From its very inception, Soviet Azerbaijan began organizing massive shipments of crude oil by sea to Astrakhan. From April 30 to May 2, 1920 alone—that is, literally immediately after establishment of the new government on the Absheron Peninsula—it sent 12 steamers to the RSFSR carrying 156,115 barrels of crude. By late May of the same year, the quantity of crude supplied had increased to 1.8 million barrels, and by June it stood at 2.5 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products. But even so, these delivery rates did not satisfy the RSFSR leadership. On August 4, 1920, the Council of Labor and Defense adopted yet another resolution on steps to increase petroleum products exports from Baku.
The newly proclaimed Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, formed on the model of the RSFSR, did not remain “independent” for long. On September 30, 1920, the RSFSR and Azerbaijani SSR signed a military and political alliance treaty that unified the military organizations and military commands of the two republics, as well as their regional economic councils, supply and transportation agencies, and people’s commissariats of finance, mail, and telegraphy. On the same day, a foreign trade agreement was also signed. In addition, the RSFSR and Azerbaijani SSR signed agreements to conduct a unified economic policy and consolidate their food supply policies.
Speaking in December 1920 at the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin emphasized with satisfaction: “Now, with the tremendous enthusiasm being exhibited by workers in the Azerbaijani Republic, with the friendly relations that we have established, and with the skillful leaders sent by the Regional Economic Council, the oil business is going well, and we are beginning to stand on our own feet.”
Once a regime controlled completely by the RSFSR had been established in Azerbaijan, there arose the question of delivering Baku crude to the European market via the port of Batumi on the Black Sea. In the opinion of RSFSR political leaders, the existence of republic governments in Armenia and Georgia was the main impediment to delivery of crude to the European and world markets, and so it was decided to apply the same successful scheme used in Azerbaijan to oust the national governments of these countries.
In June 1920, the Armenian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) was formed, and in September 1920, the Caucasian Bureau of the RCP(b) Central Committee approved the membership of the Armenian CP(b) Central Committee. At the same time, Soviet Russian political leadership charged the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs with the task of making full use of diplomatic methods to create a legal basis for the operation of national communist parties.
In late May 1920, negotiations began in Moscow between the government delegations of Soviet Russia and the Republic of Armenia. The Soviet Russian delegation included People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin and his deputy Lev M. Karakhan; the Armenian delegation was led by the Armenian politician Levon Shant. As it turned out, the agreement signed August 10, 1920 in Yerevan between the RSFSR and the Republic of Armenia was unable to prevent active hostilities by Turkish troops, and in September 1920, Turkish troops switched to the offensive. By the 20th of that month they occupied Sarikamish and Kaghzvan. On October 30, they took Kars, and on November 6 they took Alexandropol.
Amid these hostilities, the government of the Republic of Armenia resigned on November 4, 1920. On the same day, a new government headed by Simon Vratsyan was formed. In its declaration, the new government was forced to acknowledge the country’s untenable position, but was unable to identify a solution.
Then in mid-November 1920, the Armenian Revolutionary War Committee was formed in Baku, headed by Sargis Kasyan. Later that month, the Armenian Revolutionary War Committee relocated to the town of Kazakh, near the border, where the Armenian regiment, formed from rebels who had retreated to Soviet Azerbaijan after the rebellion of May 1920 was put down, was also located.
On the morning of November 29, 1920, members of the Armenian Revolutionary War Committee (ARWC) crossed the border along with the Armenian rebel regiment. The border troops of the republican army offered no resistance, and the ARWC’s declaration proclaiming Armenia a Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted in Ijevan the same day. The next day, again encountering no resistance, ARWC forces occupied Dilijan. The Armenian Revolutionary War Committee sent a telegram from there to Lenin asking for aid, after which units of the 11th Army of the Caucasian Front, previously stationed in Azerbaijan, crossed the border and commenced hostilities.
On December 2, 1920, Lenin sent a telegram to the Chairman of the ARWC, Sargis Kasyan, saying: “I greet you as the representative of a Soviet Armenia of labor liberated from the yoke of imperialism. I have every confidence that you will make every effort to establish fraternal solidarity among the workers of Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.”
Also on December 2, RSFSR Ambassador Plenipotentiary Boris Legran and ARWC Chairman Sargis Kasyan signed an RSFSR-Armenian SSR Friendship Agreement. Under this agreement, Armenia was allocated a cash loan in the amount of 3 billion rubles and was obligated to deliver 144,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products. The hurried signing of the Alexandropol Treaty between the governments of the Republic of Armenia and Turkey on the same day could no longer alter the state of affairs. On December 4, Red Army troops entered Yerevan, and the former Armenian government was finally deposed.
Once Soviet rule had been established in Armenia, the last obstacle to complete Soviet control of the Transcaucasus was the existence of the Georgian Democratic Republic. In conducting its policy regarding Georgia, the Soviet leadership was forced to reckon with the fact that the leading European powers of England, France, and Italy had recognized the independence of the Georgian Democratic Republic on January 20, 1920. Thus, energetic efforts along diplomatic lines came to the forefront. On May 7, 1920, Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Lev M. Karakhan and Georgian Constituent Assembly member Grigol Uratadze signed a treaty in Moscow, under which the RSFSR recognized Georgia’s sovereignty and full independence. Under the terms of the treaty, the government of Georgia assumed the obligation of assisting in the withdrawal from Georgia of the armed forces of Great Britain, stationed in Batumi.
In addition, a secret codicil to the treaty specified that the Communist Party would be legalized in Georgia and given freedom to operate, and that participants in rebellions and demonstrations organized by the Bolsheviks would be released from prison. Having been given complete freedom of action, the Georgian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) was formed that same month.
In June 1920, a Soviet mission was sent to Tiflis, headed by noted Party leader Sergey M. Kirov, and rapidly grew to some 400 members. The enormous size of the mission raised doubts in Georgia about its diplomatic purpose. Shortly thereafter, in September 1920, Kirov was replaced as authorized representative of the RSFSR to the Georgian Democratic Republic by experienced diplomat Aron L. Sheynman.
After meeting with Kirov in Baku regarding the future of the Georgian Democratic Republic, Stalin was pointedly blunt in a September 30, 1920 conversation with a correspondent for the newspaper Pravda [“Truth”]: “The catastrophic economic and food situation in Georgia is a fact admitted even by the bosses of today’s Georgia. Georgia is entangled in the tentacles of the Entente and therefore deprived both of Baku oil and Kuban bread. This Georgia, which has been transformed into a major base for the imperialist operations of England and France and has therefore entered into hostile relations with Soviet Russia, is now living the last days of its life.”
On November 14, 1920, RSFSR Ambassador Plenipotentiary Aron Sheynman, Azerbaijan SSR People’s Commissar Mirza Davud Baghir Huseynov, and Georgian Democratic Republic Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs K. Sabakhtarishvili signed a trade and transit agreement in Tiflis, under which the RSFSR and the Azerbaijan SSR were to deliver 120,000 barrels of crude to Georgia monthly, and Georgia agreed to the free-transit export of coal, timber, and other materials of equivalent value to the petroleum products received. A special secret codicil to the agreement stipulated the terms and conditions of operation of the oil tank farm at Batumi: “Georgia shall lease to Russia and Azerbaijan [the following facilities] for storage of petroleum products in the oil city at Batumi Station: tanks numbering no more than four stations, with a total capacity of 6 million poods [720,000 barrels], including 4.5 million poods [540,000 barrels] suitable for the storage of kerosene, 500,000 poods [60,000 barrels] suitable for the storage of crude oil and residual oil, and 1 million poods [120,000 barrels] suitable for the storage of lubricants and gasoline, rail spurs, loading facilities, appropriate pumping stations with necessary associated residential premises, pipelines to pumping stations and to a pier and loading facilities on the pier, with all listed storage facilities and devices in serviceable [condition] and suitable for immediate operation.... Russia and Azerbaijan shall pay Georgia for providing said tanks with the listed facilities and including a fee for the provision of tank cars for loading at 60 kopecks per pood [36 pounds] of tankage per month and at 60 kopecks per pood per month for storage of petroleum products over and above rated periods in the tanks of Kobuleti and Batumi Kerosene Pipeline Stations.”22