LEGISLATION BY DECREES

So far, as already recorded, the Constituent Assembly had proved a fiasco; it could not gather together a quorum. Therefore the Lenine-Trotzky Cabinet really represented all the authority there was. Nor did they hesitate to exercise this power to promulgate certain laws which were in accordance with their program, or principles.

One of the first of these which they proclaimed, on November 26, 1917, was the abolition of all class titles, distinctions, or privileges; like the French revolution, every individual was resolved into the simple "citizen," whatever his position. The corporate properties of the nobles, large merchants and other "capitalists" were confiscated by the state.

On December 17, 1917, a similar decree was proclaimed against the church. This institution in Russia, it must be admitted, had played a sinister part in Russian politics in the earlier days of the czars and had been, if that were possible, more reactionary and despotic than the military or civil authorities. Now, according to the decree, the properties of the church, in land, money, and other treasure, was completely confiscated and its jurisdiction over the schools was ended.

Perhaps the most radical decree was that which was promulgated on December 16, 1917, in regard to army organization.

Henceforward all officers were to be elected by their men, and those which were not reelected automatically were degraded to the rank of privates, with corresponding pay. Nor did such officers have the relief of resignation, for, having become privates, they were now subject to the penalties for desertion during war time. In a sense this was only a natural reaction, for nowhere, perhaps not even in Germany, were the caste lines drawn so sharply between officers and private. In the days of the autocracy no soldier could hope to become an officer, for it was the law that officers must be of noble birth; they must be members of the aristocratic families. The natural result was that the common soldier was regarded as a degraded creature and his officers treated him as such. Now came the opportunity for revenge, and the reports of correspondents seem to indicate that this was taken full advantage of. Colonels exchanged places with their orderlies; captains and majors were forced to clean out the stables. And in not a few cases violence and lynch law were applied to officers who had been, in former days, hard taskmakers.

Meanwhile, throughout the passing days, there were continuous reports of passive resistance against the authority of the new government. It was especially among the employees of the administrative departments of the Government machinery that this resistance arose in the form of strikes. The officials of the state banks especially proved recalcitrant and refused to surrender Government moneys. Parties of drunken soldiers also created disorders, it was reported, breaking into wine shops and helping themselves to the merchandise. But when all these minor events are viewed in the retrospect of a month or two, summed up, it is remarkable how little disorder there really has been in Petrograd, comparatively speaking. Conditions certainly in no way approached those existing in France, or Paris, during the French Revolution.

It was in the Ukraine, not yet in the hands of the Bolsheviki, that disorder reigned, though they were, apparently, responsible for it in that they made efforts to gain control. In Odessa, during a few days around December 16, 1917, something very closely approaching a violent revolution broke out. Here the Rada had apparently established the capital of the republic. The Bolshevist element among the troops made a determined attack on the arsenal, where the Rada was in session. The officials of the Rada summoned loyal troops by telephone and a pitched battle ensued in the streets. Then the sailors from the Black Sea were summoned, but on arriving on the scene part of them went over to the Bolsheviki. The fighting spread from the arsenal, where the loyal troops had taken up a strong position, the Bolsheviki getting possession of the Municipal Theater, close at hand. Here some fierce hand-to-hand encounters took place, the theater building changing hands several times. Finally the Bolsheviki gained full possession of the water front, the shipping district, whereupon this section of the city was bombarded by the loyal artillery. The final outcome of the fighting was not reported, but apparently the Bolsheviki were suppressed, for the time being.

But this did not immediately concern the Petrograd Government. Under the direct supervision of Lenine and Trotzky vast quantities of Socialist literature were being published in German for the purpose of distribution along the front. Of one pamphlet it was said that a hundred thousand copies were carried to the German lines and distributed in one day. Special newspapers, printed in German, were issued for the sole purpose of propaganda among the German soldiers. According to the account of a prominent Belgian Socialist, who visited Russia, hoping as many Socialists had in other countries of the world that their principles were to receive a fair trial in the new Russia, the Bolshevik propaganda in German was hardly calculated to make converts among intelligent people, for it was written in schoolboy language, with trivial arguments. Meantime, German propaganda in Russia was couched in irreproachable Russian and calculated to appeal to the educated and the unlettered alike.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, on December 23, 1917, the peace negotiations were resumed at Brest-Litovsk. The meeting was attended by the following delegates:

Germany—Dr. Richard von KÜhlmann, Foreign Minister; Herr von Rosenberg, Baron von Hock, General Hoffmann, and Major Brinckmann. Austria-Hungary—Count Czernin, Foreign Minister; Herr von Merey, Freiherr von Wisser, Count Colleredo, Count Osaky, Field Marshal von Chisceries, Lieutenant Polarny, and Major von Gluise. Bulgaria—Minister Popov, Former Secretary Kossev, Postmaster General Stoyanovitch, Colonel Gantchev, and Dr. Anastasov. Turkey—Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nessimy Bey, Ambassador Hakki, Under Foreign Secretary Hekmit Bey, and General Zekki Pasha. Russia—Citizens Jaffe, Kaminev, Bisenko, Pokrosky, Karaghan, Lubinski, Weltman Pawlowitch, Admiral Altvater, General Tumorri, Colonel Rokki, Colonel Zelpett, and Captain Lipsky.

Prince Leopold of Bavaria, as commander in chief of the German forces in the east, welcomed the delegates and invited Hakki Pasha, as the senior delegate, to open the conference. Hakki Pasha, after a speech, declared the conference formally open and proposed Dr. von KÜhlmann as president. The German Foreign Minister was thereupon elected to the chair unanimously. In his opening speech he said:

"The purpose of this memorable meeting is to end the war between the Central Powers and Russia and reestablish a state of peace and friendship. In view of the situation it will be impossible in the course of these deliberations to prepare an instrument of peace elaborated in its smallest details. What I have in mind is to fix the most important principles and conditions on which peaceful and neighborly intercourse, especially in the cultural and economic sense, can be speedily resumed, and also to decide upon the best means to healing the wounds caused by the war.

"Our negotiations will be guided by the spirit of peaceable humanity and mutual esteem. They must take into account, on the one hand, what has become historical, in order that we may not lose our footing on the firm ground of facts, but, on the other hand, they must be inspired by the new and great leading motive which has brought us here together.

"It is an auspicious circumstance that the negotiations open within the sight of that festival which, for centuries past, has promised peace on earth and good will to men. I enter upon the negotiations with the desire that our work may make speedy and prosperous progress."

Having concluded his address, Dr. von KÜhlmann proposed the following rules, which were adopted:

Questions of precedence will be decided according to the alphabetical list of the represented powers.

Plenary sittings will be presided over by the chief representative of each of the five powers in rotation.

The following languages may be used in debate: German, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Russian. Questions interesting only part of the represented powers may be discussed separately.

Official reports of the proceedings will be drafted jointly.

At the President's invitation the Russian delegates now presented, in a long speech, the basic proposals for peace terms, already familiar in the forms of the various resolutions passed by the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates.

The Russian demands comprised fifteen paragraphs, or points, as follows:

1. Evacuation of all Russian territory now occupied by Germany, with autonomy for Poland and the Lithuanian and Lettish provinces.

2. Autonomy for Turkish Armenia.

3. Settlement of the Alsace-Lorraine problem by a free plebiscite.

4. The restoration of Belgium and indemnity through an international fund for damages.

5. Restoration of Serbia and Montenegro with a similar indemnity, Serbia gaining access to the Adriatic. Complete autonomy for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

6. Other contested Balkan territory to be temporarily autonomous pending plebiscites.

7. Restoration of Rumanian territory with autonomy for the Dobrudja; the Berlin convention concerning equality for Jews to be put into full force.

8. Autonomy for the Italian population of Trent and Trieste, pending a plebiscite.

9. Restoration of the German colonies.

10. Restoration of Persia and Greece.

11. Neutralization of all maritime straits leading to inland seas, including the Suez and Panama Canals.

12. All belligerents to renounce indemnities; contributions exacted during the war to be refunded.

13. All belligerents to renounce commercial boycotts after the war or the institution of special customs agreements.

14. Peace conditions to be settled at a congress composed of delegates chosen by a national representative body, the condition being stipulated by the respective parliaments that the diplomats shall sign no secret treaty; all such secret treaties to be declared null and void.

15. Gradual disarmament on land and sea and the establishment of militia to replace the standing armies.

At almost precisely the same moment that this conference was in session Trotzky was publicly delivering an address to the members of the Executive Committee of the Soviet, in Petrograd, in the following terms:

"We have called you here to ask your support. You must help us in our efforts to make peace with nations, and not with German militarism. If our delegation meets, eye to eye, representatives of the German emperor, without the people, then peace will be impossible. If dead silence should continue in Europe, if the German emperor should be enabled to offer offensive terms of peace, we should fight against it. I do not know to what extent we could fight, because of economic conditions, utter exhaustion, and the disorganized state of the army. But I think we would fight. We would release all elderly soldiers and call the youth of the country to fight to the last drop of their blood. The Allies must understand that we did not overthrow czarism to bend our knees before the kaiser. They know our game is not yet ended.

"If they should offer unacceptable terms directed against our basic principles, then we shall submit the question to the Constituent Assembly. But our party takes its position for a holy war against militarism in all countries. But if, exhausted as we are by this unprecedented slaughter, we must accept the terms of the German emperor, we would accept them only in order to rise together with the German people against German militarism, as we did against czarism."

Meanwhile during Christmas the peace conference was proceeding, the representatives of the Central Powers deliberating over the Russian proposals.

The German Socialist leaders, Haase, Ledebour, and Kautsky, had attempted to procure passports that they might go to Stockholm, there to meet representatives of the Russian Bolsheviki, to learn at first hand what conditions the latter demanded. But passports were refused them. Trotzky, hearing of this, telegraphed to the Russian delegates at Brest-Litovsk, stating that if this refusal were persisted in, the popular indignation in Petrograd would rise to such a pitch as to seriously hamper the prospects of success of the negotiations. Nevertheless, the passports were not granted.

On Christmas Day the Central Powers made their reply to the Russian peace proposals, and that reply was one which immediately attracted world-wide attention, for it took in all the Entente Powers.

Through Count Czernin the Central Powers offered a general peace based on the Russian demands; no annexations, no indemnities, etc. According to their interpretation, however, the question of the subjection of nationalities who have not independence, to another country, must not come under the scope of "self-determination"; such questions must be decided by each government and its people according to the constitution of each government.

In the event of mutual renunciation of claims for indemnities for war costs and war damages, Count Czernin continued, each belligerent would have to bear only the expense incurred by its subjects made prisoners, and to pay for damage caused in its territory to property of civilian subjects of an enemy country by violations of international law. The creation of a special fund for this purpose, as suggested by the Russians, could be discussed only in the event that the other belligerents joined in the peace negotiations within a certain time.

The chairman of the Russian delegation, Jaffe, while expressing his pleasure at the acceptance of the Russian basic proposals, demurred over the vagueness of the definition of self-determination of small nationalities; it was incomplete. He said that the war could not end without the reestablishment of the violated rights of small and oppressed nationalities, and Russia would insist on guaranties that their lawful rights would be protected in a general peace treaty. "By renouncing the application of the right of the stronger nations with regard to territories occupied during the war," he continued, "the Central Powers at the same time give all their opponents an immediate peace ground. They affirm that the right of the stronger, after unprecedented bloodshed, shall be preserved with all its integrity within each of the countries with no regard for little and oppressed nationalities. The war cannot end without the violated rights of those nationalities being reestablished. The Russian delegation insists that those nationalities must in the very next peace treaty establishing a general peace among all nationalities receive, on the basis of international agreement, guaranties that their lawful rights shall be protected. The lapse of time in no case legalizes the violation of one people by another."

Germany also demanded the return of her overseas colonies, contending that the valor with which the natives of those colonies had fought for the German flag testified to their loyalty. While apparently not strongly impressed with this manifestation of loyalty, the Russians agreed that Germany had the right to make this demand. The Russian chairman then proposed that the next session of the conference be postponed until January 8, 1918, to allow ample time for the circulation of the German proposals among the Entente nations. At the end of that time the negotiations should be resumed, whether the Entente nations responded or not.

The terms of Germany, as submitted in detail to Petrograd several days later, were substantially as follows:

Article 1.—Russia and Germany are to declare the state of war at an end. Both nations are resolved to live together in the future in peace and friendship on conditions of complete reciprocity. Germany will be ready, as soon as peace is concluded with Russia, and the demobilization of the Russian armies has been completed, to evacuate her present positions in occupied Russian territory, in so far as no different inferences result from Article 2.

Article 2.—The Russian Government having, in accordance with its principles, proclaimed for all peoples, without exception, living within the Russian Empire the right of self-determination, including complete separation, takes cognizance of the decisions expressing the will of people demanding a full state of independence and separation from the Russian Empire for Poland, Lithuania, Courland, and portions of Esthonia and Livonia, the Russian Government recognizes that in the present circumstances these manifestations must be regarded as an expression of the will of the people, and is ready to draw conclusions therefrom. As in those districts to which the foregoing stipulations apply, the question of evacuation is not such as provided for in Article 1, a special commission shall discuss and fix the time and other details in conformity and in accordance with the Russian idea of the necessary ratification by a plebiscite on broad lines and without any military pressure whatever of the already existing proclamation of separation.

Article 3.—Treaties and agreements in force before the war are to become effective if not directly in conflict with changes resulting from the war. Each party obligates itself, within three months after the signing of the peace treaty, to inform the other which of the treaties and agreements will not again become effective.

Article 4.—Each of the contracting parties will not discriminate against the subjects, merchant ships, or goods of the other parties.

Article 5.—The parties agree that with the conclusion of peace economic war shall cease. During the time necessary for the restoration of relations there may be limitations upon trade, but the regulations as to imports are not to be of a too burdensome extent and high taxes or duties on imports shall not be levied. For the interchange of goods an organization shall be effected of mixed commissions, to be formed as soon as possible.

Article 6.—Instead of the commercial treaty of navigation of 1894-1904, which is abrogated, a new treaty will accord new conditions.

Article 7.—The parties will grant one another during at least twenty years the rights of the most favored nations in questions of commerce and navigation. Article 8.—Russia agrees that the administration of the mouth of the Danube be intrusted to a European Danube commission, with a membership from the countries bordering upon the Danube and the Black Sea. Above Braila the administration is to be in the hands of the countries bordering on the Danube.

Article 9.—Military laws limiting the rights of Germans in Russia, or Russians in Germany, are to be abrogated.

Article 10.—The contracting parties are not to demand payment of war expenditures, nor for damages suffered during the war, this provision including requisitions.

Article 11.—Each party is to pay for damage done within its own limits during the war by acts against international law with regard to the subjects of other parties, in particular, their diplomatic and consular representatives, as affecting their life, health, or property. The amount is to be fixed by mixed commissions with neutral chairmen.

Article 12.—Prisoners of war who are invalids are to be immediately repatriated. The exchange of other prisoners is to be made as soon as possible, the time to be fixed by a Russian-German commission.

Article 13.—Civilian subjects, interned or exiled, are to be immediately released and sent home without cost to them.

Article 14.—Russian subjects, of German descent, particularly German colonists, may within ten years emigrate to Germany, with the right to liquidate or transfer their property.

Article 15.—Merchantmen of any of the contracting parties, which were in the ports of any of the other parties at the beginning of the war, and also vessels taken as prizes which have not yet been adjudged, are to be returned, or, if that be impossible, paid for.

Article 16.—Diplomatic and consular relations are to be resumed as soon as possible.

When these terms were read in Petrograd, the strongest indignation prevailed; it was Article 2 especially which the Russians were unwilling to accept.

The Russians had indeed emphasized the right of small nationalities to determine their own fates, even to separate from Russia, if so they desired. They also recognized their right to join any other national organization, if they chose.

Of this stand the Germans took full advantage, in rather a clumsy way. Germany insisted that those certain nationalities specified, Poland, Esthonia, Livonia, Lithuania, and the others, having declared their separation from Russia, could, and undoubtedly would, now declare themselves a part of the German Empire. At any rate, this was to be assumed.

The Germans had also explained, through General Hoffmann, that Germany would not evacuate Riga, Libau, and other occupied points until certain that all Russia sanctioned peace.

Germany's imperialistic schemes in the direction of Russia were very plainly revealed. Trotsky vaunted it as a signal success for his so-called diplomacy that he had forced Germany to make manifest her real purposes. But it was only in Russia that people hoped for any other attitude on the part of the Central Powers, with Russia's military power destroyed. Naturally, the peace offer made by Germany to the Allies was rejected with derision; or, at least, no official reply was made to it. But it did inspire a speech by President Wilson, on January 8, 1918, in which the war aims of the United States were definitely stated and the Russian peace deputation was given credit for at least the unmasking of German hypocrisy.

It was not until January 2, 1918, that the Russian Government made known its rejection of the German counterproposals for peace. This was done through a resolution passed by the Executive Committee of the Soviet, which was worded as follows:

"This assembly confirms the fact that the program proclaimed by the representatives of the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk recognizes in principle the conclusion of a peace without annexations or indemnities. This recognition establishes the basis for further pourparlers, with the view of a general democratic peace.

"However, already in this declaration the representatives of the German Government have refused to admit the free right of oppressed nations and colonies seized before the beginning of the war in 1914 to dispose of their own destinies. This restriction, which was immediately reported by the Russian delegation, signifies that the dominant parties in Germany, compelled by a popular movement to grant concessions to the principle of a democratic peace, nevertheless are trying to distort this idea in the sense of their own annexationist policy.

"The Austro-German delegation, in setting forth the practical conditions of peace in the East, alters still further its idea of a just democratic peace. This declaration is made in view of the fact that the Austrian and German Governments refused to guarantee immediately and irrevocably the removal of their troops from the occupied countries of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland and parts of Livonia and Esthonia.

"In fact, the free affirmation of their will by the people of Poland, Lithuania, Courland, and all other countries occupied by the troops of other states is impossible until the moment of the return of the native population to the places they have evacuated. The allegation of the German delegation that the will of the people of the said countries has already been manifested is devoid of all foundation.

"Under martial law and under the yoke of the censorship the peoples of the occupied countries could not express their will. The documents on which the German Government could base its allegation at best only prove the manifestation of the will of a few privileged groups, and in no way the will of the masses in those territories.

"We now declare that the Russian revolution remains faithful to the policy of internationalism. We defend the right of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland to dispose of their own destinies actually and freely. Never will we recognize the justice of imposing the will of a foreign nation on any other nation whatsoever.

"This joint session insists that the peace pourparlers communicated later to the neutral states and instructs the Soldiers' and Workmen's Councils and the Commissioners to take measures to bring this about. "We say to the people of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey:

"Under your pressure your Governments have been obliged to accept the motto of no annexations and no indemnities, but recently they have been trying to carry on their old policy of evasion. Remember, that the conclusion of an immediate democratic peace will depend actually and above all on you. All the people of Europe look to you, exhausted and bled by such a war as there never was before, that you will not permit the Austro-German imperialists to make war against revolutionary Russia for the subjection of Poland, Lithuania, Courland, and Armenia."

Simultaneously with the issue of this declaration a pamphlet in German was prepared and published by the hundred thousand copies, wherein the trickery of the German peace parleys was set forth and their pretensions denounced as "unconscionable lies." After a description of the wholesale recruiting of labor forces from Poland and Lithuania carried on by the Germans, amounting to over 300,000 noncombatants, the pamphlet continued:

"The German Government only found support in Courland from the hated slave owners, the German barons, who have their prototypes in the Polish landowners."

The document further declared that the Germans only desired to free the peoples of those border countries that they might be exploited as laborers by German capital, impose an Austrian monarchy in Poland and make Lithuania and Courland German provinces. "On such a basis," added the pamphlet, "we shall never continue negotiations."

The Russian people themselves did not understand the manner in which they had been tricked and betrayed by Trotzky and Lenine and hoped much from the distribution of quantities of these pamphlets among German and Austrian soldiers. Indeed, the German and Austrian commanders are said to have endeavored to have this literature confiscated and destroyed, though it seemed to have little effect on the soldiers of their armies.

On the same date that the official rejection of the German proposals was issued, January 2, 1918, the chairman of the Russian peace delegation sent an official telegram to the German, Austrian, Turkish, and Bulgarian delegations stating that the Russian Government desired to continue the negotiations on foreign soil, in a neutral country, and therefore suggested that the next conference be held in Stockholm. A revision of Articles 1 and 2 of the German-Austrian terms must be discussed, these messages added.

The next session of the peace conference was held at Brest-Litovsk, on January 10, 1918. Trotzky himself now attended, as head of the Russian delegation, to assume direct charge of the deliberations. The Ukrainians were now, for the first time, represented by an independent deputation, their independence being recognized by both the Russians and the representatives of the Central Powers. Bolubovitch, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, said that he had been instructed to hand the following note to the members of the conference:

"The Ukrainian Republic brings the following to the knowledge of all belligerents and neutral states: The Central Rada, on November 20, 1917, proclaimed a People's Republic, and by this act acquired an international status. It has as its ideal the creation of a confederation of all the republics which have arisen in the territory of the former Russian Empire. The Ukrainian People's Republic, through its General Secretariat, proceeds to enter into independent relations pending the formation of a Federal Government in Russia."

The head of the Ukrainian deputation further added that Ukrainia also desired that the peace to be established be on a general democratic basis, in which the rights of the smallest nationalities be recognized.

At the session held on January 11, 1918, it was agreed to prolong the period of the armistice another month, until February 12. A German report dated January 14, 1918, stated that a subcommittee of Austrians, Germans, and Russians had held three sittings in order to arrange territorial adjustments. The one point of difference on which no agreement could be reached was the border provinces. These the Germans were obviously determined to hold, and here was the deadlock. On January 21, 1918, the conference adjourned, the Russian delegates refusing to accept the Teutonic proposals, yet willing to meet again within a week's time.

At Petrograd Trotzky delivered his report and made his recommendations before a Congress of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, on January 28, 1918, the day before returning to Brest-Litovsk to resume negotiations. He pretended opposition to accepting the German proposals, and the sentiment of the delegates supported him. Already Krylenko had been calling for volunteers to form a Russian army of "Red Guards" to carry on a "holy war" against the imperialism of the Central Powers.

Meanwhile, during the last two weeks of January, 1918, other important events had taken place, the most notable of which was the final dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.

This famous body was scheduled to hold its first meeting on January 18, 1918, about 500 delegates being now assembled in Petrograd, to judge from the voting. The Bolsheviki had almost a majority; they were, at any rate, the leading element, but they now contended that the delegates had been elected on issues now dead, or at least that the candidates had not yet been able to declare themselves before the election.

Tchernov, the former Minister of Agriculture in the Kerensky Cabinet, was elected chairman at the first session, by a vote of 244 against 151. Several others of Kerensky's old supporters, now in prison, were allowed to attend under guard. The first day's session was marked by considerable disorder, in the midst of which the Bolshevist members withdrew in a body.

On the following day the Executive Committee of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Council issued a decree dissolving the Constituent Assembly, which order was accordingly enforced by the necessary display of armed force. The explanation of the reason for this action was, as usual, couched in the phraseology of ultra-Socialism, but in this instance was absolutely unconvincing, even from the Socialist point of view.

During the latter part of January, 1918, the relations between Petrograd and Finland became extremely unpleasant. As far back as December 5, 1917, Finland had declared itself independent, and according to their principles, this declaration the Bolsheviki had acknowledged. But, as it was also the case in Ukrainia, there was a very strong Bolshevist element in Finland, which immediately precipitated a state of civil warfare against the conservative elements. The Baltic fleet, being in the hands of the Bolsheviki, naturally gave its support to the Finnish Bolsheviki, who were enabled to establish themselves in the capital, Helsingfors. The Conservatives immediately protested to other nations, including even Germany, that though Russia had recognized Finnish independence, she was still interfering in domestic affairs, and that with armed force. A call for active armed assistance was also made on Sweden, and at the end of the month Sweden seemed inclined to respond.

Similar trouble was experienced with Rumania, except that the Petrograd Government stood in a reversed position; the Rumanians were taking aggressive action against the Bolsheviki along the southern front. Rumania, whose military effort had been checkmated, not so much by the Teutons as by the treachery of pro-German Russian officials, distrusted the Bolsheviki and entered Bessarabia. The Bolshevist Russians in Bessarabia resisted this action, whereupon the Rumanians shot them. The Petrograd Government took immediate action; it arrested the Rumanian ambassador in Petrograd, Constantine Diamandi, and together with his staff threw them in prison, on January 14, 1918. Against this rather irregular procedure the whole diplomatic body in Petrograd protested to Lenine, and two days later Diamandi was released. On that same day, however, an ultimatum was sent to Rumania, demanding the release of certain Russians whom the Rumanians were holding. On January 20, 1918, the Russian forces, established at the southern extremity of the front, at Galatz, were cut off from communication with Russia, then attacked by the Rumanians. A pitched battle ensued, with the result that the Russians, much inferior in number, were hemmed in. On the 26th Rumanian troops attacked and captured Kishinev, the chief city in Bessarabia. In these maneuvers Rumania had the active assistance of General Dimitri Tcherbatchev, commanding a section of the adjacent front. On January 28, 1918, the Petrograd Government broke off relations with Rumania and declared General Tcherbatchev "an outlaw and an enemy of the revolution and of the Russian people." The Rumanian gold reserves, deposited in Moscow and amounting to 1,200,000,000 rubles, were seized, "to be returned to the Rumanian people when they shall assert their authority."

But in Ukrainia, during this same period, the Bolshevist elements were making rapid headway. On the same day that Rumania occupied Kishinev, the Black Sea fleet definitely swung over to the Bolsheviki and seized the Rumanian transport ships and other shipping belonging to the Rumanian Government, consisting of about forty steamers and several old warships. Then cooperating with the Bolshevist land forces, the city of Odessa was attacked, and on the last day of the month not only this city, but Kiev as well, were reported to be in the hands of the Bolshevist Soviets, thus placing them in control of affairs in Ukrainia.

Among the Cossacks of the Don region the partisans of the Soviets were also said to be gaining in general support. Here, too, a republic had declared itself, with Kaledine as president. One report had it that he had resigned on account of his unpopularity with his own men. At any rate, he had shown no further aggressive activity against the Petrograd Government; as the hoped-for regenerator of Russia he proved a decided failure.

On the first day of February, 1918, the peace parleys were again in session at Brest-Litovsk, with Trotzky at the head of the Russian deputation, strengthened now by the Bolshevist deputation from Ukrainia.