Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of

Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of, peace treaty signed in Brest-Litovsk, Poland (now Brest, Belarus) on March 3, 1918, by which Russia agreed to stop fighting the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria) in World War I (1914-1918). After the fall on November 6 and 7, 1917, of the Russian government of Aleksandr Kerensky, the new Bolshevik government resolved to make peace with the Central Powers. An armistice was signed at Brest-Litovsk on December 17, 1917, and a formal peace conference opened on December 22. Early in January 1918 the conference reached an impasse over of the severity of the demands of the Central Powers. Leon Trotsky of the Bolshevik government delayed discussions, hoping for time to strengthen the Russian Revolution and provoke a German revolution. He walked out of negotiations, declaring that his government could not conclude peace but would not renew warfare. The Central Powers reopened hostilities and the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, fearing the destruction of the new Bolshevik state, acceded to even more drastic terms. Russia ceded Finland, Poland, Estonia, Livonia, Kurland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Bessarabia, which were subsequently dominated and economically exploited by the Central Powers. Russia also ceded Ardahan, Kars, and Batumi to Turkey. However, under the terms of the armistice signed by Germany and the Allied powers on November 11, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was annulled.