ABSTRACT
Birse feared that once the Bolsheviks reached the Caspian Sea, they would also try to form close relations with the republic of Azerbaijan, famous for its Baku oilfields. In sharp contrast, Central Asia was in a state of national effervescence and deep discontent. Vladimir Lenin, with his unerring political instinct, was quick to detect that not only Turkey but also Afghanistan and Persia would be receptive to the Bolsheviks' assistance in their struggle for national liberation. The diplomatic pressure, as well as supplies of military materiel, however, was not possible before the defeat of the Kolchak and Denikin's White Russian army, as well as the conquest of Transcaucasia. Through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the mainspring of Britain's policy in the East was to safeguard both the sea and land routes to India. An even more serious defect was his inability to understand the postwar developments, the rising nationalism in the Islamic countries in particular.
