Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but if Russia had avoided the Revolution, they likely could have pressed for and gotten the Straits as an occupation zone after WWI. How they react to Ataturk will be more complicated.
The future. Both Constantinople and Russia still exist, so it is still possible.
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Fine then. One hour ago. Russia, for no reason other than satisfying your criteria, launches a bunch of paratroopers straight into the city and captures it without much of a fight.Well, I meant so that they have it by now.
Fine then. One hour ago. Russia, for no reason other than satisfying your criteria, launches a bunch of paratroopers straight into the city and captures it without much of a fight.
- BNC
Well, that would mean war with NATO.
In principle the Kerensky government was committed to continuing to support the Allies, but it's far too rickety (and their major offensive was a disaster), so I'd prefer avoid both. Russia needs to still be a powerful enough player on the Allied side to make its demands stick, in the face of Allied skepticism and Turkish rebellion, which I'd think would require the Russians to hold together better. Probably the best POD is a less disastrous Tannenberg Campaign: if they manage to avoid having their armies crushed invading Germany (but still have their offensive halted, so Turkey is willing to join the Central Powers), then the Eastern Front looks much better for them (with Austria-Hungary still in retreat as OTL, but without a German advance threatening to cut off the Russians pursuing them).Do you mean avoiding the October Revolution, or also the February Revolution?
An interesting alternative would be if Russia was able to make an alliance with Germany rather than Britain and France. Then, if war broke out, Russia could have consentrated more on fighting the Ottomans (assuming that they were allied with Britain and France). I think such an alliance would have been a better choice for both Russia and Germany. For Germany it would have been a huge advantage to avoid having to fight both Russia in the east and Britain/France in the west at the same time. Russia could more easily fight a war without ending in a revolutionary situation.
This seems easiest to me. Turks side with Britain and France and press on Russia and Bulgaria. This scenario gives Russia an opponent that they stand a much better chance against. I see the Ottomans mostly holding effectively till the end of the war, especially since there won't likely be any shenanigans in the Arabian peninsula without the English pushing for it. This may end out even worse for Armenians, though. If the Central Powers win in this scenario, Russia will probably annex further south of the Caucasus, and will not lose the peace as easily as the Greeks when the Turks strike back.
No, but Armenians would almost certainly work against the Ottomans during the war. If things are going poorly for them, they won't need much more than an excuse to start doing what they did OTL. TTL could see Russian armies liberating camps as they advance south. Armenia ends out a protectorate of the Russian Empire or as a few oblasti within it.
Which is why I have Russia making an earlier separate peace with the Central Powers in the wake of a British victory at Gallipoli and going after the Ottomans.IMHO the British will never give Constantinople/Istanbul to the Russians, allies or not in WWI. You might see some sort of "Berlin" like situation with a joint occupation with zones (think British, French, Greek, Russian) after WWI but IMHO this would be temporary like Vienna was after WWII. A more likely situation is you end up with the Greeks getting the European part, and the Turks the Asian part especially if the British throw some weight behind Greece, Greece having both sides is possible as well with a small amount of hinterland - with some of the Greek population expelled from Anatolia ending up expelling Turks from some of the hinterland as well as both sides of the Dardanelles.
Preventing Russian control of the straits was a long standing British policy, and I can't see them giving much up to Russia after WWI assuming the Bolsheviks don't take over in which case the odds are below zero. In WWI there is simply no way Russia can take Constantinople and present a fait accompli.