-Persian War (1804 to 1813). The peace negotiations were precipitated by the successful storming of Lankaran by General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky on 1 January 1813. It was the first of the series of treaties (the last being the Akhal Treaty) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede or recognize Russian influence over the territories that formerly were part of Iran.[1][2]

The treaty confirmed the ceding and inclusion of what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, most of the Republic of Azerbaijan and parts of northern Armenia from Iran into the Russian Empire.
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Terms

"Russia by this instrument was confirmed in possession of all the khanates -- Karabagh, Ganja, Shekeen, Shirvan, Derbend, Kouba, and Baku, together with part of Talish and the fortress of Lenkoran. Persia further abandoned all pretensions to Daghestan, Georgia, Mingrelia, Imeretia, and Abkhazia."[18]
The lands include:
All the cities, towns, and villages of Georgia, including all the villages and towns on the coast of the Black Sea, such as:
Megrelia,
Abkhazia,
Imeretia,
Guria;
Almost all cities, towns, and villages of the khanates in the South Caucasus and partly North Caucasus:
Baku khanate,
Shirvan Khanate,
Derbent Khanate,
Karabakh khanate,
Ganja khanate,
Shaki Khanate,
Quba Khanate,
part of the Talysh Khanate;
Iran loses all rights to navigate the Caspian Sea, and Russia is granted exclusive rights to station its military fleet in the Caspian Sea.
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Even today, Iran officially sees it and the later Treaty of Turkmenchay as some of its most humiliating treaties ever signed.

The war had even more disastrous results for Persia than the 1804-1813 war, as the ensuing Treaty of Turkmenchay stripped Persia of its last remaining territories in the Caucasus, which comprised all of modern Armenia, the southern remainder of modern Azerbaijan, and modern Igdir in Turkey. Through the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties Persia lost all of its territories in the Caucasus to Russia. These territories had once extended throughout most of Transcaucasia and part of the North Caucasus.

The war marked the end of the era of the Russo-Persian Wars, with Russia now the unquestioned dominant power in the Caucasus. Persia (Iran) was forced to cede swaths of territories that it never regained. The conquered territories spent more than 160 years under Russian domination before establishing their independence, except Dagestan, which is still a Russian possession.

The Treaty of Turkmenchay (Persian: عهدنامه ترکمنچای; Russian: Туркманчайский договор) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–28). It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the 1881 Treaty of Akhal) signed between Qajar Iran and Imperial Russia that forced Persia to cede or recognize Russian influence over the territories that formerly were part of Iran.[1][2]
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Similarly to the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, the treaty was imposed on Persia following a Russian military victory. Paskievich threatened to occupy Tehran in five days unless the treaty was signed.[4]
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Following this treaty, as well as the Treaty of Gulistan, Russia had finished conquering all the Caucasus territories from Qajar Iran what is now Dagestan, eastern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, all of which had formed part of its very concept for centuries.[5] The areas north of the Aras River, such as the territory of the contemporary nations of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan, were Iranian until they were occupied by Russia during the 19th century.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

Following the two treaties, the formerly Iranian territories came under the Russian, and later the Soviet control for approximately 180 years, and Dagestan remains a constituent republic within the Russian Federation to this day. Comprising most of the territory ceded in Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties, three separate nations would gain independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In the aftermath of the war and the signing of the treaty, anti-Russian sentiment in Persia was rampant. On 11 February 1829, an angry mob stormed the Russian embassy in Tehran and killed almost everyone inside. Among those killed in the massacre was the newly-appointed ambassador to Persia, Aleksander Griboyedov, a celebrated Russian playwright. Griboyedov had played an active role in negotiating the terms of the treaty.[21]