He introduced a severe censorship of the press, a custom still in vogue in Russia, which weighs heavily upon the development of publication. The period, however, was fertile in literature, especially in the field of poetry and romance, and the stage flourished. In 1826 the perpetual quarrels between Russia and Persia on the subject of the frontiers and the vassal tribes culminated in war. The Prince Royal of Persia was sent at the head of an army to march on Tiflis, but he received a check at the Fortress of Choucha by a heroic resistance which lasted for six weeks. The Russians thus had time to concentrate their forces, and at Elizabethpol defeated the Persian advance eighteen thousand strong, having in their own army only ten thousand men, and with the same force dispersed the Persian main army forty-four thousand strong, pushing the remnant in retreat across the Araxes River. After continued successes the Russian commander set out for Teheran, the Persian capital, but the Shah in alarm hastened to make a treaty of peace which was signed February 22, 1828. By this was Russia gained two provinces and an indemnity of twenty million, and important commercial advantages to Russian subjects in Persia. The River Araxes became the frontier.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
