Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

“ The Brest-Litovsk treaty, in its second enlarged edition, was signed and ratified.
In the meantime, the executioners were doing their work in Finland and the Ukraine, menacing more and more the most vital centers of Great Russia. Thus the question of Russia's very existence as an independent country is henceforth inseparably connected with the question of the European revolution. ”

“ WHEREAS the Ukrainian People has, in the course of the present world war, declared its independence, and has expressed the desire to establish a state of peace between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Powers at present at war with Russia, the Governments of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey have resolved to conclude a Treaty of Peace with the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic ”

“ All military works on islands of Helgoland and Dune will be destroyed by German labor under supervision of the Allies.
RUSSIA.
Germany agrees to respect the independence of all territories which were part of the Russian Empire. Accepts abrogation of Brest-Litovsk and other treaties, and recognizes all treaties of the powers with states part of former Empire. The Allied and Associated Powers reserve the right of Russia to obtain restitution and reparation on the principles of present treaty. ”

“ The first Brest-Litovsk Treaty has been signed, followed in nine days by the German invasion of Russia, an apt comment on what an English paper, by a misprint which is really an inspiration, calls "the Brest Nogotiations."
The record of the Bolshevist régime is already deeply stained with the massacre of the innocents, but Lenin and Trotsky can plead an august example. More than fourteen thousand British non-combatants--men, women and children--have been murdered by the Kaiser's command. ”

“ Article IX The agreements come to in this Treaty of Peace shall form an indivisible whole.
Article X For the interpretation of this Treaty, the German and Ukrainian text shall be authoritative for relations between Germany and the Ukraine, the German, Hungarian, and Ukrainian text for relations between Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine; the Bulgarian and Ukrainian text for relations between Bulgaria and the Ukraine; and the Turkish and Ukrainian text for relations between Turkey and the Ukraine. ”

“ C In regard to the economic relations between Bulgaria and the Ukrainian People's Republic, these shall, until such time as a definitive commercial Treaty shall have been concluded, be regulated on the basis of most-favored-nation treatment. Neither party shall lay claim to the preferential treatment which the other party has granted or shall grant to any other State arising out of a present or future Customs Union, or arising in connection with petty frontier intercourse, extending to a boundary zone not exceeding 15 kilom. ”

“ XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
In February negotiations at Brest-Litovsk were broken off as a result of the excessive demands of the Germans and the armistice was declared at an end. The Germans quickly overran Poland and the Baltic provinces and occupied Ukraine under a treaty which virtually placed the material resources of that country at the disposal of the Central Powers. ”

“ After his death the Constitutional Democrats made an official statement to the effect that he had called to him representatives of their party and, while professing to be upholding the Lenine Government, promised them German aid in overthrowing the Bolsheviki under certain conditions. Germany, he told them, desired a more conservative government in Russia, and if the Constitutional Democrats would be willing to establish a monarchy, under German influence, then they might expect a substantial revision of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, to the advantage of Russia. ”

“ The "bolchevikis'" treacherous government repudiated the solemn engagement of their country, threw her honour to the winds, sold her dearest national interests by the infamous Brest-Litovsk treaty. Betrayed Russia was out of the war, leaving her Allies to their fate.
From a military point of view, the consequences were easily foreseen. Freed from the danger of further attacks on the eastern front, both Germany and Austria could send their eastern armies, the first, on the western front in France, the second, on the Italian front. ”

“ In response to this protest, Berlin, on May 13, advised the Soviet Government through the Russian Ambassador in Berlin, that Germany would stop the invasion of Russian territory, and that it would observe the Brest-Litovsk treaty and restore the rights of Russians residing in Germany. In spite of this assurance, however, the advance of the German Army in Great Russia did not cease. According to a Moscow dispatch, dated May 25, the Germans occupied the district town of Valuyki, in the Government of Voronezh, which is Great Russian territory, and made further advances. ”

“ He is the rare case of an eminently practical radical, and has an uncanny ability to divine the way things will develop. Time and again he has fought in a minority against the violent prejudices of the large majority, only to be brilliantly justified by the course of events later on. The advocacy of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, which saved the revolution by giving it a few months' respite from attack was one of his great achievements. He is remarkable for his willingness to confess himself mistaken and to face a situation squarely, no matter what the circumstances. ”

“ In so far as goods originating in Austria-Hungary or the Ukraine are stored in neutral States, with the proviso that they shall not be exported, either directly or indirectly, to the territories of the other contracting party, such restrictions regarding their disposal shall be abolished so far as the contracting parties are concerned. ”

“ Russia turned traitor to France, England and America, signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and ushered in a reign of chaos. We then decided to mobilize Asia against Germany. Our envoys penetrated Mongolia, Tibet, Turkestan and China. At this time the Bolsheviki began to kill all the Russian officers and we were forced to open civil war against them, giving up our Pan-Asiatic plans; but we hope later to awake all Asia and with their help to bring peace and God back to earth. ”

“ They began to apply liberty to their needs. They wanted peace, so they stopped the war, first of all. It was months later that the Bolshevik Government signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty and concluded an official peace with Germany. But so far as the Russian armies were concerned, war was at an end long before, without diplomatic negotiations. ”

“ Austria but for the Hapsburgs and their Germanic associates.
By a twist of the wheel of fate, the same Slavic peoples whose determination to rid themselves of the Teutonic yoke, started the war, also bore rather more than their share in the swift-moving events that decided and closed the war.
Russia, the dying giant among the great nations, championed the Slavic peoples at the beginning of the war. It entered the conflict in aid of little Serbia, but at the end Russia bowed to Germany in the infamous peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk. ”

“ Few more disastrous treaties have ever been forced upon a vanquished nation. It has been estimated that the treaties of Brest-Litovsk took from Russia 4 per cent of her total area, 26 per cent of her population, 37 per cent of her food stuffs production, 26 per cent of her railways, 33 per cent of her manufacturing industries, 75 per cent of her coal, and 73 per cent of her iron. ”

“ Peace negotiations, Brest-Litovsk Treaty ends war with Central Powers, Mar., '18, ii: 63, 273, vi: 183; armistice with Germany signed, Dec. 6, '17, v: 113; movement for peace by radicals and conservatives, '15, vi: 138; Soviet demands immediate Socialist peace conference, vi: 161; nature of Bolshevik peace propaganda, vi: 171-175; Versailles Treaty, provisions on, Russo-German relations, xii: 205; treaties with Germany abrogated by Versailles Treaty, xii: 232. Prisoners of war, iii: 404. Railroads, military, iii: 105; Petrograd-Berlin line, iii: 111; importance of Warsaw as junction, iii: 138 ”

“ We made it the task of our diplomacy to enlighten the masses of the peoples, to open their eyes to the real meaning of the policy of their governments, in order to weld them together in a common struggle and a common hatred against the bourgeois capitalist order. The German bourgeois press accused us of "dragging on" the peace negotiations; but all nations anxiously followed the discussions at Brest-Litovsk, and in this way we rendered, during the two months and a half of peace negotiations, a service to the cause of peace which was recognized even by the more honest of our enemies. ”

“ The alarming sweep of the Teutonic invasion, together with the growing realization of what the Brest-Litovsk agreement really means to Russia, seemed finally to arouse some spirit of resistance in the Russian masses. Patriarch Tikhon declared that the Russian Church could not recognize a peace dismembering the country and subjecting it to a foreign power. Since the ratification the spokesmen of the Bolshevist Government have not ceased talking of organizing a large army for a new war. ”

“ However great the lack of supplies in Ukraine itself, however much the limitations of our Russian means of payment may have contributed to the fact that the hopes entertained on the signing of peace at Brest-Litovsk were far from being realised, we may nevertheless maintain that all that was humanly possible was done to overcome the unprecedented difficulties encountered. ”

“ The great charge against the Peace is its failure to envisage a normal and healthy life for Europe. Our quarrel against its provisions is that they are in many cases fully as short-sighted and as lacking in imagination as what Prussians themselves might have evolved. The precedents of Brest-Litovsk, at which we raised our hands in justifiable horror, are not agreeable ones to follow. The fatal flaw of the Peace is that it does not look beyond the period of punishment and reparation to an ultimate pacification of Europe. ”

“ The Soviet Government consciously faced the severe trials resulting from the Brest treaty, knowing that the workers' and peasants' revolution would prove stronger than imperialism and that a respite would insure victory. Consenting to the oppressive terms of the treaty, the Soviet Government in no way consented to German interference in the internal regime of Soviet Russia or to any kind of change in this regime. ”

“ The Brest treaty contained no provision binding Germany to respect the integrity and inviolability of the territory left to Soviet Russia after all the slashings and occupations, and the treaty therefore could serve as a basis for a policy of gradual encroachment and infiltration by Germany into the depths of Russia, particularly to the east, in which direction Germany aimed to occupy strategical points to meet the eventual advance of the Entente from Siberia, and in Caucasia, through which new roads appeared to open for the Asiatic plans of German imperialism. ”

“ It lay in the power of the Allied countries to make the Brest-Litovsk negotiations the forerunner of a general peace. It ill becomes them to throw the blame for the Russo-German peace upon our shoulders! ”

“ Thereby Soviet Russia saved everything, since the Soviet Regime constituted the irresistible force which was bound in the future to transform the Brest treaty into a fatal crisis for German imperialism itself, which after this moved rapidly to its fall, and into one of the most important stages of the revolution on the road to victory over imperialism. ”

“ We are all agreed that there can be no peace obtained by any kind of bargain or compromise with the governments of the Central Empires, because we have dealt with them already and have seen them deal with other governments that were parties to this struggle, at Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest. They have convinced us that they were without honour and do not intend justice. They observe no covenants, accept no principle but force and their own interest. ”

“ You may see them scrawled on the wall of the old Jesuit College at Brest-Litovsk where the Peace was signed: “Neither Peace Nor War. Trotsky.” If they were true of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, they are equally true of the Peace which has befallen Central Europe as the crowning achievement of the war which was to end all wars. It is not stating matters too strongly to say that up to date Peace had caused at least as much misery as the four years' fury of embattled armies. But there is this difference: the heavier portion of the present misery is being borne by women and children. ”

“ Germany is to deliver to the Allied and Associated Powers all sums deposited in Germany by Turkey, and Austria-Hungary, in connection with the financial support extended to them during the war, and to transfer to the Allies all claims against Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey in connection with agreements made during the war. Germany confirms the renunciation of the treaties of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk. ”

“ Number six is the first point dealing with a particular nation. It was intended as a reply to Russian suspicion of the Allies, and the eloquence of its promises was attuned to the drama of Brest-Litovsk. Number seven deals with Belgium, and is as unqualified in form and purpose as was the conviction of practically the whole world, including very large sections of Central Europe. Over number eight we must pause. It begins with an absolute demand for evacuation and restoration of French territory, and then passes on to the question of Alsace-Lorraine. ”