Policies of the Entente Powers after the First World War and Russian-Turkish Rapprochement

Abstract

This article uses archival materials stored under a seal of secrecy during the Soviet period to examine factors that contributied to the rapprochement of Turkey and Bolshevik Russia after the First World War. The author points out that the Entente conducted military operations against Bolshevik Russia and Turkey, and that Russia’s security would have been seriously threatened if the Entente proved victorious in Asia Minor. The existence of independent states in the South Caucasus separated Russia and Turkey, which were fi ghting against the Entente. A victory of the Entente countries would strengthen their infl uence in both the South Caucasus and the North Caucasus, where serious anti-Soviet uprisings continued, and lead to the establishment of control over the Caspian Sea and passage through Central Asia. An invasion of Central Asia meant control over Eurasia, which was considered the center of the world. The Entente countries, having turned Poland into an enemy of Bolshevik Russia, tried to “strangle the Soviet government in its cradle,” regarding its existence as an obstacle to the realization of political, economic, fi nancial and other interests. As long as the Bosphorus and Dardanelles remained under the control of the Entente, which could freely enter the Black Sea, and Crimea was in the hands of White General Wrangel, Turkey could not be secure and Bolshevik Russia could not feel safe in Ukraine and the South Caucasus.

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