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81-571: The Soviet delegation 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

162-661: 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 the newspaper Pravda

243-557: A bank account at Mendelssohn & Co . After the delegation returned to Russia Joffe claimed to have paid this money to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) to support the revolutionary activities and to purchase weapons. These payments led to the demission of Wilhelm Solf as German minister of Foreign affairs , who refused a further cooperation with the USPD. In 1919–1920, Joffe

324-554: 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

405-591: 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

486-553: A member of its permanent ("narrow") bureau. On 6 August Joffe was made an alternate member of the Central Committee Secretariat and on 20 August made a member of the editorial board of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda which was then temporarily called Proletary ( Proletarian ) for legal reasons. Joffe headed the Bolshevik faction in the Petrograd Duma (city government) in the fall of 1917 and

567-421: 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

648-527: A partial recovery, he served as a member of the Soviet delegation to Great Britain in 1924 and as Soviet representative in Austria in 1924–1926. In 1926 his declining health and disagreements with the ruling Bolshevik faction forced his semi-retirement. He tried to concentrate on teaching, but it also proved difficult due to his ill-health. Joffe remained a friend and loyal supporter of Leon Trotsky through

729-489: 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

810-726: 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

891-923: Is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Though a paramilitary is, by definition, not a military , it is usually equivalent to a light infantry or special forces in terms of strength, firepower, and organizational structure. Paramilitaries use combat-capable kit/equipment (such as internal security / SWAT vehicles ), or even actual military equipment (such as long guns and armored personnel carriers ; usually military surplus resources), skills (such as battlefield medicine and bomb disposal ), and tactics (such as urban warfare and close-quarters combat ) that are compatible with their purpose, often combining them with skills from other relevant fields such as law enforcement , coast guard , or search and rescue . A paramilitary may fall under

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972-616: The Bolsheviks at the VI Bolshevik Party Congress held between 26 July and 3 August 1917 (all dates are Old Style until February 1918). At the Congress, Joffe was elected a candidate (non-voting) member of the Central Committee, but two days later, on 5 August, the Central Committee, some of whose members were in prison, in hiding or lived far from Petrograd and could not attend its meetings, made Joffe

1053-615: 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

1134-568: 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

1215-789: The Peace of Riga with Poland, ending the Polish-Soviet War of 1918-1921, and was made deputy chairman of the Turkestan Commission of the VTsIK and Sovnarkom . Joffe was one of the Soviet delegates at the Genoa Conference in February 1922, an experience he described in a short book published later that same year. After the Soviet walkout, he was made ambassador to China (in office: 1922 to 1923 or 1924), as

1296-788: 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

1377-669: The Soviet-German Supplementary Treaty on 27 August 1918. On 6 November 1918, shortly before the Armistice and the German Revolution , the Soviet delegation in Berlin headed by Joffe was expelled from the country on charges of preparing a Communist uprising in Germany. Straight before Joffe left Berlin he rendered Oskar Cohn about 1 million Mark and a 10.5 million Russian ruble mandate for

1458-731: 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

1539-706: 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

1620-633: 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

1701-726: The 1920s, joining him in the Left Opposition . By late 1927, he was gravely ill, in extreme pain and confined to his bed. After a refusal by the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party to send him abroad for treatment and Trotsky's expulsion from the Communist Party on 12 November 1927, he committed suicide on 16 November. He left a farewell letter addressed to Trotsky, but the letter was seized by Soviet secret police agents and later quoted by Stalinists to discredit both Joffe and Trotsky. Trotsky's eulogy at Joffe's funeral

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1782-512: 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

1863-611: 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

1944-515: 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

2025-611: The Bolshevik Central Committee decided to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 23 February 1918, Joffe remained a member of the Soviet delegation only under protest and in a purely consultative capacity. Grigory Sokolnikov , leader of the signatory team, signed on behalf of Russia. Remembering Joffe's presence with the Bolshevik delegation at Brest-Litovsk, Count Ottokar Czernin , the Austro-Hungarians' representative would later write: The leader of

2106-491: 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

2187-502: 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

2268-534: 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

2349-444: 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

2430-642: The Chairman of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee which overthrew the Russian Provisional Government on 25–26 October 1917. Immediately after the revolution, he supported Lenin and Trotsky against Zinoviev, Kamenev, Alexei Rykov and other Bolshevik Central Committee members who would have shared power with other socialist parties. From 30 November 1917 until January 1918, Joffe

2511-623: 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,

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2592-502: 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

2673-591: 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

2754-407: The Russian delegation is a Jew, named Joffe, who has recently been released from Siberia [...] after the meal I had a first conversation with Mr. Joffe. His whole theory is simply based on the universal application of the right of self-governance of nations in the broadest form. The thus liberated nations then have to be brought to love each other [...] I advised him that we would not attempt to imitate

2835-530: 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

2916-507: The Russian example and that we likewise would not tolerate a meddling in our internal affairs. If he continued to hold on his utopic viewpoints the peace would not be possible and then he would be well advised just to take the journey back with the next train. Mr. Joffe looked astonishedly at me with his gentle eyes and was silent for a while. Then he continued in a – for me, ever unforgettable – friendly, or I would even nearly say suppliant, tone: 'I very much hope that we will also be able to raise

2997-703: The Soviet troubleshooter (or Kuznetsov ) of those days. In 1923, Joffe signed an agreement with Sun Yat-Sen in Shanghai on aid to the Kuomintang on the assumption that the latter would cooperate with Chinese Communists , presumably with Lenin's approval. While based in China, Joffe traveled to Japan in June 1923 to settle Soviet-Japanese relations. The negotiations proved long and difficult, and ended when Joffe became gravely ill and had to be sent back to Moscow. After

3078-699: 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

3159-419: 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

3240-465: 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

3321-447: 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

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3402-584: 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

3483-441: The command of a military , train alongside them, or have permission to use their resources, despite not actually being part of them. Under the law of war , a state may incorporate a paramilitary organization or armed agency (such as a law enforcement agency or a private volunteer militia ) into its combatant armed forces. Some countries' constitutions prohibit paramilitary organizations outside government use . Depending on

3564-508: 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

3645-445: 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. Adolph Joffe Adolph Abramovich Joffe ( Russian : Адо́льф Абра́мович Ио́ффе ; alternatively transliterated as Adolf Ioffe or Yoffe ; 10 October 1883 – 16 November 1927)

3726-858: The course of his underground revolutionary activity Joffe adopted the party name "V. Krymsky," the surname meaning "The Crimean." In 1912 Joffe was arrested while visiting Odessa , imprisoned for 10 months and then exiled to Siberia . In 1917, Joffe, freed from the Siberian exile by the February Revolution , returned to the Crimea. Crimean social democrats sent him to the capital, Petrograd , to represent them, but he soon moved to an internationalist revolutionary position, which made it impossible for him to remain in an organization dominated by less radical Mensheviks. Instead, he joined forces with Trotsky, who had just returned from abroad. In May 1917, Joffe and Trotsky temporarily joined Mezhraiontsy who merged with

3807-485: 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

3888-562: 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 the Baltic states re-emerged as independent nations. In

3969-427: 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,

4050-486: 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

4131-492: 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

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4212-406: 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

4293-400: The more radical Bolshevik faction gained the upper hand, Joffe and other Bolsheviks walked out of the Pre-parliament. In October 1917, Joffe supported Lenin's and Trotsky's revolutionary position against Grigory Zinoviev 's and Lev Kamenev 's more moderate position, demanding that the latter be expelled from the Central Committee after an apparent breach of party discipline . Joffe served as

4374-501: 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

4455-428: 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

4536-500: 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

4617-411: 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 the region, and the location of

4698-568: 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

4779-468: 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

4860-420: 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

4941-402: 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

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5022-446: The revolution in your country...' At the VII Extraordinary Congress of the Bolshevik Party between 6 and 8 March 1918, Joffe was re-elected to the Central Committee, but only as a candidate (non-voting) member. He remained in Petrograd when the Soviet government moved to Moscow later in March and worked as a member of the Petrograd Bureau of the Central Committee until he was appointed Soviet representative to Germany in April. He signed

5103-447: 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

5184-432: 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

5265-407: 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

5346-478: 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

5427-433: 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

5508-413: 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 ,

5589-468: 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

5670-407: 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

5751-419: Was a Russian revolutionary, Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat of Karaite descent. Adolf Abramovich Joffe was born in Simferopol , Crimea , Russian Empire in a wealthy Karaite family. He became a social democrat in 1900 while still in high school , formally joining the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1903. In 1904 Joffe was sent to Baku , which he had to flee to avoid arrest. He

5832-642: Was a member of the Council of Labor and Defense and People's Commissar (minister) of State Control of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. He was not re-elected to the Central Committee at the VIII Party Congress in March 1919 and would never again occupy a major leadership position. He negotiated a ceasefire with Poland in October 1920 and peace treaties with Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania in late 1920. In 1921 he signed

5913-652: 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,

5994-507: Was his last public speech in the Soviet Union. Joffe's wife Maria Joffe was arrested as a left-oppositionist Trotskyist by Stalin's security forces, yet she survived to write her memoirs One Long Night – A Tale of Truth . Joffe's daughter, Nadezhda Joffe , also an active Trotskyist, survived Stalin's prisons and labor camps and published a memoir, Back in Time: My Life, My Fate, My Epoch . Paramilitary A paramilitary

6075-491: 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

6156-438: 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

6237-697: Was one of the Duma's delegates to the Democratic Conference between 14 and 22 September. Although Joffe, along with Lenin and Trotsky, opposed the Bolsheviks' participation in the consultative Pre-parliament created by the Democratic Conference, the motion was carried by the majority of Bolshevik deputies at the Democratic Conference and Joffe was made a Bolshevik member of the Pre-parliament. Two weeks later, on 7 October, once

6318-491: 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

6399-415: 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

6480-475: Was the head of the Soviet delegation that was sent to Brest-Litovsk to negotiate an end to the hostilities with Germany. On 22 December 1917 Joffe announced the following Bolshevik pre-conditions for a peace treaty: Although Joffe had signed a ceasefire agreement with the Central Powers on 2 December 1917, he supported Trotsky in the latter's refusal to sign a permanent peace treaty in February. Once

6561-966: Was then sent to Moscow , but had to flee again, this time abroad. After the events of Bloody Sunday on 9 January 1905, Joffe returned to Russia and took an active part in the Russian Revolution of 1905 . In early 1906 he was forced to emigrate and lived in Berlin until his expulsion from Germany in May 1906. In Russia, Joffe was close to the Menshevik faction within the Russian Social Democratic Party. However, after moving to Vienna in May 1906, he became close to Leon Trotsky 's position and helped Trotsky edit Pravda from 1908 to 1912 while studying medicine and psychoanalysis with Alfred Adler . He also used his family's fortune to support Pravda financially. During

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