CHAPTER LIX
THE GERMANS RENEW HOSTILITIES WITH RUSSIA
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 18th, just two hours after the armistice had expired, German troops began pouring across the Dvina Bridge. The disorganized Russians fled before them, allowing the Germans to occupy Dvinsk unopposed. Up and down the whole eastern front the German lines began a simultaneous movement eastward, the immediate object being the occupation of the territory coveted by Germany, the moral pretext being that Germany desired to rescue the oppressed population from the anarchy of Bolsheviki rule. Farther south an advance was also made into Ukrainia, but there it was on the invitation of the Ukrainians themselves, according to the Germans.
The news of the German advance acted on the Petrograd authorities like an electric shock, awakening them from their delusions. There was something of panic in the haste with which the Council of People's Commissaries, the body corresponding to the Cabinet of other governments, assembled for conference the moment the news reached the capital. Throughout the whole night they remained in session, in hot argument over the question of capitulation or resistance.
On this vital issue the two leading figures of the Bolsheviki Government split; Lenine was in favor of unconditional surrender to the German demands, while Trotzky declared himself for continued resistance. Had he remained of this mind he might have changed the course of events, but before the question was put to vote, he swung over to Lenine, and the Council decided in favor of surrender, but only by one vote.
Early next morning the Council issued a proclamation, to the effect that "under the present circumstances the Council of the People's Commissaries regards itself as forced formally to declare its willingness to sign a peace upon the conditions which had been dictated by the delegations of the Quadruple Alliance at Brest-Litovsk." Later in the day Ensign Krylenko, the commander in chief, issued a general order to his armed forces in which they were enjoined to attempt to parley with all forces of armed Germans they might encounter and persuade them to desist from advancing farther into Russian territory, but in case these attempts failed, then a determined resistance should be made.
The decision of Petrograd to capitulate had been communicated to German headquarters by wireless. Late in the afternoon the German commander, General Hoffmann, replied to the effect that the message had been received, but since a wireless message could not bear signatures, without which no communication could be regarded as official, he requested the Petrograd authorities to forward the same message in written form, properly signed, to German headquarters at Dvinsk. A courier was immediately sent with an authentic copy of the Russian capitulation to Dvinsk.
The Germans, however, were in no hurry to respond. The German soldiers continued their eastward advance day by day, practically unopposed, gathering in some 10,000 prisoners and vast quantities of arms, heavy guns, ammunition and other war material. By February 21 German forces had arrived seventy miles northeast of Riga, and Esthonia was completely occupied.
By this time it began to dawn on the Bolsheviki leaders in Petrograd that the Germans meant to occupy all the territory they desired before they would reopen negotiations. On February 22, 1918, a proclamation was promulgated, in the following terms:
"We agreed to sign peace terms at the cost of enormous concessions in order to save the country from final exhaustion and the ruin of the revolution. Once more the German working class, in this threatening hour, has shown itself insufficiently determined to stay the strong criminal hand of its own militarism. We had no other choice than to accept the conditions of German imperialism until a revolution changes or cancels them. The German Government is not in a hurry to reply to us, evidently aiming to seize as many important positions in our territory as possible. The enemy has occupied Dvinsk, Werder, and Lutsk, and is continuing to strangle by hunger the most important centers of the revolution. Even now we are firmly convinced that the German working class will rise against the attempts of the ruling class to stifle the revolution, but we cannot predict with certainty when this will occur.... The Commissaries call on all loyal councils and army organizations to use all efforts to recreate the army. Perverted elements of hooligans, marauders and cowards should be expelled from the ranks, and, in the event of resistance, be wiped out of existence. The bourgeoisie, who under Kerensky and the Czar evaded the burden of war and profited from its misfortunes, must be made to fulfill their duties by the most decisive and merciless measures.... The German generals desire to establish their own order in Petrograd and Kiev. The republic is in the gravest danger. The duty of Russian workingmen and peasants is defense to the death of the republic against the masses of bourgeoisie and imperialists of Germany. German militarism wishes to smother the working classes and the Ukrainian masses, to give back the land to the landowners, factories and workshops to the bankers, and power to a monarchy."