Boris L. Tageev

As a young man Tageev entered the Russian Imperial Army and applied his Persian and Uzbek language skills by volunteering in 1892 for the 1st line Turkestan Battalion as an ensign.

In 1903 he went to Bulgaria and fought in the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Turks in the band of general Ivan Tsonchev – the leader of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.

He was released by the Japanese after the war and traveled to Harbin, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands before finally settling in the United States.

During WWI he volunteered for military service in the British Armed Forces and was commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel.

On October 19, 1937, Tageev was arrested and given the death sentence for treason, organizing counter-revolutionary actions and complicity in terrorist activities.

Foreign correspondents Alfred Hales and Boris Tageev in Ivan Tsonchev 's band during the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising , 1903. Tsonchev is holding the flag, Hales is kissing it, Tageev is under the flag
Tageev in the SMAC band