The First World War as a form of European containment of Russia: a view from Arkhangelsk

The article considers the factors of the successful development of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century and favorable forecasts on the prospects of increasing its capacity on the Eurasian continent. The successful development in a peaceful environment did not satisfy geopolitical opponents of Russia, especially the United Kingdom, which sought the variants of weakening the Russian empire by pulling it to military conflicts. Using the logic of the previous historical events and the current geopolitical situation, the authors hypothesize the First World War as a form of European containment of the development of Russia. There was a version expressed that the help of the Allies was coming mainly through Arkhangelsk. “It cannot be so,— the authors write, — that the invaders did not have the information about inability of arranging the delivery of goods because of the poor condition of the transport infrastructure in the region during that time”. Was it so or not, was it a conscious reason for the subsequent operation for using Arkhangelsk as a staging ground and a way of bribery of the local population and the authorities? To a certain extent this was confirmed by the message, sent by the chief of the British mission in Russia, General Poole, to London in January 1918 and analyzed in the present article.