Ivan Lazarev

Ivan Davidovich Lazarev (, Hovhannes Davti Lazarian; ; 17 October 1820 – 14 August 1879) was an Imperial Russian Army general.

Biography Ivan Lazarev was born Hovhannes Lazarian on 17 October 1820 in Shusha, in the Nagorno Karabakh region of what was then part of the Russian Empire, where he also received his education as a child. Lazarev's force was arrayed against the army of Ottoman field marshal Ahmed Muhtar Pasha.

Lazarev's force advanced steadily from its starting position west of Aleksandropol in September 1877, pushing Muhtar Pasha back to Kars (which was surrounded by a series of other forts). His men scored one of the most important victories against the Ottomans on the Caucasian Front at Alacadağ. In October, they invested Kars' citadel, pounding it with artillery for several weeks while reducing the other forts. On the night of 5/6 November, a Russian army council decided to issue the order to storm Kars. The assault the following day overwhelmed Kars' 25,000 defenders, resulting in 7,000 Ottoman dead and wounded and almost 18,000 prisoners of war.

After the war, he was appointed commander of the II Caucasian Army Corps.

Turkmenistan In 1879, Lazarev was given command of an expedition to Turkmenistan. As the campaign was beginning, he fell ill when a boil began to form on his left shoulder. He initially insisted on accompanying his troops, but as his health deteriorated he asked that he be relieved of his command and urged that Lieutenant General Petrov replace him as head of the expedition. He died in Chat on August 14, 1879. Instead of Petrov, Lazarev was replaced by his less competent subordinate, Lomakin, pending the arrival of General Arshak Ter-Gukasov. Lomakin did not wait for Ter-Gukasov's arrival, however, and went on to lose the battle at Geok Tepe.

Lazarev's body was brought back to Tiflis, where he is buried alongside the other Armenian generals (Loris-Melikov, Ter-Gukasov) in the courtyard of the Armenian Cathedral of St George.