UDC

993:94(479.24)

Authors

Mikhaylov Vadim Viktorovich
Faculty for Humanities, Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation
15 Gastello St., St. Petersburg, 190000, Russian Federation;
e-mail: batukom@mail.ru

Abstract

This article presents a detailed comprehensive analysis of complex, controversial and sharp differences in the relations between political and military leaders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Armed Forces of South Russia in 1918–1919. It describes key political activities of the White movement leaders and Azerbaijani authorities, aimed at preserving and strengthening their positions in this strategic region already struck by the fratricidal Civil War with the active political, economic and military interference from outside that can be labelled as an open armed intervention. Further, the paper looks into the role of the British military occupation administration in Transcaucasia in the events that unfolded in Baku and describes the main goals and objectives of the various sociopolitical movements, parties and groups in Azerbaijan regarding the White movement, especially in South Russia. The policy of Great Britain, one of the major geopolitical players among the allied anti-Bolshevik forces in the Caucasus, is analysed here in terms of the activities of General Thompson, a military governor of Baku given emergency powers. In addition, the author studied the causes of the failure of the military-political strategy of the Armed Forces of South Russia in Azerbaijan, such as the lack of political flexibility of its government and military leaders and the twofaced policy of the former Entente allies. All this allowed the Bolsheviks in the final phase of the Civil War in the Caucasus to achieve military and political success on Azerbaijani soil, annex the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic to Soviet Russia and effectively sovietize it. This article is based on extensive source materials, including those kept in the main historical archives of Azerbaijan.

Keywords

Civil War in Russia, White movement, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Fatali Khan Khoyski, A.I. Denikin, Armed Forces of South Russia, Caucasus-Caspian government

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