This Day In The Great War

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JANUARY 21, 2018

Bolsheviks Divided Over German Peace Terms

 

January 21 1918, Petrograd–The Germans’ demands in the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk had only increased over the course of January, as the inclusion of the Ukrainians weakened the Bolsheviks’ position.  On January 18, Hoffman presented their new offer to the Russians, which would relinquish Russian rights to essentially all of the territory the Germans had already occupied during the war.  Trotsky, galled by the demands, and hoping to stall for time, asked for a recess and left for Petrograd to consult with his fellow Bolsheviks.

Trotsky, hoping that Germany’s extremely annexationist demands would inflame the workers of Europe against them, advocated for a strategy of “neither war nor peace” that would put the Germans in the worst possible light.  Russia would simply unilaterally declare that the war was over, demobilize, and refuse to sign the document at Brest-Litovsk.  While the Germans figured out how to react, the socialist revolution would hopefully spread to Germany and Austria-Hungary; signs were already encouraging in the latter.  If the Germans decided to break off the armistice and invade Russia anyway, they would be committing an act of aggression that would further turn their people against them, hoped Trotsky.

Another faction, led by Bukharin, advocated a resumption of the war against Germany.  In the 1790′s, France spread its revolution by warfare, and war was the only way it could be guaranteed to spread to Berlin and Vienna.  Fighting for the socialist revolution, as opposed to for the Czar or the promise of a Constituent Assembly, could unite the Army and the Russian people.  Given the essentially non-existent state of the Russian Army and the relatively small number of committed Red Guards loyal to the Bolsheviks, this plan was ludicrous on its face.  Bukharin even acknowledged this, saying “Let the Germans strike, let them advance another hundred miles, what interests us is how this affects the international movement.”  His proposal would attract the slim majority of the vote at a meeting of Bolshevik leaders on January 21.

Lenin did not like either plan.  Growing doubtful that the revolution would spread in the coming weeks, he instead argued for an immediate acceptance of the German terms; while painful, it was the best deal they were likely to get:

The army is excessively fatigued by the war; the horses are in such a state that in the event of an offensive we shall not be able to move the artillery; the Germans are holding such favorable positions on the islands in the Baltic that if they start an offensive they could take Reval [Tallinn] and Petrograd with their bare hands….The peace we are now forced to conclude is undoubtedly an ignominious one, but if war begins, our government will be swept away and peace will be concluded by a different government….We need a breathing space in order to carry out social reforms; we need to consolidate ourselves, and this takes time.  We need to complete the crushing of the bourgeoisie, but for this we will need to have both our hands free.  Once we have done this…we should be able to carry on a revolutionary war against international imperialism.

Lenin’s proposal got the least support, however; its only notable backers were Stalin and Zinoviev.  To avoid a disastrous war, Lenin was forced to throw his support behind Trotsky’s plan.

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