STUDIES IN MODERN HISTORY GeneralEditor: L. B. NAMIER, ProfessorofModern History, University ofManchester BREST-LITOVSK THE FOEGOTTEN PEACE MARCH 1918 . xw.j>jlot(,raj,h. HELD-MAfiSHAL VON LUDENDOBPF BBEST-LITOVSK THE FOKGOTTEN PEACE MARCH 1918 BY JOHN W. WHEELER-BENNETT AUTHOR OF "HINDENBURO, THE WOODEN TITAN" MACMILLAN AND LIMITED CO., ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON COPYRIGHT FEINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN V! R. & R. CLARK, LIMITKD, EDINBURGH TO BRUCE HOPPER I DEDICATE THIS BOOK IN FRIENDSHIP NOTES Exchange Values. Thepre-warvalues of the rouble and the mark in relation to sterling were 2s. ld. and Is. respectively, although justpriorto thewarthe roublehaddroppedto2s.0d. The relation of the rouble to the mark for the same period was approximately1 roubleto 2 Germanmarks. Calendar. Throughout the book the New Style Calendar has been used, the Eussian Revolutions taking place, therefore, inMarch andNovember, andnotin Februaryand October. CONTENTS ........ ..... PAGE INTRODUCTION xi I. EXITS AND ENTRANCES 1 ......21 II. KERENSKY, LENIN, AND PEACE . . . III. THE DECREE OF PEACE 63 " " IV. PEACE WITHOUT INDEMNITIES OR ANNEXATIONS 97 . V. THE STALEMATE 149 VI. " No WAR No PEACE " 205 VII. " THE TILSIT PEACE " 241 VIII. THE AFTERMATH 309 APPENDICES I. The Declaration of Peace, November 8, 1917 . . 375 II. The Armistice Agreement of Breat-Litovsk, December 15, 1917 379 III. Lenin's Twenty-one Theses for Peace, January 20, 1918 . 385 IV. The Ukrainian Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, February 9, 1918. 392 V. The Kussian Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3, 1918 . 403 VI. Lenin's Speech for Ratification, March 14, 1918 . . 409 VII. Supplementary Treaty of Berlin, August 27, 1918 . . 427 VIII. Notes exchanged at Berlin, August 27, 1918. . .435 IX. Financial Agreement of Berlin, August 27, 1918 . . 439 X. Decree of Annulment of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, November 13, 1918 447 XL Extract from Armistice Agreement, November 11, 1918 . 450 XII. Extracts f.rom Tr.eaty o.f Vers.ailles.. .. .. ..451 BIBLIOGRAPHY 455 INDEX 461 . LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS .... Field-Ma.rshal.von Lu.dendo.rff .....Frontispiece ......PACINGPAGE Lenin 16 Major-General Hoffmann 78 Arrival of the Russian Delega.tion .at Bre.st-Lit.ovsk .. .. 84 .92 Armistice Negot.iation.s at B.rest-L.itovsk.. .. .. . Baron von Kiihlmann 102 ....... Kamenev 114 Arrival of Trotsky 152 ..... Count Czernin and Baron von Kiihlmann .160 . . . Signing of the.Ukrain.ian Tr.eaty ..... 220 .238 Trotsky .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . Sokolnikov 250 Karakhan 270 ..... "A Walk-Over?" 312 General Skoropadsky at Spa 322 Kadek 362 MAP Territorial Changes at Brest-Litovsk . . Facing page 274 IX INTRODUCTION TWENTY years ago, on March 3, 1918, the first treaty of peace between belligerent parties in the World War was signed by the Central Powers and Russia at Brest-Litovsk. Few at that time appreciated its full significance, and, in the later years, when events crowded hard upon each other, the Peace of Brest-Litovsk was forgotten. Yet, this Peace ofBrest-Litovsk is one ofthe important milestones in modern history, for with its signature begins a chain of events which leads directly to the happenings of to-day; a chain which numbers among its links some of the greatest incidents in war and peace. The Treaty of Brest- Litovsk not only signified the apparently complete victory of German arms in the East, and the greatest diplomatic and military humiliation which Russia had ever sustained in a long history of defeat, but, with the exception of the Treaty of Versailles, it had consequences and repercussions more vitally important than any other peace settlement since the Congress of Vienna. It was the course of the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk whichpromptedPresidentWilsontopromulgate hisfamous Fourteen Points, in an attempt to keep the Russians from concluding a separate peace. The rapacity of the victor's terms imposed upon Russia disclosed to the rest of the world the domination which the Supreme Command had attained in Germany, and the impossibility ofarriving at a " peace ofunderstanding " with a Germanyinthe hands of such rulers. The realization of this fact produced that final unity ofpurpose betweenthe United States ofAmerica and the Western Powers, that implacable "will to victory", which all previous negotiations had failed to achieve, and which assured the ultimate defeat of Germany. xi INTRODUCTIOJS S31 The Peace of Brest-Litovsk preserved Bolshevism. Its " conclusion provided Lenin with the essential breathing- " space for consolidating the Russian Eevolution against theattemptstooverthrowitfromwithin. Atthesametime, the treatymarksthe beginning ofthatinfiltration ofactive Communisminto Germanywhichmaterially contributed to her collapse some ninemonths later. For, with the opening of the negotiations, there emerged that new and potent factor in world diplomacy, Bolshevik propaganda propa- ; ganda carried on by the party which formed the Govern- ment of the Soviet State, but of whose activities that " Government professed official ignorance. The Party does " not sign the treaty," said Lenin, and for the Party the "Governmentis notresponsible." It was upon this policy of paralMdiplomacy ",firstusedatBrest, thattheactivities ofthe ThirdInternationalwere based afterits organization in 1919. Such were themoreimmediateresults of Brest-Litovsk, but its influence is still discernible in the political life and ideologicaltrends ofboth Russia and Germanyto-day. The psychologyofBrest-Litovskisstillstronginbothcountries, though with strangely different manifestations, and is responsible both for the genesis of the Nazi ambitions for hegemonyoverEasternand South-EasternEurope, and in some degree possibly, for the actions of those leadine members ofthe Old Bolshevik Party which have recently endedinthen: own destruction. Though it is almost impossible to extract any clear and undzsputed facts from the mystery which surrounds the Moscow treasonteals of 1936 and 1937, it does seem Ue pos- to detect in the mental processes and in the activi- " and ? Ve Leninism " a*l to the ^ftnleM^/JTsrrfpes.t-T^LrtopvskUperiaod ^TheSOlrd P^ITt, Np-isyochiolfi-ogyS.