The war had been going on for four hard years. With so much bloodshed, surely the end had to be in sight. After months of heated discussions between Russia & Germany, on the 3rd March 1918, the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. It had taken a long time to get to
this point though and it would be even longer still until the world was at peace.

A 28 day armistice had originally been signed by both Russia and Germany on the 15th December 2017, with the peace talks starting just a week later on the 22nd December. Also on the same day was the first initial battle of the Russian civil war and so as you can imagine, the pressure was on, with a lot of anger and bitterness in the air. In fact, just 4 days after the talks began, the Bolsheviks decided to temporarily stop the peace talks, due to disagreements with Germany’s demands. By the 10th February, Trotsky, the Bolshevik commissar for foreign affairs had quit the Brest-Litovsk talks for the fourth time.

Germany declared the war with Russia had resumed on the 18th February but by the 24th February, Russian Soviets agree to accept Germany’s terms, with 3rd March being the official date the treaty was signed. The terms was very harsh towards Russia, with the country being stripped of its empire. The result being the likes of Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Ukraine now being in Germany’s hands. The Bolsheviks also agreed to pay financial compensation for war losses. This lead to a lot of anger and frustration amongst the Russian population and it wouldn’t be long until this built up with the civil war continuing. What started off as a sign for peace, would for the Russians, be a long
time coming, but that will be covered another day very soon.