MODERN HISTORY CORE STUDY

Reasons for the Russian Withdrawal

Why Revolution?

Russia was experiencing profound social changes as a result of the growing economy. The creation of a middle class and the movement of farmers into cities for work is one example.

Tsar Nicholas was resistant to providing people with access to power and decision making in the form of a strong effective parliament

Further social changes

Food shortages from the shifting economy

Evidence of corruption within the Tsarist court

Inability for the Tsar and his representatives to support modernization

Series of Revolutions

February Revolution (March 1917)– Tsar Deposed and Creation of a Provisional Government

October Revolution – Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution replaces the Provisional Government

Series of Revolutions

• establishes a Provisional Government

• Tsar Abdicates

February Revolutions 1917

• Kerensky Prime Minister

• Attempts new offensive on the Eastern Front

• Troops unresponsive Trench Bolshevism

New Russian

War Strategy

• Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power

• Peace, Bread, Land

• Winter of 1917-1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

October

Revolution

Russian Withdrawal

Peace Negotiations began with the Central Powers in Dec, 1917

Lenin and the Bolsheviks were then forced to sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk in March 1918

Russian Troops withdrew from the Eastern Front leaving German troops to focus on the Spring Offensive of March 1918

Treaty of Brest Litovsk

The treaty, signed between Bolshevik Russia on the one side and the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire (collectively the Central Powers) on the other, marked Russia's final withdrawal from World War I

Treaty of Brest Litovsk

The Treaty, fulfilled on unexpectedly humiliating terms, a major goal of the Bolshevik revolution of November 7, 1917.

Treaty of Brest Litovsk

In all, the treaty took away a quarter of Russia's population, a quarter of its industry and nine-tenths of its coal mines

However, Germany's defeat in World War I, marked by the armistice with the Allies on November 11 at Compiègne, made it possible for Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland to become truly independent sovereign states, and the designated monarchs had to renounce their thrones.

Impact on WW1

For the Western Allies, the terms imposed on the Russians were interpreted as a reminder and a warning of what to expect if the Germans and the other Central Powers won the war.

Secret German archives found after 1945 proved that the German government and military did indeed intend to settle the conflict on harsh terms (especially against France and Belgium), although between Brest-Litovsk and the point when the German military situation in the west became dire some in the German government and high command began to favour offering much more lenient terms in exchange for Allied recognition of German gains in the east.

Impact on WW1

In any event, Germany's treaty with the Bolsheviks spurred Allied efforts to win the war.

One of the first conditions of the 1918 Armistice was the complete abrogation of the treaty.

German gets ready for the March Spring Offensive on the Western Front