British War Crime: 26 Bolshevik POWs Executed at Baku (Azerbaijan) 20.9.1918

The following is is taken from the Collected Works of Joseph Stalin. Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan which is situated southeast of Georgia in Southern Russia. Ignoring Russian self-determination, the Anglo-French Agreement of December, 1917, divided Russia into ‘spheres of influence’ to be occupied, pacified and cleared of all Bolshevik influence as soon as possible. The decided zone of interest for Great Britain was defined as “Cossack and Caucasian regions”, as well as Armenia and Georgia, and France – Ukraine, Bessarabia and Crimea. The murdering of 26 Communist (Bolshevik) Commissars was not view as a problem at the time, with the order originating with the British High Command and almost certainly emanating from the wartime British Government in London (probably a ‘verbal’ order issued by Winston Churchill). This order to break the law was dutifully carried-out by men such as the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent – Colonel John Ward (1866-1934).