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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Postcard celebrating the ceasefire on the Eastern Front. The troops are Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German. The flags are Austrian and Russian; the coat of arms and bunting German. Russia declared a ceasefire on December 15, 1917. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war, was signed on March 3, 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers.
In the foreground, a dog scowls at the photographer.
Text:
Waffenstillstand im Osten
Ceasefire in the East

Logo NPG (?) B347

Reverse:
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Postcard celebrating the ceasefire on the Eastern Front. The troops are Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German. The flags are Austrian and Russian; the coat of arms and bunting German. Russia declared a ceasefire on December 15, 1917. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending Russia's involvement in the war, was signed on March 3, 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers.

Image text

Waffenstillstand im Osten

Ceasefire in the East



Logo NPG (?) B347

Other views: Front

December 20, 1917 to March 3, 1918

Brest-Litovsk, Russia

After the Bolshevik Revolution in November, 1917, the new government agreed an armistice between Russia and the Central Powers in December. The delegations began meeting on December 20, with the Russians expecting the Germans to renounce territories occupied in the course of the war. Recognizing the negotiators needed stronger leadership, Vladimir Lenin assigned Leon Trotsky.

The Germans — led by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Richard von Kühlmann, with General Max Hoffmann as the military lead — dominated the Central Power delegation. Austro-Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Ottokar Czernin was desperate for a treaty that would allow food to flow from Russia, particularly Ukraine, to his country, which suffered strikes and riots in January. Trotsky and Lenin expected revolution to spread across Europe, and was bolstered by news from Vienna, particularly as strikes spread to Germany. Kühlmann and Trotsky sparred over the occupied territory, with both calling for self-determination of the peoples of the occupied territories, but the Germans under the current status, the Russians only after an evacuation.

On February 9, the Central Powers signed a Treaty of Peace with Ukraine, a region of Russia then chiefly under German occupation, but with a capital, Kiev, that the Bolsheviks had briefly wrestled from the Ukranians.

On February 10, Trotsky left the conference saying Russia would not sign a peace treaty, but would withdraw from the war, its peasant soldiers returning to their fields, its worker soldiers to their workshops. He and Lenin debated whether the Germans would accept this situation or resume the war. On the 16th they received their answer from General Hoffmann, military head of the German delegation, to his Russian counterpart General Alexander Samoilo. 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.

On the night of February 23–24, noting that he had no army to stop the German advance, that Germany would otherwise continue its advance, and that future terms would be even harsher, Lenin persuaded the majority of the members of the Petrograd Soviet and the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets of the necessity of signing the peace terms demanded by Germany.

On March 3, 1918, the Russians, declaring they did so not in agreement but under duress, signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

1917-12-03

1918-03-03

Events contemporaneous with The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Start Date End Date View
1917-01-01 1917-12-09 Romania at War, 1917
1917-11-20 1917-12-07 Battle of Cambrai
1917-12-09 1917-12-09 Romania negotiates an armistice with the Central Powers
1917-12-15 1917-12-15 Russia and Central Powers sign armistice
1918-01-01 1918-12-31 Romania at War, 1918
1918-03-03 1918-03-03 Russia and the Central Powers sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk