The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3, 1918 between the governments of the Central Powers, led by the German Empire and the young Bolshevik Republic, which emerged from the Russian Revolution in Russia in the city of Brest-Litovsk.
From the beginning of 1917, the vast majority of the Russian population wanted the end of the First World War. This desire for peace is one of the immediate causes of the two Russian Revolutions.
It was not until the October Revolution and the coming to power of the Bolsheviks that a peace decree was ratified by the Congress of Soviets on October 26, 1917. On November 7, Trotsky, as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs , offers the Allies and the Empires of Central Europe a general peace. For the latter, and in particular for the German Empire, a separate peace would make it possible to concentrate on a united front in the west, where the contribution of additional troops could be decisive.
Negotiations did not begin until December 9, in which the Allies did not take part.
On February 10, the Russian delegation, in agreement with the Bolshevik leaders, refuses to sign the peace treaty proposed by Germany; this in fact has nothing of the “democratic peace:without annexations, without contributions, by reserving to the peoples the right of self-determination” that the Bolsheviks demanded. They thus hope to show the whole world that the new power in Russia does not place itself in the field of struggles between imperialists by ignoring the populations. They also hope that the awakening of the German working class (see German Revolution) which has already manifested itself in major strikes at the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918 will not allow the imperial armies to continue fighting.
However, this “no war, no peace” solution did not hold:the revolution was slow in Germany, and on February 21 the troops resumed their advance in Russia, defeated the Bolshevik troops, occupied the Baltic countries and Ukraine whose agricultural resources must come to the aid of Germany under blockade. The Bolsheviks were then forced to accept the conditions imposed on them.
The treaty was signed on March 3, 1918.
By this treaty, huge territories are annexed to the German Empire, in particular Ukraine (the latter will however be taken back after the defeat of Germany in November), Belarus, the Baltic States and Poland. On the other hand, the Bolshevik government must pay the Reich an indemnity of 94 tons of gold.
Moreover, the German reinforcements did not arrive in France until late, because of the enormous distances and the necessary recovery time. They allowed an offensive, repelled during the second battle of the Marne, which could not be exploited for lack of cavalry. Indeed, it had remained in the East, to control the immense annexed territories (about one million square kilometers).
With the German revolution and the armistice of November 11, 1918, the treaty lapsed, and during the Russian Civil War the Red Army retook Ukraine and Belarus.