Russo-German fraternization in a photograph January 21, 1918 on the Berezina River, a tributary of the Dnieper and east of Minsk. Part of the message on the reverse side reads: '1/21/18 . . . sending a view from a meeting on the Berezina.' (Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.)
'1/21/18 . . . sending a view from a meeting on the Berezina.'(Translation courtesy of Thomas Faust, eBay's Urfaust.)
"Between the representatives of the higher command of Russia on the one hand and of Bulgaria, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey on the other hand, for the purpose of achieving a lasting and honorable peace between both parties, the following armistice is concluded:The armistice shall begin on December 17th at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and continue until January 14th. . . .The armistice embraces the land and aërial forces on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and also the Russo-Turkish front in Asia Minor. . . . With the purpose of facilitating the conduct of peace negotiations and the speedy healing of the wounds caused by the war, the contracting parties take measures for re-establishment of cultural and economic relations among the signatories. Within such limits as the armistice permits, postal commercial relations, the mailing of books and papers, will be permitted, the details to be worked out by a mixed commission, representing all the interested parties, at Petrograd."
Excerpts from the armistice between the warring parties on the Russian Front signed on December 16, 1917, following agreements suspending hostilities in the preceding days. The armistice provided for intercourse between the two sides from sunrise to sunset, in groups of not more than twenty-five people, during which they could exchange papers, magazines, and unsealed mail, as well as trade in 'articles of prime necessity.' Both sides used this opportunity to spread propaganda, the Bolsheviks finding many German soldiers who were tired of the war and open to their message. Petrograd was the capital of Russia.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, pp. 391–392, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1917-12-16, 1917, December, Brest-Litovsk, armistice, fraternizing Russian troops, Petrograd, Berezina River fraternization
