End of the great game: British intervention in Russia's Southern Borderlands and the Soviet response

During the period 1918–20, the British launched several small‐scale military interventions into Soviet Central Asia and Transcaucasia. Although pre‐1991 Soviet historiography portrayed these episodes as attempts to overthrow nascent Bolshevik rule in these regions, Britain's primary goal was to shield India, initially from the Central Powers during the last stages of World War I, and, later, from Russian Communist intrigues. Interestingly, the British did not make a serious effort to support the national aspirations of the non‐Russian peoples in these regions, even though this strategy might have undermined Soviet control there.