Germany’s New Peace Terms
Richard von Kühlmann, Ultimatum. February 21, 1918
Original Source: Pravda, No. 34, 24 February 1918, p. 3.
To the Soviet of People's Commissars:
Reply of the German Government to the communication of the Russian Government of February 19, 1918. Germany is willing to resume peace negotiations with Russia and conclude peace on the following conditions:
Germany and Russia declare the state of war at an end. Both nations are resolved to live in peace and friendship in the future.
The territories lying to the west of the line indicated to the Russian representatives at Brest-Litovsk and which formerly belonged to Russia will no longer be under a Russian protectorate. In the Dvinsk district this line must be moved toward the eastern frontier of Courland. No obligation whatsoever toward Russia shall devolve upon the territories referred to because of their former relations to the Russian Empire. Russia renounces every kind of interference in the internal affairs of these countries. Germany and Austria-Hungary intend to determine the future destiny of these territories in agreement with their inhabitants. Germany is ready after the conclusion of a general peace and the completion of the Russian demobilization to evacuate all territories east of the designated line, in so far as Article 3 does not determine otherwise.
Livonia and Estonia are immediately cleared from Russian troops and Red Guards who will be replaced by German police until such time as the reconstruction of the country will guarantee safety and governmental order. All inhabitants arrested on political grounds must be immediately released.
Russia concludes peace immediately with the Ukraine People's Republic. The Ukraine and Finland must immediately be cleared of Russian troops and Red Guards.
Russia will do everything in her power to secure for Turkey the orderly restoration of her eastern Anatolian provinces and to recognize the abolition of Turkish capitulations.
(a) A full demobilization of the Russian Army, including the units recently organized by the present government, must take place immediately. (b) Russian warships in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Arctic Ocean must be immediately brought to Russian ports and interned there until the conclusion of a general peace or be disarmed. Warships of the Entente under Russian control are to be treated as Russian ships. (c) Commercial navigation in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea is to be resumed as provided in the armistice agreement; the removal of mines is to begin at once; the blockade of the Arctic Ocean is to continue until the conclusion of a general peace.
The Russo-German commercial treaty of 1904 goes into force ...
[This article deals with the re-establishment of legal and political relations, prisoners, etc.] ...
Russia obliges herself to stop all agitation and propaganda, carried on by the government or by organizations supported by the government, against the governments of the Quadruple Alliance, their civil and military institutions, including the territories occupied by the Central Powers.
The terms mentioned above are to be accepted within forty-eight hours. Russian plenipotentiaries are to start immediately for Brest Litovsk and there within three days sign the peace agreement, which should be ratified within two weeks.
Berlin
von K hlmann
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Source: U.S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (1918), Russia, 1:432-33.