Page 464 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

Gazelles and Lions 461

continue to hold the line in Turkey and Persia. Taking advantage, therefore, of
the mood of caution induced in the Tsarist government by the 1905 revolution
and Russia’s defeat at the hands of Japan in the Far East, Britain reached an

accommodation with the Russians in 1907 over their respective positions in
Asia. So far as Persia was concerned, the northern part of the country was
acknowledged as lying within Russia’s direct sphere of influence, the east as
coming within Britain’s, and the intervening southern and central portions as
neutral territory. Unavoidable though the Anglo-Russian detente now seems in

the perspective of history, the Persians not unreasonably condemned the
partition of their country out of hand, and they have never ceased to heap
opprobrium upon Britain for consenting to it, while tempering their criticism

of Russia’s participation with a large measure of discretion.
The outbreak of war in 1914 and the decision of the Sublime Porte to align
itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary spelled the end not only of the
Ottoman empire’s role as a barrier power but also of the empire itself. Early in
1915 Russia, Britain and France agreed that on the termination of hostilities
the Ottoman dominions should be dismembered, with Russia being placed in

possession of the straits and substantial areas of eastern Turkey. The revolu­
tion of 1917 and Russia’s subsequent withdrawal from the war nullified the
agreement so far as she was concerned; and the turmoil which followed within
the Russian empire, as the Tsarist and Bolshevik forces fought for supremacy,

brought to a halt for the time being the expansionist policy of the preceding
century and a half. In the Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan rose in
revolt against the Bolsheviks and Russian rule alike; while beyond the Caspian
die subject khanates of Kokand, Khiva and Bukhara declared themselves
independent once again. Though the Bolsheviks were to crush the revolts in

the Caucasus and Transcaspia before very long, they were sufficiently un­
settled by them, as well as distracted by the exigencies of the civil war, to seek
to calm Muslim sentiment in the frontier regions by reaching an accommoda­
tion with Turkey and Persia respectively.

There was a further consideration which made the establishment of good
relations with these two countries desirable. Russia was not merely a great
power but she was also now a communist state. Henceforth her foreign policy
was to be conducted in accordance both with her national interests and with her
position as the centre and driving force of international communism. As time

was to show, the national and ideological objectives of the Soviet Union rapidly
merged (if they had ever been separate), and were to be pursued by means of
e international communist movement as well as by conventional diplomatic
an military means. One of Lenin’s principal theses was that Western capital-

*
th b 1 °e ^ea^1 3 criPPl n8 and perhaps mortal blow by striking at it
ug its\dependence upon its colonial possessions, overseas trade and
BakT-1 S2Urces raw materials. At the Congress of the Peoples of the East at
u ln eptember 1920 a great deal of oratory was expended on the theme of