Treaty of Brest-Litovsk PDF

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Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Sunday, 5 February 2017

11:03 AM

Key Questions: 1. Outline Trotsky's role in the negotiations of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 2. Outline Lenin's role in the negotiating of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 3. Discuss the impact of the TBL in the Bolshevik Consolidation of Power. Use two historians to support your answer. This question asks you to look at both the positive and negative impacts of the TBL in the Bolshevik Consolidation of power

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk  Signed on March 3, 1918 between Russia and Germany and formally ended Russia's participation in WW1  Brest-Litovsk was the name of the town the treaty was signed on the border of modern day Belarus and Poland  The negotiations began on December 22, 1917, following an armistice signed on December 15  Conditions:  Russia lost 1/3 of its European land, including Ukraine (major supply of food)  Lost 89% of its iron ore and coal reserves, 54% of industrial enterprises, 34% of its population and was forced to pay 3 billion roubles in war reparations

Why was the signing of the Treaty essential for Russia and the Bolsheviks?  The Russian army was in disarray, partly due to war-weariness and lack of supplies, as well as Bolshevik propaganda which meant many soldiers were deserting the frontline and dismantling of ranks in the army. The Russian army made been defeated repeatedly by German forces and a stalemate had formed. The sue for peace and signing a treaty with Germany was the only viable option  The signing of the Treaty was also a means to gain support of the soldiers and their families who were severely impacted by the war effort and was thus a mechanism in helping to consolidate power. The support of the soldiers was crucial in helping the Bolsheviks fight the Civil War  Germans were marching on Petrograd and as Russia's military strength weakened, this endangered the Bolshevik regime and ability to remain in power. If the Germans marched on Petrograd, there would be no domestic and worldwide revolutionary movement

Lenin's and Trotsky's Role in Negotiations  Both wanted it the war with Germany to end but they disagreed on how this could best achieved.  Lenin wanted an immediate peace; Trotsky wanted a delay  It must be emphasised that Lenin and Trotsky were international revolutionaries (Marxists who were willing to sacrifice national interests in the cause of a worldwide rising of the workers). Therefore, their first concern was the spread the proletarian revolution worldwide  This is why, to the dismay of most Russians and many Bolsheviks, the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk was eventually willing to sign a devastating peace treaty as soon it became clear that the exasperated Germans were seriously considering marching to Petrograd to overthrow Lenin's government  They expected workers' rising, based on the Russian model, to sweep across Europe. Purely national conflicts would soon be superseded by the international class struggle of the workers  Lenin and Trotsky regarded the crippling terms of the treaty as a small account when set against the great sweep of world revolution

Trotsky's Role in Negotiations

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 Trotsky took a middle position between Lenin, who wanted peace straight away and those Bolsheviks and Left Revolutionaries who pressed for the continuation of the war as a revolutionary crusade against imperialist Germany  Trotsky shared Lenin's view that Bolshevik Russia had no realistic chance of successfully continuing the military struggle against Germany. But, Trotsky was determined to make the peace talks a protracted affair. He wanted to buy time for Bolshevik agitators to exploit the mutinies in the Austro-German armies  The Russian delegation, led by Trotsky as Commissar of Foreign Affairs used the negotiations as an opportunity to disseminate communist propaganda and Trotsky ignored all the niceties and formal procedures of the diplomatic negotiations  He continued to pursue his 'no peace, no war' position, which the Germans were never going to accept- Trotsky intended to confuse and infuriate the German delegation at Brest-Litovsk  The Bolsheviks were also aiming to simply delay the negotiations in the hope that revolution would break out in Germany, however this did not occur and the Germans, tired of Trotsky's posturing continued to march on Petrograd.  Lenin demanded the treaty be signed and Trotsky, refusing to change his position, resigned as Commissar. A vote in Politburo only passed because Lenin threatened to resign and Trotsky abstained from voting

Lenin's Role in Negotiations  Lenin knew that Russia's military exhaustion made it impossible to fight successfully. If Germany eventually won the war on both fronts, it would retain Russian territory it now possessed. But if Germany lost the war against the Western Allies, Russia would regain its occupied land. Therefore, it was pointless for Bolshevik Russia to continue fighting  Lenin stressed that his policy was the only realistic one- he acknowledged Russian were willing to fight for a great cause but believed the Russians were 'romantics' who didn't understand the situation. Wars were not won by idealism alone; resources and technical skills were needed  Lenin's readiness to made peace was not wholly ideological- between 1914-1917, the German Foreign Office had been giving substantial amounts of money to Lenin and the Bolsheviks in the hope that if they succeeded in their revolution, they would pull out Russia out of the war  Therefore, a settlement with Germany was very much in Lenin's interests since it was the best guarantee against the drying up of this lucrative source of Bolshevik revenue  Lenin had made peace a central tenet of his April Thesis, recognising that one of the main failure of the Provisional Government was their continuation of war. Therefore, the Peace Decree was the beginning of the process in fulfilling this aim and the Treaty was the conclusion  Utilised his rally cry, "Let the Revolution utilise this struggle for its own ends"

Significance of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to the Bolshevik Consolidation of Power  Eliminated the existential threat of German invasion, which enabled them to focus on domestic issues, particularly the impending Civil War  As David Christian states, it gave the Bolsheviks "crucial breathing space"  The threat of German invasion was imminent, shown by the Bolsheviks moving their capital from Petrograd to Moscow at the beginning of 1918 which was further inland and safer from threat of invasion  For two months following the October Revolution, the two sides were still at war. Lenin quickly realised that peace had to be achieved at any costs or the survival of his regime would be short lived and Russia would come under German control  Therefore, the signing of the Treaty was essential in ensuring that the Bolsheviks not only consolidated power but also survived for the first 6 months of their regime  However, signing of the treaty helped to create the greatest internal threat to the survival of the Bolsheviks (CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR)  For Bolshevik opponents (e.g. Left Communists), the humiliating treaty was too

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much to bear- more than 300 years of Russian Empire building had been destroyed by the stroke of a pen  Consequently, opposition groups formed to fight the Bolsheviks (many of which ex-Tsarist generals) and blamed the Bolsheviks for the capitulation  The signifying of the Treaty was one of the causes of the Civil War  Means to gain the support of soldiers and families who were severely impacted by the war effort- the support of the soldiers were crucial in helping the Bolsheviks fight the Civil War  Demonstrated the strength of Lenin as a leader  Reveals his foresight in recognising the conditions would be temporary with Germany's eventual defeat in WW1, where Russia was able to reclaim much of its lost territory in the aftermath of Allied victory  Treaty good example of the strength of his leadership In Sum: the positive of eliminating German threat was neutralised by the cause of the Civil War, which was arguably the most precarious time during the period of consolidation Therefore, an important line of argument is that it was not the most important factor in the consolidation of power as its detrimental effects were just as significant as the constructive results of the Treaty. However, it was an essential part of the puzzle and most importantly, it allowed the Bolsheviks to purely focus on the domestic problems they faced in establishing a one party state

Historians Thoughts and Quotes  David Christian  Believed the most serious threat to the new government was the German Army in the early months following the revolution  Treaty bought the Bolsheviks "crucial breathing space" which allowed them to tackle domestic issues and therefore consolidate power  The Bolsheviks moved their capital from Petrograd to Moscow which made them less vulnerable from external enemy attacks  Signing the treaty meant working with a foreign imperialist and capitalist power, which would be against Marxist principles but failure to do so could lead to German domination  Treaty opened up debate over whether the Bolsheviks should establish peaceful relations with foreign capitalist nations or aim to support revolutionary movements overseas  Adam Ulam  Demonstrated Lenin's pragmatism as a leader- willing to compromise Marxist ideology to ensure Bolsheviks could hold onto power  At the time, treaty was viewed as a disaster and ended 300 years of Russian expansion  Treaty saw the emergence of nationalism as part of Bolshevik Policy as Lenin believed "Russian state must be preserved and strengthened"  "With the signing of the treaty taking Russia out of the war, the anarchic phase of the revolution came to an end. From the most anarchic of all revolutions there now emerged the most authoritarian state modern history has known"  Richard Pipes  Signing the treaty created strong opposition to Bolshevik government  Many of the groups who fought against the Bolsheviks in the Civil War were spurred on by Russia's capitulation to the Germans  "As soon as the Brest-Litovsk Treaty had been ratified, the Bolshevik leaders turned their attention to the economy: now that power was theirs, they were no longer interested in squandering the country's wealthy by turning it over to the peasants and workers to divide among themselves."  “Lenin owes his historical prominence not to his statesmanship, which was very inferior, but to his generalship. He was one of history’s great conquerors.”

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 John Bradley  "Germany appeared such an unpredictable power, ready in its struggle against the allies to abandon or destroy either or both Russian sides"  Richard J Crampton “It was a device, the Bolsheviks admitted, to trade space for time, the time which they needed to consolidate their revolutionary rule in the territory they held, and to defeat anti-Bolshevik forces… Yet the space they yielded was enormous. The Treaty gave the Germans and Austrians domination over the vast food-producing areas as well as the rich mining regions and industrial zones in the south-west of now technically independent Ukraine.” Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is an example of the Bolsheviks compromising ideology for pragmatic purposes since Germany is a capitalist and imperialist power yet willing to make an agreement in order to ensure the success of their regime with the Russian People (solidifying the aims of the Peace Decree into an official treaty)

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