The Russo-Persian War was a war betw. Russia and Persia, triggered by Peter the Great's attempt to expand Russian influence in the Caspian and S Caucasus regions and to prevent its rival, the Ottoman Turks, from territorial gains.

In July 1722, the Russian army embarked on ships of the newly -built Caspian Flotilla from Astrakhan. They were joined later by cavalry and the Cossacks marching overland from Tsaritsyn. The Russian army captured Derbent in southern Dagestan. In July 1723 the Russian army and navy proceeded to capture Baku.

Russian military success and the Turkish invasion of Persian possessions in the Southern Caucasus in the spring of 1723 forced the Persian government to sign a St. Petersburg peace treaty which surrendered Derbent, Baku, and the Persian provinces of Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astrabad to the Russians.

In 1735, on the eve of the Russo -Turkish War, the government of Empress Anna Ioannovna returned all the annexed territories to Persia as a prerequisite to constructing an alliance with Persians against Ottoman Turkey.