Stalin's Early Cold War Foreign Policy: Southern Neighbours in the Shadow of Moscow, 1945-1947

Immediately after the Allied WW2 victory in Europe, claims were made by the Soviet Union over the eastern regions of Turkey, to secure direct control over the Bosporus, Dardanelles, and Turkish Straits. The detailed study of the international components of these events, featuring the veiled complexities of Stalin’s anti-Turkish diplomacy, provides a key to understanding crucial aspects of these Soviet territorial claims.

Iranian Azerbaijan became another hotspot of post-war confrontation bet...