Revolutionary Transition in the Black Sea: Post-Imperial Property Disputes in Ottoman Istanbul, 1917-1923

• In Event: Imperial Collapse and Post-Imperial Transitions in the Black Sea Region, 1917-1926

Abstract

​​My presentation explores disputes over former Russian imperial property in Ottoman Istanbul. On July 4, 1918, the Ukrainian National Republic appealed to the Ottoman authorities requesting restitution of the commercial steamship “Queen Olga” formerly affiliated with the Russian-Danubian Shipping Society, a semi-private corporation that had managed trade and postal connections between Russian and foreign ports since the mid-19th century. Like numerous other movables and immovables owned by enemy states and their subjects, the “Queen Olga” had been sequestered by the Ottomans in the first months of WWI in 1914. The appeal was decided in the Ukrainians’ favor. “Queen Olga” was handed to the Ukrainian Legation in Istanbul. Several months later, however, it changed hands again. In the wake of the Allied occupation of Istanbul, Mikhaylo Sukovkin, a Russophile Ukrainian ambassador in Istanbul leased the “Queen Olga”, along with a dozen of other vessels, to the French. The latter used them for a landing offensive to take control over Odesa. Under the mounting pressure of the advancing Red Army, the French had to leave the Ukrainian port in April 1919 and the ships were transferred to the balance of the newly established Russian naval base in Istanbul. To remedy the wrongdoings of his predecessor, Oleksandr Lotots’kyi, a dedicated proponent of Ukrainian independence, filed multiple notes of protest to the Allies. None of them was seriously considered because the Allies supported the “United and indivisible Russia” cause and committed financial support to imperialist White Russian governments.

Author

• Azat Bilalutdinov, Columbia U