The Bolsheviki, in control at Petrograd, opened negotiations with the Central Powers for an armistice along the entire front from the Baltic to Asia Minor, and on December 17th, such an armistice went into effect. Meanwhile they began negotiations for a treaty of peace. General Dukholin, the Commander-in-Chief, on November 20th, was ordered by Lenine to propose the armistice. To this request he made no reply, and on November 21st, he was deposed and Ensign Krylenko was appointed the new Commander-in-Chief. General Dukholin was subsequently murdered, by being thrown from a train after the Bolsheviki seized the general headquarters.
Trotzky sent a note to the representatives of neutral powers in Petrograd, informing them of his proposal for an armistice, and stating "The consummation of an immediate peace is demanded in all countries, both belligerent and neutral. The Russian Government counts on the firm support of workmen in all countries in this struggle for peace." Lenine, however, declared that Russia did not contemplate a separate peace with Germany, and that the Russian Government, before agreeing to an armistice, would communicate with the Allies and make a certain proposal to the imperialistic governments of France and England, rejection of which would place them in open opposition to the wishes of their own people.
A period of turmoil followed. In the meantime elections for the Constituent Assembly were held. The result in Petrograd was announced as 272,000 votes for the Bolsheviki, 211,000 for the Constitutional Democrats, and 116,000 for the Social Revolutionaries, showing that the Bolsheviki failed to attain a majority. Notwithstanding the prevailing chaos, the Lenine-Trotzky Government persisted in negotiations for an armistice, and it was arranged that the first conference be held at the German headquarters at Brest-Litovsk.
The Russian delegates were Kamenev, whose real name was Rosenfelt, a well known Bolshevist leader; Sokolnikov, a sailor; Bithenko, a soldier, and Mstislasky, who had formerly been librarian to the General Staff, but who was now a strong Socialist. Representatives were present of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.
After many interchanges of opinion a suspension of hostilities for ten days was authorized, to be utilized in bringing to a conclusion negotiations for an armistice. On December 7th it was announced from Petrograd that for the first time since the war not a shot was fired on the Russian front. Foreign Secretary Trotzky, on the 6th of December, notified the allied embassies in Petrograd of these negotiations and added that the armistice would be signed only on condition that the troops should not be transferred from one front to another. He announced that negotiations had been suspended to afford the Allied Governments opportunity to define their attitude toward the peace negotiation; that is, their willingness or refusal to participate in negotiations for an armistice and peace. In case of refusal they must declare clearly and definitely before all mankind the aims for which the peoples of Europe had been called to shed their blood during the fourth year of the war.
No official replies were made to this note. On December 7th, Generals Kaledines and Kornilov raised the standard of revolt, but reports indicated that the Bolsheviki were extending their control over all Russia. A meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place on December 11th. Less than 50 of the 600 delegates attended. Meanwhile the negotiations for an armistice continued. On December 16th an agreement was reached and an armistice signed, to continue from December 17th to January 14th, 1918.
[Illustration: Map: All of Europe and Asia, showing the Trans-Siberian
Railway and other railroads.]
RUSSIA'S GREAT RAILWAY LINK BETWEEN VLADIVOSTOK AND THE ARCTIC OCEAN
The Czecho-Slovaks took possession of long stretches of the
Trans-Siberian Railroad. Japan lent her aid in the east, and American
and Allied troops swept down from the Murman coast in the northwest.
Within the first month in which the Bolsheviki conducted the government numerous edicts of a revolutionary character were issued. Class titles, distinctions and privileges were abolished; the corporate property of nobles, merchants and burgesses was to be handed over to the state, as was all church property, lands, money and precious stones; and religious instruction was to cease in the schools. Strikes were in progress everywhere, and disorder was rampant.
Kornilov, Terestchenko and other associates of Kerensky, were imprisoned in the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul; the Cadet Party was outlawed by decree and the houses of its leaders raided. On January 8, 1918, it was announced that the Bolsheviki had determined that all loans and Treasury bonds held by foreign subjects, abroad or in Russia, were repudiated.
During this period the Bolsheviki's Foreign Secretary astonished the world by making public the secret treaties between Russia and foreign governments in the early years of the war. These treaties dealt with the proposed annexation by Russia of the Dardanelles, Constantinople and certain areas in Asia Minor; with the French claim on Alsace-Lorraine and the left bank of the Rhine; with offers to Greece, for the purpose of inducing her to assist Serbia; with plans to alter her Western boundaries, with the British and Russian control of Persia; and with Italy's desire to annex certain Austrian territories. These treaties had been seized upon the Bolsheviki assumption of power, and were now repudiated by the new government.