June 2010 marked the 90th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the RSFSR and Turkey. And on March 16, 2011, another date was celebrated - the 90th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood between the RSFSR and Turkey. The second meeting of the Russian-Turkish High-level Cooperation Council (HLCC), established in 2010, was timed to coincide with this event.

The importance of these dates in the history of bilateral relations was emphasized by the Co-Chairs of the ccTLDs-President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It is noteworthy that at the initiative of the Turkish Prime Minister, a commemorative postage stamp was issued dedicated to the signing of the Moscow Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood. It is made on the basis of the photo "The situation before signing the Contract", the negative of which is stored in the Russian State Archive of Film and Photographic Documents (RGAKFD). R. T. Erdogan presented a copy of this stamp to D. A. Medvedev on March 16 this year in Moscow at a meeting of the CCIS.

In Turkey, many events were dedicated to significant dates for Russian-Turkish relations: concerts, scientific conferences, seminars, photo exhibitions, and screenings of documentaries. One of them was the presentation in Istanbul of the book-Alexander Kolesnikov. Ataturk donemi Turk-Rus iliskileri: Turk-Sovyet iliskilerinin kurulusunun 90. yili. Ankara, AKDTYK Ataturk Arastirma Merkezi, 2010, 161 p (Alexander Kolesnikov. Russian-Turkish relations during the Ataturk period), published by the M. K. Ataturk Research Center (Ankara). Its author is Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor A. A. Kolesnikov, who worked for many years as an adviser to the Russian Embassy in Turkey.

The relevance of the book is indisputable. Today, when Russian-Turkish cooperation is reaching a qualitatively new level of multi-faceted partnership, it is very important and useful to refer to the rich experience of the past years. "Probably, history itself ordered that a new stage in relations between Russia and Turkey occurred during the collapse of the former great empires - the Russian and Ottoman. On the political map of the world, two new states were formed almost simultaneously - Soviet Russia and the Republic of Turkey. Despite the brutal years of the Russian civil war and the difficulties of the national liberation struggle in Turkey, our peoples extended their hands of friendship and solidarity to each other," notes Russian Ambassador to Turkey V. E. Ivanovsky in the preface to the book (p.3).

In the first chapter devoted to the historiography of Turkey and Soviet-Turkish relations in the 1920s-1930s, the author notes the significant contribution to the multilateral study of Turkey of such researchers as A. F. Miller, V. A. Gordlevsky, B. M. Danzig, A. D. Novichev, A. K. Sverchevskaya, N. G. Kireev, and D. A. Shishkin. E. Eremeev and others, as well as the works of modern historians M. P. Pavlovich (Veltman), V. A. Gurko-Kryazhin and others.

According to A. Kolesnikov, an unbiased and truly scientific assessment of bilateral Soviet-Turkish contacts can be developed only in the framework of joint work of specialists from the two countries. For this purpose, by the way, on his initiative, a permanent seminar of Russian and Turkish researchers was created, within the framework of which, with the support of the Turkish Historical Society, conferences have already been held in Ankara and St. Petersburg, and new meetings are planned in the Turkish capital, as well as in Pyatigorsk.

In the second chapter, the author traces the development of political contacts between representatives of the two states. After the signing of the Mudros Agreement on October 30, 1918,* official ties between Russia and the Ottoman Empire at that time were severed and officially restored only after the founding of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNST) in 1920. However, there was always a desire to establish contacts. After the Erzurum (July 23 - August 7, 1919) and Sivas Congresses (September 4-11, 1919), Turkish delegations were sent to Soviet Russia on the instructions of one of the closest associates of M. K. Ataturk, Kazim Pasha Karabekir, who negotiated for the provision of assistance to their country.

On April 26, 1920, just three days after the opening of the VNST, Mustafa Kemal, on behalf of the newly formed government, addressed an official letter to the Soviet government requesting the establishment of diplomatic relations and assistance to Turkey. The RSFSR Government responded to the VNST's request and sent a reply to Ankara on June 3, 1920. In the note of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G. V. Chicherin, it was noted that the Soviet government "is very lively-

* The Mudros Agreement, signed on October 30, 1918, aboard the British cruiser Agamemnon in the port of Mudro (on the island of Lemnos), ended military operations between the Entente and Turkey in the First World War.

The CIM follows with interest the heroic struggle waged by the Turkish people for their independence and sovereignty, and in these difficult days for Turkey, it is happy to lay a solid foundation for friendship that should connect the Turkish and Russian peoples" (p.28).

The author of the book explores diplomatic contacts between representatives of the two countries, which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood between the RSFSR and Turkey. The article lists in detail the gratuitous material and military assistance provided by Soviet Russia to the government of the VNST, which played a decisive role in Turkey's struggle against foreign intervention, during the most difficult period of its foreign policy isolation.

The book also highlights the importance of the agreements reached during the visits of Turkish Foreign Minister T. R. Aras to Moscow in October 1930, M. M. Litvinov to Turkey in October 1931, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Turkey Ismet Inenu to the Soviet Union in April 1932, and, finally, the delegation headed by the People's Commissar for Military and Political Affairs. K. E. Voroshilov's visit to Turkey in October 1933.

In his narrative, the author includes an analysis of the events leading up to 1938, when the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, M. K. Ataturk, died after a serious long illness. Disagreements that arose during the July 1935 visit to Moscow of the Turkish Minister of Economy, J. R. R. Tolkien. Bayar, as well as at the 1936 Montreux International Conference, led to some restraint in Soviet-Turkish political contacts. In the second half of the 1930s, Russian-Turkish relations developed more in the trade and economic direction.

A. Kolesnikov in the third chapter gives numerous examples of economic and technical cooperation, which was expressed, in particular, in the construction of large industrial facilities in Turkey with the help of the USSR, for example, textile mills in the cities of Kayseri and Nazilli, which became the "locomotive" of the development of the Turkish textile industry. The opening ceremony of the Nazilli factory in 1937 was attended by M. K. Ataturk himself, and Turkish Prime Minister I. Inenyu described these enterprises as " beautiful works of Soviet industry and symbols of eternal friendship." A special vocational technical school was established at the Kayseri plant to train Turkish specialists, the director of which was N. S. Ryzhov, who later became the USSR Ambassador to Ankara (p. 71).

As part of a Soviet loan granted in 1934, Turkey received equipment for factories in Kayseri and Nazilli, as well as trucks and buses for the Ankara Municipality. Thanks to the loan, industrial enterprises of various directions were built in the cities of Bursa, Eregli, Malatya, Izmit, Istanbul, Zonguldak, Ankara, Eskisehir, etc. (p. 75).

In the fourth chapter, A. Kolesnikov talks about contacts in the humanitarian sphere.

In 1926, an agreement was signed on the exchange of information between TASS and the Anatolian Agency. In 1927, the first Soviet film festival was held in Turkey with a full house, where the audience saw the film "Battleship Potemkin". In 1933, the country was visited by Soviet directors N. Zarkhi and S. Yutkevich, who made a documentary film "Ankara-the Heart of Turkey"*.

Famous Turkish film director M .. Ertugrul, who worked for a long time in the USSR, became one of the founders of theater and art direction, who staged many plays by Russian authors on the Turkish stage.

In May 1933, M. Gorky was on his way from Italy to Istanbul. In the spring of 1935, the first soloists of the Bolshoi Theater performed in Turkey, where D. D. Shostakovich, D. F. Oistrakh and others took part. Soviet writers P. Pavlenko, L. Nikulin, and L. Seifullina became frequent guests in Turkey. N. Hikmet, F. R. Atay and others visited the USSR in various periods. The author of the book gives many more interesting examples of successful interaction between representatives of the Russian and Turkish public.

The publication of about 20 documents from Russian archives, many of which are published in Turkish for the first time, adds value to A. Kolesnikov's work. Turkish readers will certainly be interested in reading G. V. Chicherin's letters to V. I. Lenin on Turkish issues, his correspondence with V. M. Molotov and Soviet plenipotentiaries and ambassadors in Ankara, dispatches of the plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Ankara S. I. Aralov, and other materials.

The book contains archival photos and is supplemented with an extensive bibliography. The publication is accompanied by a DVD with an electronic version of the book.

After the presentation, in an exclusive interview with the magazine "Asia and Africa Today", Russian scientist and diplomat A. Kolesnikov noted the need for further comprehensive scientific research. "The study of the history of Russian-Turkish relations, especially the period of establishing the first ties between young Soviet Russia and new republican Turkey, is entering a new phase today," A. Kolesnikov believes. According to him, we are talking not only about new methodological approaches to de-ideologizing the research heritage of the Soviet period, but also about identifying and introducing into scientific circulation a number of new documents that contribute to developing a more objective view of the events of the rich historical past of Russian-Turkish relations.

The publication of A. Kolesnikov's book, of course, indicates the interest in scientific research of Russian Turkologists in Turkey. I would like to hope that his work, possibly with additions, will be published in Russian and will be available to a wide range of compatriots.

A. A. KORITSKY, our sobkor in Turkey

S. A. KORITSKY, post-graduate student of ISAA MSU

* In 2010, the film was released on DVD with Turkish subtitles. Today it is posted on the official website of the President of the Republic of Turkey.

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