WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Before we jump 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:04.179 in, I want to speak directly to you for a second, 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:06.500 the listener. We know you are a learner. You 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:07.940 are that person who wants to cut through the 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:10.599 noise, skip the fluff, and get straight to those 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:13.500 big aha moments. Absolutely. And today, we have 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:15.539 a phenomenal subject for you. We're examining 00:00:15.539 --> 00:00:19.239 a comprehensive encyclopedic history of a really 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:22.160 specific, yet massively impactful event. The 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.899 Treaty of Brussels Tosk signed on March 3rd, 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:28.320 1918. Right. And our mission today is to explore 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:31.539 how this largely forgotten, frankly bizarre peace 00:00:31.539 --> 00:00:34.240 agreement between Soviet Russia and the central 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:36.380 powers. So that's primarily Germany and Austria 00:00:36.380 --> 00:00:40.079 -Hungary, how it temporarily redrew the entire 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:42.759 map of Europe. Yeah, we are going to look at 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:45.579 how it fueled ongoing revolutions Dismantled 00:00:45.579 --> 00:00:48.579 an empire and arguably planted the very earliest 00:00:48.579 --> 00:00:51.799 seeds for the Cold War Okay, let's unpack this 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.000 because to understand the mechanics of this treaty 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.119 We first need to look at the power vacuum that 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:59.399 made it possible. I mean by late 1917 the Russian 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.280 Empire is fracturing. It's completely falling 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.090 apart, right? The Tsar has already abdicated, 00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:06.090 and you have this provisional government trying 00:01:06.090 --> 00:01:08.390 to maintain order, but they make the fateful 00:01:08.390 --> 00:01:10.549 decision to keep fighting against Germany and 00:01:10.549 --> 00:01:16.920 Austria -Hungary. It created an immense strategic 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:19.920 vulnerability. The German High Command recognized 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.280 that the Russian state was teetering on the edge 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:25.519 of total collapse. Yeah. They saw an opportunity 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:28.680 to knock their massive Eastern rival out of the 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:31.299 war entirely, not just through military force, 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:34.060 but through political sabotage. And there is 00:01:34.060 --> 00:01:36.579 a detail in our source material regarding this 00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:40.099 sabotage that feels almost out of place for World 00:01:40.099 --> 00:01:42.840 War One. I mean, to remove Russia from the board, 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:45.459 the German government actively sponsored a revolution. 00:01:45.739 --> 00:01:47.879 They really did. They identified the Bolsheviks, 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:50.980 led by Vladimir Lenin, as the most militant anti 00:01:50.980 --> 00:01:55.200 -war faction in Russia. And in April 1917, they 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:58.319 literally loaded Lenin and 31 of his supporters 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:01.319 into a sealed train. A sealed train. Yeah. And 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:03.000 transported them from their exile in Switzerland 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.040 straight through German territory directly to 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.000 Petrograd. The detail of the train being sealed 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:11.099 is crucial here. The German leadership knew exactly 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:13.319 what kind of ideological weapon they were deploying. 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:15.960 They sealed those train cars because they did 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:17.919 not want Lenin interacting with German workers 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:20.740 or soldiers along the route. They were essentially 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:24.139 transporting a political contagion and they needed 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:27.620 to ensure it only infected Russia. So did the 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:30.099 German high command realize they were unleashing 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:32.439 a political force that could eventually threaten 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:35.219 their own empire or was this purely just a short 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:38.129 -term military calculation? It was almost entirely 00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:40.650 a short -term calculation. It was driven by the 00:02:40.650 --> 00:02:43.210 desperate need to close the two -front war. And 00:02:43.210 --> 00:02:46.590 initially, it worked flawlessly for Berlin. Upon 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:48.669 arriving at the Finland station in Petrograd, 00:02:48.949 --> 00:02:51.889 Lenin immediately issues his April theses. He 00:02:51.889 --> 00:02:54.110 demands that all power be transferred to the 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:56.729 local workers' and soldiers' councils, the Soviets, 00:02:57.030 --> 00:02:59.530 and he calls for an immediate end to the imperialist 00:02:59.530 --> 00:03:01.949 war. Throughout that summer and fall, Bolshevik 00:03:01.949 --> 00:03:04.289 agitation systematically dismantles whatever 00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:06.189 discipline remained in the Russian military. 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.580 So with the military hierarchy breaking down, 00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:10.939 the momentum shifts completely to the Bolsheviks, 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:12.979 which of course culminates in the October Revolution. 00:03:13.659 --> 00:03:16.379 The Red Guards seize the Winter Palace, the Provisional 00:03:16.379 --> 00:03:19.319 Government is arrested, and suddenly Lenin's 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.879 faction is in control. Exactly. And their undeniable 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:25.740 top priority, literally the promise that got 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:28.300 them into power, is ending the slaughter at the 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:31.909 front. So they pass the decree on peace and initiate 00:03:31.909 --> 00:03:34.289 talks with the central powers. And the environment 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:36.750 chosen for these talks perfectly mirrored the 00:03:36.750 --> 00:03:39.710 devastation of the conflict itself. The negotiations 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:42.090 were hosted in the fortress of Brest -Litovsk, 00:03:42.150 --> 00:03:44.689 which is located in modern -day Belarus. But 00:03:44.689 --> 00:03:46.710 the Russian army had employed a scorched earth 00:03:46.710 --> 00:03:49.370 tactic during their retreat in 1915, so they 00:03:49.370 --> 00:03:51.490 had literally burned the town to the ground. 00:03:51.669 --> 00:03:53.349 Here's where it gets really interesting, because 00:03:53.349 --> 00:03:56.069 the delegations arrive at this ruined fortress, 00:03:56.270 --> 00:03:58.599 and they are forced to live in temporary... wooden 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.800 structures built within the courtyards and the 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.139 clash of cultures inside those structures is 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:06.620 just fascinating. It's completely surreal. On 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:08.939 the central power side, you have the traditional 00:04:08.939 --> 00:04:12.039 elite of European empires, German and Austro 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:14.900 -Hungarian princes, high ranking generals and 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:17.540 aristocratic diplomats in full uniform. Right. 00:04:17.620 --> 00:04:20.259 And sitting across from them is a Soviet delegation 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:23.220 intentionally designed to represent a new revolutionary 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.879 society. It is led by Adolf Jaffe and it includes 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:30.639 ordinary peasants, Marxist historians and Anastasia 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.199 Bitsenko. Oh, this is wild. She was a woman who 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.720 was a former assassin representing a socialist. 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:38.069 faction, she had literally murdered a czarist 00:04:38.069 --> 00:04:41.129 minister years prior. And despite this massive 00:04:41.129 --> 00:04:44.610 ideological chasm, the initial vibe of the negotiations 00:04:44.610 --> 00:04:47.449 is surprisingly cordial. You have these aristocratic 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:50.029 generals and revolutionary assassins amicably 00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:51.949 eating dinner together in the officer's mess 00:04:51.949 --> 00:04:54.769 hall. Yeah, passing the salt. Exactly. But that 00:04:54.769 --> 00:04:57.730 cordiality masks a very dangerous diplomatic 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:00.069 naivety on the part of the newly formed Soviet 00:05:00.069 --> 00:05:03.019 government. Very much so. The Bolsheviks entered 00:05:03.019 --> 00:05:05.899 the talks armed with a slogan, not a geopolitical 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:09.160 strategy. Their primary demand was peace with 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.360 no annexations or indemnities, meaning they proposed 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:14.660 a settlement where no nation would claim new 00:05:14.660 --> 00:05:17.519 territory and no nation would be forced to pay 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:19.839 financial reparations. Which sounds great, and 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:22.100 the Central Powers actually agreed to this framework, 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:24.720 which feels like a massive victory for the Soviets. 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:27.500 Jaff thinks he has successfully negotiated a 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:30.279 peaceful exit without losing a single acre of 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:33.120 Russian land. He even telegraphs Petrograd to 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.720 celebrate the diplomatic win. But the semantic 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:38.540 trap closes very quickly. The Central Powers 00:05:38.540 --> 00:05:41.579 accepted the principle of no annexations conditionally. 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:44.100 They agreed to it only if all belligerent nations, 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:46.079 so that includes Britain, France, and the United 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:49.240 States, also agreed to a universal peace without 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:51.180 annexations. Which, of course, the Western Allies 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:52.939 completely ignore. I mean, they are not about 00:05:52.939 --> 00:05:54.740 to end the war just because the Bolsheviks asked 00:05:54.740 --> 00:05:58.500 nicely. Precisely. Since the West refused to 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.100 participate, the Germans informed the Soviets 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:04.259 that the condition was void. Furthermore, the 00:06:04.259 --> 00:06:06.720 Germans brilliantly weaponized another Bolshevik 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.509 principle against them. self -determination. 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:12.670 Oh, right. Germany claimed they were not annexing 00:06:12.670 --> 00:06:16.170 territory. Rather, the peoples of Poland, Lithuania, 00:06:16.310 --> 00:06:18.930 and Khorlan were simply exercising their right 00:06:18.930 --> 00:06:21.310 to self -determination by choosing to separate 00:06:21.310 --> 00:06:23.829 from Russia. While conveniently remaining under 00:06:23.829 --> 00:06:26.610 German military protection. Exactly. And the 00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:28.970 reality of this semantic maneuvering is revealed 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:31.029 during one of those shared dinners on December 00:06:31.029 --> 00:06:35.050 27th. German General Max Hoffmann casually sets 00:06:35.050 --> 00:06:37.410 the record straight over the dinner table, laying 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:40.329 out exactly how much territory Germany intends 00:06:40.329 --> 00:06:42.639 to separate from the former Russian Empire. And 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:45.360 the Soviet reaction, as documented in our source 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.579 material, is visceral. The illusion of an equal, 00:06:48.819 --> 00:06:51.560 comradely peace just shatters. Adolf Schathe 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:53.379 is described as looking as though he had received 00:06:53.379 --> 00:06:56.339 a physical blow to the head. And Mikhail Pokrovsky, 00:06:56.620 --> 00:06:59.420 the Marxist historian on the delegation, literally 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:03.139 weeps at the table. He realizes Germany is preparing 00:07:03.139 --> 00:07:06.319 to tear 18 provinces away from the Russian state. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.699 So this brutal reality check forces a complete 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.899 pivot in Soviet strategy. They realize they have 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:15.300 zero military leverage against the German army. 00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:18.279 So their new strategy becomes heavily reliant 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:21.000 on global Marxist theory. They figure they need 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.139 to drag the negotiations out, hoping the working 00:07:23.139 --> 00:07:25.639 classes in Germany and Austria -Hungary will 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:27.660 see the imperialist greed of their governments 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:29.970 and launch a revolution of their own. Right. 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:32.350 And to execute a stalling strategy, you need 00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:35.829 a very specific type of negotiator. Leon Trotsky, 00:07:35.990 --> 00:07:38.689 the Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs, travels 00:07:38.689 --> 00:07:42.069 to Brest -Litovsk to personally relieve Zhafei 00:07:42.069 --> 00:07:44.250 and take command of the delegation. Trotsky was 00:07:44.250 --> 00:07:46.009 practically built for this kind of theatrical 00:07:46.009 --> 00:07:47.930 defiance. I love the quote from the source where 00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:50.089 he says, to delay negotiations, there must be 00:07:50.089 --> 00:07:51.970 someone to do the delaying. What's fascinating 00:07:51.970 --> 00:07:54.490 here is how Trotsky weaponizes the diplomatic 00:07:54.490 --> 00:07:57.459 process itself. He immediately terminates the 00:07:57.459 --> 00:07:59.800 sociable shared meals with the central powers. 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:02.540 The amicable dinners and the officer's mess are 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.600 over. Instead, Trotsky turns the negotiating 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.860 table into a global megaphone. He starts grandstanding. 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:12.120 Exactly. He engages the German diplomats in highly 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.699 abstract, complex, philosophical debates on Marxist 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:17.899 first principles. Because he isn't actually trying 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:21.139 to debate where the border should be drawn. He 00:08:21.139 --> 00:08:24.129 is trying to put imperialism on trial. He hopes 00:08:24.129 --> 00:08:26.110 that the transcripts of these negotiations will 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.310 be published in German newspapers showing the 00:08:28.310 --> 00:08:30.569 German proletariat that their leaders are demanding 00:08:30.569 --> 00:08:33.669 brutal conquests, thereby sparking a worker uprising 00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:36.240 in Berlin. And while Trotsky is delivering these 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:38.480 sprawling ideological lectures just to run out 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:40.759 the clock, the German high command is experiencing 00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:43.379 severe internal friction over how to handle the 00:08:43.379 --> 00:08:46.120 conquered eastern territories. You have a fascinating 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:49.220 split in the leadership. Kaiser Wilhelm II advocates 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:51.399 for a relatively restrained approach, seeking 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:54.460 only a small slice of Poland. But the military 00:08:54.460 --> 00:08:57.059 supreme commanders, Paul von Hindenburg and Eric 00:08:57.059 --> 00:09:00.899 Ludendorff, they flatly reject the Kaiser's restraint. 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:04.759 They demand aggressive expansion. They argue 00:09:04.759 --> 00:09:07.399 that any peace settlement must drastically increase 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.519 Germany's material power to sustain the ongoing 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:13.299 war effort against the West. And Hindenburg's 00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:15.720 justification for seizing the Baltic provinces 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.919 is particularly revealing of the military mindset. 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:22.440 When asked why Germany needs that specific territory, 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:24.799 he replies that he needs it to secure my left 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:26.899 flank for when the next war happens. The next 00:09:26.899 --> 00:09:29.419 war. The First World War is still raging, and 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:31.720 the German general staff is already drawing maps 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:34.490 for the next European conflict. But that long 00:09:34.490 --> 00:09:36.870 -term military calculation is colliding with 00:09:36.870 --> 00:09:39.269 immediate desperate domestic crises within the 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:42.490 central powers. The Austro -Hungarian representative, 00:09:42.690 --> 00:09:45.090 Count Cernan, is under immense pressure. His 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:47.110 government does not care about securing flanks 00:09:47.110 --> 00:09:49.350 for future wars. They care about the fact that 00:09:49.350 --> 00:09:51.250 the city of Vienna is on the verge of starvation. 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:54.129 Right. Cernan is so desperate for the grain reserves 00:09:54.129 --> 00:09:56.590 in the east that he threatens to make a separate 00:09:56.590 --> 00:10:00.019 peace just to secure a food supply. And this 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:02.720 severe domestic pressure creates an opening for 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.320 a third party to upend the entire conference. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:08.159 A separate delegation arrives at Brest -Litovsk 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:10.799 representing the Ukrainian Rada, which had recently 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:13.039 declared independence from the crumbling Russian 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.039 Empire. The Ukrainian curveball. Because they 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.320 recognize the vulnerability of the central powers, 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.120 they step in and offer to sign a separate peace 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:23.940 treaty. They promise to deliver the massive quantities 00:10:23.940 --> 00:10:26.720 of grain that Austria -Hungary desperately needs. 00:10:27.139 --> 00:10:29.519 Grain that ultimately prevents a famine in Vienna. 00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:32.120 And in exchange, the Central Powers agree to 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:34.700 hand over the Polish city of Cholm to the new 00:10:34.700 --> 00:10:37.059 Ukrainian state. And by signing the separate 00:10:37.059 --> 00:10:39.759 treaty with Ukraine in early February, the Central 00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:42.919 Powers completely outmaneuver Trotsky. The Soviets 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.059 no longer have a monopoly on the Eastern peace 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:47.720 process. General Hoffman finally runs out of 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:50.000 patience with the philosophical debates, produces 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.259 a map with the newly dictated borders severing 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:54.580 massive portions of the Russian empire, and gives 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:57.559 Trotsky a nine -day recess to sign it. So Trotsky 00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:00.899 returns to Petrograd with his devastating ultimatum. 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.620 And rather than accepting defeat, he proposes 00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:06.000 one of the most audacious diplomatic gambles 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.840 imaginable. He convinces the Soviet leadership 00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:12.940 to declare a policy of no war, no peace. It is 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:16.009 a staggering geopolitical bluff. The Soviets 00:11:16.009 --> 00:11:17.950 return to the table and announce that they are 00:11:17.950 --> 00:11:20.289 unilaterally terminating the war and entirely 00:11:20.289 --> 00:11:23.070 demobilizing their army, but they formally refuse 00:11:23.070 --> 00:11:25.230 to sign the peace treaty. They're betting everything 00:11:25.230 --> 00:11:27.049 on the assumption that the German working class 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.429 will be so moved by this peaceful gesture that 00:11:29.429 --> 00:11:32.210 they will refuse orders to attack a demobilized, 00:11:32.350 --> 00:11:34.509 non -threatening Russia. And the bluff fails 00:11:34.509 --> 00:11:37.970 in spectacular fashion. The German military is 00:11:37.970 --> 00:11:40.590 not swayed by the gesture. On February 16th, 00:11:40.710 --> 00:11:42.769 General Hoffman simply announces that the armistice 00:11:42.769 --> 00:11:45.580 will expire in two days and hostile. will resume. 00:11:46.019 --> 00:11:48.519 When that deadline passes, 53 German divisions 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:51.659 advance eastward. And because Trotsky had ordered 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:54.259 the demobilization, the German army is essentially 00:11:54.259 --> 00:11:56.980 marching into empty territory. They face almost 00:11:56.980 --> 00:11:59.840 zero resistance as they rapidly capture vast 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:02.639 stretches of the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine. 00:12:02.860 --> 00:12:05.519 The speed of the German advance creates absolute 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:08.340 panic in Petrograd. The Bolsheviks are forced 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.700 to move their capital to Moscow shortly after. 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:13.519 They receive a new ultimatum from Germany, and 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:15.980 the terms are significantly harsher than the 00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:18.379 ones Trotsky had rejected just weeks earlier. 00:12:18.539 --> 00:12:22.259 They are given mere hours to respond. And inside 00:12:22.259 --> 00:12:25.500 the Bolshevik Central Committee, a fierce ideological 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:28.679 battle erupts. You have various factions of anti 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:31.100 -treaty revolutionaries who are ideologically 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:33.279 opposed to dealing with imperialists. They want 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.220 to launch a partisan revolutionary war against 00:12:36.220 --> 00:12:38.960 the advancing German army, hoping the sheer chaos 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:41.399 will finally spark the global uprising they've 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:43.570 been waiting for. But Lenin looks at the reality 00:12:43.570 --> 00:12:45.809 of the German war machine and recognizes that 00:12:45.809 --> 00:12:48.389 continuing to fight means the absolute destruction 00:12:48.389 --> 00:12:50.629 of his government. He confronts his own committee 00:12:50.629 --> 00:12:53.210 with a brutal pragmatism. He demands they accept 00:12:53.210 --> 00:12:55.909 the terms explicitly calling it a shameful piece. 00:12:56.289 --> 00:12:58.370 He argues that they have to concede space in 00:12:58.370 --> 00:13:01.009 order to win time. Concede space in order to 00:13:01.009 --> 00:13:03.940 win time. He is willing to trade the empire's 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:06.559 land to guarantee the survival of his revolution. 00:13:07.059 --> 00:13:09.139 He even threatens to resign from the government 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:11.879 entirely if they do not vote to sign, and he 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:14.659 narrowly wins the debate. Consequently, a new 00:13:14.659 --> 00:13:17.519 Soviet representative, Grigory Sokolnikov, is 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:20.360 dispatched to the ruined fortress of Brest -Litovsk. 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:23.679 His mandate is the exact opposite of Trotsky's 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.159 stalling tactics. Right. Sokolnikov arrives on 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.659 March 3, 1918, and refuses to engage in any discussion. 00:13:29.789 --> 00:13:31.970 He announces they will accept the ultimatum without 00:13:31.970 --> 00:13:34.610 debate, and he simply signs the document. And 00:13:34.610 --> 00:13:36.610 there's a bizarre historical footnote from the 00:13:36.610 --> 00:13:39.129 source text about this exact moment. Oh, the 00:13:39.129 --> 00:13:41.809 artist. Yes. While Sokolnikov is signing away 00:13:41.809 --> 00:13:44.730 a massive chunk of the Russian Empire, a Viennese 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:47.230 artist named Emil Orlik is sitting in the room, 00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:49.409 sketching caricatures of the delegates to hand 00:13:49.409 --> 00:13:52.110 out as a commemorative book. It just adds to 00:13:52.110 --> 00:13:54.169 the deeply surreal nature of the entire process. 00:13:54.190 --> 00:13:57.080 It really does. So what does this all mean? We 00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.059 have talked about the political maneuvering, 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:02.080 but we need to quantify the actual devastation 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:04.720 of this treaty. I want you to imagine the sheer 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.700 scale of the losses accepted by the Soviet government, 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:11.200 because it is difficult to comprehend. Under 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.279 the final terms of Brest -Litovsk, Soviet Russia 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:17.620 relinquished control over Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:21.399 Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and several provinces 00:14:21.399 --> 00:14:24.259 in the Caucasus. When you translate those territorial 00:14:24.259 --> 00:14:28.100 losses into economic realities, the math is staggering. 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:31.320 Russia lost 34 % of its total population. They 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.740 surrendered 54 % of their industrial land. And 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:36.769 crucially, They lost 89 % of their operational 00:14:36.769 --> 00:14:39.669 coal fields, along with 26 % of their railway 00:14:39.669 --> 00:14:42.450 network. Losing 89 % of your coal reserves during 00:14:42.450 --> 00:14:44.750 the early 20th century is functionally equivalent 00:14:44.750 --> 00:14:47.250 to turning off the power to your entire civilization. 00:14:47.789 --> 00:14:49.769 You cannot run factories, you cannot power trains 00:14:49.769 --> 00:14:53.029 to move food or troops. Lenin is attempting to 00:14:53.029 --> 00:14:55.409 build an industrialized worker's paradise while 00:14:55.409 --> 00:14:57.450 siding away nearly all the fuel required to run 00:14:57.450 --> 00:14:59.549 it. And the punishment didn't even end there. 00:14:59.690 --> 00:15:02.090 The Germans forced a supplementary agreement 00:15:02.090 --> 00:15:05.529 in August of 1918 that required Russia to pay 00:15:05.529 --> 00:15:09.289 a financial indemnity of 6 billion marks and 00:15:09.289 --> 00:15:12.389 sign over 25 % of the oil output from the critical 00:15:12.389 --> 00:15:15.970 Baku oil fields. It was the total economic and 00:15:15.970 --> 00:15:18.429 territorial dismantling of the Russian state. 00:15:19.090 --> 00:15:21.350 If we connect this to the bigger picture, we 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:23.370 can see how this treaty fundamentally altered 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:26.159 the final year of World War I. For the German 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:28.419 High Command, it initially appeared to be their 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:31.059 greatest triumph. It formally closed the Eastern 00:15:31.059 --> 00:15:33.399 Front, allowing them to transfer approximately 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:36.639 one million veteran soldiers to the West. This 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:39.200 massive influx of manpower fueled the devastating 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:42.419 German Spring Offensive of 1918, which severely 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:45.460 tested the Allied lines in France. Yet, the source 00:15:45.460 --> 00:15:47.779 highlights that this monumental victory in the 00:15:47.779 --> 00:15:50.799 East actually transformed into a fatal strategic 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:53.820 blunder for Berlin. Absolutely. German leadership 00:15:53.820 --> 00:15:56.039 discovered that conquering territory is entirely 00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:58.279 different from pacifying it. They had suddenly 00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:01.139 acquired a colossal new empire stretching from 00:16:01.139 --> 00:16:03.519 the Baltic Sea down to the Caucasus, and the 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.679 local populations were fiercely hostile to German 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:08.440 occupation. Instead of concentrating their entire 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:10.500 military might against the British and French, 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:13.120 Germany was forced to keep over a million soldiers 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:15.480 garrisoned across Eastern Europe just to maintain 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.299 order. They were bogged down fighting localized 00:16:18.299 --> 00:16:20.820 revolts and partisan guerrilla warfare, much 00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:23.220 of it quietly funded and organized by Bolshevik 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:26.279 agents. And the chaos of the aftermath was not 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:28.840 confined to the newly drawn borders. I mean the 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.200 treaty deeply fractured the revolutionary coalition 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.279 inside Russia. The left socialist revolutionaries, 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.919 they were so enraged by Lenin's capitulation 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:39.659 that they decided to sabotage the peace themselves. 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.340 They assassinated the German ambassador in Russia, 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:45.000 hoping the murder would force Germany to retaliate 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:47.059 and restart the war. And the diplomatic channels 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:50.370 were equally chaotic. Adolf Jaffe, the original 00:16:50.370 --> 00:16:52.690 Soviet negotiator who misunderstood the initial 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:55.470 terms, was reassigned as the Soviet ambassador 00:16:55.470 --> 00:16:58.649 to Berlin. His actual mandate, however, was to 00:16:58.649 --> 00:17:00.870 distribute insurrectionary propaganda to German 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:04.150 workers. This mission ended in a rather embarrassing 00:17:04.150 --> 00:17:07.369 spectacle when Jaffe's couriers packing case 00:17:07.369 --> 00:17:10.730 literally came to pieces in a Berlin railway 00:17:10.730 --> 00:17:13.730 station, spilling revolutionary documents all 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:16.480 over the platform. The German government promptly 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:21.970 expelled Jaffa and his entire staff. This raises 00:17:21.970 --> 00:17:24.150 an important question, though. Considering the 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:26.990 treaty was signed in 1918, why does it remain 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:29.269 a critical focal point for historians today? 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:31.829 Right. Why do we care? The answer lies in its 00:17:31.829 --> 00:17:34.410 psychological impact on the broader 20th century. 00:17:34.809 --> 00:17:36.789 For the Western Allies, Britain, France and the 00:17:36.789 --> 00:17:39.630 United States, the sheer brutality of the Brest 00:17:39.630 --> 00:17:42.450 -Litovsk terms served as a terrifying preview 00:17:42.450 --> 00:17:44.930 of what a German -dominated Europe would actually 00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:47.269 look like. It proved to the Allied leadership 00:17:47.269 --> 00:17:49.970 that a negotiated, compromised peace with the 00:17:49.970 --> 00:17:53.549 Central Powers was just a fantasy. Brest -Litovsk 00:17:53.549 --> 00:17:55.789 hardened the Allied resolve to fight until total 00:17:55.789 --> 00:17:59.029 victory. Furthermore, historians argue that this 00:17:59.029 --> 00:18:01.210 treaty planted the earliest seeds of the Cold 00:18:01.210 --> 00:18:03.849 War. The Western Allies viewed the Bolsheviks' 00:18:03.930 --> 00:18:06.549 separate peace as a catastrophic betrayal of 00:18:06.549 --> 00:18:09.750 the war effort. The fear of Soviet ideology combined 00:18:09.750 --> 00:18:11.950 with the power vacuum in Eastern Europe pushed 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:14.710 the Allies to actively plan and execute military 00:18:14.710 --> 00:18:17.390 interventions inside Russia itself. But the legacy 00:18:17.390 --> 00:18:19.910 of the treaty outlasted the treaty itself. The 00:18:19.910 --> 00:18:22.349 map dictated by General Hoffman faded rapidly. 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:24.650 When Germany surrendered to the Allies and signed 00:18:24.650 --> 00:18:27.029 the armistice on November 11, 1918, the Treaty 00:18:27.029 --> 00:18:29.549 of Brest -Litovsk was formally annulled. The 00:18:29.549 --> 00:18:31.670 German army was forced to abandon its vast new 00:18:31.670 --> 00:18:34.390 Eastern Empire. That withdrawal created an immense 00:18:34.390 --> 00:18:37.029 power vacuum. The Bolsheviks spent the next several 00:18:37.029 --> 00:18:39.450 years fighting a brutal, multifactional civil 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:42.529 war to consolidate their power and attempt to 00:18:42.529 --> 00:18:45.410 reclaim the lost imperial territories. While 00:18:45.410 --> 00:18:47.150 they succeeded in bringing places like Ukraine 00:18:47.150 --> 00:18:49.710 and Belarus back into the Soviet fold, nations 00:18:49.710 --> 00:18:51.910 like Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states fought 00:18:51.910 --> 00:18:54.250 for and maintained their independence. But the 00:18:54.250 --> 00:18:56.710 underlying historical echo of Brest -Litovsk 00:18:56.710 --> 00:19:00.109 is perhaps its most fascinating legacy. The treaty, 00:19:00.269 --> 00:19:03.170 however briefly, institutionalized the idea of 00:19:03.170 --> 00:19:05.490 national borders for these regions distinct from 00:19:05.490 --> 00:19:08.470 Russian control. It awakened and legitimized 00:19:08.470 --> 00:19:10.829 nationalist identities in places like Ukraine 00:19:10.829 --> 00:19:13.349 and the Baltics. That leads to a detail from 00:19:13.349 --> 00:19:16.269 the text that perfectly bridges 1918 to the modern 00:19:16.269 --> 00:19:18.609 era. Even though the treaty was annulled mere 00:19:18.609 --> 00:19:21.190 months after signing, the western borders imposed 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:23.390 upon Russia are nearly identical to the post 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:25.769 -1991 borders established after the collapse 00:19:25.769 --> 00:19:28.960 of the Soviet Union. This desperate, short -lived 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:31.460 agreement effectively drew the architectural 00:19:31.460 --> 00:19:34.180 blueprint for modern Eastern Europe. It demonstrates 00:19:34.180 --> 00:19:37.079 how a single diplomatic event can set historical 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:40.099 precedents that lie dormant for decades, only 00:19:40.099 --> 00:19:42.740 to reemerge when imperial structures finally 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:45.839 collapse. To wrap up our deep dive today, we 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:48.619 have traced the life of a peace treaty born from 00:19:48.619 --> 00:19:51.279 a sponsored revolution and a sealed train ride. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.539 We have seen how a bizarre clash of aristocrats 00:19:54.539 --> 00:19:57.099 and revolutionaries at a brunt -out fortress 00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:00.339 managed to dismantle an empire, alter the trajectory 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:03.299 of a world war, and fundamentally shape the geopolitics 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:05.400 of the 20th century. I want to leave you with 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:07.539 a final thought to mull over. Let's return to 00:20:07.539 --> 00:20:10.359 the paradox of Brest -Litovsk. Germany achieved 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:13.819 a historic, maximalist territorial victory. Yet 00:20:13.819 --> 00:20:16.299 the burden of garrisoning that conquered land 00:20:16.299 --> 00:20:18.579 drained the very resources they desperately needed, 00:20:18.660 --> 00:20:20.640 contributing directly to their ultimate defeat. 00:20:21.320 --> 00:20:24.460 Conversely, Lenin accepted a shameful, humiliating 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:27.559 loss. He signed away his industry, his fuel, 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:30.900 and a third of his country. Yet that devastating 00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:33.500 concession successfully bought the time his fragile 00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:35.779 government needed to survive and eventually grow 00:20:35.779 --> 00:20:38.700 into a global superpower. It begs the question. 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:41.640 In negotiations, whether in grand geopolitics 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:44.099 or managing strategic conflicts in our own lives, 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:46.940 when is accepting a devastating short -term loss 00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:49.900 actually the only viable path to long -term survival? 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:52.160 That is a phenomenal question to end on. Thank 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:53.799 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.599 It has been a pleasure unpacking this history 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:56.640 with you. Until next time.