"МИРОВАЯ РЕВОЛЮЦИЯ" НА ОКРАИНАХ БРИТАНСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ ВО ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЕ 1920-Х ГГ.: МИФ ИЛИ РЕАЛЬНОСТЬ?

Abstract

Based upon the wide range of sources, including Russian and British archival documents, published diplomatic correspondence, diaries penned by some eye-witnesses and newspaper commentaries, the article dwells upon the attempts by the Comintern to bring to life the ideas of “world revolution” in the Middle East states – such as Persia and Afghanistan, as well as in the Chinese possessions – Sinkiang and Tibet, which in the period under review – the second half of the 1920s, gained a quasi-independent status. The author meticulously examines various forms and methods of exporting revolutionary practices to the British Empire Asian outskirts, where Indian subcontinent occupied a key position. As a result of the study, it was established that by the beginning of the 1930s, the concept of the “world revolution” as one of the directions of Soviet foreign policy underwent a transformation from reality into a myth, which began to perform mainly propaganda functions. Besides that, the author came to conclusion that the transformation had a serious impact on the development of Soviet-Britain relations during the second conservative government of S. Baldwin, being zigzag in nature – from the state of mutual confrontation in 1925–1926, through the rupture of 1927, to the restoration after the return to power of the Labour Party in 1929.