Treaty of Brest-Litovsk — peace treaty between the Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (3 March 1918)
Russia's withdrawal from WWI ceded vast territories to the Central Powers, reshaping Eastern European borders for generations.
Key Facts
- Date signed
- 3 March 1918
- Population lost by Russia
- 34% of former empire's population
- Industrial land ceded
- 54% of Russia's industrial land
- Coalfields ceded
- 89% of Russia's coalfields
- War reparations owed to Germany
- 6 billion marks marks
- Treaty annulled
- 11 November 1918, Armistice with Germany
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in late 1917, Soviet Russia sought to exit World War I. An armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917 opened negotiations, but a Central Powers offensive launched on 18 February 1918 overran Baltic, Belarusian, and Ukrainian territories, forcing the Soviet government to accept harsh peace terms rather than continue fighting.
On 3 March 1918, Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Russia surrendered control of Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Caucasian territories, and agreed to recognize Finnish independence and end hostilities with the Ukrainian People's Republic. A supplementary protocol in August 1918 added a reparations obligation of six billion marks.
The treaty sparked deep internal divisions in Russia, galvanizing the White movement and fracturing the Bolshevik-Left SR coalition. It was annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918 after Germany's defeat. During the subsequent Russian Civil War, the Red Army recovered several lost territories but permanently lost the three Baltic states. The borders drawn by the treaty closely prefigured those that emerged after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.
Political Outcome
Soviet Russia withdrew from World War I, ceding extensive territories to the Central Powers; the treaty was later annulled by Germany's defeat in November 1918.
Russia was an active belligerent on the Eastern Front of World War I, holding territories of the former Russian Empire.
Russia exited the war, losing control of roughly a third of its population and major industrial and agricultural regions to Central Powers influence.