Peace of Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between the German Reich and Russia is signed on 3 March 1918. It is a dictated peace: Russia, plagued by revolutionary turmoil, loses almost a third of its population and has to make do with less than half of its industrial equipment. In addition, it is forced to recognise the independence of Finland, Estonia, Livonia, Courland, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, the Ukraine, and parts of Armenia. Even when the Peace Treaty of Versailles, signed in June of 1919, formally invalidates the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, many of the territorial agreements dictated to Russia by the German Reich will be confirmed.

© Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin Return of the Russian delegation to the peace negotiations (in the middle: Leo Trotsky)