THE PEACE TREATY THAT WAS SIGNED

The Russian delegates at the second peace conference had signed practically blindfolded. Gradually the German terms were given out to the world. Probably nothing during the war, except the sinking of the Lusitania, had so contributed to turning sympathy in neutral countries away from Germany as the conditions which were forced on Russia. The following summary gives the outstanding features of the treaty of peace which still exists between Russia and the Central Powers:

An end to all propaganda among the soldiers and civil populations of the Central Powers. Russia to relinquish all claims to the territory occupied and held by the Germans, the fate of these countries to be decided by Germany. Russia must evacuate the Anatolian provinces taken from Turkey, as well as the districts of Kars, Erivan and Batum. Russia must demobilize all her armies. All Russian warships to be interned in Russian harbors until a general peace has been declared. Russia must conclude an immediate peace with the Ukrainian Republic and recognize the treaty of peace between Ukrainia and the Central Powers. All revolutionary propaganda in Ukrainia must cease. Finland and the Aland Islands must be evacuated by all Russian armed forces, both military and naval. A general exchange of prisoners of war is to be begun at once.

The document presenting these terms had yet to be ratified by the highest ruling powers in Russia, and, according to the German demands, within two weeks. Trotzky, hitherto the dominating figure of the Bolsheviki party, was apparently opposed to the acceptance of the treaty and refused to be a delegate to the final peace conference, as already noted. For this reason he also resigned as Foreign Minister, declaring that he could not agree with the point of view of Lenine, and was succeeded by Tchitcherin. Trotzky was now made chairman of the newly created government of Petrograd, known as the Petrograd Labor Commune, which was responsible "for the safeguarding of revolutionary order and defending the city from the enemy."

The treaty was presented for ratification to a Pan-Soviet Congress, held in Moscow on March 14-16, 1918, the Soviet Government being by this time established in Moscow. The Congress consisted of 1,164 delegates, the majority being soldiers, sailors, and workingmen, with Bolshevist constituencies in the industrial centers, the peasants being represented in a much smaller proportion. Of the total number 732 delegates were declared partisans of Lenine; thirty-eight were Socialist Revolutionists, with more moderate tendencies than the Bolsheviki.

Again Lenine strongly advocated for peace at any price, contending, as before, that it would be only a matter of time until the working classes of the whole world would overthrow their capitalist and imperial masters and come to the rescue of the Russian proletariat. The treaty was finally ratified by a vote of 704 against 261. Two Bolshevist commissaries, Debenko and Kolantai, and four Socialist Revolutionaries, Steinberg, Kalagaiev, Karelin and Broshian, resigned their posts in the cabinet when the result was announced.

At the congress the following telegram from President Wilson was read, at the opening session:

"May I not take advantage of the meeting of the Congress of the Soviets to express the sincere sympathy which the people of the United States feel for the Russian people at this moment when the German power has been thrust in to interrupt and turn back the whole struggle for freedom and substitute the wishes of Germany for the purpose of the people of Russia? Although the Government of the United States is, unhappily, not now in a position to render the direct and effective aid it would wish to render, I beg to assure the people of Russia through the Congress that it will avail itself of every opportunity to secure for Russia once more complete sovereignty and independence in her own affairs and full restoration to her great rÔle in the life of Europe and the modern world.

"The whole heart of the people of the United States is with the people of Russia in the attempt to free themselves forever from autocratic government and become the masters of their own life."

The following day the Congress adopted the following reply to President Wilson's message of sympathy:

"The Congress expresses its gratitude to the American people, above all to the laboring and exploited classes of the United States, for the sympathy expressed to the Russian people by President Wilson through the Congress of Soviets in the days of severe trials. The Russian Socialistic Federative Republic of Soviets takes advantage of President Wilson's communication to express to all peoples perishing and suffering from the horrors of imperialistic war its warm sympathy and firm belief that the happy time is not far distant when the laboring classes of all countries will throw off the yoke of capitalism and will establish a socialistic state of society, which alone is capable of securing just and lasting peace as well as the culture and well-being of all laboring people."