Soviet military assistance to Turkey in 1920–1922

In the article, the author examines the supply of arms from the Soviet republics to Turkey between 1920 and 1922. He primarily draws on documents from the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) to elucidate the scope and dynamics of the arms supplies, which were instrumental in enabling Turkey to defend its independence and territorial integrity in the challenging struggle with the Entente states. The available evidence indicates that, with the exception of a brief period in late 1920, Russia consistently supplied arms to the best of its capabilities, even during the cooling of relations in early March 1921. While Soviet-made weapons played a pivotal role in the Turkish Army’s operations against Armenia, they were particularly instrumental in its victory at Sakarya. As the Greco-Turkish War drew to a close, the Soviet contribution to the conflict diminished as French weapons began to arrive. However, Soviet gold also became a means of financing this military aid. By comparing the data from the RGVA documents with the estimates previously published in Russia that referenced Turkish sources, the author concludes that the materials preserved in the Russian archive provide a more accurate assessment of the scale, quality, and dynamics of the supplies provided. The quality of weapons provided was sufficiently high to enable effective resistance to the Greek invasion of Anatolia.