Brest-Litovsk in the First World War

Brest-Litovsk, a town on the Bug in the western part of the Russian Empire, was at the start of the war the largest Russian fortress on that river and an important railway junction. In August 1915, during the Great Retreat, the Russians gave it up after a brief assault, blowing up the forts and setting the town on fire. In the ruined citadel the Germans set up the headquarters of their command in the East, and at the end of 1917 they received a Bolshevik delegation there. Here the armistice that ended the fighting on the Eastern Front was signed, and so was the peace of 3 March 1918, known ever since as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

The fall of the fortress (1915)

The fortress was built in the 19th century where the Mukhavets flows into the Bug and was surrounded by a ring of forts. A second, outer ring had not been finished before the war. In the summer of 1915 the Russian command still hoped that the army would halt on the line Kovno–Grodno–Brest. But when Warsaw, Kovno and Novogeorgievsk fell, it decided that it must not risk another encirclement. According to Russian accounts the decision to evacuate was taken around 20 August, and offices, stores and a large part of the inhabitants were taken out of the town.

On 25 August the troops of August von Mackensen’s army group broke through the ring of forts. The main weight of the assault fell on the Austro-Hungarian VI Corps. During the night the Russian Third Army withdrew eastwards, and on the morning of 26 August the victors entered the citadel. The retreating Russians blew up the forts, powder magazines and bridges, and according to various estimates fire destroyed 70 to 80 per cent of the town’s buildings. The fall of Brest wiped out the Russian line of fortresses. In the same days the Russian general headquarters moved from Baranovichi to Mogilev.

Headquarters in the East (1916–1917)

From the autumn of 1915 the staff of the German command in the East, Ober Ost, was based at Kovno. At the end of July 1916, when Paul von Hindenburg’s command also took over part of the Austro-Hungarian front, his headquarters moved to the fortress of Brest. It was here that on 28 August the Emperor’s summons reached him, after which he and Ludendorff took over the supreme command of the whole army. Their place was taken by Prince Leopold of Bavaria, with Max Hoffmann as his chief of staff. From Brest they now directed the front from the Baltic to the Carpathians.

Armistice and negotiations (1917–1918)

When Lenin’s government demanded an armistice, the talks were held at Prince Leopold’s headquarters. On 3 December 1917 the delegation of Adolph Joffe sat down to negotiate here with the soldiers of the Central Powers, led by Hoffmann, and on 15 December an armistice was signed for the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. According to the historian Susanne Schattenberg, the hosts entertained the Russians with oysters and roast goose, while Leon Trotsky wanted the talks moved to Stockholm, where the Germans would have less power and the world could watch.

On 22 December a peace conference attended by foreign ministers opened at Brest. In January Trotsky took over the Soviet delegation and turned the sessions into a verbal duel with Richard von Kühlmann. On 9 February peace with the Ukrainian People’s Republic was signed in the citadel, promising Ukraine the Chełm region. The next day Trotsky announced his formula of “neither war nor peace” and left Brest that same night.

The answer was the German Operation Faustschlag. On 28 February Grigori Sokolnikov’s delegation came to Brest only to sign the terms without discussion. On 3 March 1918, in the White Palace of the fortress, Soviet Russia concluded peace with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk took Poland, Lithuania and Courland from it. Historians call it a dictated peace.

After the war

The treaty lasted less than nine months: on 13 November 1918 the Soviet authorities declared it void. The German garrisons withdrew from the East slowly, and in February 1919, under an agreement concluded at Białystok, Polish units relieved them. According to the IPN, they entered Brest on 9 February, and soon Polish and Soviet troops stood face to face. The town, 70 per cent destroyed during the war, had to be rebuilt. In 1923 it was given the name Brześć nad Bugiem.