In 1919 Halford Mackinder was appointed British High Commissioner to South Russia and was sent across Eastern Europe to report upon the state of the antiBolshevik forces led by General Denikin. As a result of this mission, Mackinder was placed in a position where he could make recommendations to the British Cabinet concerning the geo-strategic situation in Eastern Europe and thus attempt to implement some of the ideas expressed in his book Democratic ideals and reality. Until recently many papers relating to the mission were not avail? able and the details of Mackinder's work in South Russia were unknown. The present article is largely based upon Foreign Office, Cabinet, and personal papers which have been opened for study in recent years. The documents reveal that Mackinder prophesied very early that a Russia under Bolshevism would make the world 'an uncomfortable place for democracies' and that he ad? vanced a plan to the British Cabinet with the aim of creating new states in order to curtail potential Soviet power.