In the First World War, which began in the summer of 1914, Russia took the side of the Entente and its allies - the United States, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, Japan and Romania. This coalition was opposed by the Central Powers - a military-political bloc that included Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Bulgarian kingdom and the Ottoman Empire.
The protracted war exhausted the economy of the Russian Empire. At the beginning of 1917, rumors about an impending famine spread around the capital, bread cards appeared. And on February 21, robberies of bakeries began. Local pogroms quickly developed into anti-war actions under the slogans "Down with the war!", "Down with the autocracy!", "Bread!". By February 25, at least 300,000 people took part in the rallies.
The data on colossal losses destabilized society even more: according to various estimates, from 775 thousand to 1 million 300 thousand Russian soldiers died in the First World War.
In the same February days of 1917, a riot began in the troops. By the spring, the orders of the officers were not actually carried out, and the May Declaration of the Rights of the Soldier, which equalized the rights of soldiers and civilians, further undermined discipline. The failure of the summer Riga operation, as a result of which Russia lost Riga and 18 thousand people killed and captured, led to the fact that the army finally lost its morale.
The Bolsheviks also played their part in this, considering the army as a threat to their power. They skillfully fueled pacifist sentiments in military circles.
And in the rear it became a catalyst for two revolutions - February and October. The Bolsheviks got an already morally broken army, which was not able to fight.
- Line for bread. Petrograd, 1917
- RIA News
Meanwhile, the First World War continued, and Germany had a real opportunity to take Petrograd. Then the Bolsheviks decided on a truce.
“The conclusion of the Brest Peace was an inevitable, forced measure. The Bolsheviks themselves, fearing the suppression of their uprising, decomposed the tsarist army and understood that it was not capable of full-fledged combat operations, ”said Valery Korovin, director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, in an interview with RT.
Peace Decree
A month after the October Revolution, on November 8, 1917, the new government adopted a Decree on Peace, the main thesis of which was an immediate truce without annexations and indemnities. However, the proposal to start negotiations of the powers of the "friendly agreement" was ignored, and the Council of People's Commissars was forced to act independently.
Lenin sent a telegram to the units of the Russian army that were at that moment at the front.
“Let the regiments standing in positions immediately choose authorized persons to formally enter into negotiations on a truce with the enemy,” it said.
On December 22, 1917, Soviet Russia began negotiations with the Central Powers. However, the formula "without annexations and indemnities" did not suit Germany and Austria-Hungary. They suggested that Russia "take note of the statements expressing the will of the peoples inhabiting Poland, Lithuania, Courland and parts of Estland and Livonia, about their desire for complete state independence and for separation from the Russian Federation."
Of course, the Soviet side could not fulfill such requirements. It was decided in Petrograd that time had to be gained in order to reorganize the army and prepare for the defense of the capital. For this, Trotsky leaves for Brest-Litovsk.
The mission of the "puller"
“In order to drag out the negotiations, you need a “delayer,” as Lenin put it,” Trotsky would later write, calling his participation in the negotiations “visits to the torture chamber.”
At the same time, Trotsky conducted "subversive" propaganda activities among the workers and peasants of Germany and Austria-Hungary with an eye on an imminent uprising.
The negotiations were extremely difficult. On January 4, 1918, they were joined by a delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), which did not recognize Soviet power. In Brest-Litovsk, the UNR acted as a third party, putting forward claims to part of the Polish and Austro-Hungarian territories.
Meanwhile, the economic turmoil of the war had also reached the Central Powers. Food cards for the population appeared in Germany and Austria-Hungary, strikes began demanding peace.
On January 18, 1918, the Central Powers presented their terms for an armistice. According to them, Germany and Austria-Hungary received Poland, Lithuania, some territories of Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, the Moonsund Islands, and the Gulf of Riga. The delegation of Soviet Russia, for which the demands of the powers were extremely unfavorable, took a break in the negotiations.
The Russian delegation could not make an informed decision also because serious disagreements arose in the country's leadership.
Thus, Bukharin called for an end to negotiations and a "revolutionary war" against the Western imperialists, believing that even Soviet power itself could be sacrificed for the "interests of the international revolution." Trotsky adhered to the line "no war, no peace": "We do not sign peace, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army."
- Leon Trotsky (in the center) as part of the Russian delegation arrives for negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, 1918
- globallookpress.com
- Berliner Verlag / Archive
Lenin, in turn, wanted peace at all costs and insisted that German demands should be accepted.
“A revolutionary war needs an army, but we don’t have an army ... Undoubtedly, the peace that we are forced to conclude now is an obscene peace, but if a war breaks out, our government will be swept away and peace will be concluded by another government,” he said.
As a result, they decided to drag out the negotiations even more. Trotsky again went to Brest-Litovsk with instructions from Lenin to sign a peace treaty on Germany's terms if she presented an ultimatum.
Russian "surrender"
During the days of the negotiations, a Bolshevik uprising took place in Kyiv. Soviet power was proclaimed in Left-Bank Ukraine, and Trotsky returned to Brest-Litovsk at the end of January 1918 with representatives of Soviet Ukraine. At the same time, the Central Powers declared that they recognized the sovereignty of the UNR. Then Trotsky announced that, in turn, he did not recognize separate agreements between the UNR and the “partners”.
Despite this, on February 9, the delegations of Germany and Austria-Hungary, with an eye to the difficult economic situation in their countries, signed a peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic. According to the document, in exchange for military assistance against Soviet Russia, the UNR was supposed to supply the "defenders" with food, as well as hemp, manganese ore and a number of other goods.
Having learned about the agreement with the UNR, German Emperor Wilhelm II ordered the German delegation to present an ultimatum to Soviet Russia demanding to abandon the Baltic regions to the Narva-Pskov-Dvinsk line. The formal reason for tightening the rhetoric was Trotsky's allegedly intercepted appeal to German servicemen with a call to "kill the emperor and the generals and fraternize with the Soviet troops."
Contrary to Lenin's decision, Trotsky refused to sign peace on German terms and left the negotiations.
As a result, on February 13, Germany resumed hostilities, rapidly moving northward. Minsk, Kyiv, Gomel, Chernigov, Mogilev and Zhitomir were taken.
- Demonstrators burn the symbols of the old system on the Champ de Mars, 1918
- RIA News
Lenin, given the low discipline and difficult psychological situation in the Russian army, approved of mass fraternization with the enemy and spontaneous truces.
“Desertion is progressively growing, entire regiments and artillery go to the rear, exposing the front for significant stretches, the Germans are walking in crowds along the abandoned position. Constant visits by enemy soldiers to our positions, especially artillery ones, and the destruction of our fortifications by them, undoubtedly, are of an organized nature, ”the note of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Mikhail Bonch-Bruyevich, said in a note sent to the Council of People's Commissars.
As a result, on March 3, 1918, the delegation of Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty. According to the document, Russia made a number of serious territorial concessions. Baltic Fleet bases in Finland and the Baltic.
Russia lost the Vistula provinces, in which the predominantly Belarusian population lived, the Estonian, Courland and Livonia provinces, as well as the Grand Duchy of Finland.
In part, these regions became protectorates of Germany or were part of it. Russia also lost territories in the Caucasus - Kars and Batumi regions. In addition, Ukraine was rejected: the Soviet government was obliged to recognize the independence of the UNR and stop the war with it.
Also, Soviet Russia had to pay reparations in the amount of 6 billion marks. In addition, Germany demanded compensation for 500 million gold rubles of losses that it allegedly suffered as a result of the Russian revolution.
“The fall of Petrograd was, in general, a matter of, if not a few days, then a few weeks. And under these conditions, guessing whether it was possible or impossible to sign this peace does not make any sense. If we hadn’t signed it, we would have received an offensive by one of the most powerful armies in Europe on untrained, unarmed workers, ”says Vladimir Kornilov, director of the Center for Eurasian Studies.
Bolshevik plan
Estimates of the consequences of the Brest peace treaty by historians differ.
“We have ceased to be actors in European politics. However, there were no catastrophic consequences. In the future, all the territories lost as a result of the Brest peace were returned first by Lenin, then by Stalin, ”Korovin emphasized.
Kornilov adheres to a similar point of view. The expert draws attention to the fact that the political forces, which considered the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk a betrayal, subsequently collaborated with the enemy themselves.
“Lenin, who was accused of betrayal, then proved that he was right by returning the territories. At the same time, the Right Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who shouted the loudest, offered no resistance, calmly cooperated with the German occupation forces in southern Russia. And the Bolsheviks organized the return of these territories and returned in the end, ”said Kornilov.
At the same time, some analysts believe that in Brest-Litovsk, the Bolsheviks acted solely for the sake of their own interests.
“They saved their power and deliberately paid for it with territories,” Rostislav Ishchenko, president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting, said in an interview with RT.
- Vladimir Lenin, 1918
- globallookpress.com
According to the American historian Richard Pipes, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk helped Lenin gain additional authority.
“By perspicaciously accepting a humiliating peace that gave him the necessary time and then collapsed under the influence of his own weight, Lenin earned the wide confidence of the Bolsheviks. When, on November 13, 1918, they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, following which Germany capitulated to the Western Allies, Lenin's authority in the Bolshevik movement was raised to unprecedented heights. Nothing better served his reputation for making no political mistakes,” writes Pipes in his study Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power.
“Largely thanks to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, or rather, the German occupation, the future northern and eastern borders of Ukraine were formed,” says Kornilov.
In addition, it was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that became one of the reasons for the appearance in the Soviet, and then in the Russian Constitution of "time bombs" - national republics.
“The one-time loss of large territories has led to the facilitation and acceleration of the process of self-determination of the population of some of them as sovereign political nations. Subsequently, during the formation of the USSR, this influenced Lenin's choice of this particular model - the national-administrative division into the so-called republics with sovereignty and the right to secede from the USSR already inscribed in their very first constitution, ”Korovin noted.
At the same time, the events of 1918 largely influenced the idea of the Bolsheviks about the role of the state.
“The loss of large territories forced the Bolsheviks as a whole to rethink their attitude towards the state. If until some point the state was not a value in the light of the coming world revolution, then the one-time loss of a large space sobered even the most rabid, forcing them to appreciate the territories from which the state is made up, with their resources, population and industrial potential, ”concluded Korovin .
Official Soviet history describes the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as an urgently needed move at the end of 1917, giving the young Soviet Republic a breathing space to fulfill the promises made in the first decrees and given to the people at the time of the seizure of power. The fact that the signing of the treaty was not only a necessary but also a forced measure was not brought to the attention of the audience.
The decomposition of the army
The army is part of the state apparatus. It is not an independent force. With the help of this tool, the government of any country ensures the implementation of its own decisions when nothing else works. Nowadays, the expression "power department" is widespread, it succinctly and succinctly describes the role of the armed forces in the general state mechanism. Before the February Revolution, the Bolshevik Party actively carried out the decomposition of the Russian army. The goal was to defeat the tsarist government in the World War. The task is not easy, and it was not possible to complete it completely until the very October coup. Moreover, as the course of subsequent events showed, it continued to exist for four long years, while the Civil War was going on. But what was done was enough for the troops to begin to leave their positions en masse and desert. The process of demoralization of the army reached its apogee when the first order of the Petrograd Soviet introduced an elective procedure for appointing commanders. The power mechanism stopped working. The conclusion of the Brest peace in such conditions was indeed an inevitable and forced measure.
Position of the Central Powers
In the central countries opposed to the Entente, things were catastrophic. The mobilization potential was completely exhausted in the middle of 1917, there was not enough food, famine began in Austria-Hungary and Germany. About seven hundred thousand citizens of these states died from malnutrition. The industry, which switched to the production of exclusively military products, could not cope with orders. Pacifist and defeatist sentiments began to emerge among the troops. Actually, the Brest Peace was needed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey no less than the Soviets. Ultimately, even Russia's withdrawal from the war on the most favorable terms for its opponents could not prevent the defeat of the Central countries in the war.
Negotiation process
The signing of the Brest Peace was a difficult and long process. The negotiation process began at the end of 1917 and continued until March 3, 1918, passing through three stages. The Soviet side offered to end the war on the original terms without presenting demands for annexations and indemnities. Representatives of the Central Powers put forward their own conditions, which the Russian delegation could not fulfill with all its desire, including the signing of the treaty by all the countries of the Entente. Then Leon Trotsky arrived in Brest-Litovsk, whom Lenin appointed as the main "delayer" of the negotiations. His task was to have the peace signed, but as late as possible. Time worked against Austria-Hungary and Germany. The head of the Soviet delegation behaved defiantly and used the negotiating table as a platform for Marxist propaganda, without even thinking about what kind of audience was in front of him. Ultimately, the Bolshevik delegation, having received the German ultimatum, left the hall, declaring that there would be no peace, no war either, and the army would be demobilized. Such an unexpected move provoked a completely natural reaction. German troops rushed forward without meeting resistance. Their movement could not even be called an offensive, it was a simple movement by trains, cars and on foot. Vast territories were captured in Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states. The Germans did not take Petrograd for a banal reason - they simply did not have enough human resources. Having removed the government of the Central Rada, they immediately began the usual robbery, sending Ukrainian agricultural products to starving Germany.
The results of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty
In these difficult conditions, with the growing inner-party struggle, the Brest peace was concluded. Its conditions turned out to be so shameful that the delegates spent a long time deciding who exactly would sign this document. The gigantic amounts of indemnities, the withdrawal of vast territories of Ukraine and the Caucasus in favor of the Central Powers, the rejection of Finland and the Baltic states in the catastrophic military and economic situation of the enemy seemed something fantastic. The Brest peace became a catalyst for the transition of the nature of the Civil War from focal to total. Russia automatically ceased to be a victorious country, despite the defeat of the Central countries. In addition, the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk was absolutely useless. After the signing of the act of surrender in Compiègne in November 1918, it was denounced.
The Brest peace is one of the most humiliating episodes in the history of Russia. It became a resounding diplomatic failure of the Bolsheviks and was accompanied by an acute political crisis within the country.
Peace Decree
The "Peace Decree" was adopted on October 26, 1917 - the day after the armed coup - and spoke of the need to conclude a just democratic peace without annexations and indemnities between all warring nations. It served as the legal basis for a separate agreement with Germany and the other Central Powers.
Publicly, Lenin spoke about the transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war, he considered the revolution in Russia only the initial stage of the world socialist revolution. In fact, there were other reasons as well. The warring peoples did not act according to Ilyich's plans - they did not want to turn bayonets against the governments, and the allied governments ignored the peace proposal of the Bolsheviks. Only the countries of the enemy bloc that were losing the war went for rapprochement.
Conditions
Germany declared that it was ready to accept the condition of peace without annexations and indemnities, but only if this peace was signed by all the belligerent countries. But none of the Entente countries joined the peace negotiations, so Germany abandoned the Bolshevik formula, and their hopes for a just peace were finally buried. The talk in the second round of negotiations was exclusively about a separate peace, the terms of which were dictated by Germany.
Betrayal and necessity
Not all Bolsheviks were willing to sign a separate peace. The left was categorically opposed to any agreements with imperialism. They defended the idea of exporting the revolution, believing that without socialism in Europe, Russian socialism is doomed to perish (and the subsequent transformations of the Bolshevik regime proved them right). The leaders of the left Bolsheviks were Bukharin, Uritsky, Radek, Dzerzhinsky and others. They called for a guerrilla war against German imperialism, and in the future they hoped to conduct regular military operations with the forces of the Red Army being created.
For the immediate conclusion of a separate peace was, above all, Lenin. He was afraid of the German offensive and the complete loss of his own power, which, even after the coup, was largely based on German money. It is unlikely that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was directly bought by Berlin. The main factor was precisely the fear of losing power. Considering that a year after the conclusion of peace with Germany, Lenin was ready even for the division of Russia in exchange for international recognition, then the terms of the Brest Peace would seem not so humiliating.
Trotsky occupied an intermediate position in the inner-party struggle. He defended the thesis "No peace, no war." That is, he proposed to stop hostilities, but not to sign any agreements with Germany. As a result of the struggle within the party, it was decided to drag out the negotiations in every possible way, expecting a revolution in Germany, but if the Germans present an ultimatum, then agree to all conditions. However, Trotsky, who led the Soviet delegation in the second round of negotiations, refused to accept the German ultimatum. Negotiations broke down and Germany continued to advance. When the peace was signed, the Germans were 170 km from Petrograd.
Annexations and indemnities
Peace conditions were very difficult for Russia. She lost Ukraine and Polish lands, renounced claims to Finland, gave up the Batumi and Kars regions, had to demobilize all her troops, abandon the Black Sea Fleet and pay huge indemnities. The country was losing almost 800 thousand square meters. km and 56 million people. In Russia, the Germans received the exclusive right to freely engage in entrepreneurship. In addition, the Bolsheviks pledged to pay the royal debts of Germany and its allies.
At the same time, the Germans did not comply with their own obligations. After signing the treaty, they continued the occupation of Ukraine, overthrew the Soviet regime on the Don and helped the White movement in every possible way.
Rise of the Left
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk almost led to a split in the Bolshevik Party and the loss of power by the Bolsheviks. Lenin hardly dragged the final decision on peace through a vote in the Central Committee, threatening to resign. The split of the party did not happen only thanks to Trotsky, who agreed to abstain from the vote, ensuring the victory of Lenin. But this did not help to avoid a political crisis.
The conclusion of the Brest peace took place on March 3, 1918. The parties to the agreement were: Russia - the first side, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey - the second. The effect of this peace treaty was short-lived. it lasted a little over nine months.
It all started with the first negotiations in Brest, where Kamenev L.B. and Ioffe A.A., as well as Mstislavsky S.D., Karakhan L.M. acted as representatives of the Russian Bolsheviks. At the last minute before leaving for this border town, it was decided that the participation of representatives of the people was necessary. These were a soldier, a worker, a sailor and a peasant who was lured by large business trips. Of course, the opinion of this group was not taken into account during the negotiations and was simply not heard.
During the negotiations, the fact was revealed that the German side, in addition to signing the peace, wants to conclude it without indemnities and annexations, and also longs to achieve from Russia the right of nations to self-determination, thus planning to get Ukraine and the Russian Baltic states under its own control. It became obvious that Russia could lose Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, as well as the territory of Transcaucasia.
The signing of the Brest Peace was only a temporary truce in the hostilities. Lenin, Sverdlov and Trotsky were worried that if the conditions of the German side were met, they would be overthrown for treason, since the bulk of the Bolsheviks did not agree with the policies of Vladimir Ulyanov.
In January 1918, the second stage of negotiations took place in Brest. The delegation was headed by Trotsky without the presence of representatives of the people. The main role in the course of this round belonged to the Ukrainian delegation, whose main demand was the secession of the lands of Bukovina and Galicia from Austria-Hungary. At the same time, the Ukrainian side did not want to know the Russian delegation. Thus, Russia has lost an ally in the person of Ukraine. For Germany, the latter was beneficial by placing on its territory a significant number of warehouses with weapons and military uniforms. The Brest peace, due to the impossibility of reaching common points of contact, ended in nothing and was not signed.
The third stage of negotiations began, during which the representative of the Russian delegation Trotsky L.D. refused to recognize representatives from Ukraine.
On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. The result of this agreement was the rejection of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Crimea, Ukraine and Transcaucasia from Russia. Among other things, the fleet was disarmed and issued to Germany, an indemnity of six billion marks in gold was imposed, as well as one billion marks to compensate for the damage to German citizens that they suffered during the revolution. Austria-Hungary and Germany received warehouses with weapons and ammunition. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also imposed on Russia an obligation to withdraw troops from the said territories. Their place was taken by the armed forces of Germany. to the peace treaty stipulated the economic position of Germany in Russia. Thus, German citizens were endowed with the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities in Russia, despite the process of nationalization taking place in it.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk restored customs tariffs with Germany established in 1904. Due to the non-recognition by the Bolsheviks of the royal, according to this agreement, she was forced to confirm them to such countries as Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany and begin to make payments on these debts.
The countries that were part of the Entente bloc did not approve of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and in mid-March 1918 announced their non-recognition.
In November 1918, Germany abandoned the terms of the peace agreement. Two days later, it was annulled by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. A little later, German troops began to leave the former
Signing of the Brest Peace
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk meant the defeat and withdrawal of Russia from the First World War.
A separate international peace treaty was signed on March 3, 1918 in Brest-Litovsk by representatives of Soviet Russia (on the one hand) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria) on the other. Separate peace- a peace treaty concluded by one of the participants in the warring coalition without the knowledge and consent of the allies. Such a peace is usually concluded before the general cessation of the war.
The signing of the Brest Peace Treaty was prepared in 3 stages.
The history of the signing of the Brest Peace
First stage
Soviet delegation in Brest-Litovsk met by German officers
The Soviet delegation at the first stage included 5 commissioners - members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: A. A. Ioffe - chairman of the delegation, L. B. Kamenev (Rozenfeld) and G. Ya. Sokolnikov (Brilliant), SRs A. A. Bitsenko and S. D Maslovsky-Mstislavsky, 8 members of the military delegation, 3 translators, 6 technical officers and 5 ordinary members of the delegation (sailor, soldier, Kaluga peasant, worker, ensign of the fleet).
The armistice negotiations were overshadowed by a tragedy in the Russian delegation: during a private meeting of the Soviet delegation, a representative of the Headquarters in a group of military consultants, Major General V. E. Skalon, shot himself. Many Russian officers believed that he was crushed because of the humiliating defeat, the collapse of the army and the fall of the country.
Based on the general principles of the Decree on Peace, the Soviet delegation immediately proposed that the following program be adopted as the basis for negotiations:
- No forced annexation of territories captured during the war is allowed; the troops occupying these territories are withdrawn as soon as possible.
- The full political independence of the peoples who were deprived of this independence during the war is being restored.
- National groups that did not have political independence before the war are guaranteed the opportunity to freely decide the question of belonging to any state or their state independence by means of a free referendum.
- Cultural-national and, under certain conditions, administrative autonomy of national minorities is ensured.
- Refusal of contributions.
- Solution of colonial issues on the basis of the above principles.
- Prevention of indirect restrictions on the freedom of weaker nations by stronger nations.
On December 28, the Soviet delegation left for Petrograd. The current state of affairs was discussed at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). By a majority of votes, it was decided to drag out the peace negotiations as long as possible, in the hope of an early revolution in Germany itself.
The Entente governments did not respond to an invitation to take part in peace negotiations.
Second phase
At the second stage of the negotiations, the Soviet Delegation was headed by L.D. Trotsky. The German high command expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the delay in peace negotiations, fearing the disintegration of the army. The Soviet delegation demanded that the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary confirm their lack of intentions to annex any territories of the former Russian Empire - according to the Soviet delegation, the decision on the future fate of self-determining territories should be carried out through a popular referendum, after the withdrawal of foreign troops and return refugees and displaced persons. General Hoffmann in his response speech stated that the German government refuses to clear the occupied territories of Courland, Lithuania, Riga and the islands of the Gulf of Riga.
On January 18, 1918, General Hoffmann at a meeting of the political commission presented the conditions of the Central Powers: Poland, Lithuania, part of Belarus and Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia, the Moonsund Islands and the Gulf of Riga retreated in favor of Germany and Austria-Hungary. This allowed Germany to control the sea routes to the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, as well as to develop an offensive against Petrograd. The Russian Baltic ports passed into the hands of Germany. The proposed border was extremely unfavorable for Russia: the absence of natural borders and the preservation of Germany's bridgehead on the banks of the Western Dvina near Riga in the event of war threatened to occupy all of Latvia and Estonia, threatened Petrograd. The Soviet delegation demanded a new interruption of the peace conference for another ten days in order to familiarize their government with the German demands. The self-confidence of the German delegation increased after the Bolsheviks dispersed the Constituent Assembly on January 19, 1918.
By mid-January 1918, a split was taking shape in the RSDLP(b): a group of "left communists" led by N. I. Bukharin insisted on rejecting the German demands, and Lenin insisted on their acceptance, publishing "Theses on Peace" on January 20. The main argument of the “left communists” is that without an immediate revolution in the countries of Western Europe, the socialist revolution in Russia will perish. They did not allow any agreements with the imperialist states and demanded that "revolutionary war" be declared on international imperialism. They declared their readiness "to accept the possibility of losing Soviet power" in the name of "the interests of the international revolution." The conditions proposed by the Germans, shameful for Russia, were opposed by: N. I. Bukharin, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, M. S. Uritsky, A. S. Bubnov, K. B. Radek, A. A. Ioffe, N. N. Krestinsky , N. V. Krylenko, N. I. Podvoisky and others. The views of the “left communists” were supported by a number of party organizations in Moscow, Petrograd, the Urals, etc. Trotsky preferred to maneuver between the two factions, putting forward an “intermediate” platform “neither peace, nor war "-" We stop the war, we do not conclude peace, we demobilize the army.
On January 21, Lenin gives a detailed justification for the need to sign peace, announcing his "Theses on the immediate conclusion of a separate and annexationist peace" (they were published only on February 24). 15 participants of the meeting voted for Lenin's theses, 32 people supported the position of the "Left Communists" and 16 - the position of Trotsky.
Before the departure of the Soviet delegation to Brest-Litovsk to continue negotiations, Lenin instructed Trotsky to drag out the negotiations in every possible way, but in the event that the Germans presented an ultimatum, peace would be signed.
IN AND. Lenin
On March 6-8, 1918, at the 7th emergency congress of the RSDLP (b), Lenin managed to persuade everyone to ratify the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Voting: 30 for ratification, 12 against, 4 abstentions. Following the results of the congress, the party was, at the suggestion of Lenin, renamed the RCP (b). The congress delegates were not acquainted with the text of the treaty. Nevertheless, on March 14-16, 1918, the IV Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of Soviets finally ratified the peace treaty, which was adopted by a majority of 784 votes against 261 with 115 abstentions and decided to transfer the capital from Petrograd to Moscow in connection with the danger of a German offensive. As a result, representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party left the Council of People's Commissars. Trotsky resigned.
L.D. Trotsky
Third stage
None of the Bolshevik leaders wanted to put their signature on the shameful treaty for Russia: Trotsky resigned by the time of signing, Ioffe refused to go to Brest-Litovsk as part of a delegation. Sokolnikov and Zinoviev proposed each other's candidacies, Sokolnikov also refused the appointment, threatening to resign. But after long negotiations, Sokolnikov nevertheless agreed to lead the Soviet delegation. The new composition of the delegation: G. Ya. The delegation arrived in Brest-Litovsk on March 1 and two days later, without any discussion, signed the contract. The official ceremony of signing the agreement took place in the White Palace (the house of the Nemtsevichs in the village of Skokie, Brest region) and ended at 5 p.m. on March 3, 1918. And the German-Austrian offensive that began in February 1918 continued until March 4, 1918.
The signing of the Brest peace treaty took place in this palace
Terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Richard Pipes, an American scientist, doctor of historical sciences, professor of Russian history at Harvard University, described the terms of this agreement as follows: “The terms of the agreement were extremely burdensome. They made it possible to imagine what kind of peace the countries of the Quadruple Accord would have to sign if they lost the war … ". According to this treaty, Russia was obliged to make many territorial concessions by demobilizing its army and navy.
- The Vistula provinces, Ukraine, provinces with a predominantly Belarusian population, Estland, Courland and Livonia provinces, the Grand Duchy of Finland were torn away from Russia. Most of these territories were to become German protectorates or become part of Germany. Russia pledged to recognize the independence of Ukraine represented by the government of the UNR.
- In the Caucasus, Russia conceded the Kars region and the Batumi region.
- The Soviet government ended the war with the Ukrainian Central Council (Rada) of the Ukrainian People's Republic and made peace with it.
- The army and navy were demobilized.
- The Baltic Fleet was withdrawn from its bases in Finland and the Baltic.
- The Black Sea Fleet with all the infrastructure was transferred to the Central Powers.
- Russia paid 6 billion marks in reparations, plus the payment of losses incurred by Germany during the Russian revolution - 500 million gold rubles.
- The Soviet government pledged to stop revolutionary propaganda in the Central Powers and allied states formed on the territory of the Russian Empire.
If the results of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk are translated into the language of numbers, it will look like this: a territory of 780,000 square meters was torn away from Russia. km with a population of 56 million people (a third of the population of the Russian Empire), on which before the revolution there were 27% of cultivated agricultural land, 26% of the entire railway network, 33% of the textile industry, 73% of iron and steel were smelted, 89% of coal was mined and 90% sugar; there were 918 textile factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1685 distilleries, 244 chemical plants, 615 pulp mills, 1073 machine-building plants and 40% of industrial workers lived.
Russia was withdrawing all its troops from these territories, while Germany, on the contrary, was introducing them there.
Consequences of the Brest Peace
German troops occupied Kyiv
The advance of the German army was not limited to the zone of occupation defined by the peace treaty. Under the pretext of ensuring the power of the "legitimate government" of Ukraine, the Germans continued their offensive. On March 12, the Austrians occupied Odessa, on March 17 - Nikolaev, on March 20 - Kherson, then Kharkov, Crimea and the southern part of the Don region, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don. The “democratic counter-revolution” movement began, proclaiming Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik governments in Siberia and the Volga region, an uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in July 1918 in Moscow and the transition of the civil war to large-scale battles.
The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, as well as the faction of “Left Communists” that had formed within the RCP(b), spoke of the “betrayal of the world revolution,” since the conclusion of peace on the Eastern Front objectively strengthened the conservative Kaiser regime in Germany. The Left SRs resigned from the Council of People's Commissars in protest. The opposition rejected Lenin's arguments that Russia could not but accept the German conditions in connection with the collapse of its army, putting forward a plan for the transition to a mass popular uprising against the German-Austrian invaders.
Patriarch Tikhon
The Entente powers took the concluded separate peace with hostility. On March 6, British troops landed in Murmansk. On March 15, the Entente announced the non-recognition of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on April 5, Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok, and on August 2, British troops landed in Arkhangelsk.
But on August 27, 1918, in Berlin, in the strictest secrecy, a Russian-German supplementary treaty to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and a Russian-German financial agreement were concluded, which were signed on behalf of the government of the RSFSR by Plenipotentiary A. A. Ioffe, and on behalf of Germany - von P. Ginze and I. Krige.
Soviet Russia pledged to pay Germany, as compensation for damages and expenses for the maintenance of Russian prisoners of war, a huge indemnity of 6 billion marks (2.75 billion rubles), including 1.5 billion in gold (245.5 tons of pure gold) and credit obligations, 1 billion deliveries of goods. In September 1918, two "gold echelons" (93.5 tons of "pure gold" worth over 120 million gold rubles) were sent to Germany. Almost all Russian gold that arrived in Germany was subsequently transferred to France as an indemnity under the Versailles Peace Treaty.
According to the supplementary agreement, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine and Georgia, renounced Estonia and Livonia, which, according to the original agreement, were formally recognized as part of the Russian state, bargaining for itself the right to access the Baltic ports (Revel, Riga and Windau) and retaining Crimea, control over Baku , giving Germany a quarter of the products produced there. Germany agreed to withdraw its troops from Belarus, from the Black Sea coast, from Rostov and part of the Don basin, and also not to occupy any more Russian territory and not to support separatist movements on Russian soil.
On November 13, after the Allied victory in the war, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was annulled by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. But Russia could no longer take advantage of the fruits of the common victory and take a place among the winners.
Soon the withdrawal of German troops from the occupied territories of the former Russian Empire began. After the annulment of the Brest Treaty among the Bolshevik leaders, Lenin's authority became indisputable: “By perspicaciously agreeing to a humiliating peace that gave him the necessary time, and then collapsed under the influence of his own weight, Lenin earned the broad confidence of the Bolsheviks. When on November 13, 1918 they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, following which Germany capitulated to the Western Allies, Lenin's authority in the Bolshevik movement was raised to an unprecedented height. Nothing better served his reputation as a man who made no political mistakes; never again did he have to threaten to resign in order to insist on his own,” R. Pipes wrote in his work “The Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power”.
The civil war in Russia continued until 1922 and ended with the establishment of Soviet power in most of the territory of the former Russia, with the exception of Finland, Bessarabia, the Baltic States, Poland (including the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus that became part of it).
