Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Negotiations began in December 1917, after the armistice on the Eastern Front. When Trotsky broke them off with his formula of 'neither war nor peace', Germany resumed its offensive and the Bolsheviks had to accept far harsher terms. Russia renounced Poland, Lithuania and Courland, agreed to evacuate Livonia, Estonia, Finland and Ukraine, ceded the districts of Kars, Ardahan and Batum to the Ottoman Empire, and demobilised its army.

The word 'Poland' did not appear in the treaty; the fate of the Kingdom was left to Berlin and Vienna. A separate peace of Brest-Litovsk with Ukraine, signed on 9 February 1918, promised it the Chełm region and provoked a wave of protest in Poland. The Entente refused to recognise the treaty, the Compiègne armistice required Germany to renounce it, and on 13 November 1918 the Soviet authorities declared it void.