PETROVSK UNDER BRITISH OCCUPATION:POLITICAL SITUATION AND THE DAILY LIFEDURING THE CIVIL WAR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32653/CH222%25pKeywords:
Petrovsk, Civil war, englishman’s, occupation, interventionists, Bolsheviks, denikin's forces, Dagestan, Caspian regionAbstract
This study elucidates the history of the British occupation of Petrovsk (modern-day Makhachkala) and analyzes the interactions between British forces, local political factions, and the civilian population. Grounded in historicism, historical-genetic and historical-comparative methodologies, and inductive reasoning, the paper demonstrates the systemic link between British policy in Dagestan and broader geopolitical interests in the Near and Middle East. Additionally, it provides a distinct analysis of the strategic factors underlying the British withdrawal from the city. The primary novelty of this work lies in its simultaneous macro- and micro-level examination of the British intervention in Dagestan. This dual approach offers a more nuanced evaluation of the Russian Civil War as a complex phenomenon wherein personal motivations, sympathies, and individual choices often superseded institutional external conflict dynamics. Furthermore, this study introduces newly uncovered English-language and regional sources into scholarly circulation, clarifying previously obscure details of Petrovsk’s tenure under foreign occupation. These documents provide concrete examples of the friction and cooperation between British forces, municipal civilian organizations, and the Volunteer Army units stationed there under General M.A. Przhevalsky. The paper also examines Bolshevik underground anti-war agitation targeting British troops. Ultimately, the research findings demonstrate that characterizing Denikin’s Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) as a mere proxy entirely subordinate to British interventionists is historically untenable. The study establishes that multiple competing power centers coexisted precariously in Petrovsk during the spring of 1919. Preoccupied with fundamental survival, the local population remained deeply alienated from the British troops, viewing them not as liberators, but as yet another occupying force.
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