ABSTRACT
Soviet Russia was embattled and threatened by the leading imperialist powers. 'If the victorious revolutionary proletariat organizes systematic propaganda and the Soviet governments give them all the help they can, it is incorrect to assume,' V. I. Lenin said, 'which such people must pass through the capitalistic stage of development. In state of world isolation, an alliance with Turkey was of greater importance to the Soviet government than the Turkish Communist party. A few days after the congress, a member of its presidium, Mustafa Subhi, organized a conference of members of the Turkish group in the Russian Communist party and including Communists from Turkey. In the winter of 1920 the executive had decided to transfer its base to Turkey and in January 1921 seventeen of its leaders travelled by sea from Baku to Ankara. Upon landing at Trebizond they were arrested, Mustafa Subhi among them, to be drowned at sea on 28 January 1921—'the traditional Turkish method of secret execution'.
