Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine–Central Powers)
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (German: Brotfrieden, "Bread Peace") was signed on 9 February 1918 between the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), ending Ukraine's involvement in World War I and recognizing the UPR's sovereignty. The treaty, which followed the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus). The peace delegation from Soviet Russia, led by Leon Trotsky, did not recognize the UPR delegation, which had been sent from the Central Rada in Kiev, instead recognizing a delegation from the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets in Kharkov.
Not to be confused with the contemporaneous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers.
Brotfrieden
Берестейський мир
9 February 1918
Brest-Litovsk, Grodno Governorate (German occupation)[1]
The treaty fixed the Austro-Hungarian–Ukrainian border on the line of 1914 and made provision for a joint commission to determine the border with Poland. The Central Powers secured grain and other goods from the UPR in return for providing military assistance against the Bolsheviks. After the treaty was signed, Austro-German troops intervened in Ukraine and helped drive out the Red Army by April 1918. The presence of Central Powers forces undermined the independence of the Rada and lead to establishment of the Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi. After the end of World War I and the Ukrainian–Soviet War, the UPR's former territory was split between the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (absorbed into the Soviet Union) and independent Poland in the Treaty of Riga (1921). The Treaty of Rapallo (1922) between Germany and Russia canceled Germany's recognition of the UPR.
Background[edit]
Because of the civil unrest in the Russian Republic culminating in the October Revolution, the Ukrainian People's Republic declared its independence under the government of the General Secretariat of Ukraine, which announced elections for the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly to be held on 9 January 1918 and the first convocation on 22 January that year.
On 17 December 1917, Vladimir Lenin, as the head of the Sovnarkom, released an ultimatum in which he accused the Central Rada of disorganising the front lines, stopping "any troops going into the region of the Don, the Urals, or elsewhere"; sheltering political enemies such as the members of the Cadet Party and those who had sided with Kaledine and requiring to "put an end to the attempts to crush the armies of the Soviet and of the Red Guard in Ukraine". Lenin gave twenty-four hours' notice to the government of what he called "the independent and bourgeois Republic of the Ukraine" to respond. Since Soviet armies were already in Ukraine, the government of Ukraine had to act quickly to preserve the sovereignty of the state.
The Ukrainian Central Rada expressed a desire for a peace treaty with foreign countries and its recognition worldwide. Since the representatives of the British and the French Empires did not wish to recognise Ukrainian sovereignty, considering it as a part of their major ally, the Russian Empire, the treaty gave a chance for some recognition in the face of the Central Powers.
On 1 January 1918, a Ukrainian delegation, headed by Vsevolod Holubovych, arrived at Brest-Litovsk. The initial delegation beside Mykola Liubynsky, Oleksandr Sevriuk, and Mykola Levytsky included Mykhailo Poloz.