Siberia memorandum content (March 1918) and its significance under British policy formation context in Siberia

The paper examines the Siberia memorandum of the Intelligence Bureau of the British Department of Information in the context of the history of the British policy of intervention in Siberia. The purpose of the study is to analyze the content and determine the significance of this document for organizing the intervention of the United Kingdom in the Russian region. When writing the paper, the methods of content analysis and systems method were used: the first method allowed to reveal and study in detail the text of the Siberia memorandum, the second showed the relationship of its content with the military-political and international situation in the first half of March 1918. The memorandum consists of two parts. The first part, dated March 14, 1918, presents the characteristics of the geography, history and population of Siberia, and also sets out the prospects for the implementation of Japanese intervention in this region; the second part, dated March 19, 1918, touches on the development of trade in Siberia before the First World War and the political situation in the region before and after the February Revolution. According to the Intelligence Bureau, the region was attractive from an economic point of view. The idea of Siberia possibly entering the German sphere of influence was briefly mentioned. In the context of the continuation of the First World War and the withdrawal of Soviet Russia from it, the Siberia memorandum corresponded to the current agenda of the War Cabinet of D. Lloyd George: the preparation and implementation of the British policy of intervention in the Russian region. The document helped to define the motive and goal of this policy: the fear of Siberia with all its resources falling under German control and the prevention of such a development. The information contained in the Siberia memorandum was of great importance for the development of the British foreign policy of intervention, which later became one of the factors of the Civil War in Siberia.