It's somewhat late and I've probably had too much cider so my thoughts turn to an idea I've been mulling over for a while, is there any way to achieve a Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan that after the break up of the Russian Empire declare independence and then manage to retain it in the face of the Soviets? Bonus points if you can do the same for the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus to act as a defensive buffer. The minimum would be an independent Azerbaijan. Briefly reading through the history of the region the post-1917 set-up seems to be a complete mess with a promising start of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, only for it to collapse with the understandable declaration of national independence by the constituent countries who fell to warring with each other over territorial disputes in fairly short order. The political scene seems to have been a shifting collection of factions and countries that changed fairly easily.
Looking at things from a broad overview it seems as though you need to keep at least both Georgia and Azerbaijan independent at that provides a nice mountainous defensive barrier with only a few major gorges and valleys through such as Darial Gorge with the Georgian Military Road or the coastal routes along the Black or Caspian seas. If one of them falls though it opens a much more accessible 'side door' as it were to the other as well as a path to Armenia. Having them all facing the same way, towards the Soviets, even if not actively working together is also a must. So the only way of getting this and keeping them from tearing chunks out of each other that I can think of is to have someone forcefully explain that's it's a stand together or fall separately, backs them up and plays unofficial umpire to try and keep a lid on things until the Soviets aren't a problem.
The two most likely candidates for this role I think would have to be the French or the British, leaning more towards the British. They both sent forces to occupy parts of Russia during the civil war and they certainly weren't friendly to the Soviets, the British actually sent a military force to the region called Dunsterforce but they ran into some problems on the way and were really too small to be able to do great amounts. Just the journey to get there was weird and wonderful enough, resulting in a description by Roger Ford in Eden to Armageddon: World War One in the Middle East of
Looking at things from a broad overview it seems as though you need to keep at least both Georgia and Azerbaijan independent at that provides a nice mountainous defensive barrier with only a few major gorges and valleys through such as Darial Gorge with the Georgian Military Road or the coastal routes along the Black or Caspian seas. If one of them falls though it opens a much more accessible 'side door' as it were to the other as well as a path to Armenia. Having them all facing the same way, towards the Soviets, even if not actively working together is also a must. So the only way of getting this and keeping them from tearing chunks out of each other that I can think of is to have someone forcefully explain that's it's a stand together or fall separately, backs them up and plays unofficial umpire to try and keep a lid on things until the Soviets aren't a problem.
The two most likely candidates for this role I think would have to be the French or the British, leaning more towards the British. They both sent forces to occupy parts of Russia during the civil war and they certainly weren't friendly to the Soviets, the British actually sent a military force to the region called Dunsterforce but they ran into some problems on the way and were really too small to be able to do great amounts. Just the journey to get there was weird and wonderful enough, resulting in a description by Roger Ford in Eden to Armageddon: World War One in the Middle East of
So what if Dunsteforce was larger and a serious effort on the part of the British to support the Caucasian states to gain a foothold of influence in the region? The main prize that can be seen has to be the oil industry at Baku which the Anglo-Persian Oil Company or Royal Dutch Shell would be interested in. Even if the British didn't gain the concessions it would still deny the oil to the Soviets, and fucking with them would be worth the price of admission in and off itself. So can anyone come up with any alternative ideas of how to keep these three countries independent and non-Soviet?Roger Ford said:A British General on the Caspian, the only sea unploughed before by British keels, on board a ship named after a South African President and whilom enemy, sailing from a Persian port, under the Serbian flag, to relieve from the Turks a body of Armenians in a revolutionary Russian town.