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160-628: The military activity of the division in Finland served part of the foreign policy of the German Empire after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia , signed on 3 March 1918. Germany aimed to establish a chain of satellite states in eastern Europe in order to provide raw materials for German industry and food products for the German people. The Finnish Senate of Vaasa had requested German military aid for

320-616: A Berlin railway station; it was filled with insurrectionary documents. Joffe and his staff were ejected from Germany in a sealed train on 5 November 1918. In the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended World War I, one clause abrogated the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Next, the Bolshevik legislature ( VTsIK ) annulled the treaty on 13 November 1918, and the text of the VTsIK Decision was printed in

480-594: A call for turning all political power over to workers' and soldiers' soviets (councils) and an immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war. At around the same time, the United States entered the war, potentially shifting the balance of the war against the Central Powers. Throughout 1917, Bolsheviks called for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and an end to the war. Following the disastrous failure of

640-758: A common federation. Economic life should be organized by the joint arrangements of these two associations, for which it was necessary to create special economic councils, elected from production and consumer organizations. Political and military power should have been concentrated in the hands of political councils elected by the working people on a territorial basis. The Ukrainian Left Socialist Revolutionaries (led by Yakov Brown ) believed that along with economic and political councils, councils on ethnic issues should be elected by representatives of various ethnic communities of workers – Jews , Ukrainians , Russians , Greeks , etc., which, in their opinion, would be especially relevant for multinational Ukraine. Each person received

800-576: A document accepting the Finnish independence, the loss of Ukraine and the Baltics created, from the Bolshevik perspective, dangerous bases of anti-Bolshevik military activity in the subsequent Russian Civil War (1917–1923). However, Bolshevik control of Ukraine and Transcaucasia was at the time fragile or non-existent. Many Russian nationalists and some revolutionaries were furious at the Bolsheviks' acceptance of

960-643: A lack of troops, and finally began at noon the following day, with the use of artillery against the Cheka headquarters. The bombardment caused the Socialist Revolutionary troops and the Central Committee to leave the building, where Dzerzhinski was abandoned. The main nucleus of the pro-Bolshevik troops were the Latvian units stationed in the capital. The murder triggered the immediate and harsh repression of

1120-623: A meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on February 23, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries criticized the Bolsheviks for their repressions on trade union freedoms and voted against the signing of the treaty. None of the ninety-three party representatives in the VTsIK voted in favor of the treaty, albeit in some cases, such as that of Spiridonova, only for party discipline. This disagreement led to

1280-422: A newly raised revolutionary force while awaiting these upheavals. Consequently, Lenin agreed to Trotsky's formula – a position summed up as "no war – no peace" – which was announced when the negotiators reconvened on 10 February 1918. The Soviets thought that their stalling was succeeding until 16 February when Hoffmann notified them that the war would resume in two days, when fifty-three divisions advanced against

1440-460: A number of factions. The Left SR " activists ", led by Donat Cherepanov , Maria Spiridonova & Boris Kamkov , took part in armed demonstrations against the leadership of the Soviet Union. The " legalist " movement, led by Isaac Steinberg , advocated public criticism of the Bolsheviks and the struggle against them only by peaceful means. In the years 1922–1923, the legalist movement united with

1600-490: A rump Polish state with what remained. The Baltic governorates were to become client states ruled by German princes . Czernin was beside himself that this hitch that was slowing the negotiations; self-determination was anathema to his government and they urgently needed grain from the east because Vienna was on the verge of starvation. He proposed to make a separate peace. Kühlmann warned that if they negotiated separately, Germany would immediately withdraw all its divisions from

1760-491: A separate group, held in November 1917, brought together representatives of ninety-nine groups. The Left SRs made the following demands: The new party held its first congress in early December and elected a central committee of fifteen members and five deputies. The conference was attended by one hundred and sixteen delegates from ninety-nine local organizations that had abandoned Socialist Revolutionary Party. The leadership

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1920-623: A split. In October 1917, the Left Socialist Revolutionaries joined the new Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee , formed with the aim of accelerating the revolution and at the same time moderating actions of the Bolsheviks; One of its members, Pavel Lazimir , who had played a leading role in the measures against Kornilov and presided over the military section of the Petrograd Soviet , presided over it officially. Numerous left-wing social revolutionaries, in addition to Bolsheviks and other activists without clear affiliation, participated in

2080-692: A unifying cause to the White movement and opening a rift between the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , whose representatives withdrew from the Council of People's Commissars after its signing and later rebelled in the Left SR Uprising . The treaty was annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918 , in which Germany surrendered to the western Allied Powers . Subsequent attempts by

2240-556: The All-Russian Central Executive Committee . However, the alliance of Bolsheviks and left-wing socialist revolutionaries gave them control of the splintered Second Congress of Peasant Soviets. This had been called by mutual agreement between the Bolsheviks and left-wing socialist revolutionaries, to eliminate the Right SR leadership that still dominated the executive committee of the peasant soviets and that rejected

2400-686: The Congress of Soviets . Those that continued to support the Provisional Government became known as the Right SRs while those who aligned with the Bolsheviks became known as the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries or Left SRs ( Russian : левые эсеры , romanized :  leviye esery ). After the October Revolution , the Left SRs formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks from November 1917 to March 1918, but resigned its position in government after

2560-600: The Kerensky offensive , discipline in the Russian army deteriorated completely. Soldiers would disobey orders, often under the influence of Bolshevik agitation, and set up soldiers' committees to take control of their units after deposing the officers. The defeat and ongoing hardships of war led to anti-government riots in Petrograd, the " July Days " of 1917. Several months later, on 7 November (25 October old style ), Red Guards seized

2720-558: The Kingdom of Poland was not mentioned in the treaty, as the Germans refused to recognize the existence of any Polish representatives, which in turn led to Polish protests. The treaty stated that "Germany and Austria-Hungary intend to determine the future fate of these territories in agreement with their populations." Most of the territories were in effect ceded to Germany, which intended to have them become economic and political dependencies, where

2880-518: The Petrograd Soviet , where they opposed the continuation of the First World War – which had been defended by the centrist fraction of the party since mid-April. They were also strong in the Northern Region , Kazan , Kronstadt , Helsinki and Kharkiv . Later they became the main current in important rural provinces of the Russian interior, places where the socialist revolutionaries enjoyed

3040-763: The Red Guards , in March 1917. The continuing war led the German Government to agree to a suggestion that they should favour the opposition Communist Party ( Bolsheviks ), who were proponents of Russia's withdrawal from the war. Therefore, in April 1917, Germany transported Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin and thirty-one supporters in a sealed train from exile in Switzerland to Finland Station, Petrograd. Upon his arrival in Petrograd, Lenin proclaimed his April Theses , which included

3200-696: The Socialist Revolutionary Party began to form after the February Revolution , grouping the most radical elements of the party. The internal faction was highlighted in the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in mid-May 1917 for its position close to that of the Bolsheviks , while the bulk of the party aligned with the Mensheviks . The left-wing socialist revolutionaries were especially strong in

3360-726: The Socialist-Revolutionary-Maximalist groups and the Socialist-Revolutionary "People's" group in the Association of Left Narodism . The leaders who survived this stage, either in prison or in internal exile, fell victims to the Great Purge in the late 1930s (Algasov, Kamkov and Karelin were shot in 1938, while Spiridonova was executed in 1941). After the Fourth Party Congress (September–October 1918),

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3520-604: The Whites . The Finnish Senate paid all the financial costs of the military intervention of the Baltic Sea Division and urged the Finnish people to provide food, shelter, and any other aid needed by the Baltic Sea Division. During the Finnish Civil War , on 3 April 1918, it landed at Hanko and moved towards Helsinki and Lahti . The Baltic Sea Division quickly took Helsinki from the Red Guards , who had previously deposed

3680-616: The Winter Palace and arrested the Provisional Government in what is known as the October Revolution . A top priority of the newly established Soviet government was to end the war. On 8 November 1917 (26 October 1917 O.S) Vladimir Lenin signed the Decree on Peace , which was approved by the Second Congress of the Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies . The Decree called "upon all

3840-612: The independence of Finland , which it had recognized in January 1918, and pledged to end its war with the Ukrainian People's Republic , which the Central Powers had recognized under the prior Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (9 February 1918). A supplementary protocol signed in August 1918 required Russia to pay Germany war reparations of six billion marks. The treaty was controversial in Russia, giving

4000-552: The 1939–1940 Winter War , and by invading and occupying Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania , and parts of Romania (Bessarabia and northern Bukovina) in 1940. During World War II the Soviet leadership was thus able to overturn the majority of the territorial losses incurred at Brest-Litovsk, except for the larger part of Finland, western Congress Poland , and Western Armenia . Emil Orlik , the Viennese Secessionist artist, attended

4160-589: The Allied Powers but ultimately failed. Some Germans later blamed the occupation for significantly weakening the Spring Offensive. The Germans began slowly but steadily withdrawing personnel from the occupied territories from east to west as the troop transfers to the Western Front continued throughout 1918. Local independence movements, particularly those based in what is now Belarus and Ukraine, moved in to fill

4320-614: The Assembly, Maria Spiridonova , also supported by the Bolsheviks, was defeated by the SR leader, Victor Chernov by 244 votes to 153. Following the Assembly's rejection of the government motion (the "Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited Peoples"), that included the legislation approved until then by the Sovnarkom and limited its activity to establishing the bases for a socialist transformation,

4480-507: The Austrian front; Czernin dropped that threat. The food crisis in Vienna was eventually eased by "forced drafts of grain from Hungary, Poland, and Romania and by a last moment contribution from Germany of 450 truck-loads of flour". At Russian request, they agreed to recess the talks for twelve days. The Soviets' only hopes were that time would make their allies agree to join the negotiations or that

4640-708: The Baltic states re-emerged as independent nations. In the Treaty of Rapallo , concluded in April 1922, Germany accepted the Treaty's nullification, and the two powers agreed to abandon all war-related territorial and financial claims against each other. This state of affairs lasted until 1939, when after signing the secret protocol to the Nazi-Soviet pact , the Soviet Union was able to advance its borders westward by invading Poland in September 1939, by conquering parts of eastern Finland in

4800-674: The Bolshevik and Left SR deputies left the session. Despite the last-minute doubts of the Left SR commissioners, the Assembly was dissolved the next day (19). Both the party's bases and its delegates to the Third Congress of Soviets , generally approved the action. For the Left SRs, the Assembly had lost its original function because the measures expected of it had already been enacted by the Sovnarkom. In this Third Congress of Soviets , which brought together soldiers and workers with peasants for

4960-484: The Bolsheviks at the peace conference. On 15 December 1917, an armistice between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers was concluded. On 22 December , peace negotiations began in Brest-Litovsk. Arrangements for the conference were the responsibility of General Max Hoffmann , the chief of staff of the Central Powers' forces on the Eastern Front ( Oberkommando-Ostfront, Ober Ost ). The delegations that had negotiated

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5120-565: The Bolsheviks' 773 (66%) deputies ), still openly opposed their former Bolshevik allies, for which they were expelled from the congress. On July 6, the German Ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach was assassinated by Yakov Blumkin and Nikolai Andreev , on the orders of the Left SR Central Committee. Initially the Bolsheviks reacted in disbelief, doubting the authorship of the crime. Felix Dzerzhinski himself, sent to

5280-461: The Bolsheviks, especially their repressive and illegal measures. Still, prominent leaders defended staying in the government. Those who considered that the withdrawal of the Government had been a mistake and advocated resuming government work, a majority in the central committee, failed to convince the congress delegates, who ratified the actions taken after the approval of the peace treaty. In May

5440-460: The Bolsheviks, weak in the countryside, could not play. Also, the party supervised the agrarian reform approved by the Government at the end of 1917 and maintained control of both the Commissary of Agriculture and the peasant section of the VTsIK – chaired by Maria Spiridonova -, also in charge of agrarian issues. The legal reforms that supported the changes in the countryside increased support for

5600-450: The Bolsheviks. Again, the negotiators met in the fortress in Brest-Litovsk, and the delegates were housed in temporary wooden structures in its courtyards because the city had been burnt to the ground in 1915 by the retreating Russian army. They were cordially welcomed by the German commander of the Eastern Front, Prince Leopold of Bavaria , who sat with Joffe on the head table at the opening banquet with one hundred guests. As they had during

5760-441: The Central Committee that "you must sign this shameful peace in order to save the world revolution". If they did not agree, he would resign. He was supported by six Central Committee members, opposed by three, with Trotsky and three others abstaining. Debate in the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was intense, with Left SRs jeering Lenin as a traitor. The measure passed 116 to 85. Trotsky resigned as foreign minister and

5920-506: The Central Powers, were determined to separate from Russia on the principle of self-determination that the Bolsheviks themselves espoused. Joffe "looked as if he had received a blow on the head". Pokrovsky wept as he asked how they could speak of "peace without annexations when Germany was tearing eighteen provinces away from the Russian state". The Germans and the Austro-Hungarians planned to annex slices of Polish territory and to set up

6080-473: The Cheka. Four of them joined the body's advisory board, a number that grew over time to almost equal that of the Bolsheviks. The socialist revolutionary Peter Aleksandrovich, lieutenant of Felix Dzerzhinski , obtained great power in the Cheka, imposing unanimous votes in the troikas' that judged the most serious cases of counterrevolutionary activity, which in practice gave the veto over the death sentences. Until

6240-611: The Entente Powers a telegram, known as the Milyukov note , affirming to them that the Provisional Government would continue the war with the same war aims that the former Russian Empire had. The pro-war Provisional Government was opposed by the self-proclaimed Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , dominated by leftist parties. Its Order No. 1 called for an overriding mandate to soldier committees rather than army officers. The Soviet started to form its own paramilitary power,

6400-496: The German government and the high command began to favour offering more lenient terms to the Allied Powers in exchange for their recognition of German gains in the east. The treaty marked a significant contraction of the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks or that they could lay claim to as effective successors of the Russian Empire. While the independence of Poland was already accepted by them in principle, and Lenin had signed

6560-633: The Left SRs eventually entered the Sovnarkom. Others also joined the Cheka —after the forced dissolution of the constituent assembly—, whose actions managed to moderate in some cases. The government agreement was reached on 28, the day on which the executive councils of the two council organizations were unified. Three days later, the Agriculture Ministry passed into the hands of the left-wing socialist revolutionary Andrei Kolegayev and Left SR deputy commissioners were appointed in other government posts. Finally and after new and hard negotiations,

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6720-584: The Left SRs obtained the Justice Ministry for Isaac Steinberg (25). For his part, Karelin obtained the Deputy Commissariat of State Property, Prosh Proshian that of Post and Telegraph, Trutovski that of Local Government and Izmailovich that of Housing. The Bolsheviks, however, maintained the most powerful ministries, those that controlled the armed forces, finances, and politics Despite having seven commissioners and vice-commissioners compared to

6880-411: The Left SRs of the great support with which it had counted in the spring and early summer. The government persecution of the Left SRs disrupted the organization within only a few months. The general meaning of the interventions in the last congress was dejected, unlike those of the previous one. The party was in crisis, both due to the government persecution and internal divisions. Originally opposed to

7040-587: The Left Social Revolutionaries. Where the party concentrated on opposing requisitions and " Committees of Poor Peasants ", generally maintained peasant support, even after the July crisis, where they concentrated on opposing the Brest-Litovsk peace. Although some sectors of the party reacted to the repression in the countryside by demanding the separation of the Soviets of the peasant deputies from those of

7200-446: The Left Socialist Revolutionaries were "self-defense". However, it was beneficial for the Bolsheviks to use the assassination of the ambassador as a pretext for defeating the last opposition party. Immediately, military measures began to destroy the centers held by the Socialist Revolutionaries, whose delegates to the Fifth Congress were arrested at the Bolshoi Theater that same afternoon. The central committee had not communicated to

7360-424: The Military Committee. They were expelled by the SR Central Committee the next day, along with all those considered complicit in the Bolshevik uprising. The remaining delegates voted in favor of the decrees on peace and land – the latter very similar to the SR program -, but they refused to accept an exclusively Bolshevik government and demanded the formation of a coalition including both socialists in favor of

7520-461: The Military Revolutionary Committee, the Left SRs opposed an armed insurrection. During the Congress, in the midst of October Revolution, the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party ordered its members to leave the Military Revolutionary Committee , the center of the "Bolshevik adventure", having previously ordered the withdrawal of delegates from Congress. Part of the party's left wing remained in Congress and refused to leave

7680-441: The Moscow headquarters of the Cheka in search of the assassins, was arrested by the Left SR central committee, gathered there, when he believed that the socialist revolutionaries were not involved. The intention of the party was not, however, to seize power and overthrow the Bolsheviks, but to force a confrontation with Germany, destroying the results of Brest-Litovsk. Fearful of the German imperialist reaction, Lenin declared, on

7840-433: The October Revolution and those who rejected it. They refused to join the Sovnarkom , although they did accept twenty-nine seats (compared to the sixty-seven of the Bolsheviks and twenty of other minor groups) in the new All-Russian Central Executive Committee that emerged from the congress. Remaining outside the new government they were convinced that they could favor the creation of a coalition between socialists. During

8000-422: The October Revolution. During their conversations with the Bolsheviks that ended their entry into the Government, they demanded control of the Ministry of Justice because of their opposition to terror , with the intention of stopping it, and they obtained this portfolio for Isaac Steinberg . The objective of the Left SRs in partnering with the Bolsheviks was to moderate their actions, as well as participate in

8160-482: The Polish city of Cholm and its surroundings, and they would provide desperately needed grain. Czernin no longer was desperate for a prompt settlement with the Russians. When they reconvened, Trotsky declined the invitation to meet Prince Leopold and terminated shared meals and other sociable interactions with the representatives of the Central Powers. Day after day, Trotsky "engaged Kühlmann in debate, rising to subtle discussion of first principles that ranged far beyond

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8320-530: The Provisional Government's return or the unleashing of a counterrevolution. Their votes, together with those of the Bolsheviks, had been crucial in approving the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power in Congress The Left Socialist Revolutionaries entered the Council of People's Commissars , leading the people's commissariats of agriculture ( Kolegaev ), property ( Karelin ), justice ( Steinberg ), post offices and telegraphs ( Proshian ), local government ( Trutovsky ), and Algasov received

8480-409: The Russian economy had nearly collapsed under the strain of the war effort. The large numbers of war casualties and persistent food shortages in the major urban centers brought about civil unrest, known as the February Revolution , that forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. The Russian Provisional Government that replaced the Tsar in early 1917 continued the war. Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov sent

8640-433: The SR Central Committee began to dissolve local groups that they considered to be rebels, beginning with the largest in the country, that of the capital, with around forty-five thousand members. Although the true extent of the split unleashed by the PSR Central Committee is unknown, it is considered to have been remarkable and deprived the Socialist Revolutionaries of most of its radical elements and most of its support among

8800-410: The SR party line, and the peasants and local branches were divided among them. The executive committee of the largest railway union, the Vikzhel , elected on 23 August, had a majority of Left SRs. During the congresses of the regional, national and provincial soviets held between August and November, it was the effective division of the Right SRs and the strength of those on the left that often allowed

8960-575: The Soviet regime in Russian agriculture and during their months in government the Left SRs managed to unite their populist program with the peasant desires for land. These measures concentrated the efforts of the party once disputes by the Constituent Assembly, dissolved by the Government, had ended. The populists also supported the resurgence of communes , despite the Bolshevik opposition. The new "Fundamental Law of Land Socialization" —which abolished private land ownership, handed it over to those who worked it and favored cooperatives—, enacted on 9, it

9120-448: The Soviets and bureaucracy . However, they were unable to reorganize the party, which gradually splintered into multiple pro-Bolshevik parties – all of which would merge with the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) by 1921. The Left SRs were overwhelmingly underrepresented in the Russian Constituent Assembly due to outdated voter rolls which did not acknowledge the split between the Right and Left SRs. The left-wing faction of

9280-407: The Soviets of Peasants, of which it hoped to gain control in the imminent second congress, in addition to limit the Sovnarkom to executive functions and leave the legislative to a new unified Executive Committee. Lenin, in need of the support of the peasantry, agreed to these conditions. The result, however, was not as satisfactory as the Left SRs announced, since the government was controlled by

9440-401: The Soviets to restore power in the lost territories during the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) had mixed results, with the Red Army being defeated in the independence wars of the three Baltic countries and in the Polish–Soviet War , but achieving victory in its invasions of Azerbaijan , Armenia , and Georgia and in the Ukrainian–Soviet War . The border with Turkey established by the treaty

9600-445: The Soviets. The moderate Bolshevik current, headed by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev , counted on the collaboration of the Left SRs to form a majority in the constituent assembly. The final Left SR split was due to the party's attitude towards the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies . At the beginning, the SRs opposed the convocation of the new congress, fearing that it would be dominated by

9760-417: The Working Peasantry ) were shut down the day after Mirbach's death. On July 9, the Fifth Congress of Soviets resumed its sessions, without the Social Revolutionary delegates; condemned the Left SR actions as an attempt to seize power, supported the repressive actions of the government and ordered the expulsion of Left SRs from the soviets. The central committee, which had not adequately informed its groups of

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9920-408: The approval of leftist motions. The leftists declared themselves the only representatives of the party program, and proclaimed the socialist character of the revolution, demanded the end of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and the immediate socialization of land, first with their surrender to the land committees and then to the peasants themselves. They were also opposed to the continuation of

10080-419: The armistice negotiations, both sides continued to eat dinner and supper together amicably intermingled in the officers' mess. When the conference convened Kühlmann asked Joffe to present the Russian conditions for peace. He made six points, all variations of the Bolshevik slogan of peace with "no annexations or indemnities". The Central Powers accepted the principles "but only in case all belligerents [including

10240-412: The armistice were made stronger. Prominent additions on the Central Powers' side were the foreign ministers of Germany, Richard von Kühlmann , and Austria-Hungary, Count Ottokar Czernin , both the Ottoman grand vizier Talaat Pasha and Foreign Minister Nassimy Bey. The Bulgarians were headed by Minister of Justice Popoff, who was later joined by Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov . The Soviet delegation

10400-447: The belligerent nations and their governments to start immediate negotiations for peace" and proposed an immediate withdrawal of Russia from World War I . Leon Trotsky was appointed Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the new Bolshevik government. In preparation for peace talks with the representatives of the German government and the representatives of the other Central Powers, Leon Trotsky appointed his good friend Adolph Joffe to represent

10560-399: The bolshevik party". The alliance lasted until mid-March 1918, when the left socialist revolutionaries withdrew from the government in protest at the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty . Despite initially defending the convocation of the Russian Constituent Assembly , the number of its delegates to it was low. Partly their low presence on the Socialist Revolutionary lists was due to

10720-419: The bourgeoisie, the social revolutionaries, Tsarist diplomats, Tsarist bureaucrats, "the Kerenskys, Tseretelis and Chernovs", the Tsarist regime, and the "petty-bourgeois compromisers". The treaty opened a permanent rift between the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries . In July 1918 the Left SRs assassinated German Ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach in the hopes that it would induce Germany to annul

10880-408: The central committee was inclined to sign the peace treaty. The Left SR's opposition to the conditions imposed by the empires made them support Trotsky 's proposal to abandon the war without signing the peace. Determined internationalists, during the talks they had been convinced that the revolution would spread throughout Europe and that workers' representatives of the Empires would take the reins of

11040-405: The change of strategy and the possible consequences of the use of terrorism, left them ill-prepared to face its consequences. Lenin took the opportunity to get rid of the Left SRs as a political rival. In Petrograd , after short but hard fighting, the local headquarters of the Socialist Revolutionaries were seized; Those arrested were gradually released, after no connection to the events in Moscow

11200-409: The cities the opposition of the middle classes continued and workers' disillusionment arose due to the food crisis. Along with differences over land ownership, the main dissent between the two allied parties was due to the use of terror as a political instrument. Steinberg, as People's Commissar of Justice, was in favor of applying harsh measures against the opposition, but always legally; Lenin, on

11360-413: The committee's activities, from which the former withdrew on several occasions in protest of the actions of the Bolsheviks. Despite opposition from its main leaders, many Left SRs eventually participated in actions against the discredited Provisional Government before the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , in which they called for the transfer of government power to

11520-556: The concrete territorial issues that divided them". The Central Powers signed a peace treaty with Ukraine during the night of 8–9 February even though the Russians had retaken Kiev . German and Austro-Hungarian troops entered Ukraine to prop up the Rada. Finally, Hoffmann broke the impasse with the Russians by focusing the discussion on maps of the future boundaries. Trotsky summarised their situation "Germany and Austria-Hungary are cutting off from

11680-533: The conference, at the invitation of Richard von Kühlmann. He drew portraits of all the participants, along with a series of smaller caricatures. These were gathered together into a book, Brest-Litovsk, a copy of which was given to each of the participants. Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists ( Russian : Партия левых социалистов-революционеров-интернационалистов , romanized :  Partiya levykh sotsialistov-revolyutsionerov-internatsionalistov )

11840-560: The contrary, that the murder was part of an attempt by the Left SRs to destroy the government of the soviets and ordered the crushing of the revolt. According to a letter from a leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonova , the murder of Mirbach was a personal initiative of several leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries, and there was no rebellion, and all further actions of

12000-467: The contrary, was willing to use state terror to consolidate the revolution. Contrary to the activity of the Cheka , founded five days before the entry of Steinberg into the government , the Left SRs eventually decided to participate in the body – to try to control it. Steinberg tried to subordinate it to the revolutionary court, which dealt with the cases related to counterrevolutionary activity. But efforts to control Cheka's activity failed, as Lenin gave

12160-464: The disposition of the population to rise up against the occupiers. Opposition to maintaining the treaty, however, was in a majority among the delegates and the central committee weighed in on carrying out terrorist actions against the German representatives. In this tense atmosphere began the Fifth Congress of Soviets on July 4. The Left SRs, being in the minority (about 353 (30%) deputies, to

12320-487: The domains of the former Russian Empire territories more than 150,000 square kilometers in size". He was granted a nine-day recess for the Russians to decide whether to sign. In Petrograd, Trotsky argued passionately against signing and proposed that instead, "they should announce the termination of the war and demobilization without signing any peace." Privately, in correspondence with Count Otto von Czernin , Trotsky had expressed his willigness to relent to peace terms upon

12480-426: The eleven Bolsheviks, the distribution of power in the government was very unfavorable to the Left SRs. According to Leonard Shapiro , the alliance between Bolsheviks and left socialist revolutionaries "was to prove a shortlived and uneasy coalition, but it pacified Vikzhel, gave the Bolsheviks the appearance of peasant support, and no doubt also served to allay dormant apprehensions among the recent dissidents within

12640-487: The end of the Cheka , the poor peasant committees and requisitions in the countryside. In early 1919, some of the leaders were arrested again; in 1920 part of the party was able to re-establish itself until May 1921. Periods of relative tolerance alternated with more habitual periods of persecution by the Cheka and clandestine activity. Their relative influence among the workers and peasants in Ukraine in 1919 did not endanger

12800-524: The end of the month and the Left SRs could not count on the support of the former dissidents in their confrontation with the government in Congress. Seeking to secure a majority in the congress, on June 14 Lenin ordered the expulsion of the Mensheviks and the Right SRs from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) to undermine their chances of getting delegates. Despite pre-congress estimates that

12960-403: The end of workers' control of the factories and the reappearance of the bourgeois managers, who they considered endangered the socialist transformation. For the Left SRs, food requisitions in the countryside did not solve the supply problems of the cities, but instead endangered the Soviet system of government. They weakened the Bolsheviks in the countryside while strengthening rural support for

13120-567: The executive committee of the main railway union (the Vikzhel ). The idea of a broad socialist coalition government had received widespread support, including among the Bolsheviks, during the Soviet Congress, in which a motion to this effect by Julius Martov had initially been unanimously approved. The Bolshevik radicals – led by Lenin and Trotsky – and the conservative faction of the Socialist Revolutionaries had been opposed to an agreement between

13280-569: The existence of the Assembly as long as they did not oppose the new system of government that emerged from the October Revolution. From the party's point of view, the Assembly should limit itself to little more than endorsing the workers and peasants government created in the revolution and in no case would it be allowed to oppose the government of the Soviets, being threatened with dissolution if this happened. Their candidate to preside over

13440-531: The expulsion of British troops from Baku. The treaty freed up a million German soldiers for the Western Front and allowed Germany to use "much of Russia's food supply, industrial base, fuel supplies, and communications with Western Europe" According to historian Spencer Tucker, the Allied Powers felt that The treaty was the ultimate betrayal of the Allied cause and sowed the seeds for the Cold War. With Brest-Litovsk,

13600-427: The expulsion of Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (14 June ), economic and political centralization, the creation of a professional Army with tsarist officers, the restoration of the death penalty (May 21) and the sharpening of terror made the Left SRs an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks. The substitution of the elected soviets led in their opinion to bureaucratization and a new tyranny. They also condemned

13760-467: The extremists. After seeing that it had the support of much of the populace, the party changed its stance to support the congress, but only stood for delegate elections where it believed it had a chance of being elected, having lost much of the old support in big cities and the front line. In these councils, the majority of the elected delegates were Bolsheviks or Left SRs. At least half of the Socialist Revolutionary delegates elected to Congress belonged to

13920-454: The favor of the population. At the third party congress in May, they were a large and important fraction, although it was not until the crisis of autumn and the October Revolution when its support extended to the entire country. During the summer of 1917, it was gaining strength among soldier committees, both inside the country and in the front. Except for Mark Natanson , at the head of the faction

14080-428: The few sessions of the body that followed the Fifth Congress had a ceremonial character, all opposition to the Bolsheviks having been excluded from them. During the month of July, the Bolsheviks forcibly dissolved the soviets in which the Left SRs had a majority, while expelling the Socialist Revolutionaries where they were a minority and did not agree to reject the actions of their central committee. The party joined

14240-440: The first time, the Left SRs supported the Bolshevik position against that of the Right SRs and managed to defeat the rightist's motions to debate land management. But the leftists became increasingly dependent on Lenin's party and lost their political power base by approving the union of the soviets, as the peasant section was now subordinated to that of the workers and soldiers, controlled by the Bolsheviks. In exchange for accepting

14400-546: The formation began to emerge; one of them, that of the Party of Narodnik Communists , ended up joining the Bolsheviks in November. The Party of Revolutionary Communism (including Mark Natanson and Andrei Kolegayev ), continued to support the Lenin government and joined his party in 1920. At the Fourth and Final Party Congress, held between October 2 and 7, 1918, the Left SRs claimed that

14560-487: The future German-Polish border. He advocated taking a small slice of Poland; Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted much more. They were furious with Hoffmann for breaching the chain of command and wanted him to be dismissed and sent to command a division. The Kaiser refused, but Ludendorff no longer spoke with Hoffmann on the telephone since the communication was now through an intermediary. The German Supreme Commanders were also furious at ruling out of annexations, contending that

14720-473: The government, so they were allowed to continue their activity. In October 1919 and again in May 1920 (after another brief legalization), the Left SRs ended their confrontations with the Government in order to focus on opposing the counterrevolutionary threat of the White Armies . With the subsequent red victory, the socialist revolutionaries resumed their opposition activities in the late 1920s. The remains of

14880-476: The hundreds of delegates its intention to assassinate the German representative and they were arrested unaware of what had happened. The party was immediately denounced as counter-revolutionary and determined to lead the country to war with Germany, and the population was called to arms against him. Attempts to take the centers into the hands of the Left SRs in Moscow, however, could not begin firmly on that night due to

15040-467: The left socialist revolutionaries would eventually have nearly as many delegates as the Bolsheviks, the Bolsheviks sent enough delegates with suspicious credentials to secure a large majority in congress, wiping out the hopes of modifying government policy in congress. In this environment, the Third Party Congress took place, between June 28 and July 1, a congress that showed greater unity in

15200-416: The leftist current of the party. Together, the SR delegations held a slight majority in the congress. The representatives of the Left SRs hoped that the Petrograd Soviet would not take power by itself, but that the Congress of the Soviets would form a new socialist government that included multiple parties and separated Alexander Kerenski from power without causing a civil war. Despite its presence in

15360-544: The local German-speaking minority would be the ruling elite. New monarchies were to be created in Lithuania and the proposed " United Baltic Duchy " (which was planned to comprise Latvia and Estonia). Later in 1918, German aristocrats Wilhelm Karl, Duke of Urach (for Lithuania), and Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (for the planned United Baltic Duchy), were nominally appointed, but in reality never became, rulers of these envisaged new pro-German countries. This plan

15520-406: The local population became increasingly hostile to the occupation. Revolts and guerrilla warfare began breaking out all over the occupied territory, many of them inspired by Bolshevik agents. German troops also had to intervene in the Finnish Civil War , and Ludendorff became increasingly concerned that his troops were being affected by propaganda emanating from Moscow, which was one of the reasons he

15680-527: The loss of control of the body during the July revolt, the Left SRs avoided the execution of political prisoners. Even after his brethren joined the organization, Steinberg continued to try to subordinate the CheKa to his Commissariat, and reported their abuses. The main disagreement with the Bolsheviks arose during the peace negotiations with the Central Empires that ended in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . At

15840-412: The murder of the German ambassador had been a measure favorable to the world revolution, despite the fact that it ended their alliance with the Bolsheviks and led to the repression of the party. The party's determination to focus on opposing the peace treaty, a matter of secondary interest to the majority of the population at a time of great urban and rural discontent with the Bolshevik government, deprived

16000-553: The nations of the Entente] without exception pledge themselves to do the same". They did not intend to annex territories occupied by force. Joffe telegraphed the marvelous news to Petrograd. Thanks to informal chatting in the mess, one of Hoffmann's aides, Colonel Friedrich Brinckmann, realized that the Russians had optimistically misinterpreted the Central Powers' meaning. It fell to Hoffmann to set matters straight at dinner on 27 December: Poland, Lithuania and Courland , already occupied by

16160-429: The near-empty Soviet trenches. On the night of 18 February, the Central Committee supported Lenin's resolution that they sign the treaty by a margin of seven to five. Hoffmann kept advancing until 23 February when he presented new terms that included the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Ukraine and Finland. The Soviets were given 48 hours to open negotiations with the Germans, and another 72 to conclude them. Lenin told

16320-557: The negotiations while awaiting revolutions in Central Europe. A renewed Central Powers offensive launched on February 18 forced the Soviet side to sue for peace. Under the terms of the treaty, Russia lost control of Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and its Caucasus provinces of Kars and Batum . The lands comprised 34% of the former empire's population, 54% of its industrial land, 89% of its coalfields, and 26% of its railways. The Soviet government also confirmed

16480-519: The new government and the socialist opposition. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries, together with the moderate Bolsheviks and the Menshevik left, had played a crucial role in the negotiations thanks to their prominent presence in the Vikzhel that had imposed them. Their initial refusal to join the Government with the Bolsheviks was due to their desire to assume the role of mediator between the Bolsheviks and

16640-573: The newspaper Pravda the next day. In the year after the armistice following a timetable set by the victors, the German Army withdrew its occupying forces from the lands gained in Brest-Litovsk. However, relations between Russia and the Allied Powers were also bad due to the Allied Powers' intervention in the Russian Civil War against the Soviet government of Russia and its allies. The fate of

16800-562: The official government in Helsinki. This enabled the Senate to return to Helsinki. On 11 November 1918, the armistice ended World War I. Von der Goltz and his division left Helsinki on 16 December 1918. This article about a specific military unit is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This World War I article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

16960-620: The one side and the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ottoman Empire on the other. The treaty marked Russia's final withdrawal from World War I as an enemy of her co-signatories, on severe terms. In all, the treaty took away territory that included a quarter of the population and the industry of the former Russian Empire and nine tenths of its coal mines . Russia renounced all territorial claims in Finland (whose independence it had already recognized), Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , most of Belarus , and Ukraine . The territory of

17120-614: The organization the power to inform the Commissioners of its actions once already carried out, without the need for prior permission. In practice, the Cheka was subordinate only to the Sovnarkom, where the Bolshevik majority could approve its actions without the Left SRs being able to impede it. After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly , the Bolshevik Party finally agreed to admit the left socialist revolutionaries into

17280-492: The other socialist collectives persecuted by the government; for many historians, it is July 1918 that is considered the milestone of the final formation of a one-party Bolshevik dictatorship in the country, since after July 1918 the representation of other parties in the soviets became insignificant. The attempts of the weakened party in maintaining their opposition to the government was futile and many of its members ended up joining Lenin's party. Already in August, splits in

17440-515: The party and a certain euphoria for its growth – the number of affiliates had tripled in just three months - and in which greater hostility to the Central Empires and to maintaining peace with them was revealed. Spiridonova raised the provocation of the imperialist invasion to cause uprisings like those taking place in Ukraine, a position that was rejected by other delegates, who were not convinced of

17600-610: The party were removed by the arrests carried out during the Kronstadt rebellion , that the party had supported. A number of Left Socialist Revolutionaries, such as Alexander Antonov , played a significant political and military role during the Russian Civil War , joining the green rebels and fighting both the Bolsheviks and the White Guards . They survived residually until 1923–1924. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries divided into

17760-484: The party, around Kamkov and Irina Kakhovskaya , formed a clandestine terrorist group that carried out the murder of the German Commander in Ukraine, Hermann von Eichhorn and other minor actions, disrupted by the authorities. The current favorable to Spiridonova advocated a peasant uprising against the Bolsheviks, the abolition of the Sovnarkom and the transfer of government power to a democratically elected VTsIK ,

17920-526: The peace "must increase Germany's material power". They denigrated Kühlmann and pressed for additional territorial acquisitions. When Hindenburg was asked why they needed the Baltic provinces he replied, "To secure my left flank for when the next war happens." However, the most profound transformation was that a delegation from the Ukrainian Rada , which had declared independence from Russia, had arrived at Brest-Litovsk. They would make peace if they were given

18080-495: The peace negotiations. They argued that the signing of the peace was both a betrayal of the international revolution and a surrender to the bourgeoisie, both national and foreign. During the Fourth Congress of Soviets, the representatives of the Left SRs opposed, in vain, the ratification of the peace treaty. It was defended by the Bolshevik majority but rejected by a minority, who received the name Left Communists . After

18240-548: The peasantry and they also had support among the workers of the cities. After their withdrawal from the Government, guerrilla actions in the Baltic and Ukraine against the occupying troops of the Central Empires intensified, while devising terrorist attacks against senior German officials. The party helped to organize a popular, mainly peasant, uprising against the invading empires. At the Second Party Congress, held from April 17 to 25 in Moscow, Prosh Proshian described

18400-422: The political and economic program of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries moved to positions close to anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism . In their opinion, industrial enterprises should be transferred to the self-government of labor collectives, united in a common federation of manufacturers. Consumption had to be organized through a union of cooperatives – local self-governing consumer societies , united in

18560-541: The political formation; several hundred of its members were arrested and some executed, although many of its leaders managed to escape. Spiridonova, detained when she went to the Bolshoi to explain the actions decided by the central committee to her delegates, remained locked up in the Kremlin until the end of November. The two party newspapers, Znamia trudá ( Banner of Work ) and Golos trudovogo krestianstva ( The Voice of

18720-443: The poor peasant committees created by decree on June 11 to help with the requisitioning of food and to fuel the class struggle in the countryside, the Left SRs in its last congress was more ambiguous due to the new decree from Lenin of August 18 in which it was declared that the committees should only confront the more than well-to-do peasants and not the average peasants. Although the practical consequences of this decree were very few,

18880-620: The post of People's Commissar without a briefcase. The left SRs also collaborated with the Bolsheviks during Kerensky's attempts to regain control of the capital , in which they played a leading role in the street-fighting. Many representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party participated in the creation of the Red Army , in the work of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission . Subsequently,

19040-419: The rapprochement between the party and the Bolsheviks in some respects until the departure for peace with the Central Empires. Their withdrawal from the Sovnarkom did not, however, entail a total break with the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs continued to participate in numerous government agencies, including the Cheka. Other participants, like former Justice Commissioner Isaac Steinberg , were much more critical of

19200-413: The ratification of the treaty, the representatives of the left-communists – who had abstained in the final vote – and the Socialist Revolutionaries – who had voted against ratification – resigned from the government , withdrew from the Council of People's Commissars and announced the termination of their agreement with the Bolsheviks. The governing coalition had lasted just over two months. In

19360-554: The rebellion, the Left SRs had maintained a position equal to that of the Bolsheviks, participating in agitation in favor of the dissolution of the Russian Provisional Government , the transfer of power to the soviets and chairing the Military Revolutionary Committee. Opposed to the Bolshevik seizure of power up until the last moment, they reluctantly supported it, worried about the possibility of

19520-479: The region, and the location of the eventual western border of the Soviet Union , was settled in violent and chaotic struggles over the course of the next three and a half years. The Polish–Soviet War was particularly bitter; it ended with the Treaty of Riga in 1921. Although most of Ukraine and Belarus fell under Bolshevik control and eventually became two of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, Poland and

19680-406: The relationship between Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries was markedly worsened by the actions of the Bolsheviks in domestic politics, which joined the disagreements on foreign policy. The signing of the peace treaty, rejected by the Left SRs, the campaign to divide the peasantry and loot from the countryside to supply the cities, the final takeover of the soviets by the Bolsheviks with

19840-477: The reorganization of the national and international relations of these districts, but leave it to the population of these districts to carry out this reorganization in agreement with the neighbouring states, especially with the Ottoman Empire. Armenia , Azerbaijan and Georgia rejected the treaty and instead declared independence. They formed the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic . In

20000-627: The resignation of the Socialist Revolutionary Commissioners on March 19, 1918, during the Fourth Congress of Soviets . The Socialist Revolutionaries rejected the treaty, but their departure from the government did not mean a complete break with the Bolsheviks as both parties continued to collaborate in other councils and in the Commissariats. The socialist revolutionary leadership was actually very divided: almost half of

20160-403: The resumption of a German offensive although with moral dissent. Lenin was for signing rather than having an even more ruinous treaty forced on them after a few more weeks of military humiliation. The " Left Communists ", led by Nikolai Bukharin and Karl Radek , were sure that Germany, Austria, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria were all on the verge of revolution. They wanted to continue the war with

20320-476: The revolutionary government, even if the rest of the socialist formations did not enter it. For the Bolsheviks, the coalition with the left social revolutionaries represented a way of obtaining some peasant support. While the Socialist Revolutionary Party expelled the leftists, its various currents had participated in the failed negotiations to form a socialist coalition government, imposed by

20480-456: The revolutionary process that was coming. The Left SRs formed a coalition with the Bolsheviks in the Council of People's Commissars in late 1917 when, after Lenin's ultimatum to moderate Bolshevik leaders to abandon their attempts to achieve a coalition government with the rest of the more moderate socialist parties, those left the Government (among them, Lev Kamenev , Grigory Zinoviev , Aleksei Rykov and Viktor Nogin ). Eight members of

20640-495: The same time corresponding claims on Russia's part are taken into account, and the value of supplies confiscated in Russia by German military forces after the conclusion of peace is taken into account. The amount was equal to 300 million rubles. The Soviets additionally agreed to sell Germany 25% of the output of the Baku oil fields . Three secret clauses provided for German military action against Entente forces on Russian soil, as well as

20800-441: The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . The Central Committee of the Left SRs ultimately ordered the assassination of Wilhelm von Mirbach in an attempt to cause Russia to re-enter World War I and launched an ill-fated uprising against the Bolsheviks shortly after. Most members of the Left SRs were promptly arrested , though the majority that opposed the uprising were steadily released and allowed to retain their positions in

20960-507: The socialists opposed to the October Revolution. After the failure of the coalition negotiations and the approval of the censorship of press in the CEC, the socialist revolutionaries resigned from the CMR, although they remained there. For its part, continuing the talks to join the new government, the Left SRs demanded the union of the executive committee of the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers with that of

21120-445: The soldiers and workers, the central committee preferred to press the Bolsheviks demanding the convocation of a new congress of the unified soviets, hoping to subject the government's policy to harsh criticism therein. The leaders of the Left SRs also hoped to gain the support of the left-communists , at odds with Lenin for his capitulation to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . The schism in the Bolshevik leadership, however, had settled by

21280-459: The soldiers, while the intelligentsia remained mainly in the old party and the peasantry was divided between the two formations. In geographical terms, the new party formed by those expelled from the Socialist Revolutionary Party gained control of nearly half a dozen provinces, mainly in Ukraine and the Urals , parts of the capital and other isolated rural areas in the country. Their first conference as

21440-652: The spectre of German domination in Eastern Europe threatened to become reality, and the Allies now began to think seriously about military intervention [in Russia]. For the Western Allied Powers, the terms that Germany had imposed on Russia were interpreted as a warning of what to expect if the Central Powers won the war. Between Brest-Litovsk and the point when the situation in the Western Front became dire, some officials in

21600-467: The spring of 1918, generally carried out in a peaceful and orderly manner. Although the result did not dramatically increase the amount of land per farmer, it fulfilled the old peasant desire to drive out landowners and redistribute their land. In early 1918, The main strength of the Bolshevik-controlled regime was due to the peasant support achieved by its socialist-revolutionary allies, while in

21760-427: The spring the Left SR's influence grew, as support for the Bolsheviks fell. Between April and June, the party grew from some sixty thousand members to one hundred thousand. The socialist revolutionaries rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat and advocated a government controlled by both the working classes and the intellectuals. Their law of socialization of the land had won them a great amount of support with

21920-412: The tolerance of the committees by the Left SR congress, generally rejected in the countryside, ended up ruining the strength of the party in rural Russia. Many of its members gave up for joining the Bolshevik party. Some members of the central committee were tried and sentenced to imprisonment on November 27; some of them, like Spiridonova, received a pardon a few days later. The most radical current of

22080-472: The transfer of government power to the Soviets , convinced that the provisional government did not apply the reforms they deemed necessary. After the failed Kornilov coup , the leftist current took control of the socialist-revolutionary organization in the capital, traditionally more radical than that of other localities. Their growth within the SRs led them to hope that it would come under their control, delaying

22240-409: The treaty and joined forces to fight them. Non-Russians who inhabited the lands lost by Bolshevik Russia in the treaty saw the changes as an opportunity to set up independent states. Immediately after the signing of the treaty, Lenin moved the Soviet government from Petrograd to Moscow to prevent Germany from capturing the Russian capital in the event of an invasion. Trotsky blamed the peace treaty on

22400-537: The treaty declared that the territory Russia took from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) , specifically Ardahan , Kars , and Batumi , were to be returned. At the time of the treaty, this territory was under the effective control of Armenian and Georgian forces. Paragraph 3 of Article IV of the treaty stated that: The districts of Ardahan, Kars, and Batum will likewise and without delay be cleared of Russian troops. Russia will not interfere in

22560-434: The treaty, leading to the Left SR Uprising . Relations between Russia and the Central Powers did not go smoothly. The Ottoman Empire broke the treaty by invading the newly created First Republic of Armenia in May 1918. Joffe became the Russian ambassador to Germany. His priority was distributing propaganda to trigger the German revolution. On 4 November 1918, "the Soviet courier's packing-case had 'come to pieces ' " in

22720-426: The union of the congresses, the left socialist revolutionaries had achieved the Bolshevik acceptance of the socialization of land (instead of the expropriation that the Bolsheviks proposed and would later carry out), which the new Unified Congress approved by 376 votes out of 533. In the field, the Left SRs played a crucial role in extending the authority of the new Soviet Government through the " volost " soviets that

22880-415: The void the Germans left behind and established themselves in the newly freed territories. Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Poland , Belarus , and Ukraine became independent, while Bessarabia united with Romania. Russia lost 34% of its population, 54% of its industrial land, 89% of its coalfields, and 26% of its railways. Russia was also fined 6 billion marks. At the insistence of Talaat Pasha ,

23040-468: The wake of Soviet repudiation of Tsarist bonds, the nationalisation of foreign-owned property and confiscation of foreign assets, and Entente forces landing on Russian territory , the Soviets and Germany signed an additional agreement on 27 August 1918. The Soviets agreed to pay six billion marks in compensation for German losses. ARTICLE 2 Russia shall pay Germany six billion marks as compensation for losses sustained by Germans through Russian measures; at

23200-468: The war, even if it involved signing a separate peace with the Central Powers . In industrial policy, they advocated the granting of various rights ( union organizing , living wages , eight-hour days ) and workers' control of factories and played a prelevant role in the factory committees. Internationalists in the party wanted the extension of the revolution to other countries. They also advocated

23360-506: The western European proletariat would revolt and so their best strategy was to prolong the negotiations. As Foreign Minister Leon Trotsky wrote, "To delay negotiations, there must be someone to do the delaying". Therefore, Trotsky replaced Joffe as the leader. On the other side were significant political realignments. On New Year's Day in Berlin, the Kaiser insisted that Hoffmann reveal his views on

23520-438: The year progressed, the leadership of the SRs moved further and further away from the feelings of its followers and its base, which favoured the leftist current. The number of socialist-revolutionary organizations and committees that followed the leftist faction grew, a trend that was accentuated in the early autumn. In general, workers and soldiers agreed with the positions of the left-wing, the intelligentsia continued to support

23680-436: The youth and lack of experience of many of its future members, which made them seem unsuitable candidates to represent the party. The Left SRs wanted to approve extensive political and social changes in the assembly, but had no intention of submitting to parliamentary procedures to achieve its revolutionary objectives, as was the case with the Bolsheviks. Even the most moderate of the Left SR leaders were only willing to tolerate

23840-462: Was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution . In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Provisional Government , established after the February Revolution and those who supported the Bolsheviks , who favoured the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the placing of political power in the hands of

24000-512: Was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers ( Germany , Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire , and Bulgaria ), by which Russia withdrew from World War I . The treaty, which followed months of negotiations after the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest , Belarus ). The Soviet delegation

24160-418: Was a series of young leaders, from exile ( Boris Kamkov ), from Siberia ( Maria Spiridonova ) or agitation activities among the population ( Prosh Proshian ). The SR leadership, on the contrary, had veteran and conservative representatives, who led the party into an alliance with the liberals. This led the party to share government power but, at the same time, jeopardized its support among the population. As

24320-413: Was also populist-inspired (see Decree on Land ). Lenin accepted it as inevitable. Between the approval in the Congress of Soviets and the ratification by the VTsIK , which emerged from the Congress, the Bolsheviks managed to include important clauses such as the priority of collective farms or the state concession of property that upset the Left SRs. The law produced a gigantic change in land ownership in

24480-643: Was detailed by German Colonel General Erich Ludendorff , who wrote, "German prestige demands that we should hold a strong protecting hand, not only over German citizens, but over all Germans." The occupation of the western part of the former Russian Empire ultimately proved a costly blunder for Berlin, as over one million German troops lay sprawled out from Poland nearly to the Caspian Sea , all idle and depriving Germany of badly needed manpower in France. The hopes of using Ukraine's grain and coal proved abortive; in addition,

24640-408: Was dominated by the more moderate current of the party. At first the Left SRs defended the creation of a new exclusively socialist government that included all currents and parties, including the Right SRs. However, the refusal of the Right SRs to participate and the pressure of its most extreme supporters made the party abandon this cause and agree to negotiate with the Bolsheviks its entry into

24800-481: Was found, despite the initial fear of the Bolsheviks. At the nearby Kronstadt naval base, where the influence of the Left SRs was great, the Bolsheviks took political control by force, creating a "revolutionary committee" that separated the Soviet and in practice excluded the Socialist Revolutionaries from the next elections. The expulsion of the Left SRs from the Central Executive Committee meant that

24960-421: Was initially headed by Adolph Joffe , and key figures from the Central Powers included Max Hoffmann and Richard von Kühlmann of Germany, Ottokar Czernin of Austria-Hungary, and Talaat Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. In January 1918, the Central Powers demanded secession of all occupied territories of the former Russian Empire . The Soviets sent a new peace delegation led by Leon Trotsky , which aimed to stall

25120-485: Was largely affirmed by the Treaty of Kars (1921). Under the Treaty of Rapallo (1922), Russia and Germany renounced all territorial and financial claims against each other. The Russian borders established by the treaty bear an almost exact similarity to the post-1991 borders established after the fall of the Soviet Union . By 1917, Germany and Russia were stuck in a stalemate on the Eastern Front of World War I and

25280-438: Was led by Adolph Joffe , who had already led their armistice negotiators, but his group was made more cohesive by eliminating most of the representatives of social groups, like peasants and sailors, and the addition of tsarist general Aleksandr Samoilo and the noted Marxist historian Mikhail Pokrovsky . It still included Anastasia Bitsenko , a former assassin, representing the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who were at odds with

25440-484: Was reluctant to transfer divisions to the Western Front . The attempt at establishing an independent Ukrainian state under German guidance was unsuccessful as well. However, Ludendorff completely ruled out the idea of marching on Moscow and Petrograd to remove the Bolshevik government from power. Germany transferred hundreds of thousands of veteran troops to the Western Front for the 1918 Spring Offensive , which shocked

25600-416: Was replaced by Georgy Chicherin . When Sokolnikov arrived at Brest-Litovsk, he declared "we are going to sign immediately the treaty presented to us as an ultimatum but at the same time refuse to enter into any discussion of its terms". The treaty was signed at 17:50 on 3 March 1918. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March 1918. The signatories were Soviet Russia signed by Grigori Sokolnikov on

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