What would Constantinople's development and demographics have looked like over the last 100 years had Russia survived WWI and acquired it?

[Futurist]

What would Constantinople's development and demographics over the last 100 years have looked like had Russia avoided Bolshevism, remained in WWI to the very end, emerged on the winning side of WWI, and acquired Constantinople after the end of the war?

 

[Visigoth Panzer]

Similar to Konigsberg.

 

[Futurist]

Similar to Konigsberg.

I doubt that there would be mass deportations from Constantinople in this scenario, though. A Russian government composed of moderate socialists probably won't tolerate such a move.

 

[Visigoth Panzer]

I doubt that there would be mass deportations from Constantinople in this scenario, though. A Russian government composed of moderate socialists probably won't tolerate such a move.

The Russians considered Constantinople a very important city for religious, historic, political and strategic reasons. They would make an effort to settle thousands of Russians there to make it theirs. It would be at a comparable level to the construction of St. Petersburg. The turks wouldn't be deported en masse but instead overwhelmed and diluted by new settlers. Many would also flee to the Turkish remnant state (if any).

 

[Futurist]

The Russians considered Constantinople a very important city for religious, historic, political and strategic reasons. They would make an effort to settle thousands of Russians there to make it theirs. It would be at a comparable level to the construction of St. Petersburg. The turks wouldn't be deported en masse but instead overwhelmed and diluted by new settlers. Many would also flee to the Turkish remnant state (if any).

Thousands of Russians won't make much of a dent in Constantinople's demographics. The settlement of Russians would need to be much larger than that in order to have a significant effect on the city's demographics.

Also, Constantinople had a lot of Greeks in addition to its Turkish population. I think that a lot of Greeks would remain even if Constantinople ends up under Russian rule.

 

[Visigoth Panzer]

Thousands of Russians won't make much of a dent in Constantinople's demographics. The settlement of Russians would need to be much larger than that in order to have a significant effect on the city's demographics.

Also, Constantinople had a lot of Greeks in addition to its Turkish population. I think that a lot of Greeks would remain even if Constantinople ends up under Russian rule.

The greeks would stay.
By thousands I meant hundreds of thousands.

 

[Futurist]

The greeks would stay.
By thousands I meant hundreds of thousands.

You really should have been more specific.

 

[Visigoth Panzer]

Of note during and after ww1 Istanbul's population dropped greatly from an estimated 1,125,000 in 1914 to about 500,000 in 1924.
Part of this was because of the war and the transfer of the capital. This would probably be higher if the Russians conquered it.

 

[Futurist]

Of note during and after ww1 Istanbul's population dropped greatly from an estimated 1,125,000 in 1914 to about 500,000 in 1924.
Part of this was because of the war and the transfer of the capital. This would probably be higher if the Russians conquered it.

Possibly--though Russia surviving WWI intact would likely ensure that there won't be a Greco-Turkish War after the end of WWI.

 

[Futurist]

BTW, it's very interesting that Russian revolutionaries--even moderate ones--weren't particularly interested in Constantinople even in early 1917. That's why the Russian Provisional Government's statement that capturing Constantinople was one of its war aims was greeted with so much anger and outrage among Russians!

Was this because a lot of Russian revolutionaries were atheists and thus didn't feel much of a connection to Constantinople?