Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Contemporary map of Central and Eastern European states created by Brest-Litovsk. Donbas, Crimea, Lugansk, Zaporozhe and Kherson remained with Russia.

In March 1918, representatives of the Russian Communist party signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending the war that began between the German and Russian Empires in 1914. In Russian it is known as "the shameful peace", a veiled criticism of the Russian Communist Party marking the end of the Russian Empire.

The German negotiator was General Max Hoffman, General Paul von Hindenburg's chief-of-staff. Leon Trotsky was appointed by Communist Party General Secretary Vladimir Lenin to represent the Soviet delegation. The Treaty was written in German and Russian; the French language, regarded as the "language of diplomacy", was not used. This was representative of the hegemonic struggle Germany regarded itself in with France at the time of World War I.

Based upon Germany's Machtstellung, or "position of power", the delegation that regarded itself as successors of Tsarist Imperialism gave up all claims the territories which included much of what is now Poland, Finland, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Western Ukraine.

The Treaty was signed between Moscow and Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire in March 1918 after the Bolsheviks came to power in the October Revolution and signed an armistice with Berlin in December 1917.

The treaty was torn up by the June 1919 Treaty of Versailles, compelling Berlin to grant independence to assorted German-conquered protectorates that had been established throughout the region. Chaotic, violent struggles unfolded over the next three years between Red Army-assisted local revolutionary elements and 'independent' states led by collaborationist puppets.

'Independence' and 'self-determination'

In negotiations both sides advanced their respective visions of “self-determination” for the Central European and Eastern European components of the former Russian Empire. In its final form, Brest-Litovsk's terms exclusively allowed for ‘independence’ under formal “German military protection.” This transformed millions of people throughout the region into potential proxy warriors arrayed against the new Soviet state, or against other major powers such as Britain, France, or America threatening Berlin’s local hegemony. Vladimir Lenin believed newly-independent states in the region would turn Bolshevik by sheer force of radicalism.

Polish-Ukraine Question

See also: History of Poland#Polish-Ukrainian war

The former Austrian Galicia depicted across a map of Poland's post-1945 borders.

During World War I (1914−1918), the Central Powers, especially Germany, stubbornly supported Ukrainian national identity, nationalism, and national goals – all of them directed against Russian interests. On February 9, 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire) and the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). The peace treaty ended the war in East Galicia and recognized the sovereignty of the UPR. One of the most important points of this peace treaty was that the victorious Central Powers promised Ukraine some territories which included the Kholm region populated by the Polish-speaking majority. It was also a secret initiative to transform both provinces of Bukovina and East Galicia into a crownland of Austria-Hungary (Austrian part), but the plan soon became problematic issue due to Polish opposition, insisting that the whole of Galicia in which Poles would have dominance. The Poles perceived the pro-Ukrainian policy of the Central Powers during World War I, and especially in 1918, not only as anti-Russian but even more anti-Polish.

Contemporary impact

Writing in 2026, investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg observed:

“

German imperialism is little-understood even in countries and regions intimately shaped if not outright created by Berlin's colonial meddling and concomitant hegemonic expansion. Its historic apotheosis was the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The terms and consequences provide an eerily precise blueprint for the EU's modern day role as German empire via other means. Despite Brest-Litovsk’s seismic import, mainstream English language accounts are comparatively rare. A highly compelling, informative synthesis is nonetheless provided by Adam Tooze’s much-overlooked 2014 work The Deluge. Tooze writes of how “Brest gave birth to the precursors to the Baltic states in their modern form,” and an “independent Ukraine” for the very first time in history. Resource-rich territory that over prior centuries comprised much larger dynastic land empires was broken up into easily exploitable chunks. The newly-formed nations, and corresponding nationalisms, spread throughout ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse swaths of Central and ]]Eastern Europe]] constituted a formidable stronghold. Self-determination facilitated Germany's untrammelled economic, military, and political penetration. Commenting on Eurasia's 21st century map, Tooze observes how since the Soviet Union's 1991 dissolution, all Brest-Litovsk’s “creations” have “come to be regarded as legitimate members of the family of nations.” Moreover, states such as the Baltics and Poland then as now “look to protectors in the West,” being “keen members of an American-dominated NATO and the European Union, in which Germany is the dominant force.” Via Brest-Litovsk, “all of these polities fell willy-nilly under the ‘protection’ of Imperial Germany.”

”

Sources

• Sir John Wheeler- Bennett, Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace, March, 1918 (London, 1938).