Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (February 9, 1918)

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Signing of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the night between February 9 and 10, 1918. Sitting in the middle from the left: Count Ottokar Czernin, Richard von Kühlmann and Vasil Radoslavov

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on February 9, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus) between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.

[edit] The peace negotiations

The Ukrainian Tsentralna Rada signed an armistice with the Central Powers on December 28, 1917, and on January 1, 1918 a Ukrainian delegation headed by Vsevolod Holubovych arrived at Brest-Litovsk where the peace negotiations had started between the Russian Bolsheviks and the Central Powers. On January 12, Count Ottokar Czernin as a representative of the Central Powers recognized the independent delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic.^[1] The Russian Bolshevik delegation, headed by Leon Trotsky, had at first also recognized the independent Ukrainian delegation on January 10.^[2] But later, on February 1, Trotzky tried to discredit the delegation by sending Yukhym Medvediev and Vasyl Shakhrai to the negotiations as representatives of the Soviet Ukrainian government in Kharkiv. Nevertheless, the Central Powers continued to negotiate with the delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic as the sole representatives of Ukraine.^[3]

The Ukrainian delegation returned on January 20, 1918 to Kiev, where the Tsentralna Rada proclaimed a fully sovereign Ukrainian state on January 25. Meanwhile, Bolshevik revolts occurred in different cities in Ukraine, which more or less forced the Ukrainian People's Republic – which was lacking organized military forces – to seek foreign aid.^[4] However, the situation for the Central Powers was also critical, especially for Austria-Hungary, which suffered severe food shortages.^[5]

Delegates from the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers during a break in the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, early February 1918

The Ukrainian delegation, now headed by Oleksandr Sevriuk, returned to Brest-Litovsk, where the peace negotiations were resumed. While the Tsentralna Rada was abandoning Kiev for Bolshevik troops, a peace treaty was signed in Brest-Litovsk during the night of February 9-10. The treaty was signed by Oleksandr Sevriuk, Mykola Liubynsky, Mykola Levytsky and Serhiy Ostapenko on behalf of the Ukrainian People's Republic; General Max Hoffmann and the state secretary Richard von Kühlmann for Germany; the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Ottokar Czernin for Austria-Hungary; prime minister Vasil Radoslavov, Andrey Toshev, I. Stoianovich, T. Anastasov and P. Ganchev for Bulgaria; and Mehmed Talat, I. Hakki Pasha, A. Nessimi Bey, and Ahmed İzzet Pasha for Turkey.^[6]

Within days of the treaty's signing, an army of over 450.000 men from the Central Powers entered Ukraine, and after only a month most of the Bolshevik troops had fled the country. With help of the German troops, the Tsentralna Rada could return to Kiev on March 2.^[7]

[edit] Terms of the peace treaty

Signing of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk during the night between February 9 and 10, 1918. From the left: General Brinkmann, Mykola Liubynsky, Mykola Levytsky, Oleksandr Sevriuk, General Max Hoffmann and Serhiy Ostapenko.

The treaty recognized the following as the Ukrainian People's Republic's boundaries: in the west the 1914 Austro-Hungarian–Russian boundary which excluded the Ukrainian Halychyna in the new Ukrainian state; in the north the line running from Tarnogród, Biłgoraj, Szczebrzeszyn, Krasnystaw, Radzyń Podlaski and Międzyrzec Podlaski in present Lublin Voivodeship (Poland), Sarnaki in present Masovian Voivodeship (Poland), Kamyanyets and Pruzhany in present Brest Voblast (Belarus). The exact boundaries were to be determined by a mixed commission on the basis of ethnic composition and the will of the inhabitants (article 2).^[8]

The articles in the treaty also provided for the regulated evacuation of the occupied regions (article 3), the establishment of diplomatic relations (article 4), mutual renouncement of war reparations (article 5), the return of prisoners of war (article 6), and the exchange of interned civilians and the renewal of public and private legal relations (article 8). Article 7 provided for the immediate resumption of economic relations and trade and set down the principles of accounting and tariffs.^[9]

Austria-Hungary and the Ukrainian People's Republic also signed a secret agreement regarding Halychyna and Bukovyna. Austria-Hungary agreed to unify by July 31, 1918 in one crownland those areas of eastern Halychyna and Bukovyna where the Ukrainian population predominated. But on July 4, Austria-Hungary annulled this secret agreement under the pretext that Ukraine had not delivered to it the amount of grain promised under the treaty. It is believed that this action was the result of Polish pressure.^[10]

The Central Powers signed a separate peace treaty with Bolshevist Russia at Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. Russia agreed to recognize the concluded treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic and to immediately sign a peace treaty with Ukraine, to define the borders between Russia and Ukraine without delay, to clear the Ukrainian territory of Russian troops and the Russian Red Guard, as well as put an end to all agitation or propaganda against the government or the public institutions of the Ukrainian People's Republic (article 6).^[11]

[edit] Effects of the treaty

The 1st Ukrainian Division was formed in the spring of 1918 by Ukrainian POWs in German camps. Since they wore blue coats, they were generally called Syniezhupannyky.

The treaty of Brest-Litovsk provided the Ukrainian People's Republic with German military aid in clearing Bolshevik forces from Ukraine in February–April 1918, but the treaty also meant that the Entente Powers suspended relations with the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Soon, however, the invited foreign forces from the Central Powers were seen as occupants by a major part of the Ukrainian population and also parts of the Tsentralna Rada. In late April the German Supreme Commander in Ukraine, Hermann von Eichhorn, issued an order making Ukrainians subject to German military courts for offenses against German interests, the First Ukrainian Division (the Blue coats) was disarmed, and German soldiers even arrested two ministers after they criticized the German actions. The final break with the Tsentralna Rada came on April 29, when General Pavlo Skoropadskyi declared himself Hetman of the Ukrainian state.^[12]

The Treaty of Rapallo of 1922 between Germany and Soviet Russia canceled the German commitments made at Brest-Litovsk. The disintegration of Austria-Hungary in late 1918 automatically annulled its commitments. Turkey renounced the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by signing a treaty with the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. Only Bulgaria, as far as is known, did not formally annul the treaty.^[13]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Volodymyr Kubijovyč (ed.): Ukraine – A Concise Encyclopaedia I. University of Toronto Press 1963.
• Orest Subtelny: Ukraine – A history. ISBN 0-8020-7191-0.
• Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk February 9, 1918
• The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 3, 1918