Lenin, Trotsky, Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: The Collapse of the World Revolution, November 1917-November 1918

The Treaty that Ended the World Revolution.

For decades, historians have been trying to understand why the “world communist revolution†that broke out in Europe in 1917-1919 in the wake of the horror of the First World War ended in defeat. The overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917 and the Bolshevik coup eight months later was followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace between Russia and the Central Powers, with unprecedented annexations and reparations.

Vladimir Lenin called for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Nikolai Bukharin called for immediate revolutionary war. Lev Trotsky adhered to a middle position, which has entered history under the slogan “neither peace nor war.†What is clear is that by forming a separate peace with Germany and her allies in order to stabilize Soviet rule in Russia, Lenin’s government delivered a stab in the back to the German socialist revolution.

As a result, by 1919, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin, had survived in Russia, and it became the global center of the Communist International movement. Join scholar and noted Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky as he examines existing and newly discovered source material for a fresh look at this pivotal turning point in world history.