Treaty of Sèvres (1920); World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions -- Turkey; World War, 1914-1918 -- Turkey
The English, who are prone to believe only what affects them, did not
seem to dread the Bolshevist peril for Europe, perhaps because they
fancied England was quite secure from it; on the contrary, they thought
this peril was more to be dreaded for the populations of Asia, no doubt
because it could have an easier access to the English possessions. The
success of Bolshevism with the Emir of Bokhara, close to the frontiers
of India, seemed to justify their fears. Bolshevism, however, is
something quite special to the Russian mind; other nations may be led
astray or perverted by it for a time, but on the whole they cannot
fully adhere to it permanently. Besides, it appears that Bolshevism has
been wrongly looked upon as something Asiatic. Of course, it has been
welcomed by the Slavs on the confines of Europe, and seems to agree
with their mentality; but in fact it does not come from Asia, but from
Europe. Lenin and Trotsky, who were sent by Germany from Berlin to St.
Petersburg in a sealed railway-carriage and had lived before in Western
Europe, imported no Asiatic ideas into Russia. They brought with them a
mixture of Marxist socialism and Tolstoist catholicism, dressed up in
Russian style to make it palatable to the moujik, and presented to the
intellectual class, to flatter Slav conceit, as about to renovate the
face of Europe.
The English did not realise that their own policy, as well as that
of their Allies, had run counter to their own aims, that they had
actually succeeded in strengthening the position of the Soviets, and
that if they kept on encroaching upon the independence and territorial
integrity of the heterogeneous Eastern populations of Russia and
the peoples of Asia Minor, they would definitely bring them over to
Bolshevism. Of course, these peoples were playing a dangerous game, and
ran the risk of losing their liberty in another way, but they clung
to any force that might uphold them. Mustafa Kemal was thus induced
not to reject the offers the Moscow Government soon made him, but it
did not seem likely he would be so foolish as to keep in the wake of
the Soviets, for the latter are doomed to disappear sooner or later,
unless they consent to evolution, supposing they have time to change.
The Allies, on the other hand, especially the English, forgot that
their policy risked giving Constantinople indirectly to Russia, where
Tsarist imperialism had been replaced by Bolshevist imperialism, both
of which are actuated by the same covetous spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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