Charykov’s Years in Istanbul between Serfdom and Bolshevik Revolution

After the declaration of Second Constitutional Era, diplomatic activities via ambassadors intensified in İstanbul where attention of the Great Powers focused. The former period that the German influence considerably increased over the Ottoman Empire was ceased by Young Turks effected by the British and French ideas. This situation gave an opportunity to the Great Powers to regain their position. Meanwhile, Russia and France simultaneously appointed their ambassadors to Istanbul in order to move in coordination in the Ottoman affairs. One of them, Nikolai Charykov, the Russian ambassador, as a witness and part of intense and vehement diplomacy traffic wrote his memoirs taken place during his mission in Istanbul between 1909-1912 in his autobiography Glimpses of High Politics: Through War & Peace. It is a noteworthy resource in terms of understanding how Entente Powers could not make use of the opportunity occurred by weakening of German influence, relationships of Russia with the rest of the Great Powers while Russia was trying to success her interests over the Ottoman territories on the eve of the I. World War and in what manner the crossing interests were tried to be overcome. In this period, the most important topic of the Russian Foreign Affairs’ agenda was to maintain a secure passage of their battleships to the Black Sea through the Straits. After a fail attempt of Izvolski on the issue in the presence of Vienna, Charykov tried to solve the problem with his own initiative in the presence of Istanbul. However, his efforts also failed and he was recalled. One of the subjects of this paper is how this plan is tried to implemented and what kind of impetuses cause its abortion. Another point to be mentioned here is his ideas about the abolition of serfdom as a member of aristocracy and about the Bolshevik Revolution as a banished victim of the revolution. Charykov, who forged an organic link between two of them, believed that mismanagement of the process of the liberation of serfs promoted revolutionist ideas and eventually led the collapse of the empire. In spite of its subjectivity, as a witness to these very important events of the Russian history, Charykov’s ideas are noteworthy in terms of understanding the period much better.

Keywords

Charykov, Russia, Ottoman, the Straits Problem, Second Constitutional Era, diplomacy