I've killed many Germans, but never women or children. Original French watercolor by John on blank field postcard. In the background are indolent Russian soldiers and Vladimir Lenin, in the foreground stands what may be a Romanian soldier who is telling the Russians, 'You call me savage. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!'
T'appelles moi sauvage !. Moi, tuer Boches beaucoup, mais jamais li femmes et li s'enfants !You call me wild. I killed a lot of Boches [Germans], but never women or children!
"Let us beware of becoming the slaves of our own phrases. In our day wars are won not by mere enthusiasm, but by technical superiority. Give me an army of 100,000 men, an army which will not tremble before the enemy, and I will not sign this peace. Can you raise an army? Can you give me anything but prattle and the drawing up of pasteboard figures? . . . If we retire to the Urals we can resist the pressure of the Germans for two or three weeks, then after a month's delay we shall sign conditions which are a hundred times worse. You must sign this shameful peace in order to save the world Revolution, in order to hold fast to its most important, and at present, its only foothold—the Soviet Republic. . . ."
Vladimir Lenin speaking to the Petrograd Soviet and the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets on the night of February 23–24, 1918, attempting to persuade the members to sign peace terms demanded by Germany. Leon Trotsky, head of the Russian delegation to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference with the Central Powers, left the negotiations on February 10, 1918 saying Russia would not sign peace terms laid down by Germany, but would withdraw from the war. In the following days Trotsky and Lenin debated whether the Germans would accept this situation or resume hostilities. On the 16th General Hoffmann, military head of the German delegation, delivered his response, ending the armistice. Two days later the Germans resumed the war, violating the terms of the armistice which called for a seven-day notice of termination, and advancing against little to no resistance.
Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace; March 1918 by John W. Wheeler-Bennett by John W. Wheeler-Bennett, page 260, publisher: The Norton Library, publication date: 1971, first published 193
1918-02-23, 1918, February, peace, Lenin, Vladimir Lenin
