Constantinople and the Black Sea Straits as Russia's War Aims in 1914‐1917: A Comparison of Russian and American Interpretations

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Notes

1. V. L. Malkov, ed., Pervaya Mirovaya Voina: Prolog XX Veka [The First World War: the Prologue of the XXth Century] (Moscow: Nauka, 1998), 11.

2. Mikhail N. Pokrovsky, Imperialisticheskaya Voina. Sbornik Statey [The Imperialist War. Collection of Articles] (Moscow: Gos. Sots‐ekon izd‐vo, 1931), 23.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid., 158.

5. Ibid., 160.

6. Ibid., 173.

7. Ibid., 170.

8. Ibid., 176.

9. Yakov M. Zakher, Konstantinopol’ i Prolivy [Constantinople and the Straits], Krasnyi Arkhiv (Moscow: NKID, 1925), vol. 6: 49–76; vol. 7: 32–54.

10. Evgenii V. Tarle, Vopros o Konstantinopole i razdele Turtsii v epokhu Mirovoi voini [The Question of Constantinople and the Partition of Turkey in the Epoch of the World War], Borba Klassov 1‐2 (Moscow: Nauka, 1924), 150–171.

11. Evgenii V. Tarle, Evropa v epokhu imperialism, 1871–1919 in Sobranie sochinenii, vol. 5 [Europe in the Epoch of Imperialism, 1871–1919 in Collected Works, vol. 5] (Moscow: Gos. Sots‐ekon izd‐vo, 1958), 325.

12. E. A. Adamov, ed., Evropeiskie derzhavy i Gretsia v epokhy Mirovoi voiny [European Powers and Greece in the Epoch of the World War] (Moscow: NKID, 1922), 90, 240, VI; E. A. Adamov, ed., Razdel Asiatskoi Turtsii [The Partition of Asiatic Turkey] (Moscow, NKID, 1924), 383.

13. E. A. Adamov, ed., Konstantinopol i Prolivy, 2 vols. [Constantinople and the Straits. 2 vols.] (Moscow: NKID, 1924), 383.

14. “Stavka i ministerstvo inistrannykh del. (Russraya voenno‐diplomaticheskaya perepiska. 1914–1917) [“General Headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Russian Military‐Diplomatic Correspondence, 1914–1917)] Krasnii Arkhiv (Moscow: NKID, 1928), vol. 1: III–VIII, 1–50; vol. 2: 3–57; vol. 3: 4–58; vol. 4: 1–54; vol. 5: 5–45.

15. Mikhail N. Pokrovsky, ed., Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenia v epokhu imperialisma. Documenty iz arkhivov tsarskogo i vremennogo pravitelstv, 1878–1917. seria 3. 1914–1917. 10 t. [International Relations in the Epoch of Imperialism. Documents from the Archives of Imperial and Provisional Governments, 1878–1917. 3 ^rd series. 1914 – 1917. 10 vols.] (Moscow – Leningrad: 1931–1938).

16. Documents diplomatique francaise, 1914–1918. 8 t. (Paris – Brussels: 1999–2013).

17. Sergey D. Sazonov, Vospominanya [Memories] (Moscow: Mezhdunarotnosh Moskva, 1991), 400.

18. Philipp I. Notovich, Diplomaticheskaya borba v godi pervoi mirovoi voiny. Poterya souznikami Balkanskogo poluostrova [The Diplomatic Struggle in the Years of the First World War. The Loss of Balkan Peninsula by the Allies] (Moscow – Leningrad: 1947), 748.

19. Ibid., 355.

20. Pokrovsky, Imperialisticheskaya Voina, 340–341.

21. Notovich, Diplomaticheskaya borba v godi pervoi mirovoi voiny, 353–354.

22. Ibid., 355.

23. Ibid., 357.

24. Ibid., 367.

25. Sydney B. Fay, The Origins of the World War, 2 vols. (New York: MacMillan Company, 1929) 2: 304.

26. Robert J. Kerner, “Russia, the Straits and Constantinople,” Journal of Modern History 1:3 (1929), 406.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., 413.

29. Ibid., 415.

30. Edward Grey of Fallodon, Twenty‐Five Years: 1892–1916, 2 vols. (London: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1925); Herbert H. Asquith, Memories and Reflections, 1852–1927, 2 vols. (London: Little, Brown, and Company, 1928); Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, 1911–1918, 4 vols. (London: Thronton Butterworth, LTD, 1928); George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic Memoirs, 2 vols. (London: Cassell and Company, LTD, 1923); Francis Bertie, The Diary of Lord Bertie of Thame, 2 vols. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1924).

31. Raymond Poincaré, Au service de la France: Neuf années de souvenirs, 10 t. (Paris: Plon Nouritt et Cie, 1928); Maurice Paléologue, La Russie des Tsars pendant de la grande guerre, 3 t. (Paris: Plon Nouritt et Cie, 1921).

32. Clarence Jay Smith, The Russian Struggle for Power, 1914–1917: A Study of Russian Foreign Policy during the First World War (New York: Philosophical Library, 1956), XV, 553.

33. Ibid., IX.

34. Ibid., XII–XIII.

35. Ibid., 63.

36. Ibid., 82.

37. Ibid., 82–83.

38. Ibid., 186–189.

39. W. W. Gottlieb, Studies in Secret Diplomacy during the First World War (London: Allen and Unwin, 1957), 436.

40. In the Russian translation: W. W. Gottlieb, Taynaya diplomatya vo vremya pervoy mirovoy voiny (Moscow: 1960), 604.

41. Ibid., 67–68.

42. Clarence Jay Smith, “Great Britain and the 1914–1915 Straits Agreement with Russia: The British Promise of November 1914,” American Historical Review 70:4 (1965): 1015–1034.

43. Ibid., 1017.

44. Ibid., 1033–1034.

45. William A. Renzi, “Great Britain, Russia and the Straits, 1914–1915,” Journal of Modern History 42:1 (1970), 1.

46. Ibid., 16–17.

47. Ibid., 17.

48. Ibid., 18.

49. Ibid., 19.

50. Anatolii V. Ignatiev, Russko‐angliiskie otnosheniia nakanune Okt'iabrskoi revoliutsii (fevral ‘– oktiabr’ 1917) [Anglo‐Russian Relations on the Eve of the October Revolution (February–October, 1917)] (Moscow: 1966), 400; Anatolii V. Ignatiev, Vneshnaia politika vremennogo pravitel'stva [The Foreign Policy of the Provisional Government] (Moscow: 1974), 440; Valentin A. Emets, Ocherki vneshnei politiki Rossii v period pervoi mirovoi voiny, 1914–1917: Vzaimootnosheniia Rossii s soiuznikami po Antante po voprosom vedenoi voiny [Essays on the Foreign Policy of Russia in the Period of the First World War, 1914–1917: Relationship of Russia with the Entente Allies on the Questions of Waging War] (Moscow: Nauka, 1977), 368; Viacheslav S. Vasukov, Vneshnaia politika Rossii nakanune fevral'skoy revolutsii (1916–fevral 1917) [The Foreign Policy of Russia on the Eve of the February Revolution (1916–February 1917)] (Moscow: Nauka, 1989), 312; Viacheslav S.Vasukov, A.V. Ignatiev, eds., “Glavnii priz”: S.D.Sazonov i soglashenie o Konstantinopole i prolivakh. Russkaya diplomatiia v portretakh. [“The Main Prize”: S.D.Sazonov and the Agreement on Constantinople and the Straits: Russian Diplomacy in Portraits] (Moscow: Nauka, 1992), 355–377.

51. Valintin A. Emets, V.A. Ignatiev, eds., “Problema Chernomorskikh prolivov v period pervoi mirovoy voiny,” Rossia I Chernomorskie prolivi (XVIII–XX stoletya). [“The Problem of the Black Sea Straits in the Period of the First World War,” Russia and the Black Sea Straits (XVIII–XX centuries)] (Moscow: 1999), 332–335.

52. Clarence Jay Smith, The Russian Struggle, 198–199.

53. Renzi, “Great Britain, Russia and the Straits, 1914–1915,” 8–9.

54. Ronald P. Bobroff, Roads to Glory: Late Imperial Russia and the Turkish Straits (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), XI, 251.

55. Notovich, Diplomaticheskaya borba v godi pervoi mirovoi voiny, 349.

56. Bobroff, Roads to Glory, 2.

57. Ibid., 154.

58. Ibid., 156.

59. Irina V. Alekseeva, Poslednee desiatiletie Rossiiskoi Imperii. Duma, tsarism i soiuzniki Rossii po Antante, 1907–1917 [The Last Decade of the Russian Empire. Duma, Tsarism and the Entente Allies of Russia] (St.‐Petersburg: Al'ians‐Archeo, 2009), 536.

60. Ibid., 313.

61. Ibid., 321.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dmitrii V. Likharev

Dmitrii V. Likharev is a professor at the Far Eastern Federal University, in Vladivostok, Russia. He is also a member of the Russian Association of Historians of the First World War. He received his doctorate in History from St. Petersburg University in 1995. The author is grateful to the three anonymous readers and to Adrian O'Connor, who provided invaluable help in the work on the earlier drafts of this article.