Summary
Yaroslav V. Vishnyakov
Danube Transit
Russian Arms Smuggling During World War I
Abstract: The article is devoted to an insufficiently-studied story of the history of World War I, specifically the activities of Russian arms smuggling on the Danube River in 1914-1915. Not only were weapons and ammunition necessary for the armies of the Triple Alliance delivered to the Serbian river ports on the Danube, but these ports were also used for Russian military interests, namely for the transport of modern equipment from the Entente countries to the Russian Army, because such equipment was not produced by the Russian industry or was produced in insufficient quantities.
Key words: Arms Smuggling, Russia, Serbia, World War I, Shebunin
Serbian-Russian military cooperation during World War I has been covered sufficiently in Russian and Serbian historiography. Researchers are much less familiar with another topic - the use of Serbian river ports on the Danube for Russian arms smuggling - transportation of modern equipment from the Entente countries necessary for the Russian Army, equipment that the Russian industry did not produce at all or produced in insufficient numbers. The organization of that transit was made possible when the Austrians were completely pushed out of Serbian territory in December of 1914, establishing a relative lull on the Serbian-Austrian front. The convenience of the Danube route, along with the management of the Entente navy in the Mediterranean, could be compared to the level of arms deliveries that were carried out in Russia through the ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. In order to implement these ideas, a "Special Organization for the Transport of Military Goods Across the Balkan Peninsula" was established in Thessaloniki, unofficially named "military smuggling" in reports for internal use. Alexei Fyodorovich Shebunin, state adviser and former consul general in Constantinople, was appointed as its head. The Russian military authorities planned to expand the activity of arms smuggling and ensure its functioning on a permanent basis, but in the fall of 1915, the transit was interrupted after the defeat of Serbia. But, despite the fact that the Russian contraband failed to achieve a significant level of military deliveries, the research of its activities is closely related to the study of the general issues of Russia's strategic presence in the Danube region in the early 20th century, which could become the subject of new research for Russian and also foreign historians