No Peace and No War

Russian Delegation at the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference, Declaration. February 10, 1918

Original Source: Mirnye peregovory v Brest-Litovske s 22/9 dekabria 1917 g. po 3 marta (18 fevralia) 1918 g. (Moscow: Izd. Nar. komissariata inostrannykh del, 1920), Vol. 1, pp. 207-208.

We declare to all peoples and governments that we are dropping out of the war. We are issuing orders for full demobilization of all troops that now face the armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. We wait and trust that all nations will soon follow in our steps.

We announce at the same time that the conditions of peace offered its by Germany and Austria-Hungary are basically against the interests of all peoples ... The peoples of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Courland, and Estonia regard these conditions as a violation of their will, while for Russia they constitute a perpetual menace. The peoples of the world, guided by their political convictions and moral instincts, are condemning these conditions and are awaiting the day when the working classes of all countries will establish their own forms of peaceful co-operation of peoples. We refuse to sanction those conditions which the sword of German and Austro-Hungarian imperialism is ready to inscribe on the living bodies of the peoples involved. We cannot enter the signature of the Russian Revolution tinder conditions which carry oppression, sorrow, and suffering to millions of human beings ...

In connection with the above declaration I wish to deliver to the Quadruple Alliance the following written statement:

In the name of the Soviet of People's Commissars, the Government of the Russian Federated Republic hereby informs the governments and peoples warring against it, as well as the Allies and neutrals, that in refusing to sign the annexation peace Russia at the same time declares the war with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey at an end. Orders for general demobilization have already been issued.

L. TROTSKY
A. BITSENKO
A. IOFFE
V. KARELIN
M. POKROVSKII

Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), p. 510.

1917

EVENTS February Revolution Formation of the Soviets April Crisis Revolution in the Army July Days Kornilov Affair Bolsheviks Seize Power First Bolshevik Decrees Constituent Assembly Treaty of Brest Litovsk
FOUR KINDS OF STATES Communist Party Building Economic Apparatus Building the Soviets Red Guard into Army State Security
DISINTEGRATION OF THE OLD SOCIETY Depopulation of the Cities Food Supply Conflict with the Church Death of the Old Culture Destruction of the Left The Empire Falls
CREATION OF A NEW SOCIETY New Letters and Dates Culture and Revolution The New Woman Workers Organization Peasant Revolution Organs of the Press Raising Socialist Youth