With whom was the peace of Brest. The signing of the Brest Peace

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 has exhausted the economy 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
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Meanwhile, the First World War continued, and Germany had real opportunity take Petrograd. Then the Bolsheviks decided on a truce.

"Conclusion 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

One month after October revolution On November 8, 1917, the new government adopted the 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 the front at that moment.

“Let the regiments standing in positions immediately choose authorized persons to formally enter into negotiations on a truce with the enemy,” it said.

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
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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 aid 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 the toughening of the rhetoric was Trotsky's allegedly intercepted appeal to the German military 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
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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 Livonian 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 had not signed it, we would have received the offensive of one of the most powerful armies 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,” the president of the Center said in an interview with RT system analysis and forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko.

Vladimir Lenin, 1918
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According to the American historian Richard Pipes, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk helped Lenin gain additional authority.

"Sharply going to humiliating world who gave him the necessary time to win and then collapsed under 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 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 Brest Peace, or rather, German occupation, the future northern and eastern borders of Ukraine were formed, ”Kornilov clarifies.

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.

"one-time loss large territories 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 .

On July 28, 1914, the First World War began. On the one hand, the states that were part of the Entente participated in it, on the other hand, they were opposed by the Quadruple Alliance led by Germany. The fighting, accompanied by significant destruction, led to the impoverishment of the masses. Crisis brewing in many warring countries political system. In Russia, this resulted in the October Revolution, which took place on October 25, 1917 (according to the old style). The Soviet Republic withdrew from the war by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and its allies Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Peace Decree

The war was the reason that the Russian economy was in a deplorable state. The army, exhausted by positional warfare, gradually degraded . Losses of thousands did not cheer up the Russian people. Tired of trench life, the soldiers of the Russian army threatened to go to the rear and end the war with their own methods. Russia needed peace.

The Entente countries, on the side of which Russia fought, expressed a strong protest against the actions of the Bolsheviks. Vice versa , countries of the Quadruple Alliance, interested in the liquidation of the Eastern Front, quickly responded to the proposal of the Council of People's Commissars. On November 21, 1917, armistice negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk. In accordance with the agreements reached, the parties undertook:

not to conduct hostilities against each other for 28 days;
leave military formations in their positions;
not to transfer troops to other sectors of the front.

Peace negotiations

First stage

On December 22, 1917, the delegations of Russia and the countries of the Quadruple Union began work on the development of the provisions of a future peace treaty. The Russian side was headed by a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee A.A. Ioffe, who immediately suggested rough plan document based on the provisions of the Decree on Peace. The main points were as follows:

For three days the German side considered the proposals of the Russians. After that, the head of the German Delegation R. von Kuhlman said that this plan would be adopted on the condition that all belligerents renounce indemnities and annexations. The Russian representatives suggested taking a break in work so that the countries that had not yet joined the negotiations could get acquainted with this project.

Second phase

Negotiations resumed only on January 9, 1918. Now the Bolshevik delegation was headed by L.D. Trotsky main goal which was every kind of delay in the negotiations. In his opinion, in the near future Central Europe there must be a revolution that will change the balance political forces, so the war should be stopped without signing peace. Arriving in Brest-Litovsk, he organizes propaganda activities among the military personnel of the German garrison. Here he is actively helped by K.B. Radek, who organized the publication of the Fakel newspaper in German.

At the meeting of the negotiators, von Kuhlmann announced that Germany did not accept the Russian version of the treaty, since none of the participants in the war expressed a desire to join the negotiations. Having rejected the Russian initiatives, the German delegation puts forward its own conditions. Refusing to vacate the lands occupied by the armies of the Quadruple Alliance, Germany demanded large territorial concessions from Russia. General Hoffmann presented a map with new state borders. According to this map, more than 150 thousand square kilometers were torn away from the territory of the former Russian Empire. The Soviet representatives demanded a break in order to analyze the current situation and consult with the government.

There is a disengagement in the ranks of the Bolshevik leadership. A group of "left communists" proposed to wage the war to a victorious end, rejecting German proposals. The “revolutionary war”, as Bukharin believed, should provoke a world revolution, without which the Soviet government has no chance of long-term existence. Few people believed in the correctness of Lenin, who considered the treaty a peaceful respite and offered to agree to the German conditions.

While the question of signing a peace treaty was being discussed in Moscow, Germany and Austria-Hungary were concluding a separate treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic. Central states recognized Ukraine as a sovereign state, and she, in turn, pledged to supply food and raw materials, so countries need military bloc.

Growing popular discontent , famine in the country, strikes at enterprises force Kaiser Wilhelm to demand that the generals start hostilities. On February 9, Russia is presented with an ultimatum. The next day, Trotsky makes a statement in which he announces that the Soviet Republic is withdrawing from the war, disbanding the army, and will not sign the treaty. The Bolsheviks defiantly left the meeting.

Having announced their withdrawal from the truce, the German troops begin an offensive on February 18 along the entire eastern front. Encountering no resistance, units of the Wehrmacht are rapidly moving inland. February 23, when real threat capture, Germany presents an even tougher ultimatum, the adoption of which is given two days. Meetings of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party are constantly held in the city, the members of which cannot come to a consensus. Only Lenin's threat to resign, which could lead to the collapse of the party, forces a decision in favor of signing a peace treaty.

Third stage

On March 1, the work of the negotiating group resumed. The Soviet delegation was led by G. Ya. Sokolnikov, who replaced Trotsky in this position. In fact, no negotiations have taken place. On March 3, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed without any reservations. On behalf of Soviet Republic document signed by Sokolnikov . On behalf of Germany signed by Richard von Kühlmann. Foreign Minister Khudenitz signed for Austria-Hungary. The agreement also bears the signatures of Bulgarian Ambassador Extraordinary A. Toshev and Turkish Ambassador Ibrahim Hakki.

terms of the peace treaty

Fourteen articles determined the specific terms of the peace treaty.

Under a secret agreement, Russia was to pay 6 billion marks in indemnity and 500 million rubles in gold for the damage caused to Germany as a result of the October Revolution. . And also restored extremely unfavorable customs tariffs 1904. Russia lost the territory of 780 thousand square meters. km. The population of the country has decreased by a third. Under the terms of the Brest peace treaty, 27% of the cropland was lost, almost all the production of coal and steel, numerous industrial enterprises. The number of workers decreased by 40%.

Consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

After the signing of peace with Russia, the German army continued to move east, leaving behind the demarcation line defined by the treaty. Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Rostov-on-Don were occupied, which contributed to the formation of puppet regimes in the Crimea and southern Russia . Germany's actions provoked the formation of Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik governments in the Volga region and the Urals. In response to the Brest Treaty, the Entente states land troops in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok.

There was no one to resist foreign intervention. In the autumn of 1917, even before negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on a phased reduction in the army. After the promulgation of the “Decree on Land”, the soldiers, and the backbone of the army were peasants, began to arbitrarily leave the location of their units. The wholesale desertion, the removal of officer cadres from command and control leads to the complete demoralization of the Russian army. In March 1918, the Headquarters was abolished by decrees of the Soviet government. supreme command and the position of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the headquarters of all levels and all military departments are being disbanded. Russian army ceased to exist.

The peace treaty with Germany provoked a violent reaction from all political forces in Russia itself. In the camp of the Bolsheviks, a demarcation takes place on individual groups. "Left Communists" consider the treaty a betrayal of the ideas of the international revolutionary movement. leaving the Council People's Commissars. N.V. Krylenko, N.I. Podvoisky and K.I. Shutko, who considered the treaty illegal, leave their military posts. Bourgeois specialists in the field international law evaluated the work of the Bolshevik diplomats as mediocre and barbaric. Patriarch Tikhon sharply condemned the treaty, which gave millions of Orthodox Christians under the yoke of the Gentiles. Consequences of the Brest Peace affected all spheres of Russian society.

Significance of the Brest Treaty

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Brest peace. Having made the October coup, the Bolsheviks got chaos on the ruins of the Russian Empire. To overcome the crisis and stay in power, they needed the support of the population, which could be enlisted only by ending the war. By signing the treaty, Russia was withdrawing from the war. In fact, it was a capitulation. According to the terms of the contract the country suffered enormous territorial and economic losses.

The Bolsheviks sought the defeat of Russia in the imperialist war, and they achieved it. And they also achieved the Civil War, which was the result of a split in society into two hostile camps. According to modern historians, Lenin showed foresight, considering this treaty to be short-lived. The Entente countries have defeated the Quadruple Alliance, and now Germany must sign the surrender. On November 13, 1918, the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee annulled the Brest Treaty.

On March 3, 1918, 95 years ago, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

A number of events preceded the signing of the treaty.
On November 19 (December 2), the delegation of the Soviet government, headed by A. A. Ioffe, arrived in the neutral zone and proceeded to Brest-Litovsk, where the Headquarters of the German command on the Eastern Front was located, where they met with the delegation of the Austro-German bloc, which included also included representatives from Bulgaria and Turkey.

Peace talks in Brest-Litovsk. Arrival of Russian delegates. In the middle is A. A. Ioffe, next to him is secretary L. Karakhan, A. A. Bitsenko, on the right is L. B. Kamenev

Arrival of the German delegation to Brest-Litovsk

On November 21 (December 4), the Soviet delegation laid out its terms:
the truce is concluded for 6 months;
hostilities are suspended on all fronts;
German troops are being withdrawn from Riga and the Moonsund Islands;
any transfer of German troops to the Western Front is prohibited.

In Brest, Soviet diplomats were in for an unpleasant surprise. They expected that Germany and her allies would gladly seize every opportunity to reconcile. But it was not there. It turned out that the Germans and Austrians were not going to leave the occupied territories, and by the right of nations to self-determination, Russia would lose Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Transcaucasia. A dispute arose over this right. The Bolsheviks argued that the will of the peoples under occupation would be undemocratic, while the Germans objected that under the Bolshevik terror it would be even less democratic.

As a result of the negotiations, an interim agreement was reached:
the truce is concluded for the period from November 24 (December 7) to December 4 (17);
troops remain in their positions;
all transfers of troops are stopped, except for those that have already begun.

The officers of the Hindenburg headquarters meet the arriving delegation of the RSFSR on the platform of Brest in early 1918

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 through a free referendum.

Noting that the German bloc had joined the Soviet formula of peace “without annexations and indemnities,” the Soviet delegation proposed a ten-day break, during which one could try to bring the Entente countries to the negotiating table.

Trotsky L.D., Ioffe A. and Rear Admiral V. Altvater are going to the meeting. Brest-Litovsk.

During the break, however, it turned out that Germany understands a world without annexations differently than the Soviet delegation - for Germany, we are not talking about the withdrawal of troops to the borders of 1914 and the withdrawal of German troops from the occupied territories of the former Russian Empire, especially since, according to the statement Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Courland have already declared themselves in favor of secession from Russia, so if these three countries now enter into negotiations with Germany about their future fate, then this will by no means be considered an annexation by Germany.

On December 14 (27), the Soviet delegation at the second meeting of the political commission made a proposal: “In full agreement with the open statement of both contracting parties that they have no conquest plans and that they want to make peace without annexations. Russia withdraws its troops from the parts of Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Persia occupied by it, and the powers of the Quadruple Alliance - from Poland, Lithuania, Courland and other regions of Russia. Soviet Russia promised, in accordance with the principle of self-determination of nations, to provide the population of these regions with the opportunity to decide for themselves the question of their state existence - in the absence of any troops other than national or local militia.

The German and Austro-Hungarian delegation, however, made a counterproposal - Russian state it was proposed to "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 separation from the Russian Federation" and to recognize that "these statements under these conditions must be regarded as an expression of the people's will." R. von Kuhlmann asked if the Soviet government would agree to withdraw its troops from all of Livonia and from Estland in order to give the local population the opportunity to connect with their fellow tribesmen living in the areas occupied by the Germans. The Soviet delegation was also informed that the Ukrainian Central Rada was sending its own delegation to Brest-Litovsk.

On December 15 (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), where by a majority of votes it was decided to delay peace talks as long as possible, in the hope of an early revolution in Germany itself. In the future, the formula is refined and takes the following form: "We hold on until the German ultimatum, then we surrender." Lenin also invites the People's Commissariat Trotsky to go to Brest-Litovsk and personally lead the Soviet delegation. According to Trotsky's memoirs, "the prospect of negotiations with Baron Kuhlmann and General Hoffmann was not very attractive in itself, but "to drag out negotiations, you need a delayer," as Lenin put it.

Further negotiations with the Germans hung in the air. The Soviet government could not accept the German conditions, fearing that it would be immediately overthrown. Not only the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, but also the majority of the Communists were in favor of a "revolutionary war." After all, there was no one to fight! The army has already fled to their homes. The Bolsheviks proposed to move the negotiations to Stockholm. But this was refused by the Germans and their allies. Although they were desperately afraid - what if the Bolsheviks break off the negotiations? For them, it would be a disaster. They were already starving, and food could only be obtained in the East.

At the union meeting, it sounded in panic: “Germany and Hungary do not give anything more. Without supplies from outside, a wholesale pestilence will begin in Austria in a few weeks.

At the second stage of negotiations the Soviet side represented by L. D. Trotsky (leader), A. A. Ioffe, L. M. Karakhan, K. B. Radek, M. N. Pokrovsky, A. A. Bitsenko, V. A. Karelin, E. G. Medvedev, V. M. Shakhrai, St. Bobinsky, V. Mitskevich-Kapsukas, V. Terian, V. M. Altvater, A. A. Samoilo, V. V. Lipsky.

The head of the Austrian delegation, Ottokar von Chernin, wrote when the Bolsheviks returned to Brest: “It was curious to see what joy seized the Germans, and this unexpected and so violently manifested cheerfulness proved how hard the thought was for them that the Russians might not come.”

The second composition of the Soviet delegation in Brest-Litovsk. Sitting, from left to right: Kamenev, Ioffe, Bitsenko. Standing, from left to right: Lipsky V. V., Stuchka, Trotsky L. D., Karakhan L. M.

During negotiations in Brest-Litovsk

The impressions of the head of the German delegation, Secretary of State of the German Foreign Ministry Richard von Kühlmann, about Trotsky, who led the Soviet delegation, have been preserved: “not very large, sharp and piercing eyes behind the sharp glasses of glasses looked at his counterpart with a boring and critical look. The expression on his face clearly indicated that he [Trotsky] would have been better off ending the unsympathetic negotiations for him with a couple of grenades, throwing them over the green table, if this was in any way consistent with the general political line ... sometimes I wondered if he generally intends to make peace, or he needed a platform from which he could propagate Bolshevik views.

A member of the German delegation, General Max Hoffmann, ironically described the composition of the Soviet delegation: “I will never forget the first dinner with the Russians. I was sitting between Joffe and Sokolnikov, then Commissar of Finance. Opposite me sat a worker, who, apparently, a lot of appliances and utensils caused great inconvenience. He clutched at one thing after another, but he used the fork exclusively for brushing his teeth. Diagonally from me, next to Prince Hoenloe, sat the terrorist Bizenko [sic], on the other side of her - a peasant, a real Russian phenomenon with long gray curls and a beard overgrown like a forest. He caused a certain smile in the staff when, when asked whether he prefers red or white wine for dinner, he answered: “Stronger” ”

The Ukrainian delegation in Brest-Litovsk, from left to right: Nikolay Lyubinsky, Vsevolod Golubovich, Nikolay Levitsky, Lussenty, Mikhail Polozov and Alexander Sevryuk.

The arriving Ukrainian delegation from the Central Rada behaved scandalously and arrogantly. The Ukrainians had bread, and they began to blackmail Germany and Austria-Hungary, demanding for food to recognize their independence and give Ukraine Galicia and Bukovina, which belonged to the Austrians.

The Central Rada did not want to know Trotsky. The Germans were very good at it. They hung around like this, and like that, around the separatists. There were other factors involved as well. A strike broke out in Vienna because of the famine, followed by a strike in Berlin. 500 thousand workers were on strike. The Ukrainians demanded more and more concessions for their bread. And Trotsky cheered up. It seemed that the Germans and Austrians were about to start a revolution, and we just had to wait for it.

Ukrainian diplomats, who held preliminary negotiations with the German General M. Hoffmann, the chief of staff of the German armies on the Eastern Front, first announced claims to join the Kholmshchyna (which was part of Poland) to Ukraine, as well as the Austro-Hungarian territories - Bukovina and Eastern Galicia. Hoffmann, however, insisted that they reduce their demands and limit themselves to one Kholm region, agreeing that Bukovina and Eastern Galicia form an independent Austro-Hungarian crown territory under the rule of the Habsburgs. It was these demands that they defended in their further negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian delegation. Negotiations with the Ukrainians dragged on so much that the opening of the conference had to be postponed to December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918).

Ukrainian delegates communicate with German officers in Brest-Litovsk

The Germans invited a Ukrainian delegation to the next meeting, which took place on December 28, 1917 (January 10, 1918). Its chairman, V. A. Golubovich, announced the declaration of the Central Rada stating that the power of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia does not extend to Ukraine, and therefore the Central Rada intends to independently conduct peace negotiations. R. von Kuhlmann turned to L. D. Trotsky with the question of whether he and his delegation intended to continue to be the only diplomatic representatives of all of Russia in Brest-Litovsk, and also whether the Ukrainian delegation should be considered part of the Russian delegation or whether it represents an independent state. Trotsky knew that the Rada was actually at war with the RSFSR. Therefore, by agreeing to consider the delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada as independent, he actually played into the hands of the representatives of the Central Powers and provided Germany and Austria-Hungary with the opportunity to continue contacts with the Ukrainian Central Rada, while negotiations with Soviet Russia were marking time for another two days.

Signing of documents on a truce in Brest-Litovsk

In Brest, at the third round of negotiations, the situation changed again. In Ukraine, the Reds smashed the Rada. Now Trotsky refused to recognize the Ukrainians as an independent delegation, calling Ukraine an integral part of Russia. The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, were clearly betting on an imminent revolution in Germany and Austria-Hungary, trying to gain time. One day in Berlin they intercepted a radio message from Petrograd to German soldiers, where they were called to kill the emperor, the generals, and to fraternize. Kaiser Wilhelm II became furious and ordered the negotiations to be interrupted.

Signing of a peace treaty with Ukraine. Sitting in the middle, from left to right: Count Ottokar Czernin von und zu Khudenitz, General Max von Hoffmann, Richard von Kühlmann, Prime Minister V. Rodoslavov, Grand Vizier Mehmet Talaat Pasha

The Ukrainians, as the successes of the Red troops, sharply reduced their arrogance and, flirting with the Germans, agreed to everything. On February 9, when the Bolsheviks entered Kyiv, the Central Rada concluded a separate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, saving them from the threat of famine and riots ...

In exchange for military assistance against the Soviet troops, the UNR undertook to supply Germany and Austria-Hungary by July 31, 1918 with one million tons of grain, 400 million eggs, up to 50 thousand tons of cattle meat, lard, sugar, hemp, manganese ore, etc. Austria-Hungary also undertook to create an autonomous Ukrainian region in Eastern Galicia.

Signing of a peace treaty between the UNR and the Central Powers on January 27 (February 9), 1918

On January 27 (February 9), at a meeting of the political commission, Chernin informed the Russian delegation about the signing of peace with Ukraine represented by the delegation of the government of the Central Rada.

Now the position of the Bolsheviks has become desperate. The Germans spoke to them in the language of ultimatums. The Reds were “asked” to get out of Ukraine, as from the territory of a state friendly to Germany. And new demands were added to the previous ones - to give up the unoccupied parts of Latvia and Estonia, to pay a huge indemnity.

On January 28, 1918 (February 10, 1918), at the request of the Soviet delegation how to resolve the issue, Lenin confirmed the previous instructions. Nevertheless, Trotsky, violating these instructions, rejected the German terms of peace, putting forward the slogan "Neither peace, nor war: we do not sign peace, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army." The German side stated in response that Russia's failure to sign a peace treaty automatically entails the termination of the truce.

In general, the Germans and Austrians received extremely clear advice. Take what you want - but on your own, without my signature and consent. After this statement, the Soviet delegation defiantly left the negotiations. On the same day, Trotsky gives the Supreme Commander Krylenko an order demanding that he immediately issue an order for the army to end the state of war with Germany and general demobilization(although he had no right to do so, since he was not yet the people's commissar for military, but for foreign affairs). Lenin this order was canceled after 6 hours. Nevertheless, the order was received by all fronts on February 11 andfor some reason was accepted. The last units, still sitting in positions, flowed to the rear ...

On February 13, 1918, at a meeting in Homburg with the participation of Wilhelm II, the Imperial Chancellor Gertling, the head of the German Foreign Office von Kühlmann, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Vice Chancellor, it was decided to break the truce and launch an offensive on the Eastern Front.

On the morning of February 19, the offensive of the German troops rapidly unfolded on the entire Northern Front. Through Livonia and Estonia to Revel, Pskov and Narva (the ultimate goal is Petrograd), the troops of the 8th German Army (6 divisions), a separate Northern Corps stationed on the Moonsund Islands, as well as a special army formation operating from the south, from Dvinsk . For 5 days, German and Austrian troops advanced inland Russian territory for 200-300 km. “I have never seen such an absurd war,” Hoffmann wrote. - We conducted it practically on trains and cars. You put a handful of infantry with machine guns and one cannon on the train and you go to the next station. You take the station, arrest the Bolsheviks, put more soldiers on the train and go on.” Zinoviev was forced to admit that "there is evidence that in some cases unarmed German soldiers dispersed hundreds of our soldiers." “The army rushed to run, leaving everything, sweeping away in its path,” N.V. Krylenko, the first Soviet commander-in-chief of the Russian front-line army, would write about these events in the same 1918.

On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree "The socialist fatherland is in danger", but at the same time notified Germany that it was ready to resume negotiations. And the Germans decided to bang their fists on the table in such a way that in the future they would discourage the Bolsheviks from being stubborn. On February 22, an ultimatum was dictated with a response time of 48 hours, and the conditions were even more severe than before. Since the Red Guard showed absolute incompetence, on February 23 a decree was adopted on the creation of a regular Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. But on the same day, a stormy meeting of the Central Committee took place. Lenin persuaded his comrades-in-arms to peace, threatening his resignation. Many did not stop. Lomov declared: “If Lenin threatens to resign, then they are afraid in vain. We must take power without Lenin. Nevertheless, some were embarrassed by the demarche of Vladimir Ilyich, others were sobered by the easy march of the Germans to Petrograd. 7 members of the Central Committee voted for peace, 4 members voted against and 4 abstained.

But the Central Committee was only a party organ. The decision was to be taken by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets. It was still multi-party, and the factions of the Left SRs, Right SRs, Mensheviks, anarchists, a significant part of the Bolsheviks, stood for the war. The acceptance of peace was provided by Yakov Sverdlov. He knew how to preside at meetings like no one else. He used very clearly, for example, such a tool as regulations. He cut off the unwanted speaker - the regulations came out (and who is watching there, is there still a minute left?). He knew how to play on casuistry, procedural subtleties, manipulated whom to give the floor to and whom to “not notice”.

At a meeting of the Bolshevik faction, Sverdlov emphasized "party discipline." He pointed out that the Central Committee had already made a decision, the whole faction must comply with it, and if someone thinks otherwise, he is obliged to submit to the "majority". At 3 o'clock in the morning the factions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee came together. If we counted all the opponents of peace - the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, the "Left Communists", they would have a clear majority. Knowing this, the Left SR leaders demanded a roll call. But… the "Left Communists" were already bound by the decision of their faction. Vote only for peace. By 116 votes to 85, with 26 abstentions, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee accepted the German ultimatum.

Postcard depicting the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the German representative, Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Russian delegation: A.A. Bitsenko, next to her A. A. Ioffe, as well as L. B. Kamenev. Behind Kamenev in the form of captain A. Lipsky, secretary of the Russian delegation L. Karakhan

The German-Austrian offensive, which began in February 1918, continued even when the Soviet delegation arrived in Brest-Litovsk: on February 28, the Austrians occupied Berdichev, on March 1, the Germans occupied Gomel, Chernigov and Mogilev, and on March 2, Petrograd was bombed. On March 4, after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, German troops occupied Narva and stopped only on the Narova River and west bank Lake Peipus 170 km from Petrograd.

A photocopy of the first two pages of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, March 1918

Postcard showing the last page of signatures on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The appendix to the treaty guaranteed a special economic status for Germany in Soviet Russia. Citizens and corporations of the Central Powers were removed from the scope of the Bolshevik decrees on nationalization, and those who had already lost their property were restored to their rights. Thus, German citizens were allowed to engage in private business in Russia against the background of the general nationalization of the economy that was taking place at that time. This state of affairs created, for a time, the opportunity for Russian owners of enterprises or securities to evade nationalization by selling their assets to the Germans. Fears of Dzerzhinsky F. E. that “By signing the conditions, we do not guarantee ourselves against new ultimatums”, are partially confirmed: the advance of the German army was not limited to the boundaries of the zone of occupation defined by the peace treaty.

A struggle for the ratification of the peace treaty unfolded. At the 7th Congress of the Bolshevik Party on March 6-8, the positions of Lenin and Bukharin clashed. The outcome of the congress was decided by the authority of Lenin - his resolution was adopted by 30 votes against 12, with 4 abstentions. Trotsky's compromise proposals to make peace with the countries of the Quadruple Alliance as the last concession and forbid the Central Committee to make peace with the Central Rada of Ukraine were rejected. The controversy continued at the Fourth Congress of Soviets, where the Left SRs and anarchists opposed the ratification, while the Left Communists abstained. But thanks to the existing system of representation, the Bolsheviks had a clear majority at the Congress of Soviets. If the left communists had agreed to split the party, the peace treaty would have failed, but Bukharin did not dare to do this. On the night of March 16, peace was ratified.

Austro-Hungarian troops enter the city of Kamenetz-Podolsk after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

German troops under the command of General Eichhorn occupied Kyiv. March 1918.

Germans in Kyiv

Odessa after the occupation by the Austro-Hungarian troops. Dredging in Odessa port German troops On April 22, 1918 they captured Simferopol, on May 1 Taganrog, and on May 8 Rostov-on-Don, causing the fall of Soviet power on the Don. In April 1918, diplomatic relations were established between the RSFSR and Germany. On the whole, however, Germany's relations with the Bolsheviks were not ideal from the outset. In the words of Sukhanov N. N., “the German government was quite thoroughly afraid of its“ friends ”and“ agents ”: it knew perfectly well that these people were the same“ friends ”to it, as well as to Russian imperialism, to which the German authorities tried to“ palm them off " keeping them at a respectful distance from their own loyal subjects." From April 1918, the Soviet ambassador Ioffe A.A. engaged in active revolutionary propaganda already in Germany itself, which ends with the November Revolution. The Germans, for their part, are consistently liquidating Soviet power in the Baltics and Ukraine, providing assistance to the "White Finns" and actively contributing to the formation of a center of the White movement on the Don. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks, fearing a German attack on Petrograd, transferred the capital to Moscow; after the signing of the Brest Peace, they, not trusting the Germans, did not begin to cancel this decision.

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While the German General base came to the conclusion that the defeat of the Second Reich was inevitable, Germany managed to impose on the Soviet government, in the face of growing civil war and the beginning of the Entente intervention, additional agreements to the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. 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. Under this agreement, Soviet Russia was obliged to pay Germany, as compensation for damage and expenses for the maintenance of Russian prisoners of war, a huge indemnity - 6 billion marks - in the form of "pure gold" and credit obligations. In September 1918, two "gold echelons" were sent to Germany, which contained 93.5 tons of "pure gold" worth over 120 million gold rubles. It didn't make it to the next shipment.

extracts

Article I

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey on the one hand, and Russia on the other, declare that the state of war between them has ended; they decided to continue to live. among themselves in peace and harmony.

Article II

The contracting parties will refrain from any agitation or propaganda against the governments or state and military institutions of the other side. Since this obligation concerns Russia, it also extends to the areas occupied by the powers of the quadruple alliance.

Article III

The regions lying to the west of the line established by the contracting parties and formerly belonging to Russia will no longer be under her supreme authority ...

For the aforementioned regions, their former belonging to Russia will not entail any obligations in relation to Russia. Russia refuses any interference in the internal affairs of these regions. Germany and Austria-Hungary intend to determine the future fate of these areas in agreement with their population.

Article IV

Germany is ready, as soon as a general peace has been concluded and a complete Russian demobilization has been carried out, to clear the areas lying to the east of the line indicated in paragraph 1 of Article III, insofar as Article IV does not decide otherwise. Russia will do everything, the provinces of Eastern Anatolia and their legitimate return to Turkey. The districts of Ardagan, Kars and Batum will also be immediately cleared of Russian troops. Russia will not interfere in the new organization of state-legal and international legal relations in these districts, but will allow their population to establish a new system in agreement with neighboring states, especially with Turkey.

Article V

Russia will immediately carry out the complete demobilization of its army, including the military units newly formed by its present government. In addition, Russia will either transfer its warships to Russian ports and leave there until the conclusion of a general peace, or immediately disarm. The military courts of states that are still at war with the powers of the quadruple alliance, since these ships are in the sphere of Russian power, are equated with Russian military courts. ... In the Baltic Sea and in the parts of the Black Sea subject to Russia, the removal of minefields should immediately begin. Merchant shipping in these maritime regions is freely and immediately resumed ...

Article VI

Russia undertakes to immediately conclude peace with the Ukrainian People's Republic and recognize the peace treaty between this state and the powers of the quadruple alliance. The territory of Ukraine is immediately cleared of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard. Russia ceases all agitation or propaganda against the government or public institutions of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Estonia and Livonia are also immediately cleared of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard. Eastern border Estonia passes in general along the Narva River. The eastern border of Livonia generally runs through Lake Peipus and Lake Pskov to its southwestern corner, then through Lake Luban in the direction of Livenhof on the Western Dvina. Estland and Livonia will be occupied by the German police authorities until public security is ensured there by the country's own institutions and until state order is restored there. Russia will immediately release all arrested or taken away inhabitants of Estonia and Livonia and ensure the safe return of all taken away Estonians and Livonians.

Finland and the Aland Islands will also be immediately cleared of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard, and Finnish ports - of the Russian fleet and Russian naval forces... government or public institutions in Finland. The fortifications erected on the Åland Islands must be demolished as soon as possible.

Article VII

Based on the fact that Persia and Afghanistan are free and independent states, the contracting parties undertake to respect the political and economic independence and the territorial integrity of Persia and Afghanistan.

Article VIII

Prisoners of war of both sides will be released to their homeland

Article IX

The contracting parties mutually renounce the reimbursement of their military expenses, that is, the state costs of waging war, as well as the reimbursement of military losses, that is, those losses that were inflicted on them and their citizens in the war zone by military measures, including and all the requisitions made in the enemy country...

ORIGINAL

The conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk led to a split in the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet government and to the formation of a Left Opposition, and for the first and last time this opposition openly and officially acted within the Bolshevik Party as an autonomous organization and even had its own press organ.

After the signing of the peace agreement, hostilities did not stop for a day in most of the territory of the former Russian Empire. Germany presented more and more ultimatums, occupied entire regions and cities located to the east of the border established by the treaty. The Brest-Litovsk peace turned out to be a paper one precisely because the Soviet and German governments did not take the treaty seriously, did not consider it final, and signed the agreement not for the sake of a desire to obtain peace, but only in order to continue the war, but in more favorable conditions for themselves.

Later, until the termination of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, first by the German government on October 5, and then by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 13, 1918 (2 days after capitulation of Germany), the opponents were in a state of “neither war nor peace” (Trotsky).

Such a situation, according to Trotsky’s plan, was nothing more than a “breather” preparing the Bolshevik party for its next stage: a revolutionary war (only for Trotsky’s respite, unlike Lenin, the Bolsheviks did not pay with an agreement with the “imperialists”). This revolutionary war began on November 13, 1918.

Already in the first days of the Bolshevik coup, Lenin disagreed with the majority of his party on the issue of peace: contrary to the expectations of the socialists, he agreed in principle to sign a separate, and not a general, peace with the “imperialist” German government. The simplest explanation for Lenin's step was his commitment to the German government before he returned to Russia.

The relationship between the Bolshevik Party and the Kaiser government during the First World War has long remained a mystery to historians. A sensation spread throughout the world that the German government, interested in the speedy weakening of the Russian Empire and the latter's withdrawal from the war, found it profitable to finance the socialist parties (including the Leninist group) that stood for the defeat of Russia in the war and conducted intensified defeatist propaganda. . German Social Democrat Eduard Bernstein in 1921. wrote that Lenin and his comrades received huge sums of money from Kaiser Germany, probably exceeding 50 million German gold marks. After many years, documents were handed over to historians, allowing a deep and careful study of the already legendary issue of German money and the sealed carriage in which Lenin traveled through Germany to Russia in April 1917.

The German government supported the Russian revolutionaries, because it believed, not without reason, that the revolution would lead to the collapse of the Russian Empire, its exit from the war and the conclusion of a separate peace, which the revolutionaries promised to give after coming to power. Germany, however, this peace was necessary already because in 1917. she did not have the necessary forces to wage war on 2 fronts. Having staked on the revolution in Russia, Germany, during the weeks critical for the interim government, supported the Leninist group, helped it and other "defeatists" to pass through Germany to Sweden, and received the consent of the Swedes for the passage of emigrants to the Finnish border. From there it was very close to Petrograd. Occurred in October 1917. the coup was not a surprise to her; rightly or not, the German government looked upon what had happened as the work of its own hands.

But Germany would never have been able to achieve her goals so easily if her interests had not coincided on a number of points with the program of another interested party: the Russian defeatist revolutionaries, whose most influential wing was the Leninist (Bolsheviks). In what way did the interests of Germany and the revolutionaries coincide in this matter?

Like the German government, the Leninist group was interested in the defeat of Russia. The Bolsheviks wanted the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Germans wanted this for the sake of the general weakening of post-war Russia. The revolutionaries, among whom many demanded the separation of the outskirts from the Russian Empire also for national reasons, looked at the growth of national separatist tendencies (nationalism of small nations) as a phenomenon that was in direct connection with the revolutionary movement.

Coinciding on some points, the goals of Germany and the revolutionaries in the war diverged on others. Germany looked at the latter as a subversive element and hoped to use them to withdraw Russia from the war. Keeping the socialists in power was not part of the plans of the German government. Those same looked at the help offered by the German government as a means to organize a revolution in Russia and Europe, primarily in Germany. But the revolutionaries knew about the German "imperialist" plans. At the same time, each side hoped to outplay the other. Ultimately, the Leninist group won this game.

The program of the Soviet socialists was abstract: revolution. Lenin's program was concrete: a revolution in Russia and his own coming to power. Like a man driven by his own goal, he accepted everything that contributed to his program and discarded that which hindered it. If the Quadruple Alliance offered assistance, then insofar as this assistance contributed to Lenin's rise to power, it should be accepted. If this assistance could be provided on the terms of the proclamation by Lenin of a certain political platform, then insofar as this platform contributed to the achievement of the main goal: Lenin's coming to power, it should be accepted and announced. The Germans were interested in a separate peace with Russia - Lenin made the slogan of the immediate signing of peace and ending the war the main point of his program. The Germans wanted the collapse of the Russian Empire - Lenin supported the revolutionary slogan of self-determination of peoples, which allowed for the actual collapse of the Russian Empire.

You have to give credit to Lenin. He fulfilled his promise to the government in the first hours of coming to power: on October 26, at the Congress of Soviets, he read out the well-known decree on peace. For the Entente, therefore, the role of Germany in the October revolution was obvious. Already on October 27 (November 9), the London newspapers, and the Germans themselves, could not remain silent for long, declaring that the Russian revolution was not an accidental success, but a natural result of German policy. On November 9 (22), fulfilling one more clause of the agreement between the Bolsheviks and Germany, Trotsky, as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, announced the intentions of the Soviet government to publish secret diplomatic documents. Theoretically, the publication of secret treaties was detrimental to both the Central Powers and the Entente. But since the secret treaties relating to the First World War were concluded by Russia with the allies of France and England, and not with the Central Powers, the latter remained to gain. On November 14 (27) the German High Command agreed to conduct official peace negotiations with representatives of the Soviet government. The start of negotiations was scheduled for November 19 (December 2), and in a statement dated November 15 (28), the Soviet government indicated that if France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA, Belgium, Serbia, Romania, Japan and China refused to join the negotiations " we will negotiate with the Germans alone”, that is, it announced the signing of a separate peace with the countries of the Fourth Bloc. On November 20 (December 3), the Russian delegation, consisting of 28 people, arrived in Brest-Litovsk, where the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the German Eastern Front were located. Brest-Litovsk was chosen by Germany as a place for negotiations. Negotiating in German-occupied territory suited the German and Austrian governments, since transferring negotiations to a neutral city, such as Stockholm, would result in an inter-socialist conference that could appeal to the peoples “through the heads of governments” and call, for example, for a general strike or civil war. In this case, the initiative from the hands of the German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats would have passed to the Russian and European socialists.

From the Soviet side, the delegation was headed by three Bolsheviks (A.A. Ioffe, L.B. Kamenev, and G.Ya. Sokolnikov) and two Left Social Revolutionaries (A.A. Bitsenko and S.D. Maslovsky-Mstislavsky). From the German side, the negotiations were to be conducted by a group of military men led by General Hoffmann. The Russian delegation insisted on making peace without annexations and indemnities. Hoffmann, as it were, did not object, but subject to the consent of the Entente to these demands. Since, as it was clear to everyone, the Soviet delegation was not authorized by Britain, France and the USA to negotiate with the Quadruple Alliance, the question of a general democratic peace hung in the air. In addition, the delegation of the Central Powers insisted that they were authorized to sign only a military truce, and not a political agreement. And with the outward politeness of both sides, a common language was not found.

Brest peace, Brest-Litovsk (Brest) peace treaty - a separate peace treaty 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 . It marked the defeat and exit of Russia from the First World War.
Panorama of Brest-Litovsk

On November 19 (December 2), the delegation of the Soviet government, headed by A. A. Ioffe, arrived in the neutral zone and proceeded to Brest-Litovsk, where the Headquarters of the German command on the Eastern Front was located, where they met with the delegation of the Austro-German bloc, which included also included representatives from Bulgaria and Turkey.
The building where the peace talks were held.

Armistice negotiations with Germany began in Brest-Litovsk on November 20 (December 3), 1917. On the same day, N. V. Krylenko arrived at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Mogilev, who assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief.
Arrival of the German delegation to Brest-Litovsk

On November 21 (December 4), the Soviet delegation laid out its terms:
the truce is concluded for 6 months;
hostilities are suspended on all fronts;
German troops are being withdrawn from Riga and the Moonsund Islands;
any transfer of German troops to the Western Front is prohibited.
As a result of the negotiations, an interim agreement was reached:
the truce is concluded for the period from November 24 (December 7) to December 4 (17);
troops remain in their positions;
all transfers of troops are stopped, except for those that have already begun.
Peace talks in Brest-Litovsk. Arrival of Russian delegates. In the middle is A. A. Ioffe, next to him is secretary L. Karakhan, A. A. Bitsenko, on the right is Kamenev.

Peace negotiations began on December 9 (22), 1917. The delegations of the states of the Quadruple Union were headed by: from Germany - State Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Department R. von Kuhlmann; from Austria-Hungary - Minister of Foreign Affairs Count O. Chernin; from Bulgaria - Minister of Justice Popov; from Turkey - Chairman of the Mejlis Talaat Bey.
The officers of the Hindenburg headquarters meet the arriving delegation of the RSFSR on the platform of Brest in early 1918.

The Soviet delegation at the first stage included 5 commissioners - members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: the Bolsheviks A. A. Ioffe - the chairman of the delegation, L. B. Kamenev (Rozenfeld) and G. Ya. Sokolnikov (Brilliant), the Socialist-Revolutionaries A. A. Bitsenko and S. D. Maslovsky-Mstislavsky, 8 members of the military delegation (Quartermaster General under the Supreme Commander of the General Staff, Major General V. E. Skalon, General Yu. N. Danilov, who was under the Chief of the General Staff, Rear Admiral V. M. Altvater, head of the Nikolaev Military Academy of the General Staff, General A. I. Andogsky, Quartermaster General of the Headquarters of the 10th Army of the General Staff, General A. A. Samoilo, Colonel D. G. Fokke, Lieutenant Colonel I. Ya. Tseplit, Captain V. Lipsky), secretary of the delegation L. M. Karakhan, 3 translators and 6 technical employees, as well as 5 ordinary members of the delegation - sailor F. V. Olich, soldier N. K. Belyakov, Kaluga peasant R. I. Stashkov, worker P. A. Obukhov , warrant officer of the fleet K. Ya. Zedin
The leaders of the Russian delegation arrived at the Brest-Litovsk station. From left to right: Major Brinkmann, Joffe, Mrs. Birenko, Kamenev, Karakhan.

The conference was opened by the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, and Kühlmann took the chair.
Arrival of the Russian delegation

The resumption of armistice negotiations, which involved agreeing on conditions and signing a treaty, was overshadowed by the tragedy in the Russian delegation. Upon arrival in Brest on November 29 (December 12), 1917, before the opening of the conference, during a private meeting of the Soviet delegation, a representative of the Stavka in a group of military consultants, Major General V. E. Skalon, shot himself.
Armistice in Brest-Litovsk. Members of the Russian delegation after arriving at the Brest-Litovsk station. From left to right: Major Brinkman, A. A. Ioffe, A. A. Bitsenko, L. B. Kamenev, Karakhan.

Proceeding from the general principles of the Decree on Peace, the Soviet delegation already at one of the first meetings proposed to adopt the following program 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.
Trotsky L.D., Ioffe A. and Rear Admiral V. Altvater are going to the meeting. Brest-Litovsk.

After a three-day discussion by the countries of the German bloc of Soviet proposals on the evening of December 12 (25), 1917, R. von Kuhlmann made a statement that Germany and its allies accept these proposals. At the same time, a reservation was made that nullified Germany's consent to peace without annexations and indemnities: “It is necessary, however, to indicate with complete clarity that the proposals of the Russian delegation could be implemented only if all the powers involved in the war , without exception and without reservation, within a certain period of time, pledged to strictly observe the conditions common to all peoples.
L. Trotsky in Brest-Litovsk.

Having stated the accession of the German bloc to the Soviet formula of peace "without annexations and indemnities", the Soviet delegation proposed to announce a ten-day break, during which one could try to bring the Entente countries to the negotiating table.
Near the building where the negotiations were held. Arrival of delegations. Left (with beard and glasses) A. A. Ioffe

During the break, however, it turned out that Germany understands a world without annexations differently than the Soviet delegation - for Germany, we are not talking about the withdrawal of troops to the borders of 1914 and the withdrawal of German troops from the occupied territories of the former Russian Empire, especially since, according to the statement Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Courland have already declared themselves in favor of secession from Russia, so that if these three countries now enter into negotiations with Germany about their future fate, this will by no means be considered an annexation by Germany.
Peace talks in Brest-Litovsk. Representatives of the Central Powers, in the middle, Ibrahim Hakki Pasha and Count Ottokar Czernin von und zu Khudenitz, on their way to negotiations.

The German and Austro-Hungarian delegation, however, made a counterproposal - the Russian state was invited to "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 the allocation of from the Russian Federation" and acknowledge that "these statements under the present conditions must be regarded as an expression of the people's will." R. von Kuhlmann asked if the Soviet government would agree to withdraw its troops from all of Livonia and from Estland in order to give the local population the opportunity to connect with their fellow tribesmen living in the areas occupied by the Germans. The Soviet delegation was also informed that the Ukrainian Central Rada was sending its own delegation to Brest-Litovsk.
Peter Ganchev, Bulgarian representative on his way to the place of negotiations.

On December 15 (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), where by a majority of votes it was decided to drag out peace negotiations as long as possible, in the hope of an early revolution in Germany itself. In the future, the formula is refined and takes the following form: "We hold on until the German ultimatum, then we surrender." Lenin also invites the People's Commissariat Trotsky to go to Brest-Litovsk and personally lead the Soviet delegation. According to Trotsky's memoirs, "the prospect of negotiations with Baron Kuhlmann and General Hoffmann was not very attractive in itself, but 'to drag out negotiations, you need a delayer,' as Lenin put it."
The Ukrainian delegation in Brest-Litovsk, from left to right: Nikolay Lyubinsky, Vsevolod Golubovich, Nikolay Levitsky, Lussenty, Mikhail Polozov and Alexander Sevryuk.

At the second stage of the negotiations, the Soviet side was represented by L. D. Trotsky (leader), A. A. Ioffe, L. M. Karakhan, K. B. Radek, M. N. Pokrovsky, A. A. Bitsenko, V. A. Karelin, E. G. Medvedev, V. M. Shakhrai, St. Bobinsky, V. Mitskevich-Kapsukas, V. Terian, V. M. Altvater, A. A. Samoilo, V. V. Lipsky
The second composition of the Soviet delegation in Brest-Litovsk. Sitting, from left to right: Kamenev, Ioffe, Bitsenko. Standing, from left to right: Lipsky V. V., Stuchka, Trotsky L. D., Karakhan L. M.

The memoirs of the head of the German delegation, Secretary of State of the German Foreign Ministry Richard von Kühlmann, who spoke of Trotsky as follows, have also been preserved: “not very large, sharp and piercing eyes behind the sharp glasses of glasses looked at his counterpart with a boring and critical look. The expression on his face clearly indicated that he [Trotsky] would have been better off ending the unsympathetic negotiations for him with a couple of grenades, throwing them over the green table, if this was in any way consistent with the general political line ... sometimes I wondered if he generally intends to make peace, or he needed a platform from which he could propagate Bolshevik views.
During negotiations in Brest-Litovsk.

A member of the German delegation, General Max Hoffmann, ironically described the composition of the Soviet delegation: “I will never forget the first dinner with the Russians. I was sitting between Joffe and Sokolnikov, then Commissar of Finance. Opposite me sat a worker, who, apparently, a lot of appliances and utensils caused great inconvenience. He clutched at one thing after another, but he used the fork exclusively for brushing his teeth. Across from me, next to Prince Hoenloe, was the terrorist Bizenko, on the other side of her was a peasant, a real Russian phenomenon with long gray curls and a beard overgrown like a forest. He caused a certain smile in the staff when, when asked whether he prefers red or white wine for dinner, he answered: “Stronger” ”

Signing of a peace treaty with Ukraine. Sitting in the middle, from left to right: Count Ottokar Chernin von und zu Khudenitz, General Max von Hoffmann, Richard von Kuhlmann, Prime Minister V. Rodoslavov, Grand Vizier Mehmet Talaat Pasha.

On December 22, 1917 (January 4, 1918), German Chancellor H. von Gertling announced in his speech at the Reichstag that a delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada had arrived in Brest-Litovsk. Germany agreed to negotiate with the Ukrainian delegation, hoping to use this as leverage both against Soviet Russia and against its ally, Austria-Hungary. Ukrainian diplomats, who held preliminary negotiations with the German General M. Hoffmann, the chief of staff of the German armies on the Eastern Front, first announced claims to join the Kholmshchyna (which was part of Poland) to Ukraine, as well as the Austro-Hungarian territories - Bukovina and Eastern Galicia. Hoffmann, however, insisted that they reduce their demands and limit themselves to one Kholm region, agreeing that Bukovina and Eastern Galicia form an independent Austro-Hungarian crown territory under the rule of the Habsburgs. It was these demands that they defended in their further negotiations with the Austro-Hungarian delegation. Negotiations with the Ukrainians dragged on so much that the opening of the conference had to be postponed to December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918).
Ukrainian delegates communicate with German officers in Brest-Litovsk.

The Germans invited a Ukrainian delegation to the next meeting, which took place on December 28, 1917 (January 10, 1918). Its chairman, V. A. Golubovich, announced the declaration of the Central Rada stating that the power of the Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia does not extend to Ukraine, and therefore the Central Rada intends to independently conduct peace negotiations. R. von Kuhlmann turned to L. D. Trotsky, who headed the Soviet delegation at the second stage of negotiations, with the question of whether he and his delegation intended to continue to be the only diplomatic representatives of all of Russia in Brest-Litovsk, and also whether the Ukrainian delegation should be considered part of Russian delegation or it represents an independent state. Trotsky knew that the Rada was actually at war with the RSFSR. Therefore, by agreeing to consider the delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada as independent, he actually played into the hands of the representatives of the Central Powers and provided Germany and Austria-Hungary with the opportunity to continue contacts with the Ukrainian Central Rada, while negotiations with Soviet Russia were marking time for another two days.
Signing of documents on a truce in Brest-Litovsk

The January uprising in Kyiv put Germany in a difficult position, and now the German delegation demanded a break in the meetings of the peace conference. On January 21 (February 3), von Kuhlmann and Chernin went to Berlin for a meeting with General Ludendorff, where they discussed the possibility of signing peace with the government of the Central Rada, which does not control the situation in Ukraine. The decisive role was played by the dire food situation in Austria-Hungary, which was threatened with starvation without Ukrainian grain. Returning to Brest-Litovsk, the German and Austro-Hungarian delegations on January 27 (February 9) signed peace with the delegation of the Central Rada. In exchange for military assistance against the Soviet troops, the UNR undertook to supply Germany and Austria-Hungary by July 31, 1918 with one million tons of grain, 400 million eggs, up to 50 thousand tons of cattle meat, lard, sugar, hemp, manganese ore, etc. Austria-Hungary also undertook to create an autonomous Ukrainian region in Eastern Galicia.
The signing of a peace treaty between the UNR and the Central Powers on January 27 (February 9), 1918.

The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Ukraine - the Central Powers was a major blow to the Bolsheviks, in parallel with the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, did not abandon attempts to Sovietize Ukraine. On January 27 (February 9), at a meeting of the political commission, Chernin informed the Russian delegation about the signing of peace with Ukraine represented by the delegation of the government of the Central Rada. Already in April 1918, the Germans dispersed the government of the Central Rada (see Dispersal of the Central Rada), replacing it with the more conservative regime of Hetman Skoropadsky.

At the insistence of General Ludendorff (even at a meeting in Berlin, he demanded that the head of the German delegation stop negotiations with the Russian delegation within 24 hours after the signing of peace with Ukraine) and by direct order of Emperor Wilhelm II, von Kühlmann presented Soviet Russia in an ultimatum form with a demand to accept the German peace conditions. On January 28, 1918 (February 10, 1918), at the request of the Soviet delegation how to resolve the issue, Lenin confirmed the previous instructions. Nevertheless, Trotsky, violating these instructions, rejected the German terms of peace, putting forward the slogan "Neither peace, nor war: we do not sign peace, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army." The German side stated in response that Russia's failure to sign a peace treaty automatically entails the termination of the truce. After this statement, the Soviet delegation defiantly left the negotiations. As a member of the Soviet delegation A. A. Samoilo points out in his memoirs, who were part of the delegation former officers The General Staff refused to return to Russia, remaining in Germany. On the same day, Trotsky gives the Supreme Commander Krylenko an order demanding that the army immediately issue an order to end the state of war with Germany and general demobilization, canceled by Lenin after 6 hours. Nevertheless, the order was received by all fronts on 11 February.

On January 31 (February 13), 1918, at a meeting in Homburg with the participation of Wilhelm II, the Imperial Chancellor Gertling, the head of the German Foreign Office von Kühlmann, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Vice Chancellor, it was decided to break the truce and launch an offensive on the Eastern front.
On the morning of February 19, the offensive of the German troops rapidly unfolded on the entire Northern Front. Through Livonia and Estonia to Revel, Pskov and Narva (the ultimate goal is Petrograd), the troops of the 8th German Army (6 divisions), a separate Northern Corps stationed on the Moonsund Islands, as well as a special army formation operating from the south, from Dvinsk . For 5 days, German and Austrian troops advanced 200-300 km deep into Russian territory. “I have never seen such an absurd war,” Hoffmann wrote. - We conducted it practically on trains and cars. You put a handful of infantry with machine guns and one cannon on the train and you go to the next station. You take the station, arrest the Bolsheviks, put more soldiers on the train and go on.” Zinoviev was forced to admit that "there is evidence that in some cases unarmed German soldiers dispersed hundreds of our soldiers." “The army rushed to run, leaving everything, sweeping away in its path,” N.V. Krylenko, the first Soviet commander-in-chief of the Russian front-line army, would write about these events in the same 1918.

After the decision to accept peace on German terms was made by the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b), and then passed through the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the question arose of the new composition of the delegation. As Richard Pipes notes, none of the Bolshevik leaders was eager to go down in history by putting his signature on a treaty shameful for Russia. Trotsky by this time had already resigned from the post of People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, Sokolnikov G. Ya. proposed the candidacy of Zinoviev G. E. However, Zinoviev refused such an “honor”, proposing in response the candidacy of Sokolnikov himself; Sokolnikov also refuses, promising to leave the Central Committee in the event of such an appointment. Ioffe A. A. also flatly refused. After long negotiations, Sokolnikov nevertheless agreed to head the Soviet delegation, the new composition of which took the following form: Sokolnikov G. Ya., Petrovsky L. M., Chicherin G. V., Karakhan G. I. and a group of 8 consultants (among them, Ioffe A. A., former chairman of the delegation). The delegation arrived in Brest-Litovsk on March 1, and two days later signed the contract without any discussion.
Postcard depicting the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the German representative, Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Russian delegation: A.A. Bitsenko, next to her A. A. Ioffe, as well as L. B. Kamenev. Behind Kamenev in the form of captain A. Lipsky, secretary of the Russian delegation L. Karakhan

The German-Austrian offensive, which began in February 1918, continued even when the Soviet delegation arrived in Brest-Litovsk: on February 28, the Austrians occupied Berdichev, on March 1, the Germans occupied Gomel, Chernigov and Mogilev, and on March 2, Petrograd was bombed. On March 4, after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, the German troops occupied Narva and stopped only on the Narova River and the western shore of Lake Peipsi, 170 km from Petrograd.
A photocopy of the first two pages of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, March 1918.

In its final version, the agreement consisted of 14 articles, various annexes, 2 final protocols and 4 additional agreements (between Russia and each of the states of the Quadruple Union), according to which Russia was obliged to make many territorial concessions, also 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 also pledged to recognize the independence of Ukraine represented by the UNR government.
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.
Postcard showing the last page of signatures on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Fears of Dzerzhinsky F. E. that “By signing the conditions, we do not guarantee ourselves against new ultimatums”, are partially confirmed: the advance of the German army was not limited to the boundaries of the zone of occupation defined by the peace treaty. German troops captured Simferopol on April 22, 1918, Taganrog on May 1, and Rostov-on-Don on May 8, causing the fall of Soviet power on the Don.
The telegraph operator sends a message from the peace conference in Brest-Litovsk.

In April 1918, diplomatic relations were established between the RSFSR and Germany. On the whole, however, Germany's relations with the Bolsheviks were not ideal from the outset. In the words of Sukhanov N. N., “the German government was quite thoroughly afraid of its“ friends ”and“ agents ”: it knew very well that these people were the same“ friends ”to it, as well as to Russian imperialism, to which the German authorities tried to“ palm off ”them keeping them at a respectful distance from their own loyal subjects." From April 1918, the Soviet ambassador Ioffe A.A. engaged in active revolutionary propaganda already in Germany itself, which ends with the November Revolution. The Germans, for their part, are consistently liquidating Soviet power in the Baltics and Ukraine, providing assistance to the "White Finns" and actively contributing to the formation of a center of the White movement on the Don. In March 1918, the Bolsheviks, fearing a German attack on Petrograd, transferred the capital to Moscow; after the signing of the Brest Peace, they, not trusting the Germans, did not begin to cancel this decision.
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While the German General Staff came to the conclusion that the defeat of the Second Reich was inevitable, Germany managed to impose on the Soviet government, in the context of the growing civil war and the beginning of the intervention of the Entente, additional agreements to the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. 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. Under this agreement, Soviet Russia was obliged to pay Germany, as compensation for damage and expenses for the maintenance of Russian prisoners of war, a huge indemnity - 6 billion marks - in the form of "pure gold" and credit obligations. In September 1918, two "gold echelons" were sent to Germany, which contained 93.5 tons of "pure gold" worth over 120 million gold rubles. It didn't make it to the next shipment.
Russian delegates buying German newspapers in Brest-Litovsk.

Consequences of the Brest peace: Odessa after the occupation by the Austro-Hungarian troops. Dredging works in Odessa port.

Consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Austro-Hungarian soldiers on Nikolaevsky Boulevard. Summer 1918.

Photo taken by a German soldier in Kyiv in 1918

"Trotsky learns to write." German caricature of L.D. Trotsky, who signed the peace treaty in Brest-Litovsk. 1918

Consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Austro-Hungarian troops enter the city of Kamenetz-Podolsky after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Consequences of the Brest Peace: Germans in Kyiv.

Political cartoon from the American press in 1918.

Consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: German troops under the command of General Eichhorn occupied Kyiv. March 1918.

Consequences of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Austro-Hungarian military musicians perform at main square city of Proskurov in Ukraine.