Cambridge Archive Editions

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Albania and Kosovo: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1867–1946
2 volumes, 1100 pages, and 1 map box; ISBN 9781852079109

This two volume set of documents and maps provides the historical background appropriate to understanding the present Balkan crisis. It makes available the essential historical texts and maps determining the formation of boundaries in the Kosovo region. Treaties, political reports and diplomatic correspondence have been selected from British government files to show the main historical developments in territorial relations between Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece.

The collection begins with the rise of Balkan nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century, and ends with the provisional Government of Albania set up in 1944, turning away from its original close links with Yugoslavia, fearing Yugoslav expansionism, and seeking alliances with China and other Communist powers.

Armenia: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1878–1948
1 volume, 1000 pages; ISBN 9781852079550

This collection of documents and maps provides scholars with an independent research publication whose primary aim is to illustrate key events, using material from British government archives, as markers in defining Armenian territory. These 70 years are crucial in the formation of the boundaries of what now constitutes the state of Armenia.

The “Armenian Question” came under international scrutiny with the rise of modern nationalism in the Armenian communities living in the Ottoman and Russian empires. Borders had always shifted to and fro on the territory inhabited by Armenians. What changed from the nineteenth century onwards was that the Armenians – despite being militarily and politically weak – now tried to set a political agenda of their own (ultimately, the creation of an independent Armenian state encompassing a large part of what they considered to be their historical homeland) and to gain the maximum from the rivalry of the Great Powers in Anatolia and the Transcaucasus.

Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia: Historical Boundaries 1815–1945
1 volume, 700 pages, and 1 map box; ISBN 9781852079659

The purpose of this document collection is to establish from the historical record the diplomatic and cartographic background to the Balkan zone of territorial and ethnic conflict. The primary focus of the work is on the internal, i.e. the shared boundaries of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia rather than on their relationships with states on their outer periphery. The Editor has sought to provide documentary evidence at the main watersheds of history between the end of the Napoleonic era and the end of the Second World War. Since then, as Tito’s régime established itself, the international community has been able to gain few documentary traces of internal Yugoslav administration.

This publication offers, therefore, a survey of the great imperial shift of the Balkan territories in the nineteenth century, from the Ottoman to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and of the creation of the twentieth century kingdom, subsequently the republic, of Yugoslavia. Text and maps support each other closely.

Caucasian Boundaries: Documents and Maps 1802–1946
1 volume, 928 pages, and 1 map box; ISBN 9781852079604

This collection of key documents provides background information on present-day conflicts in the Caucasian region, and includes historical maps from British, French, German, Russian and Ottoman sources.

The aim of this work is to depict the evolution of major boundaries of Transcaucasia and the Northern Caucasus as measured and agreed by the international community at certain historic watersheds. Through extensive research into diplomatic and military records of the British government, we have attempted to trace descriptions of recognised frontiers and boundaries. The documents, used in conjunction with the map box, will depict evolving geopolitical claims of the key states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and North Caucasia; but also territories such as Daghestan, Circassia, Kars, Elisavetopol, Abkhasia, Kouban, at times subsumed into the larger states, are covered.

Ethnic Minorities in the Balkan States 1860–1971
6 volumes, 4400 pages; ISBN 9781840970357

This new collection of documents has been brought together in an attempt to add a depth of understanding to consideration of the ethnic conflicts within the Balkan region over the last 150 years. It is wide-ranging in its coverage of the position and treatment of ethnic minorities within the Balkan states and beyond. Countries covered are: Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Dalmatia; Greece; Kosovo; Macedonia; Moldavia; Montenegro; Romania; Serbia; Slovenia; Transylvania; Turkey; and, to some extent, the Austrian Empire. It will be discovered that within each state is a minority of some kind with a degree of persecution formed against them, whether they be Jews, Magyars, Circassians, Muslims, Christians or former residents of a different country such as Greeks in Turkey or Albanians in Greece.

Greece: Ethnicity and Sovereignty 1820–1994
1 volume: 56 pages of 4-colour maps and 446 pages of supporting text and facsimile documents, with index to all sections; ISBN 9781852078959

A knowledge of the geographical dimension is fundamental to an understanding of how independent Greece came to be defined in terms of territory, how it actually grew in size and how its driving force, the Great Idea of uniting all ‘Greeks’ within one territorial state, was made reality.

Aimed at presenting diplomats, politicians and scholars with the cartographic and documentary material for reflecting on the development of Greece and the continuing controversies over its territory and sovereignty, the atlas contains material relevant to understanding not only the complex political problems in the wider Balkans but also the strained relationships between Greece and Turkey.

Montenegro: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1840–1920
2 volumes, 1800 pages; ISBN 9781852079055

The documents in this collection describe in detail the history of Montenegro, first as the independent principality and later as the sovereign state. There is extensive correspondence between the British Government in London, and the Embassy in Constantinople, and directly with Prince Nicholas in Cettigné; naturally a large proportion of the documents are concentrated around 1878. These documents form an invaluable first-hand research base for the study of this politically important state and in his introduction the former Montenegrin President Milo Djukanvic recommends this work to the research community as well as to the broader readership.

Oil Resources in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus 1885–1978
9 volumes, 6000 pages, and 1 map box; ISBN 9781840973150

The greatest currently anticipated source of petroleum is said to be in the Caspian Sea off Baku, but the Caucasus region has been exploited for oil for centuries, as have other smaller, but key fields in Roumania. Now that so many former Soviet satellite states, Azerbaijan and Roumania included, are independent territories, there is global involvement and interest in their development. Through these documents the history of the industry and business itself is depicted, but the involvement of European and overseas companies and governments in this field will serve also as a lens through which to focus on political relations with Russia, her successor state the USSR, and annexed territories.

These nine volumes depict the sustained interest, efforts and effectiveness of Great Britain in acquiring, and then defending, petroleum resources in a geo-political realm where it had neither legal standing nor political presence in the late 19th and early 20th century. Thereafter, they address its fight to obtain redress for those oil interests following the seizure by the USSR of numerous concessions and equipment after World War I, notably those in Roumania, and again after Allied oil denial policy during World War II, and the impact upon relations and trade in petrochemicals between eastern and western Europe. During the Cold War era and beyond, issues and shifts in international relations are depicted through the western European acquisition of Russian oil: Great Britain defied the USA in the late 1950s to end an embargo on Russian oil imports, and gradually began to resume trade with the USSR, thus marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and by the end of the 1970s perhaps even foreshadowing Perestroika.

Proceedings Of The Caucasian Archaeographical Commission 1866–1904
1 volume, 956 pages, including 146 microfiche, c.14,000 docs in Russian and Persian; ISBN 9781852079758

A great part of the original Russian records have been lost through the ravages of time, war, accident and earthquake. But a unique collection of archive documents has been preserved, showing the consequences of conquest or annexation by the Russian Empire and details of the many boundaries which were established by Tzarist officials in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the direction of the Russian Governor-General in the Caucasus, the Archives of the Central Administration from 1802 to 1862 were gathered together and published between 1866 and 1904 in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia: some 14,000 of the most important documents were published including many secret service reports about the situations in Turkey and Persia. A handlist of the contents, in English, has been prepared by staff at the Board of Scientific Editors in Tbilisi (Tiflis), Georgia as an aid to research.

Soviet Union Political Reports 1917–1970
12 volumes, 9000 pages; ISBN 9781840970609

These volumes cover the period from the beginning of 1917 to the end of 1970 during which the political landscape of Russia changed beyond recognition. Beginning with the dying days of Imperial Russia under Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov Tsars, Russia then saw revolution, civil war, the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the rule of Lenin followed by the dictatorship and purges of Stalin, the invasion of Russia by Nazi Germany, the period of the Cold War when the Soviet Union ruled much of Eastern Europe and threatened the rest, the era of de-Stalinisation under the rule of Krushchev and ending with the collective leadership of Brezhnev and Kosygin.

Yugoslavia: Political Diaries 1918–1965
4 volumes, 3200 pages; ISBN 9781852079505

This important collection of British political reports on the former Yugoslavia will provide extensive historical background to modern developments and while the reports are written from the point of view of British diplomatic interest, the observations and judgements are largely balanced, and may contribute to a wider understanding of the political and ethnic heritage of the peoples and states of the former Yugoslavia. The material provides useful summaries of actual events, together with evaluations of their political significance.

The main series within the volumes comprises the diplomatic annual reports or reviews from Belgrade. The annual reports have been supplemented with special “situation reports”, current events reports, personality reports, and weekly or fortnightly reports to provide continuity and to fill gaps.