Transcaucazia între 1918-1921: înlocuirea țarismului cu comunismul

In 1918 the First World War was entering its final phase. However, a major participating power, Russia, withdrew from the war after the success of the Bolshevik revolution (November 1917) and the signing of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918). In the Caucasus, the functions of the viceroyalty, abolished as a result of the March 1917 revolution, were taken over on March 9/22, 1917 by OZAKOM (Special Transcaucasian Committee). Its members (who spoke on behalf of the Caucasian populations of the former tsarist provinces of the Caucasus) refused to recognize Bolshevik power and, at the request of the Ottoman Empire, demanded the opening of talks for the signing of a separate peace. These talks were conducted by the TRANSCAUCASIAN COMMISSION which was established on November 15/28, 1917 to replace OZAKOM. Things took a dramatic turn after Georgia (on May 26, 1918), Armenia (on May 28, 1918) and Azerbaijan (on May 28, 1918) proclaimed their independence from Russia. From that moment the Caucasian area became the target of the interests of several states. In the second part of 1918, the Ottoman Empire focused on occupying the territories inhabited by the Caucasian Muslims, England and Germany sought to gain control of the oil wells in the area of the city of Baku, which could bring them a significant advantage in the ongoing great world conflict, and Bolshevik Russia sent an army with which it intended to impose its control on all the Caucasus provinces held by Tsarist Russia until 1917. The article, based on previously unpublished documents obtained from the National Archives and National Library of Georgia, shows who won in this conflict of interests and the reasons that led to that outcome.