Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 March 1918, outlined the harsh conditions under which the crumbling Russian Empire withdrew from the First World War (1914-18). Negotiated by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), the leader of Soviet Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the German Kaiser Wilhelm II (reign 1888-1918) and his Central Powers allies, the treaty stripped away most of the non-Russian territories that the tsars had conquered in the previous 200 years.
The decision to accept the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk split the Communist hierarchy in Russia and led to the outraged Allies supporting the monarchists in the Russian Civil War (1917-22). Nevertheless, Lenin remained adamant that the agreement, no matter its harshness, was necessary to preserve the achievements of the Bolshevik Revolution and to buy time for further worker-led revolutions to occur in Western Europe, a hope that was never realised.
Russia's Catastrophic War
Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1884-1917) ruled the Russian Empire as an absolute monarch. Already unpopular because of his unwillingness to reform Russia's political system and economy, the tsar only just survived the Russian Revolution of 1905. When Russia entered the First World War, things immediately went badly due to a poorly trained and equipped army and navy. WWI was fought between the Allies (Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria). Russia joined the Allies.
Russian imperial armies faced Germany on two fronts and Austria-Hungary on four fronts. Calamitous defeats included the Battle of Tannenburg in August 1914 and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes the following September. The Russian army lost 1.2 million men in the first five months of the war. Nicholas had been reluctant to enter the conflict, but he made things far worse when he assumed the role of commander-in-chief in September 1915. Some gains were made against the Austro-Hungarian armies in September 1916 (the Brusilov Offensive), but casualties reached over one million men. Discipline was poor, and some soldiers supported the Communist revolutionaries, who launched an attack on the state in March 1917. The war severely disrupted the Russian agricultural sector and economy in general; food shortages were a particular problem. Indeed, the Bolshevik Revolution was kicked off by bread riots in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Desertions were so high in the army that it was no longer an effective fighting force in many areas. As Vladimir Lenin memorably remarked, the soldiers had "voted for peace with their feet" (Keegan, 342).
The unrest and poor state of the army led to Russia's high command persuading Nicholas that the best thing to do was to abdicate. Following the abdication in March, a Provisional Government was established, but this was overthrown by the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, which established a new republic, Soviet Russia. The new leader was the Bolshevik Communist Vladimir Lenin, and he was determined to withdraw Russia from WWI. Indeed, the Bolsheviks had always protested Russia's involvement in the conflict, and it was one of the main sources of dissatisfaction with the tsar's rule. In addition, Lenin considered an armistice essential to preserving the Bolsheviks' rather loose grip on power. Lenin had brutally commented that the Russian "bourgeoisie has to be throttled and for that we need both hands free" (Beevor, 148). The return of what was left of the army would be a very useful tool in an anticipated civil war against Bolshevik rule. Lenin outlined his motivations to the Communist Central Committee on 9 January:
Undoubtedly the peace that we are currently compelled to conclude is an obscene peace; but if war begins, our government will be swept aside and peace will be concluded by another government…Those who stand on the side of revolutionary war point out that by this very step we will be engaged in a civil war with German imperialism and that thereby we'll awaken revolution in Germany. But look! Germany is only pregnant with revolution, and a completely healthy baby has been born to us: the baby that is the socialist republic, which we shall be killing if we begin a war.
(Service, 339)
Negotiations began with the Central Powers in December 1918, Lenin having secured a temporary armistice on 15 December 1917. The question now was what terms would Russia have to accept in order to fully withdraw from the conflict. Lenin wanted a general armistice, but this idea was rejected by the Allies. Instead, Lenin next sought to negotiate with Germany alone. Kaiser Wilhelm was delighted to eliminate his Eastern Front and so be able to concentrate his armed forces in the terrible war of attrition on the Western Front.
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⇒ Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
