WI: Russia gets control of the Bosphorous

kernals12

Banned
Russia's desire to control the Black Sea's outlet goes back a very long time. So what if they managed to do it? Let's say that a communist coup d'etat occurs in Turkey in 1947. Would we have the cat and mouse game between American ships and Russian submarines extend to the Mediterranean? I assume we would have a much larger NATO presence in Greece and Italy.
 
Russia's desire to control the Black Sea's outlet goes back a very long time. So what if they managed to do it? Let's say that a communist coup d'etat occurs in Turkey in 1947. Would we have the cat and mouse game between American ships and Russian submarines extend to the Mediterranean? I assume we would have a much larger NATO presence in Greece and Italy.

There are a lot more plausible POD's for Russia getting control of the Bosporus--e.g., having Russia get it as a victor in a World War I without the 1917 revolutions. Under both Ataturk and Inonu, the Turkish government was pretty firm in repressing the Communists, and a coup by the very weak TKP (Turkish Communist Party) was extremely unlikely.
 
Last edited:

kernals12

Banned
There are a lot more plausible POD's for Russia getting control of the Bosporus--e.g., having Russia get it as a victor in a World War I without the 1917 revolutions. Under both Ataturk and Inonu, the Turkish government was pretty firm in repressing the Communists, and a coup by the very weak TKP (Turkish Communist Party) was extremely unlikely.
From what I've read, the British were dead set about giving the Russians unlimited access to the Mediterranean, so even if the Russians did make it Versailles, that wouldn't give them the Bosporous.
 
they wanted access to Bulgaria during period of collaboration with Nazi regime, and made at least boasts of capturing East Thrace (European Turkey) "for them" although one can imagine all of Bulgaria would have been under Soviet domination?

(this was one of the points that ended Nazi-Soviet collaboration)

this was time frame where they could have conceivably gained control, keeping it would require an entirely different WW2.
 
From what I've read, the British were dead set about giving the Russians unlimited access to the Mediterranean, so even if the Russians did make it Versailles, that wouldn't give them the Bosporous.

"The Constantinople Agreement (18 March 1915) was a set of secret assurances made by the Triple Entente during World War I. France and Great Britain promised to give Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the Dardanelles (land on either coast in Thrace and Asia Minor), which at the time were part of the Ottoman Empire, to the Russians in the event of victory..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople_Agreement True, the British were not happy with giving Russia control of the Dardanelles, but they were willing to agree to it in order to keep Russia in the war and get her to accept increased British influence in other parts of the Ottoman Empire, especially Persia.
 

Ian_W

Banned
If Russia had access to the Meditteranean through the Bosphorus, then it simply pushes the Western powers to establish naval bases in places like Rhodes and the Greek islands.

If Russia builds a bigger navy to take advantage, then there are resources being spent there, as opposed to on things like artillery that the Russians - and later the Soviets - are good at.
 
Top