The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Its full name is “Brest Litovsk Peace Treaty”. The separate peace treaty signed between Soviet Russia on the one side and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire on the other, realized in Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, in Belarus) in the late period of the World War I. The Peace Treaty consisted of 14 main texts, 5 annexes and 7 supplementary treaties. According to the Peace Treaty, the war between Soviet Russia and the Four-nation Alliance was ended, and Soviet Russia lost a total of 1 million square kilometers of land (including Ukraine) and Russia had to pay Germany six billion German Marks worth of war reparations in various compensation and payment forms.

After the victory of the October Revolution, Soviet Russia urgently needed a peaceful international environment to consolidate the achievements of the October Revolution and promote socialist transformation. On November 7, 1917, the People’s Committee ordered the supreme commander in chief of the Red Army to put forward a proposal to the enemy headquarters to stop military operations and start peace negotiations; the Allies ignored it, and the People’s Committee had to conduct peace talks with Germany alone. After the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiation officially began, the Soviet delegation first proposed that the negotiations should be based on the principles of a democratic peace treaty without annexation and compensation as the basis of negotiation, and the German side falsely declared its agreement, but it was a prerequisite that the Allies also recognized these principles. Later, the German side declared its declaration invalid on the grounds that the Allies refused to participate in the peace negotiations, and on January 5, 1918, it submitted a territorial claim to the Soviet side, dividing about 150,000 square kilometers of land originally belonging to Russia, including some parts of Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia, as well as a large area of land inhabited by Ukrainians and Belarusians. Soviet Russia demanded a suspension of negotiations.

In the face of the predatory conditions put forward by the German side, the Bolshevik Party had sharp differences on whether to sign a peace treaty. Lenin pointed out on the basis of weighing the domestic and international situation, that the victory of socialism in Russia must take a certain period of time which was at least a few months, so that the socialist government could renounce defeating its own bourgeoisie first and arrange extensive and in-depth mass organizational work. Lenin firmly advocated accepting the conditions of the German side and signing a peace treaty, so as to take a breath, safeguard the achievements of the October Revolution and consolidate the Soviet regime. The Left Communists faction led by Bukharin, argued that compromise with the imperialists is unacceptable and harmful for the revolutionary proletarian party, and firmly opposed the signing of the peace treaty and advocated a declaration of war against international imperialism. On the other hand, Trotsky tried to find a compromise solution, by advocating declaring a truce and demobilization of the both fighting armies, but rejected to sign a peace treaty, which included annexation of any land piece, in fact this was a position of the so-called “no war and no peace”. He did not sign an annexationist peace treaty, which was called “no war and no peace”.

On January 8, 1918, Lenin read out: “Theses on the Question of the Immediate Conclusion of a Separate and Annexationist Peace” at the meeting of the Central Committee. Lenin pointed out that the question of war or peace is a problem that must be solved immediately and there can be no compromise solution. Lenin refuted all the arguments for advocating an immediate declaration of war and stressed that it was a crime to fight when it was obviously beneficial to the enemy and unfavorable to Soviet power. In January 1914, when Trotsky, who was the head of the negotiation delegation at that time, left for Brest-Litovsk, Lenin and Trotsky were in agreement: “If the Germans do not give an ultimatum, we will stick to it, and we will make concessions when they give an ultimatum.” After the resumption of negotiations, the German side refused to negotiate with the delegation of the Soviet regime of Ukraine and signed a treaty with the Ukrainian delegation of Central Rada on January 27th. According to the treaty, the Ukrainian Rada agreed to provide Germany with a large number of foods, livestock and other materials in exchange for German military assistance. The German side then immediately asked the Soviet Union to accept the German conditions in an ultimatum tone. On January 28, Trotsky violated his agreement with Lenin and made a written statement that Soviet Russia announced to stop the war and demobilize the army, but refused to sign the peace treaty, and then he led the Russian delegation to leave Brest city and withdrew from the Treaty negotiations.

On this basis, the German side declared the Armistice Agreement invalid on February 16 and launched a full-scale offensive in February 1918. Under this very critical situation, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party finally adopted the decision to sign the peace treaty on the evening of February 18 with 7 votes in favor, 5 votes against and 1 abstention. On the morning of February 23, the Soviet Union received a new and more demanding ultimatum by the German side. On the same day, the Central Committee agreed to sign the peace treaty with 7 votes in favor, 4 votes against and 4 abstentions. On the morning of February 24, All-Russia Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution to accept the German ultimatum. On February 24, the Soviet government sent a new negotiating delegation to negotiate with Germany. On March 3, 1918, the peace treaty was officially signed in Brest-Litovsk.

“Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty” was a kind of revolutionary compromise which was carried out by the newly established Soviet regime in order to extricate itself from the imperialist war and concentrate on consolidating the victorious achievements of the October Revolution. Although Soviet Russia suffered a huge loss of land and had to pay war reparations, it did not touch the fundamental achievements of the October Revolution, instead, it won a peaceful breathing space for the young Soviet Republic to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, recover the national economy and establish a regular Red Army, creating conditions for defeating the armed interference of the White Guards and the imperialist interventions. The German revolution which erupted in November 1918 overthrew King William II and on November 13, 1918, All-Russia Central Executive Committee announced the annulment of the “Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty.”