Russian Empire's plans for the Bosphorus

[RedRalph]

Sorry, this was clearly a mistake on my part. Shoddy research.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

There were post-war plans amongst the Allies to divide up the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence. Russia kept these designs even after the February Revolution, and its imperialist nature was one of the strongest points for Bolshevik arguments against the Provisional Government, the Mensheviks, and the Social Revolutionaries. After the October Revolution, the Soviet Union renounced these claims and published the secret treaties, much to the embarrassment of the Allies.

I forgot to mention that the Russian parts of the Treaty of Sevres (the name of the secret treaty) included the Bosporus, Hellespont, and parts of Bythnia, Troad, and Mysia.

Taken from the Wikipedia page " Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire"

Anatolia

The Russians, British, Italians, French, Greeks, Armenians and Turks all made claims to Anatolia, based on a welter of wartime promises, military actions, secret agreements, and treaties.

Russia

The tsarist regime wanted to replace the Muslim residents of Northern Anatolia and Istanbul with Cossack settlers. In March, 1915, Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov told British Ambassador George Buchanan and French Ambassador Maurice Paléologue that a lasting postwar settlement demanded Russian possession of "the city of Constantinople, the western shore of the Bosporus, Sea of Marmara, and Dardanelles, as well as southern Thrace up to the Enos-Midia line," and "a part of the Asiatic coast between the Bosporus, the Sakarya River, and a point to be determined on the shore of the Bay of İzmit."These documents were made public by the Russian newspaper Izvestiya in November 1917, to gain the support of the Armenian public for the revolution. However, the Russian Revolution took the Russians out of the secret plans.

 

[holy king]

The tsarist regime wanted to replace the Muslim residents of Northern Anatolia and Istanbul with Cossack settlers.

clever idea.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

It was basically a rehashing of their Siberian and Central Asian programs. Cossacks settled both until larger populations came many years later (either by choice or not ).

 

[History_Buff]

While it was likely less of an issue after WWI, Nicholas I had no intention or desire to annex Constantinople; not because Thrace itself would have been all that difficult to control, but because he feared that Orthodox Christians in southern Russia would shift their allegiance away from the Russian patriarchy, and return to the fold so to speak of Constantinople.

This was of course coupled with the goal of just about every other European power to prevent Russia from gaining military control of the straits lest they come to dominate the Mediterranean.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

While it was likely less of an issue after WWI, Nicholas I had no intention or desire to annex Constantinople; not because Thrace itself would have been all that difficult to control, but because he feared that Orthodox Christians in southern Russia would shift their allegiance away from the Russian patriarchy, and return to the fold so to speak of Constantinople.

This was of course coupled with the goal of just about every other European power to prevent Russia from gaining military control of the straits lest they come to dominate the Mediterranean.

Then why did Russia declare such an action as their expressed goals in the war? And why did the Provisional Government continue that policy?

 

[Dachs]

Ignore this post, pls.

 

[RedRalph]

Was there any plans for a contiguos border form Russia proper to Thrace?

 

[dannyshenanigan]

Also of note is the population of Istanbul in 1914 consisted of 450,000 Christians who were mostly Armenians. If you count a large Jewish population, Istanbul was close to only being 50% Muslim. I don't know if this Armenian population would prefer Russian rule to Turkish rule on the eve of the Armenian genocide, but I think it could be likely.

 

[Lord Baal]

Was there any plans for a contiguos border form Russia proper to Thrace?

No. The border was to be through Kars, along Northern Anatolia, then jumping the Bosporus to Thrace.

 

[RedRalph]

I don't know why this fascinates me so much, it just seems like the weirdest proposed annexation I can remembering hearing about...