TNT History Archives: Russian Agents' Reports (1620-1917)

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 16 June 2019)



The Turkish History Council (TTK) has purchased the archival
collection "Russian Military Intelligence on Asia: Archives, 1620-
1917", which contains reports from Russian military intelligence
service agents about Istanbul and other areas of Turkey, along with
reports on a nine other countries.

The archives are made up of 41 rolls of microfilm about Turkey,
out of a total of 93 rolls.  TTK bought the collection in 2018 from
the Brill publishing company in Holland and the microfilm rolls
have all been digitized for researchers.  Additionally, TTK has
purchased the "Russian-Ottoman Relations" microfiche collection
of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg that contains
rare works in Western languages concerning Ottoman-Russian
relations in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.  This collection has
been digitized, as well.



Many of the Russian intelligence agents' reports contain maps of
Ottoman territory and related Ottoman army positions.  Among
the other reports in the collection:

-- Russian military agent Colonel Peşkov in Istanbul reported about
the increase in Turkish forces along the Turkish-Russian border in
the Caucasus, circa 1890-1896, and Ottoman military preparations
in connection with war with Greece;

-- Agent Zelenii's warning of an urgent military situation involving
clashes between Turkish and Armenian elements in Erzurum and
the related activities of the Ottoman 4th Army (1890-1891);

--Istanbul agent Peşkov's report about Ottoman Army deployments
in Europe, Asia and Africa (1892-1893);

-- Notes prepared by agent Colonel Veniukov in 1874 concerning
Ottoman fortifications along the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles
straits:

-- Report from agent Alekseev in Istanbul about telegraph use in
Turkey (1905-1906);

-- Russian agents in Bucharest and Istanbul reporting about
improving relations between Turkey and Japan (18 January - 18
March 1906);

-- Reports from agent Colonel Kalnin and Erzurum conculate
secretary Przhevalskii about the Hamidiye irregular cavalry
regiments and their training, along with reports about Kurdish
raids on the Russian frontier region and the Bayazit subdivision;

-- Report about the Bağdad Railway construction (November 1900).