11/06/2024, 09:34 The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk | History of Western Civilization II

29.4.2: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The Russian government collapsed in March 1917. The subsequent

October Revolution followed by a further military defeat brought the
Russians to terms with the Central Powers via the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
which granted the Germans a significant victory and resulted in Russia
exiting the war and breaking ties with the Allied Powers.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

State the consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

KEY POINTS

In March 1917, demonstrations in Russia culminated in

the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment
of a weak provisional government that shared power
with the Petrograd Soviet socialists.

This arrangement led to confusion and chaos both at

the front and at home, with the Russian army becoming
increasingly ineffective.

Discontent and the weaknesses of the provisional gov-

ernment led to a rise in the popularity of the Bolshevik
Party led by Vladimir Lenin, which demanded an imme-
diate end to the war.

The October Revolution, which put the Bolsheviks into

power, was followed in December by an armistice and
negotiations with Germany.

At first, the Bolsheviks refused the German terms, but

when German troops began marching across Ukraine

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unopposed, the new government acceded to the Treaty

of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918.

The treaty ceded vast territories, including Finland, the

Baltic provinces, parts of Poland, and Ukraine, to the
Central Powers.

The treaty was effectively terminated in November 1918

when Germany surrendered to the Allies.

KEY TERMS

Eastern Front of World War I

A theater of operations that encompassed at its great-
est extent the entire frontier between the Russian
Empire and Romania on one side and the Austro-
Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and
the German Empire on the other. It stretched from the
Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, in-
cluded most of Eastern Europe, and stretched deep
into Central Europe as well. The term contrasts with
“Western Front,” which was fought in Belgium and
France.
October Revolution
A seizure of state power instrumental in the larger
Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed
insurrection in Petrograd on October 25, 1917, and fol-
lowed and capitalized on the February Revolution of
the same year, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy
and resulted in a provisional government. During this
time, urban workers began to organize into councils
(Russian: soviet) wherein revolutionaries criticized the
provisional government and its actions. This uprising
overthrew the provisional government and gave the
power to the local soviets.
Russian Civil War
A multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immedi-
ately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many fac-
tions vied to determine Russia’s political future. The
two largest combatant groups were the Red Army,
fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism, and the
loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which

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included diverse interests favoring monarchism, capi-

talism, and alternative forms of socialism, each with
democratic and antidemocratic variants. In addition, ri-
val militant socialists and non-ideological Green armies
fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. The
Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South
Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Admiral
Aleksandr Kolchak in Siberia in 1919. The remains of the
White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich
Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late
1920. Lesser battles continued on the periphery for two
more years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of
the White forces in the Far East continued well into
1923.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
A peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the
new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the
Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria,
and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia’s partici-
pation in World War I.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918,

between the new Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central
Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire),
that ended Russia’s participation in World War I. The treaty was signed at
Brest-Litovsk after two months of negotiations and was forced on the
Bolshevik government by the threat of further advances by German and
Austrian forces. According to the treaty, Soviet Russia defaulted on all of
Imperial Russia’s commitments to the Triple Entente alliance.

The treaty was effectively terminated in November 1918 when Germany

surrendered to the Allies. However, in the meantime it provided some re-
lief to the Bolsheviks, already fighting the Russian Civil War, by the re-
nouncement of Russia’s claims on Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.

Background

By 1917, Germany and Imperial Russia were in a stalemate on the Eastern

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Front of World War I. At the time, the Russian economy nearly collapsed
under the strain of the war effort. The large numbers of war casualties
and persistent food shortages in the major urban centers brought about
civil unrest, known as the February Revolution, that forced Tsar Nicholas
II to abdicate. The Russian provisional government that replaced the Tsar
(initially presided by prince Georgy Lvov, later by Alexander Kerensky),
decided to continue the war on the Entente side. Foreign Minister Pavel
Milyukov sent the Entente Powers a telegram, known as the Milyukov
note, affirming that the provisional government would continue the war
with the same aims as Imperial Russia.

The pro-war provisional government was opposed by the self-pro-

claimed Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, dominated
by leftist parties. Its Order No. 1 called for an overriding mandate to sol-
dier committees rather than army officers. The Soviet started to form its
own paramilitary power, the Red Guards, in March 1917.

The position of the provisional government led the Germans to offer sup-
port to the Russian opposition, the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in par-
ticular, who were proponents of Russia’s withdrawal from the war. In April
1917, Germany allowed Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin to return to
Russia from his exile in Switzerland and offered him financial help. Upon
his arrival in Petrograd, Lenin proclaimed his April Theses, which in-
cluded a call to turn all political power over to workers’ and soldiers’ so-
viets (councils) and an immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war.
Throughout 1917, Bolsheviks spread defeatist and revolutionary propa-
ganda calling for the overthrow of the provisional government and an
end to the war. Following the disastrous failure of the Kerensky
Offensive, discipline in the Russian army deteriorated completely.
Soldiers would disobey orders, often under the influence of Bolshevik
agitation, and allowed soldiers’ committees to take control of their units
after deposing the officers. Russian and German soldiers occasionally
left their positions and fraternized.

The defeat and ongoing hardships of war led to anti-government riots in

Petrograd headed by the Bolsheviks, the “July Days” of 1917. Several
months later on November 7 , Red Guards seized the Winter Palace and

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arrested the provisional government in what is known as the October

Revolution.

The newly established Soviet government decided to end Russia’s par-

ticipation in the war with Germany and its allies. On October 26, 1917,
Vladimir Lenin signed the Decree on Peace, which was approved by the
Second Congress of the Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’, and Peasants’
Deputies. The Decree called “upon all the belligerent nations and their
governments to start immediate negotiations for peace” and proposed
an immediate withdrawal of Russia from World War I. Leon Trotsky was
appointed Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the new Bolshevik govern-
ment. In preparation for peace talks with the representatives of the
German government and other Central Powers, Leon Trotsky appointed
his good friend Adolph Joffe to represent the Bolsheviks at the peace
conference.

Terms Of The Treaty And Its Effects

On December 15, 1917, an armistice between Soviet Russia and the

Central Powers was concluded and fighting stopped. On December 22,
peace negotiations began at Brest-Litovsk. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
was signed on March 3, 1918. The signatories were Bolshevik Russia
signed by Grigori Yakovlovich Sokolnikov on the one side and the
German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ottoman Empire on the
other. The treaty marked Russia’s final withdrawal from World War I as an
enemy of her co-signatories, on unexpectedly humiliating terms.

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