Club ‘Prometheus’ in the context of the activities of ‘Istanbul Platform’ 1929-1935: contribution to the liberation struggle of the enslaved peoples of the USSR

Abstract

The article analyses the activities of the Prometheus club, one of the branches of the Prometheus Entente, which operated in Istanbul in the late 1920s and mid-1930s, based on archival sources. The Istanbul Prometheus club, which in the interwar period united representatives of diaspora organizations of peoples enslaved by Russia, in particular Crimea, Azerbaijan, Turkestan, and Ukrainian political emigration, took openly anti-Soviet positions, produced relevant projects with the aim of spreading liberation ideas abroad and preparing the ground for the struggle of the peoples of the USSR to overthrow the communist regime and form independent national states on its territory. The leading role in this club was played by the talented representative of the Central Committee of the UNR in exile, V. Murskyi, who in April 1929, at the initiative of the head of the State Center of the UNR in exile A. Livytskyi, was appointed first as a temporary, and later (March 15, 1930) as a permanent representative of the exile government in Istanbul.

With support from the Prometheans of Poland, France, and the political emigration of the Caucasus, V. Murskyi organized a branch of the Warsaw club ‘Prometheus League’ in Istanbul. The composition of this branch was international, and the unifying and leading role in it belonged to representatives of the Ukrainian political emigration. Among the members of the ‘Prometheus’ club, which consisted of 8 people, was D. Seydamet Kyrymer – the head of the Crimean Tatar diaspora, Rasul-zade – the leader of the Azerbaijani diaspora, as well as representatives of Turkestan: Medzhedin-bey, Osman-Pulat and Musa-Tsakhoy. Representatives of the diaspora press, in particular popular publications of the Azerbaijani diaspora, which were distributed throughout the Middle East in Turkish and Persian, such as ‘Bildirish’, ‘Chumhuriyet’, ‘Azeri-Türk’, ‘Odlu-Yurt’, actively participated in the club’s meetings.