During the first few days following the breaking off of negotiations the
German government hesitated, not knowing what course to pursue. The
politicians and diplomats evidently thought that the principal objects
had been accomplished and that there was no reason for coveting our
signatures. The military men were ready, in any event, to break through
the lines drawn by the German Government at Brest-Litovsk. Professor
Krigge, the advisor of the German delegation, told a member of our
delegation that a German invasion of Russia under the existing
conditions was out of the question. Count Mirbach, then at the head of
the German missions at Petrograd, went to Berlin with the assurance that
an agreement concerning the exchange of prisoners of war had been
satisfactorily reached. But all this did not in the least prevent
General Hoffmann from declaring on the fifth day after the Brest-Litovsk
negotiations had been broken off--that the armistice was over,
antedating the seven-day period from the time of the last Brest-Litovsk
session. It were really out of place to dilate here on the moral
indignation caused by this piece of dishonesty. It fits in perfectly
with the general state of diplomatic and military morality of the ruling
classes.
The new German invasion developed under circumstances most fatal for
Russia. Instead of the week's notice agreed upon, we received notice
only two days in advance. This circumstance intensified the panic in the
army which was already in state of chronic dissolution. Resistance was
almost unthinkable. The soldiers could not believe that the Germans
would advance after we had declared the state of war at an end. The
panicky retreat paralyzed the will even of such individual detachments
as were ready to make a stand. In the workingmen's quarters of Petrograd
and Moscow, the indignation against the treacherous and truly murderous
German invasion reached a pitch of greatest intensity. In these alarming
days and nights, the workers were ready to enlist in the army by the ten
thousand. But the matter of organizing lagged far behind. Isolated
tenacious detachments full of enthusiasm became convinced themselves of
their instability in their first serious clashes with German regulars.
This still further lowered the country's spirits. The old army had long
ago been hopelessly defeated and was going to pieces, blocking all the
roads and byways. The new army, owing to the country's general
exhaustion, the fearful disorganization of industries and the means of
transportation, was being got together too slowly. Distance was the only
serious obstacle in the way of the German invasion.
The chief attention of the Austro-Hungarian government was centered on
the Ukraine. The Rada, through its delegation, had appealed to the
governments of the Central Empires for direct military aid against the
Soviets, which had by that time completely defeated the Ukrainians. Thus
did the petty-bourgeois democracy of the Ukraine, in its struggle
against the working class and the destitute peasants, voluntarily open
the gates to foreign invasion.
At the same time, the Svinhufvud government was seeking the aid of
German bayonets against the Finnish proletariat. German militarism,
openly and before the whole world, assumed the role of executioner of
the peasant and proletarian revolution in Russia.
In the ranks of our party hot debates were being carried on as to
whether or not we should, under these circumstances, yield to the German
ultimatum and sign a new treaty, which--and this no one doubted--would
include conditions incomparably more onerous than those announced at
Brest-Litovsk. The representatives of the one view held that just now,
with the German intervention in the internal war of the Russian
Republic, it was impossible to establish peace for one part of Russia
and remain passive, while in the South and in the North, German forces
would be establishing a regime of bourgeois dictatorship. Another
view, championed chiefly by Lenin, was that every delay, even the
briefest breathing spell, would greatly help the internal stabilization
and increase the Russian powers of resistance. After the whole country
and the whole world had come to know of our absolute helplessness
against foreign invasion at this time, the conclusion of peace would
everywhere be understood as an act forced upon us by the cruel law of
disproportionate forces. It would be childish to argue from the
standpoint of abstract revolutionary ethics. The point is not to die
with honor but to achieve ultimate victory. The Russian Revolution wants
to survive, must survive, and must by every means at its disposal avoid
fighting an uneven battle and gain time, in the hope that the Western
revolutionary movement will come to its aid.
German imperialism is still engaged in a fierce annexationist struggle
with English and American militarism. Only because of this is the
conclusion of peace between Russia and Germany at all possible. We must
fully avail ourselves of this situation. The welfare of the Revolution
is the highest law. We should accept the peace which we are unable to
reject; we must secure a breathing spell to be utilized for intensive
work within the country and, especially, for the creation of an army.
At the conference of the Communist party as well as at the Fourth
Conference of the Soviet, the peace partisans triumphed. They were
joined by many of those who in January considered it impossible to sign
the Brest-Litovsk treaty. "Then," said they, "our signature would have
been looked upon by the English and French workingmen as a shameful
capitulation, without an attempt to fight. Even the base insinuations of
the Anglo-French chauvinists to the secret compact between the Soviet
Government and the Germans, might in case that treaty had been signed
find credence in certain circles of European laborers. But after we had
refused to sign the treaty, after a new German invasion, after our
attempt to resist it, and after our military weakness had become
painfully obvious to the whole world, after all this, no one dare to
reproach us for surrendering without a fight."
The Brest-Litovsk treaty, in its second enlarged edition, was signed and
ratified.
In the meantime, the executioners were doing their work in Finland and
the Ukraine, menacing more and more the most vital centers of Great
Russia. Thus the question of Russia's very existence as an independent
country is henceforth inseparably connected with the question of the
European revolution.