Historical Events

Brest-Litovsk and Germany’s eastern occupation

The peace of Brest-Litovsk was a dictated settlement between a Soviet Russia whose army had melted away and an undefeated Germany. In the talks that opened in December 1917 three lines split the party: revolutionary war, "neither war nor peace", and immediate peace. After the German offensive of February 1918 Lenin staked his resignation on acceptance and the treaty was signed on 3 March. Russia gave up its rights over Ukraine, the Baltic and Finland and a third of its population, while Germany installed a Hetman in Ukraine, sent troops into Finland's civil war and planned duchies under its own umbrella in the Baltic. Germany's defeat in November voided the treaty, but the vacuum left by Article 12 of the armistice, which kept German troops in the Baltic, and the meeting of the Red Army, national governments and Whites in it became the stage for the borderland wars of the following year.