What were the consequences for Russia of signing the
treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
- Plan of investigation
The scope of this investigation is
to explore the problems Russia faced
between October 1917 and March 1918 and their impact on society. This
was a time in which Russians suffered the losses of millions of lives
at war and large portions of land when trying to achieve peace, apart
from a political revolution.
In order to develop this research,
several books and sources have been consulted. Books on the First
World War and on Russian history on the period studied were
considered in order to appreciate the national and international
perspectives of Russia withdrawing from the First World War.
B)
Summary of evidence
“By December 1914 the
Russian army was in full retreat and had lost over one million men”1.
These constant defeats damaged the army and the Tsar, who took
personal responsibility in 1915 by appointing himself the head of the
army. “The heroic efforts of their badly trained and equipped
soldiers were no match for German superior tactics and artillery”2.
In addition, thousands of soldiers deserted and made their way home.
At the home front “As prices for other goods escalated and they
were in even shorter supply, there was little incentive for the
peasants to sell their produce”3.
There also was a serious breakdown in communication, the army
demanded lots of trains and wagons, interfering with the distribution
of food and fuel”4
to the cities. Eventually a revolution broke out and in March 1917
the Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate.
This revolution
led to massive disorder in Russia. Different groups gathered support,
while the Provisional Government led by Kerensky tried to rule
without almost any support from the workers and peasants. The Germans
politics sent some exiled Russian revolutionaries, including Lenin,
in a special train back to Russia. They intended to maintain the
revolution and political disorder in Russia, because the Provisional
Government “did not pull Russia out of World War 1, which was
causing large numbers of causalities and much suffering”5.
By November 1917, the Bolsheviks rose in revolution, and Lenin was in
power.
Negotiations for peace
On 26 October 1917 the
first Bolshevik decree was the Decree on peace which invited “all
belligerents to open negotiations without delay for a just and
democratic peace…a peace without annexations and indemnities”6,
these were the thoughts of how peace would be. The Central Powers and
Russia signed a truce to open negotiations. The Bolsheviks called the
Allies for a general peace, but this offer was rejected and the
Allies warned Russia that signing a separate peace would have serious
implications in the future. After trying to prolong negotiations, in
the hope that a revolutionary would take in place in Germany because
of the oppressed masses, Leon Trotsky, Commissar of Foreign Affairs
arrived to Brest-Litovsk. Because of the different positions towards
the negotiations for a separate peace there was a near split in the
party and the left wing departed from the Sovnarkom, making Russia a
single party state. The idea of calling off the negotiations was
mayoralty supported; in addition the central powers had increased
their demands for peace, Russians decided neither to continue with
war nor having peace till the German army responded with pressure by
renewing offensive reaching near Petrograd. This forced them to move
the capital to Moscow, and to rethink the idea of peace, “a peace
that has been most definitely and insistently demanded by the Russian
workers and peasants ever since the overthrow of the Tsarist
monarchy”7.
The Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk
After a dispute within the Sovnarkom
the decision of signing peace is taken even though the idea wasn’t
supported before the final vote and its signing. Finally on March 3
of 1918 the harsh treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed by the Russian
delegation without reading it. “The Russians were to lose 26% of
their population, 27% of their farm land and 74% of their iron and
coal mines”8.
Russia lost one third of her European land and half of her industrial
capacity. “The loss of Ukraine’s grain was a terrible blow”9.
Also the territories of Poland, Finland, Rumania and Georgia were
given away because of the peace treaty. “The treaty was practically
obsolete before the end of the year but is significant as a chief
contributor, although unintentionally, to the independence of
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland”10.
C)
Evaluation of sources
- My Life - An attempt at an autobiography
This
book was written by Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), the co-leader of V.
Lenin. Trotsky charts his progress from his
youth through his revolutionary awakenings to his exile from the
Soviet Union and persecution by the force of Stalinism. My Life was
first published in 1930 and was written in the first year of
Trotsky's exile in Turkey. This book covers the events of the
Revolution of 1917, including the negotiations of Brest-Litovsk in
Chapter XXXII, “Peace”. Trotsky’s purpose for writing this book
is to write his autobiography, and to explain the events of the
Russian revolutionary process.
The value of this source is that the book has been
written by Leon Trotsky, who is directly
involved with the events. He, as the commissar for foreign affairs,
was sent to the city of Brest-Litovsk to establish peace. Because of
this, the source can provide insight on the Russian revolutionary
perspective and the reasons directly given by Trotsky who was very
close to Lenin.
One of the limitations of the source is the fact
that he wrote this book during his exile, which may have an influence
in his writing. By reading the book it can be inferred that Trotsky
is also trying to put himself in the best position and justifying his
actions.
Since the peace treaty led to civil war and it
was a very controversial and important action which had negative
several results. In a way the author tries to show him against it and
not very involved with the actions taken by Lenin.
b- Communist Russia under Lenin and Stalin
Terry Fiehn is a former advisory
teacher in London, and the author of the GCSE title Russia & the
USSR is SHP's Discovering the Past series. Chris Corin is Head of
History at Worthing Sixth Form College and a Moderator for Edexcel's
A level specification11.
Both historians are widely recognized and respected in the academic
field, because of their years of experience and research. The large
amount of bibliography consulted and selected reading for the
production of the book is to be remarked, this shows the seriousness
and again the reliability of the source.
The aim of this book is improving the study of
history for students aged 13-16, as a
result of a reconsideration of ways in which history contributes to
the educational needs of young people.
The values of this source are that, it was
written in order to make a clear history textbook for high school
students. It presents a combination of primary and secondary sources,
maps, charts, etc. It also presents different interpretations of
events, presenting different and contrasting sources and opinions.
There are few limitations in this source. This is
mostly because it usually shows both sides of a problem usually and
it present lots of facts. Probably its greatest limitation is that it
is a textbook and does not cover topics in the same depth as
scholarly research.
D) Analysis
The fact that Russia left the war by signing a
separate peace with Germany had several results. This decision had
little support but at the menace of the German advance towards the
capital, which could have overthrown Lenin and taken over Russia,
signing peace was what was they needed. “Peace, peace, at any
price!” 12demanded
the soldiers and Russians. Although almost only Lenin supported the
idea in the party of which almost everyone had its own view, the
treaty was signed. He believed that soon war would be over and
Germans would be defeated, and obliged to annul the treaty terms so
these terrible losses would be temporary. Besides, “Opposition to
the war had been a key factor in the Bolshevik success in October and
he had to honour his promise”13.
“The settlement gave the new soviet government a valuable breathing
space; time to organize the administration, consolidate itself in
power, and to begin to rebuild the army.”14
One of the results was the different reactions
from the masses to the peace. On one side,
the Bolsheviks gained more support from people who were joyful but at
the same time it gained opposition. Patriotic Russians and others who
opposed it felt encouraged to join anti-Bolshevik forces. It also
caused splits within the Bolshevik party, the left wing of the party,
which made a total separation from the Bolsheviks. “Left social
revolutionaries leaders accused Lenin and Trotsky of having betrayed
the revolution and threatened them with ‘the revolver and the
bomb’”15.
The Bolsheviks were left on their own because Sovnarkom ceased to be
a coalition of at least two parties.
Opposition to Brest-Litovsk and lack of support
from various groups of peasants made civil war almost inevitable,
because of the large number of opposition groups that were formed.
The left SR’s began several riots in
Russia, and other armed revolts were organized by other groups.
Finally by June 1918 civil war broke up. But the Bolsheviks were
prepared since they had made good use of the “breathing space”
the Treaty had allowed ; they had Cheka the, its secret police to
make key arrests, also the Red army was established, Trotsky was the
leader and had a great performance and he was one of the key factors
for the Red victory.
Allied troops were sent to Russia, these fought
against the Bolsheviks, these came from several countries, bringing
support and supplies to the Whites. “The allies provided the Whites
with valuable supplies but that was about all. Allied soldiers got
involved in a few skirmishes but took no part in serious military
actions”16.
The Bolshevik government lost the allied support
for abandoning them in war and signing a
separate peace for other political measures, like nationalization of
international enterprises without any remuneration or the policy of
refusing to pay any loan or debt. Due to this measures Russia became
an outcast in international relations. Foreign intervention in Russia
during the civil war meant that the Bolsheviks had lost all support
from the allied countries, which had its consequences.
The treaty of Brest-Litovsk was valid until the
German armistice in the Treaty of
Versailles. At the Paris peace conference, the Russians did not get
back these lost territories back from the allies. In spite of this,
during civil the war some territories were regained, such as Georgia,
but a larger quantity of it became independent. No international
diplomatic relations were held between Russia and all the other
countries; this meant no trading and being left apart. Because of
this Russia and, the other international outcast, Germany signed the
Rapallo Treaty in 1922 under which each renounced all territorial and
financial claims against the other. These countries decided to
co-operate in good spirit and help each other, and to trade
economically with each other.
E) Conclusion
To sum the contents of this assignment up,
it is possible to state that Russian leaders, needed to sign peace
for political and social reasons, also because of the military threat
of the German troops advancing through Russian territory. Because of
this, a separate peace was signed and Russia left the war by the
treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. This peace had a very high price,
such as the annexations but it also brought other consequences to the
Bolsheviks. The most important were the civil war which could have
overthrown the Bolsheviks from power and the loss of support from
many other European countries, to the point of foreign intervention
and that Russia became an international outcast. Lenin signed peace
regardless the cost, and this cost Russia another war and to him the
risk of being overthrown. Several times things do not result as
planned, but the Bolsheviks managed to stay in power and to
reconstruct Russia.
Appendices:
- Given places by Russia at the Brest-Litovsk treaty
Taken
from:
Extract
from Trotsky’s autobiography
This is
an extract of Trotsky’s biography, this source helps to show the
views he had on what happened and how he explains the facts.
How
did Lenin himself regard the Brest-Litovsk episode when it was a
thing of the past? Lenin generally considered occasional differences
of opinion with me as not worth mentioning. But more than once he
spoke of “the tremendous propagandist importance of the
Brest-Litovsk negotiations.” (For instance, in his speech of May
17, 1918.) At the congress of the party a year after the peace, Lenin
remarked: “Our extreme isolation from Western Europe and all the
other countries deprived us of any objective materials for judging
the possible rate of development, or the forms of growth, of the
proletarian revolution in the West. The result of all this
complicated situation was that the question of the Brest-Litovsk
peace brought out many differences of opinion in our party.” (The
speech of March 18, 1919.)
Leon
Trotsky
My Life
CHAPTER
XXXII
PEACE
Bibliography:
Corin, Chris & Fiehn, Terry
Communist Russia under Lenin and Stalin
London, Hodder Murray, 2002 p 88
Michael Gibson
Spotlight in the Russian revolution
London,
Wayland, 1986
Oxley,
Peter
Russia,
1855-1991 from tsars to commissars
New
York, Oxford University Press, 2001
Robertson,
John
Russia
in revolution
Frome,
Oxford University Press, 1982
Ross, Stewart
The world this century
East Sussex, wayland, 1988
Todd, Allan
The European dictatorships Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini
Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2002
Kort, Michael
The Soviet Union history culture geography
New Jersey, Globe Book Company, 1988
Internet
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Brest-Litovsk#Peace_treaty
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk
http://www.bokkilden.no/SamboWeb/produkt.do?produktId=1164866&rom=MP
http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch32.htm
6
Michael Gibson, Spotlight in the Russian revolution,London,Wayland,
1986
9http://www.bucknell.edu/Academics/Colleges_Departments/Academic_Departments/Foreign_Language_Programs/Russian_Studies/Resources/History.html
11
http://www.bokkilden.no/SamboWeb/produkt.do?produktId=1164866&rom=MP
12
http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/mylife/ch32.htm
13
Corin, Chris & Fiehn, Terry, Communist
Russia under Lenin and Stalin, London,
Hodder Murray, 2002
London, Hodder Murray, 2002 p75
16
Corin, Chris & Fiehn, Terry, Communist
Russia under Lenin and Stalin, London,
Hodder Murray, 2002
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