October 25 (November 7), 1917 in Petrograd occurred October coup. The provisional government fell, power passed into the hands of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, convened in Smolny on October 25, established the Soviet Republic in the country. V.I. was elected head of the government. Lenin. On October 26 (November 8), 1917, the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Decree on Peace. In it, the Soviet government offered "all warring peoples and their governments to begin immediately negotiations for a just and democratic peace." It was further explained that the Soviet government considers such a peace to be an immediate peace without annexations, without the forcible annexation of foreign nationalities, and without indemnities.

Indeed, among the many tasks that the victorious Soviets had to solve, one of the most important was the way out of the war. The fate of the socialist revolution largely depended on this. The working masses were waiting for deliverance from the hardships and hardships of the war. Millions of soldiers rushed from the fronts, from the trenches home, V.I. Lenin wrote then: "... What can be more indisputable and clearer than the following truth: the government that gave the people exhausted by a three-year predatory war Soviet power, land, workers' control and peace, would be invincible? Peace is the main thing" (Lenin V.I. Complete collection of works - T.35.-S.361).

The governments of the Entente countries did not even respond to the proposal of the Second Congress of Soviets for the conclusion of peace. On the contrary, they tried to prevent Russia from withdrawing from the war. Instead of looking for ways to peace, they tried to prevent Russia from leaving the war. Instead of looking for ways to peace, they set out to support the counter-revolution in Russia and organize an anti-Soviet intervention in order, as Winston Churchill put it, "to strangle the communist mother hen until she hatches her chickens."

Under these conditions, it was decided to independently begin negotiations with Germany on the conclusion of peace.

A sharp discussion flared up in the party and in the Soviets - should we conclude peace or not? Three points of view fought: Lenin and his supporters - to agree to the signing of the annexationist peace; groups of "left communists" headed by Bukharin - not to conclude peace with Germany, but to declare "revolutionary" war on her and thereby help the German proletariat to kindle a revolution; Trotsky - "neither peace, nor war."

The Soviet Peace Delegation, headed by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs L.D. Trotsky, Lenin gave instructions to delay the signing of peace. There was a glimmer of hope that a revolution might break out in Germany. But Trotsky did not fulfill this condition. After the German delegation led the negotiations in an ultimatum tone, he stated that Soviet republic stops the war, demobilizes the army: but does not sign peace. As Trotsky later explained, he hoped that such a gesture would stir up the German proletariat. The Soviet delegation immediately left Brest. Negotiations through the fault of Trotsky were disrupted.

The German government, which had long been developing a plan to capture Russia, received a pretext for breaking the truce. On February 18, at 12 noon, German troops went on the offensive along the entire front - from the Gulf of Riga to the mouth of the Danube. It was attended by about 700 thousand people.

Plan German command provided for the rapid capture of Petrograd, Moscow, the fall of the Soviets and the conclusion of peace with the new, "non-Bolshevik government."

The retreat of the old Russian army began, which by this time had lost its combat capability. The German divisions moved almost unhindered into the interior of the country, and above all in the direction of Petrograd. On the morning of February 19, Lenin sent a telegram to the German government agreeing to sign peace on the proposed terms. At the same time, the Council of People's Commissars took measures to organize military resistance to the enemy. It was provided by small detachments of the Red Guard, the Red Army and individual units of the old army. However, the German offensive developed rapidly. Dvinsk, Minsk, Polotsk, a significant part of Estonia and Latvia were lost. The Germans rushed to Petrograd. Mortal danger hung over the Soviet Republic.

On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars adopted V.I. Lenin's decree "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!". On February 22 and 23, 1918, in Petrograd, Pskov, Revel, Narva, Moscow, Smolensk and other cities, a campaign was launched to enlist in the Red Army.

Near Pskov and Reval, in Latvia, Belarus, in Ukraine, there were battles with the Kaiser units. In the Petrograd direction, Soviet troops managed to stop the enemy's offensive.

Rising Resistance Soviet troops cooled the ardor of the German generals. Fearing a protracted war in the East and an attack by Anglo-American and French troops from the West, the German government decided to make peace. But the peace conditions he proposed were even more difficult. The Soviet Republic had to completely demobilize the army, conclude unfavorable agreements with Germany, and so on.

The peace treaty with Germany was signed in Brest on March 3, 1918 and went down in history under the name of the Brest peace.

Thus, Russia emerged from the First World War, but for Soviet power in Russia it was only a respite that was used to strengthen power and economy, to prepare for "rebuff to world imperialism."

The challenge posed to the revolution by the speech of Gen. Kornilov, had as its consequence the final collapse of the Menshevik-Socialist-Revolutionary influence among the soldier masses.

Kerensky declared himself commander in chief on 30 August. As chief of staff, Kerensky took over the gene. Alekseev.

The state of all armed forces in September was as follows. In the "non-public" summaries of reports on the mood of the armies, which were compiled by the military-political department of the headquarters of the supreme commander, we find the following conclusions:

"The general mood of the army continues to be tense, nervously expectant. The main motives that determine the mood of the masses of soldiers are, as before, an uncontrollable thirst for peace, a spontaneous desire to go to the rear, and a desire to come to some kind of denouement as soon as possible. In addition, the lack of uniforms and food, the lack of any occupation due to their uselessness and uselessness, according to the soldiers, on the eve of peace, depressingly affects the mood of the soldiers and leads to disappointment.".

The same report contains a report from the commander of the 12th Army, who, having contact with other commanders, writes:

"The army is a huge, tired, poorly dressed, barely fed, embittered crowd of people united by a thirst for peace and general disappointment. Such a characteristic can be applied without much stretch to the entire front in general." .

On October 25 (November 7), 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown, government passed into the hands of the proletariat.

The events of October 1917 radically changed the situation in Eastern Front. Lenin and his supporters did not take power into their own hands in order to continue the exhausting bloody war with those on whose money they had lived comfortably until quite recently. Already on November 8, 1917, the II Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies adopted the so-called Decree on Peace, in which he proposed that all warring countries make peace without annexations and indemnities. As expected, this demagogic slogan was not heard either in the countries of the Entente or in the capitals of the central bloc.

Having received no answer, the new Russian government took practical steps and demanded on November 21 that the commander-in-chief of the army, General Dukhonin, immediately conclude a truce with the Germans. The next day, a similar proposal was sent to the Entente ambassadors in Petrograd. The thing that Russia's recent allies most feared has happened. However, no response to these proposals of the Bolsheviks again followed.

On November 22, 1917, the Bolshevik government, by its order, removed Dukhonin from the post of commander-in-chief, and appointed ensign N.V. Krylenko. On the same day, the soldiers and sailors of the former Russian army were asked to take the cause of peace into their own hands. On November 26, the new commander-in-chief turned to the enemy with the question: does the German command agree to start negotiations with him on a truce?

The answer to this question for the Germans was not as simple as it might seem at first glance. The leadership of Berlin in relation to Russia was faced with an alternative: on the one hand, it was possible to break through the almost non-existent front line, occupy Petrograd and win a final military victory, on the other hand, conclude a peace treaty with Russia on tough German terms. The main drawback of the first scenario was the need to use quite significant forces on the Eastern Front - the vast expanses of Russia, while it became completely obvious that the fate of the Second Reich was being decided in the West. In those days when the Bolshevik government was begging for negotiations, Ludendorff summoned the commander of the Eastern Front headquarters, General Hoffmann, to him and asked him one single question: is it possible to deal with the new Russian government? Hoffman later recalled: I answered in the affirmative, since Ludendorff needed troops and a truce would free our units from the Eastern Front. I thought a lot about whether it would not be better for the German government and the supreme command to reject negotiations with the Bolshevik authorities. By giving the Bolsheviks the opportunity to stop the war and thereby satisfy the thirst for peace that gripped the entire Russian people, we helped them retain power." .

Having agreed to negotiate with Russia, Ludendorff set the conditions for these negotiations to be conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the surrender of Poland, Finland, the Baltic States, Moldova, Eastern Galicia and Armenia by Russia, and later the conclusion of a formal alliance with Petrograd. True, Berlin's allies were ready to accept less harsh conditions. Torn apart by internal contradictions, the Austrians, according to their Foreign Minister O. Chernin, were ready " satisfy Russia as soon as possible, and then convince the Entente that it is impossible to crush us and make peace, even if we have to give up something".

Meanwhile, on December 1, after the last commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Dukhonin, was killed by the rebellious sailors, the Bolsheviks managed to capture the headquarters in Mogilev. And three days earlier, Ludendorff had agreed to start official peace talks with Russia on December 2. The place of negotiations was Brest-Litovsk.

The German delegation at the talks was headed by the Secretary of State for foreign affairs Kuhlman, the Austrians also sent Chernin, the head of their foreign affairs department, to Brest-Litovsk, the Bulgarians sent their minister of justice, and the Turks sent their chief vizier and foreign minister. The members of the delegations of the Central Powers were, as a rule, military and professional diplomats.

Compared with them, the Bolshevik delegation in Brest-Litovsk was a very curious sight. The delegation was headed by a professional revolutionary, a native of a wealthy merchant family, a doctor by profession A.A. Ioffe. According to the military expert of the delegation, Lieutenant Colonel D.G. Focke, this man with a "characteristic semitic face" had "an unpleasant, rather contemptuous look. Such a look is in cowards by nature when they feel safe and lucky." At the same time, his long dirty hair, shabby hat and greasy uncut beard evoked a feeling of disgust in the interlocutors. No less colorful, according to Focke, looked like other representatives of the revolutionary Russian people. L.M. Karakhan was "a typical Armenian, almost that caricature of the "Eastern man" who is able to move from sleepy couch potato to noisy, mobile agitation." About the only woman in the delegation of A.A. Bitsenko only knew that she had killed the Minister of War, General Sakharov, for which she received seventeen years of hard labor.

Departing for Brest, already at the entrance to the Varshavsky railway station in Petrograd, the leaders of the delegation remembered with horror that they did not have a single representative of the peasantry. Luckily for them, an old man "in a zipun and with a knapsack" was walking along the street. The delegates offered to give a ride to the "grey-gray, with a brick tan and deep senile wrinkles" peasant to the station, and on the way they persuaded the resisting grandfather to represent the interests of the peasantry in negotiations with the Germans for business trips. The representatives of Russia from workers, soldiers and sailors looked no less imposing at the Brest negotiations.

At the very first meeting, the head of the Soviet delegation suggested that the negotiating parties should base their negotiations on the recently adopted Decree on Peace and at the same time take a ten-day break for the arrival of representatives of the Entente countries (the Bolsheviks firmly believed that during this period the world revolution would have time to happen, as in war-torn Germany and Austria-Hungary, and in the countries of the Entente). The Germans, however, did not believe in a world revolution, and therefore Kühlmann declared that since the Brest negotiations were separate and not universal, Germany and its allies were not bound by any obligations and had complete freedom of action.

On December 4, the Soviet delegation outlined its conditions: a truce is concluded for a period of 6 months, while hostilities cease on all fronts, the Germans undertake to clear the Moonsund archipelago and Riga and not to transfer their troops to the Western Front - the Bolsheviks did not want to break completely with their recent allies. At the same time, the Soviet delegation constantly emphasized that we could only talk about general, and not about separate negotiations.

At first, the Germans were at a loss - according to General Hoffmann, only the winners, and not the losing side, could set such conditions. The transfer of troops to the West continued in full swing, but under the threat of a breakdown in negotiations, on December 15, an agreement was reached between the two sides, according to which Russia and the central bloc of powers concluded a truce for a period of 28 days. In the event of a break in the truce, the opponents were obliged to notify each other of this 7 days in advance. After the armistice was signed, the delegations returned home for consultations with their governments.

The time given for the preparation of peace talks was used by the parties in different ways. The Soviet government, for example, on December 22 called on the peoples of the whole world to unite in the struggle against the imperialists for the conclusion of a democratic peace. In Germany, on December 18, at the headquarters of the Supreme High Command, a meeting of the country's military and political leadership was held under the chairmanship of Kaiser Wilhelm. There was almost only one question considered - what territorial requirements should be presented to the new leadership of Russia. As Ludendorff later recalled, at the meeting it was decided to seek the annexation of Lithuania and Courland to the Reich and the liberation of the territories of Estonia and Livonia by Russia.

By this time, the collapse of the Russian army had already assumed an uncontrollable character. After the call for fraternization on November 21, the leader of the Bolsheviks turned to the soldiers with a new call - to immediately select representatives for negotiations with the enemy on a truce. The involvement of peasants in "grey soldiers' overcoats" in diplomatic negotiations undermined the remnants of discipline in the army. It turned out to be even more divided into opponents of the negotiations, to which most of the officers and military personnel belonged, and supporters of peace at any cost from among the soldiers. Their psychology was simple: " I am Vologda (Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian). The German will not reach us".

The day after Lenin's call, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the gradual reduction of the army, according to which all soldiers of the 1899 draft year were dismissed into the indefinite reserve. The order was immediately sent by radiotelephone to all headquarters. But it was drawn up so legally illiterate, it was distinguished by such vagueness and fuzzy wording that it only agitated the soldier masses. Those responsible for carrying out the demobilization were not appointed, as a result, a general flight began from the army, already affected by the desertion virus.

At the same time, "democratization" began to take place. Russian army when officers and generals who went through "fire, water and copper pipes" were fired en masse, and in their place were appointed nominees from the people, whose only merit was loyalty to the new regime. The uncontrollability of the troops hastened the final collapse of the army in the field. On November 27, the Northern Front was the first to conclude a truce with the enemy, then the South-Western, Western, Romanian and, finally, the last - the Caucasian.

In this situation, the first round of negotiations in Brest-Litovsk on the conclusion of peace between Russia and the Central Powers began. This time the Soviet delegation was reinforced by the historian M.N. Pokrovsky, a prominent Bolshevik L.B. Kamenev, rear admiral V. Altvater, A. Samoilo, V. Lipsky, I. Tseplit were military consultants. The German and Austro-Hungarian delegations were headed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Kulman and Chernin, the Bulgarian one by the Minister of Justice Popov, and the Turkish one by the Chairman of the Mejlis Talaat Pasha.

The separate peace conference in Brest-Litovsk on December 22, 1917 was opened by the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Kühlmann took the chair. Already at one of the first meetings, the Soviet delegation proposed its peace program, which consisted of six points.

The first paragraph spoke about the prevention of the forcible annexation of territories captured during the war, and the troops that present moment occupied these territories, must be withdrawn from there as soon as possible. The second paragraph called for the restoration of in full the independence of those peoples who were deprived of this independence during the war. In the third, national groups that did not have independence before the war were guaranteed the opportunity to decide at a referendum the question of belonging to any state, and this referendum should be organized in such a way as to ensure free voting for both emigrants and refugees. In relation to territories inhabited by several nationalities, the fourth paragraph proposed to ensure cultural-national, and, if possible, administrative autonomy. The fifth paragraph announced the rejection of indemnities, and the sixth proposed to resolve all colonial problems between states on the basis of paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4.

After all the proposals of the Soviet delegation were announced, the allies in the coalition of the Central Powers asked for a break for one day to discuss them. The meetings resumed on December 25, and at the same time, to the surprise of many, Kuhlmann stated that " the points of the Russian declaration can be used as the basis for peace negotiations", and proposed to establish peace without annexations and indemnities. In fact, the Germans' consent to a "democratic" peace is not surprising if you take a closer look at political map the end of 1917.

A world without annexations and indemnities, in fact, meant the recognition by the governments and peoples of the Entente countries of their military and political defeat. Whatever political views no matter how a simple Englishman, Frenchman, Belgian or Serb adhered, this "peace" for him meant only that those who devastated it native land Germans and Austrians will be able to return with impunity to their cities and villages that have never been under occupation and shelling. In this situation, the peoples of the Entente will have to raise their ruined economy from the ruins on their own hump. This is what a world without indemnities meant to them. A world without annexations assumed that the French would forever have to give up the idea of ​​regaining their lost Alsace and Lorraine, and the Slavic peoples with the idea of ​​restoring their own statehood.

Of course, the very idea of ​​the slogan of peace without annexations and indemnities was generated by the ideas of the Russian Bolsheviks about the First World War as a purely imperialist one. Sober-minded people, no matter what nationality they belong to, today have no doubts about the fallacy of this statement, and, accordingly, the slogans put forward by the Bolsheviks.

And the Germans themselves, having supported these slogans in words, interpreted them in a very peculiar way and quite unexpectedly for the Soviet delegation. On December 26, over a cup of tea, General Hoffmann said that Germany cannot liberate Poland, Lithuania and Courland, firstly, because there are many enterprises working for the defense of the Reich, and secondly, since the Russians recognize the right of peoples to self-determination up to secession, they should also recognize the independence of Poland and the Baltic peoples and their right to decide their own fate together with Germany. For the Soviet delegation, the statement of the Germans sounded like a thunder among clear sky. "Ioffe definitely had a blow", - Hoffman wrote in his diary. This fact, in our opinion, quite clearly indicates the degree of realism of the Soviet government.

The decomposition of the army in 1917 - Central archive, 1925, p. 143-144.

Hoffman M. Notes and diaries. 1914-1918, L., 1929. p. 231.

Signing of the Brest Peace

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk meant the defeat and withdrawal of Russia from the First World War.

A separate international peace treaty was signed on March 3, 1918 in Brest-Litovsk by representatives of Soviet Russia (on the one hand) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria) on the other. Separate peace- a peace treaty concluded by one of the participants in the warring coalition without the knowledge and consent of the allies. Such a peace is usually concluded before the general cessation of the war.

The signing of the Brest Peace Treaty was prepared in 3 stages.

The history of the signing of the Brest Peace

First stage

Soviet delegation in Brest-Litovsk met by German officers

The Soviet delegation at the first stage included 5 commissioners - members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: A. A. Ioffe - chairman of the delegation, L. B. Kamenev (Rozenfeld) and G. Ya. Sokolnikov (Brilliant), SRs A. A. Bitsenko and S. D Maslovsky-Mstislavsky, 8 members of the military delegation, 3 translators, 6 technical officers and 5 ordinary members of the delegation (sailor, soldier, Kaluga peasant, worker, ensign of the fleet).

The armistice negotiations were overshadowed by a tragedy in the Russian delegation: during a private meeting of the Soviet delegation, a representative of the Headquarters in a group of military consultants, Major General V. E. Skalon, shot himself. Many Russian officers believed that he was crushed because of the humiliating defeat, the collapse of the army and the fall of the country.

Based general principles Decree on Peace, the Soviet delegation immediately proposed to adopt the following program as the basis for negotiations:

1. No forced annexation of territories captured during the war is allowed; the troops occupying these territories are withdrawn as soon as possible.
2. The full political independence of the peoples who were deprived of this independence during the war is being restored.
3. 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.
4. Cultural-national and, under certain conditions, administrative autonomy of national minorities is ensured.
5. Refusal of contributions.
6. Solution of colonial issues on the basis of the above principles.
7. Prevention of indirect restrictions on the freedom of weaker nations by stronger nations.

On December 28, the Soviet delegation left for Petrograd. The current state of affairs was discussed at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). By a majority of votes, it was decided to drag out the peace negotiations as long as possible, in the hope of an early revolution in Germany itself.

The Entente governments did not respond to an invitation to take part in peace negotiations.

Second phase

At the second stage of the negotiations, the Soviet Delegation was headed by L.D. Trotsky. The German high command expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the delay in peace negotiations, fearing the disintegration of the army. The Soviet delegation demanded that the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary confirm their lack of intention to annex any territories of the former Russian Empire- in the opinion of the Soviet delegation, the issue of the future fate of the self-determining territories should be decided by a popular referendum, after the withdrawal of foreign troops and the return of refugees and displaced persons. General Hoffmann in his response speech stated that the German government refuses to clear the occupied territories of Courland, Lithuania, Riga and the islands of the Gulf of Riga.

On January 18, 1918, General Hoffmann, at a meeting of the political commission, presented the conditions of the Central Powers: Poland, Lithuania, part of Belarus and Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia, the Moonsund Islands and the Gulf of Riga retreated in favor of Germany and Austria-Hungary. This allowed Germany to control the sea routes to the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, as well as to develop an offensive against Petrograd. The Russian Baltic ports passed into the hands of Germany. The proposed border was extremely unfavorable for Russia: the absence of natural borders and the preservation of Germany's foothold on the banks of the Western Dvina near Riga in the event of war threatened to occupy all of Latvia and Estonia, threatened Petrograd. The Soviet delegation demanded a new interruption of the peace conference for another ten days in order to familiarize their government with the German demands. The self-confidence of the German delegation increased after the Bolsheviks dispersed the Constituent Assembly on January 19, 1918.

By mid-January 1918, a split was taking shape in the RSDLP(b): a group of "left communists" headed by N. I. Bukharin insisted on rejecting the German demands, and Lenin insisted on their acceptance, publishing the Theses on Peace on January 20. The main argument of the “left communists” is that without an immediate revolution in the countries of Western Europe, the socialist revolution in Russia will perish. They did not allow any agreements with the imperialist states and demanded that "revolutionary war" be declared on international imperialism. They declared their readiness "to accept the possibility of losing Soviet power" in the name of "the interests of the international revolution." The conditions proposed by the Germans, shameful for Russia, were opposed by: N. I. Bukharin, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, M. S. Uritsky, A. S. Bubnov, K. B. Radek, A. A. Ioffe, N. N. Krestinsky , N. V. Krylenko, N. I. Podvoisky and others. The views of the "left communists" were supported by a number of party organizations in Moscow, Petrograd, the Urals, etc. Trotsky preferred to maneuver between the two factions, putting forward an "intermediate" platform "neither peace, nor war "-" We stop the war, we do not conclude peace, we demobilize the army.

On January 21, Lenin gives a detailed justification for the need to sign peace, announcing his "Theses on the immediate conclusion of a separate and annexationist peace" (they were published only on February 24). 15 participants of the meeting voted for Lenin's theses, 32 people supported the position of the "Left Communists" and 16 - the position of Trotsky.

Before the departure of the Soviet delegation to Brest-Litovsk to continue negotiations, Lenin instructed Trotsky to drag out the negotiations in every possible way, but in the event that the Germans presented an ultimatum, peace would be signed.

IN AND. Lenin

On March 6-8, 1918, at the 7th emergency congress of the RSDLP (b), Lenin managed to persuade everyone to ratify the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Voting: 30 for ratification, 12 against, 4 abstentions. Following the results of the congress, the party was, at the suggestion of Lenin, renamed the RCP (b). The congress delegates were not acquainted with the text of the treaty. Nevertheless, on March 14-16, 1918, the IV Extraordinary All-Russian Congress of Soviets finally ratified the peace treaty, which was adopted by a majority of 784 votes against 261 with 115 abstentions and decided to transfer the capital from Petrograd to Moscow in connection with the danger of a German offensive. As a result, representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party left the Council of People's Commissars. Trotsky resigned.

L.D. Trotsky

Third stage

None of the Bolshevik leaders wanted to put their signature on the shameful treaty for Russia: Trotsky had resigned by the time of signing, Ioffe refused to go as part of a delegation to Brest-Litovsk. Sokolnikov and Zinoviev proposed each other's candidacies, Sokolnikov also refused the appointment, threatening to resign. But after long negotiations, Sokolnikov nevertheless agreed to lead the Soviet delegation. The new composition of the delegation: G. Ya. The delegation arrived in Brest-Litovsk on March 1 and two days later, without any discussion, signed the contract. The official ceremony of signing the agreement took place in the White Palace (the house of the Nemtsevichs in the village of Skokie, Brest region) and ended at 5 p.m. on March 3, 1918. And the German-Austrian offensive that began in February 1918 continued until March 4, 1918.

The signing of the Brest peace treaty took place in this palace

Terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Richard Pipes, American scientist, doctor historical sciences, a professor of Russian history at Harvard University, described the terms of this agreement as follows: “The terms of the agreement were extremely onerous. They made it possible to imagine what kind of peace the countries of the Quadruple Accord would have to sign if they lost the war … ". According to this treaty, Russia was obliged to make many territorial concessions by demobilizing its army and navy.

• The Vistula provinces, Ukraine, provinces with a predominantly Belarusian population, Estland, Courland and Livonia provinces, the Grand Duchy of Finland were torn away from Russia. Most of these territories were to become German protectorates or become part of Germany. Russia pledged to recognize the independence of Ukraine represented by the government of the UNR.
• In the Caucasus, Russia conceded the Kars region and the Batumi region.
• The Soviet government ended the war with the Ukrainian Central Council (Rada) of the Ukrainian People's Republic and made peace with it.
• The army and navy were demobilized.
• The Baltic Fleet was withdrawn from its bases in Finland and the Baltic.
• The Black Sea Fleet with all the infrastructure was transferred to the Central Powers.
• Russia paid 6 billion marks in reparations plus the payment of losses incurred by Germany during the Russian revolution - 500 million gold rubles.
• The Soviet government undertook to stop revolutionary propaganda in the Central Powers and allied states formed on the territory of the Russian Empire.

If the results of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk are translated into the language of numbers, it will look like this: a territory of 780,000 square meters was torn away from Russia. km with a population of 56 million people (a third of the population of the Russian Empire), on which 27% of cultivated agricultural land was located before the revolution, 26% of the total railway network, 33 % textile industry, 73% of iron and steel were smelted, 89% of coal was mined and 90% of sugar was produced; there were 918 textile factories, 574 breweries, 133 tobacco factories, 1685 distilleries, 244 chemical plants, 615 pulp mills, 1073 machine-building plants and 40% of industrial workers lived.

Russia was withdrawing all its troops from these territories, while Germany, on the contrary, was introducing them there.

Consequences of the Brest Peace

German troops occupied Kyiv

Promotion German army was not limited to the boundaries of the zone of occupation defined by the peace treaty. Under the pretext of ensuring the power of the "legitimate government" of Ukraine, the Germans continued their offensive. On March 12, the Austrians occupied Odessa, on March 17 - Nikolaev, on March 20 - Kherson, then Kharkov, Crimea and the southern part of the Don region, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don. The movement of the “democratic counter-revolution” began, proclaiming the Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik governments in Siberia and the Volga region, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary uprising in July 1918 in Moscow and the transition civil war to large-scale battles.

The Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, as well as the faction of “Left Communists” that had formed within the RCP(b), spoke of the “betrayal of the world revolution,” since the conclusion of peace on the Eastern Front objectively strengthened the conservative Kaiser regime in Germany. The Left SRs resigned from the Council of People's Commissars in protest. The opposition rejected Lenin's arguments that Russia could not but accept the German conditions in connection with the collapse of its army, putting forward a plan for the transition to mass popular uprising against the German-Austrian invaders.

Patriarch Tikhon

The Entente powers took the concluded separate peace with hostility. On March 6, British troops landed in Murmansk. On March 15, the Entente announced the non-recognition of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, on April 5, Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok, and on August 2, British troops landed in Arkhangelsk.

But on August 27, 1918, in Berlin, in the strictest secrecy, a Russian-German supplementary treaty to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and a Russian-German financial agreement were concluded, which were signed on behalf of the government of the RSFSR by Plenipotentiary A. A. Ioffe, and on behalf of Germany - von P. Ginze and I. Krige.

Soviet Russia pledged to pay Germany, as compensation for damages and expenses for the maintenance of Russian prisoners of war, a huge indemnity of 6 billion marks (2.75 billion rubles), including 1.5 billion gold (245.5 tons of pure gold) and credit obligations, 1 billion deliveries of goods. In September 1918, two "gold echelons" (93.5 tons of "pure gold" worth over 120 million gold rubles) were sent to Germany. Almost all Russian gold that arrived in Germany was subsequently transferred to France as an indemnity under the Versailles Peace Treaty.

According to the supplementary agreement, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine and Georgia, renounced Estonia and Livonia, which, under the original agreement, were formally recognized as part of Russian state, bargaining for himself the right to access the Baltic ports (Revel, Riga and Windau) and retaining the Crimea, control over Baku, giving Germany a quarter of the products produced there. Germany agreed to withdraw its troops from Belarus, from the Black Sea coast, from Rostov and part of the Don basin, and also not to occupy any more Russian territory and not support separatist movements on Russian soil.

On November 13, after the Allied victory in the war, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was annulled by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. But Russia could no longer take advantage of the fruits of the common victory and take a place among the winners.

Soon, the withdrawal of German troops from the occupied territories of the former Russian Empire began. After the annulment of the Brest Treaty among the Bolshevik leaders, Lenin's authority became indisputable: “By perspicaciously accepting a humiliating peace that gave him the necessary time, and then collapsed under the influence of his own gravity, Lenin earned the broad confidence of the Bolsheviks. When, on November 13, 1918, they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, following which Germany capitulated to the Western Allies, Lenin's authority in the Bolshevik movement was raised to an unprecedented height. Nothing better served his reputation as a man who made no political mistakes; never again did he have to threaten to resign in order to insist on his own,” R. Pipes wrote in his work “The Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power”.

The civil war in Russia continued until 1922 and ended with the establishment of Soviet power in most of the territory former Russia, with the exception of Finland, Bessarabia, the Baltic states, Poland (including the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus that became part of it).

... the main significance of our success lies in the fact that for the first time in history the imperialist government ... was forced to accept the declaration of the proletarian government ...

On December 6, 1918, an agreement was reached between the Soviet delegation and representatives of Austria-Hungary to conclude a 10-day truce on the Eastern Front. It was decided to continue the negotiations after a short break, during which the Soviet diplomats were to return to Moscow and receive instructions on their future activities.

On December 6, Trotsky informed the ambassadors of Great Britain, France, the USA, Italy, China, Japan, Romania, Belgium and Serbia that the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk were interrupted for a week, and invited the governments of the "allied countries to determine their attitude" towards them.

On December 10, at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, the issue of instructions for the Soviet delegation at peace negotiations was discussed - in the decision of the Council of People's Commissars it was written: "Instructions on negotiations - based on the" Decree on Peace "". Some changes were made in the composition of the delegation itself: “representatives of the revolutionary classes” were excluded from its old composition and a number of officers were added to the remaining ones - Generals Vladimir Skalon, Yuri Danilov, Alexander Andogsky and Alexander Samoilo, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Tseplit and Captain Vladimir Lipsky.

On December 9, already at the first meeting, the Soviet delegation proposed to adopt a program of six main and one additional points as the basis for negotiations:

1. no forcible annexation of territories captured during the war is allowed; the troops occupying these territories are withdrawn as soon as possible;
2. the full political independence of the peoples who were deprived of this independence during the war is restored;
3. 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;
4. cultural and national and, under certain conditions, administrative autonomy of national minorities is ensured;
5. indemnities are waived;
6. the solution of colonial questions is carried out on the basis of the same principles.

In addition, Ioffe proposed not to allow indirect restrictions on the freedom of weaker nations by stronger nations.

After a three-day heated discussion of the Soviet proposals by the countries of the German bloc, a statement was made that German Empire and its allies as a whole (with a number of remarks) accept these provisions of universal peace and that they “join the view of the Russian delegation, which condemns the continuation of the war for purely conquest purposes”

On December 15, 1917, the next stage of negotiations ended with the conclusion of a truce for a period of 28 days. The Soviet delegation removed the condition for the withdrawal of troops from the Moonsund archipelago, and the Central Powers did not demand the cleansing of Anatolia.

The description was prepared according to the book by A.M. Zayonchkovsky "World War 1914-1918", ed. 1931

In the First World War, which began in the summer of 1914, Russia took the side of the Entente and its allies - the United States, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, Japan and Romania. This coalition was opposed by the Central Powers - a military-political bloc that included Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Bulgarian kingdom and the Ottoman Empire.

The protracted war exhausted the economy of the Russian Empire. At the beginning of 1917, rumors about an impending famine spread around the capital, bread cards appeared. And on February 21, robberies of bakeries began. Local pogroms quickly developed into anti-war actions under the slogans "Down with the war!", "Down with the autocracy!", "Bread!". By February 25, at least 300,000 people took part in the rallies.

The data on colossal losses destabilized society even more: according to various estimates, from 775 thousand to 1 million 300 thousand Russian soldiers died in the First World War.

In the same February days of 1917, a riot began in the troops. By the spring, the orders of the officers were not actually carried out, and the May Declaration of the Rights of the Soldier, which equalized the rights of soldiers and civilians, further undermined discipline. The failure of the summer Riga operation, as a result of which Russia lost Riga and 18 thousand people killed and captured, led to the fact that the army finally lost its morale.

The Bolsheviks also played their part in this, considering the army as a threat to their power. They skillfully fueled pacifist sentiments in military circles.

And in the rear it became a catalyst for two revolutions - February and October. The Bolsheviks got an already morally broken army, which was not able to fight.

• Line for bread. Petrograd, 1917
• RIA News

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

“The conclusion of the Brest Peace was an inevitable, forced measure. The Bolsheviks themselves, fearing the suppression of their uprising, decomposed royal army and understood that she was not capable of full-fledged combat operations, ”said Valery Korovin, director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise, in an interview with RT.

Peace Decree

A month after the October Revolution, on November 8, 1917, the new government adopted a Decree on Peace, the main thesis of which was an immediate truce without annexations and indemnities. However, the proposal to start negotiations of the powers of the "friendly agreement" was ignored, and the Council of People's Commissars was forced to act independently.

Lenin sent a telegram to the units of the Russian army that were at 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.

On December 22, 1917, Soviet Russia began negotiations with the Central Powers. However, the formula "without annexations and indemnities" did not suit Germany and Austria-Hungary. They suggested that Russia "take note of the statements expressing the will of the peoples inhabiting Poland, Lithuania, Courland and parts of Estland and Livonia, about their desire for complete state independence and separation from the Russian Federation."

Of course, the Soviet side could not fulfill such requirements. It was decided in Petrograd that time had to be gained in order to reorganize the army and prepare for the defense of the capital. For this, Trotsky leaves for Brest-Litovsk.

The mission of the "puller"

“In order to drag out the negotiations, you need a “delayer,” as Lenin put it,” Trotsky would later write, calling his participation in the negotiations “visits to the torture chamber.”

At the same time, Trotsky conducted "subversive" propaganda activities among the workers and peasants of Germany and Austria-Hungary with an eye on an imminent uprising.

The negotiations were extremely difficult. On January 4, 1918, they were joined by a delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), which did not recognize Soviet power. In Brest-Litovsk, the UNR acted as a third party, putting forward claims to part of the Polish and Austro-Hungarian territories.

Meanwhile, the economic turmoil of the war had also reached the Central Powers. Food cards for the population appeared in Germany and Austria-Hungary, strikes began demanding peace.

On January 18, 1918, the Central Powers presented their terms for an armistice. According to them, Germany and Austria-Hungary received Poland, Lithuania, some territories of Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, the Moonsund Islands, and the Gulf of Riga. The delegation of Soviet Russia, for which the demands of the powers were extremely unfavorable, took a break in the negotiations.

The Russian delegation could not make an informed decision also because serious disagreements arose in the country's leadership.

Thus, Bukharin called for an end to negotiations and a "revolutionary war" against the Western imperialists, believing that even Soviet power itself could be sacrificed for the "interests of the international revolution." Trotsky adhered to the line "no war, no peace": "We do not sign peace, we stop the war, and we demobilize the army."

• Leon Trotsky (in the center) as part of the Russian delegation arrives for negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, 1918
• globallookpress.com
• Berliner Verlag / Archive

Lenin, in turn, wanted peace at all costs and insisted that German demands should be accepted.

“A revolutionary war needs an army, but we don’t have an army ... Undoubtedly, the peace that we are forced to conclude now is an obscene peace, but if a war breaks out, our government will be swept away and peace will be concluded by another government,” he said.

As a result, they decided to drag out the negotiations even more. Trotsky again went to Brest-Litovsk with instructions from Lenin to sign a peace treaty on Germany's terms if she presented an ultimatum.

Russian "surrender"

During the days of the negotiations, a Bolshevik uprising took place in Kyiv. In the Left-bank Ukraine was proclaimed Soviet authority, and Trotsky at the end of January 1918 returned to Brest-Litovsk with representatives of Soviet Ukraine. At the same time, the Central Powers declared that they recognized the sovereignty of the UNR. Then Trotsky announced that, in turn, he did not recognize separate agreements between the UNR and the “partners”.

Despite this, on February 9, the delegations of Germany and Austria-Hungary, with an eye to the difficult economic situation in their countries, signed a peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic. According to the document, in exchange for military assistance against Soviet Russia, the UNR was supposed to supply the "defenders" with food, as well as hemp, manganese ore and a number of other goods.

Having learned about the agreement with the UNR, German Emperor Wilhelm II ordered the German delegation to present an ultimatum to Soviet Russia demanding to abandon the Baltic regions to the Narva-Pskov-Dvinsk line. The formal reason for tightening the rhetoric was Trotsky's allegedly intercepted appeal to German servicemen with a call to "kill the emperor and the generals and fraternize with the Soviet troops."

Contrary to Lenin's decision, Trotsky refused to sign peace on German terms and left the negotiations.

As a result, on February 13, Germany resumed fighting moving rapidly northward. Minsk, Kyiv, Gomel, Chernigov, Mogilev and Zhitomir were taken.

• Demonstrators burn the symbols of the old system on the Champ de Mars, 1918
• RIA News

Lenin, given the low discipline and difficult psychological situation in the Russian army, approved of mass fraternization with the enemy and spontaneous truces.

“Desertion is progressively growing, entire regiments and artillery go to the rear, exposing the front for significant stretches, the Germans are walking in crowds along the abandoned position. Constant visits by enemy soldiers to our positions, especially artillery ones, and the destruction of our fortifications by them, undoubtedly, are of an organized nature, ”the note of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Mikhail Bonch-Bruyevich, said in a note sent to the Council of People's Commissars.

As a result, on March 3, 1918, the delegation of Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty. According to the document, Russia made a number of serious territorial concessions. Baltic Fleet bases in Finland and the Baltic.

Russia lost the Vistula provinces, in which the predominantly Belarusian population lived, the Estonian, Courland and Livonia provinces, as well as the Grand Duchy of Finland.

In part, these regions became protectorates of Germany or were part of it. Russia also lost territories in the Caucasus - Kars and Batumi regions. In addition, Ukraine was rejected: the Soviet government was obliged to recognize the independence of the UNR and stop the war with it.

Also, Soviet Russia had to pay reparations in the amount of 6 billion marks. In addition, Germany demanded compensation for 500 million gold rubles of losses that it allegedly suffered as a result of the Russian revolution.

“The fall of Petrograd was, in general, a matter of, if not a few days, then a few weeks. And under these conditions, guessing whether it was possible or impossible to sign this peace does not make any sense. If we 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,” Rostislav Ishchenko, president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting, said in an interview with RT.

• Vladimir Lenin, 1918
• globallookpress.com

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

“By presciently accepting a humiliating peace that gave him the necessary time and then collapsed under the influence of his own weight, Lenin earned the wide confidence of the Bolsheviks. When, on November 13, 1918, they tore up the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, following which Germany capitulated to the Western Allies, Lenin's authority in the Bolshevik movement was raised to unprecedented heights. Nothing better served his reputation for making no political mistakes,” writes Pipes in his study Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power.

“Largely thanks to the 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.

“The one-time loss of large territories has led to the facilitation and acceleration of the process of self-determination of the population of some of them as sovereign political nations. Subsequently, during the formation of the USSR, this influenced Lenin's choice of this particular model - the national-administrative division into the so-called republics with sovereignty and the right to secede from the USSR already inscribed in their very first constitution, ”Korovin noted.

At the same time, the events of 1918 largely influenced the idea of ​​the Bolsheviks about the role of the state.

“The loss of large territories forced the Bolsheviks as a whole to rethink their attitude towards the state. If until some point the state was not a value in the light of the coming world revolution, then the one-time loss of a large space sobered even the most rabid, forcing them to appreciate the territories from which the state is made up, with their resources, population and industrial potential, ”concluded Korovin .