The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Lenin's Peace with Germany

In early 1918, the Bolsheviks faced an impossible choice: continue fighting the Great War they had inherited from the Tsar, or surrender vast territories to Germany in exchange for peace. Lenin pushed for acceptance of Germany's harsh terms, while Left Communist Nikolai Bukharin argued for a revolutionary war, and Leon Trotsky proposed a middle path of 'no war, no peace.' This episode dives into the frantic debates at the Petrograd Soviet and the Central Committee, the German ultimatum that forced their hand, and the crushing terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which stripped Russia of Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltics. We explore how the treaty fractured the Bolshevik alliance with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who withdrew from the coalition in protest, and how the German offensive in February 1918, Operation Faustschlag, demonstrated Russia's military weakness. Finally, we touch on the treaty's reversal after Germany's defeat in November 1918, but not before it had reshaped the map of Eastern Europe and fueled the Russian Civil War. Specific figures include Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, Vladimir Lenin, General Max Hoffmann, and Lev Kamenev.

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