What were the conditions of the Brest-Litovsk peace: the summary of the treaty and its consequences

Soviet Russia, on the one hand, Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, signed an agreement in 1918. From what the conditions of the Brest-Litovsk peace were, the position of many powers depended.

Prior Events

Conditions of the Brest Peace in 1918 were discussed several times and were drawn up in three stages. Most of the meetings were devoted to the Armenian issue. Soviet Russia put forward a number of conditions, but Germany and its allies rejected such a Brest peace. The date of negotiations on concluding a treaty in Brest-Litovsk is 1917, December 9. Here was the rate of the German command. The Soviet side tried to avoid the future world of indemnities and annexations.

The position of the Soviet leadership

The Soviet delegation developed a program that was followed during the negotiations. The integrity of Russia and the situation of its inhabitants depended on what the conditions of the Brest peace were. The main points of the program:

• The possibility of avoiding violent annexations of occupied lands during hostilities.
• Restoring the full political independence of the peoples who lost it in the course of the war.
• Ability to avoid indemnities.
• The introduction of the autonomy of national minorities under a certain number of conditions.
• Provision of national groups with the right to choose a country or establish their state independence.
• Colonial issues are resolved according to the above principles.
• Preservation of the rights and freedoms of weaker nations.

The Soviet leadership planned as long as possible to drag out peace negotiations, secretly hoping to weaken Germany as a result of the internal revolution. January 28, 1918, Russia was presented with an ultimatum. Germany demanded the signing of an agreement on such terms, which entailed separation of Poland, the Baltic states and Belarus.

Russia's embarrassment

Germany's demands were outrageous. On the one hand, Russia could not sign such a humiliating treaty, and it would be better to start a war rather than agree to such conditions. But resources for conducting military operations were not enough. The power of Russia depended on what the conditions of the Brest peace were. Leon Trotsky, along with other Bolsheviks, tried to find a way out of this situation. And then the country's leadership came to a decision that seemed to him the best. On January 28, the head of the Soviet delegation delivered a speech that led to the following: the world will not be signed, but Russia will not begin the war either. Leon Trotsky announced the withdrawal of the people and troops from the war.

This decision shocked German and Austrian diplomats. They did not expect such a turn of events. On February 18, an attack of Austro-Hungarian troops began. The Red Army was dissolved, there was no one to oppose the enemy. As a result, Pskov and Narva were occupied. Some of the regiment, who were at this time in their positions, retreated without a fight. Russia no longer had to discuss what the terms of the Brest peace were. On February 19, the German demands were accepted by the Soviet side.

Germany, realizing the hopelessness of the situation in Russia, now demanded much more territories (five times), on which there was practically the whole stock of coal and iron ore of the country and lived 50 million people. The Soviet side also undertook to pay a large contribution. The new Russian delegation was headed by Grigory Sokolnikov. He said that there is no choice in this situation and it will not be possible to avoid signing a peace treaty. He also expressed hope that the current state of affairs is temporary.

Terms of the Brest Peace - briefly

• The rejection of the provinces, in which the Belarusians prevailed among the local residents.
• Recognition of the independence of Ukraine.
• Waste of the provincial provinces, Estland, Lifland, Kurland, Grand Duchy of Finland.
• The division of the Caucasian regions - Batumi and Kara.
• Conclusion of peace with UNR.
• Demobilization of the fleet and army.
• The departure of the Baltic Fleet from the Finnish and Baltic bases.
• Payment of 500 million gold rubles and 6 billion marks.
• The Baltic Fleet left bases in Finland and the Baltic states.
• The cessation of revolutionary propaganda.
• The Black Sea Fleet withdrew to the Central Powers.

Effects

So the Brest peace was concluded. The date of its signing is March 3, 1918. Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states and part of Belarus were disconnected from Russia. Also, the Soviet side paid Germany more than 90 tons of gold. The Germans, pretending that they want to secure the power of the legitimate government of Ukraine, began to occupy its territory. At this time, the uprisings of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries are rising, and the civil war takes the form of a large-scale battle. The opposition sharply criticized Lenin's statement that Russia had no other choice but to accept the terms of the treaty. The army was collapsed. The consequences of the Brest peace showed that supporters of the opposition called for popular uprisings in order to suppress the German-Austrian troops. The Entente states opposed the signed peace. From March to August 1918, British and Japanese troops landed in Murmansk, Vladivostok, and Arkhangelsk.

End of the Brest Peace

The Brest peace was not destined to act long. On November 13, after defeating the Austro-German troops (thanks to their allies), Russia abolished it. On the day of cancellation, the Soviet leadership moves to Moscow, fearing an attack by Germany on Petrograd. After the cancellation of the treaty, the territorial concessions made were considered invalid. The Soviet leadership provided the inhabitants of the Caucasus and other excluded regions with their own destiny. Earlier, on September 20, 1918, part of the Brest peace was broken off against Turkey.

It is worth saying that the consequences of the Brest peace are strengthening the authority of Lenin. The Bolsheviks began to show him even greater confidence. At the end of the Civil War in 1922, most of the territory of Russia established Soviet power.