Participation of Britain and its role in the elaboration of the London Inter-Allied Conference’s decisions on the “Russian question” (December 11-13, 1919)

The London Inter-Allied Conference on the "Russian question" (December 11-13, 1919) is rarely mentioned by historians, but a landmark event in the history of British participation in foreign intervention in Russia - and in a broad sense an interesting phenomenon in world history. During the Conference in London participants - Britain, Italy, USA, France and Japan - discussed the future of the intervention and in general a new foreign policy strategy regarding Russia in the context of the evident Bolsheviks’ victory in the Civil War and the formation of a new system of international relations after the First World War, in which it was necessary to determine the position of Russia. The approaches and methods adopted in London, as practice shows, seem to be currently relevant. The purpose of this article is to analyze the participation of Britain and determine its role in the development of decisions of the London Inter-Allied Conference on the "Russian question" on the basis of previously uninvolved documents of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as well as sources of personal origin. The decisions of the London Conference on the "Russian question" put an end to largescale military assistance to the White movement and thus contributed to the end of the Russian Civil War. The British government played a key role in producing the decisions of the London Conference. The Government had prepared thoroughly for the Conference and had proposed its draft decisions.