“We need Georgia as a temporary buffer”: international factors in the Bolsheviks' sovietization of the South Caucasus (1920 - 1921)

The article largely focuses on international factors that affected the process of the Bolsheviks' Sovietization of South Caucasus from 1920 to 1921. Referring to unique documents of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Russia the author reveals the international situation that emerged by 1920. The correspondence of diplomatic personnel and party authorities who directly controlled the Sovietization of South Caucasus helped to discover that the process of establishing the Soviet power in the Transcaucasian republics depended not only on the course of the Civil War, but also on the international situation. The documents originally used by the author, firstly, testify to the considerable influence of the interests and policy of Kemalist Turkey upon the foreign policy of the Bolshevist leadership in South Caucasus. Officially, Bolshevist Russia and Kemalist Turkey were in the process of building cooperation and mutual assistance, however, in reality, they remained competitors in South Caucasus. Secondly, the Bolshevist leadership tried to avoid causing too much damage to the interests of Great Britain in this region in order to rapidly use better trade rеlations between Russia and Britain for escaping its economic and diplomatic isolation. Thirdly, the Bolshevist leaders tried to take into account the complicated national and religious situation historically established in South Caucasus. The author concludes that the Bolsheviks' Sovietization of South Caucasus was to a large extent adjusted by international factors. It was due to the complex and relatively adequate assessment of the international situation set up around South Caucasus that allowed the Bolsheviks to sovietize the region in a fast and efficient way.