“The East’s Eastern Front: the Ottoman-Russian Clash in the Great War and Its Legacy” Abstract: This article provides an overview of the Ottoman-Russian struggle on the Caucasian front in WWI from 1914 to 1918 and its significance. It discusses the motives and objectives of the two states going into the war, summarizes the fighting, and evaluates the impact of the war upon Anatolia, the Caucasus, and the globe more generally. Although largely ignored as a secondary or even tertiary front by historians, the Caucasus front profoundly influenced the outcome of World War I and its aftermath. With the Entente and Central Powers evenly matched and bogged down in stalemate in Europe, the Caucasus front took on an unexpected significance. The Ottomans’ entry into the war not only forced Russia to fight on another front and thereby prolonged the conflict for all, but their closure of the Black Sea Straits also subjected the Russian Empire to intense economic strain, helping push Russia into revolution in 1917 and opening the way to the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power later that year. The collapse of Russian might in 1918 was a geopolitical watershed. It, combined with the Ottomans’ earlier wholesale destruction of the Armenians, allowed the Ottomans and then Turkish nationalists to redraw the map of the Caucasus and Anatolia, first to create the new states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan and later to establish the Turkish Republic. Similarly, it allowed Iran in the same period to regain its independence. The article will draw upon primary and secondary sources from the Ottoman and Russian empires and their successor states as well as the most recent scholarship on World War I.