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Parted red curtains; in the center, in a trench, a German soldier, eyes closed, hands in overcoat pockets, leans against one side of a trench, smoking a pipe, his rifle resting on the other side of the trench. To the right, a Red soldier, red from red fur hat to red boots, holds two rifles. To the left, a Russian soldier casts away his his hat, backpack, and rifle. Across the bottom of the stage it reads, 1918. Operett: "Trockij", Operetta Trotsky. A watercolor postcard by Schima Martos.
Austro-Hungarian trench art pencil drawing on pink paper of a soldier in a ragged, many-times-patched uniform, labeled 'Bilder ohne Worte' (No Comment, or Picture without Words). Kaiser Karl who succeeded Emperor Franz Joseph is on reverse. The printed text on the reverse is in Hungarian and German.
Russian Bolshevik soldiers demonstrating in Petrograd.
British soldiers on the Western Front in an official photograph dated March 5, 1917.
Monument to the Polish volunteers who fell in the Third Battle of Artois, May 9, 1915, at La Targette. Across the front of the monument is inscribed "Za Wasza I Nasza Wolnosc", For your freedom; for our freedom. © 2013 by John M. Shea
"We are removing our armies and our people from the war. Our peasant soldiers must return to their land to cultivate in peace the fields which the Revolution has taken from the landlord and given to the peasants. Our workmen soldiers must return to the workshops and produce, not for destruction but for creation. They must, together with the peasants, create a Socialist State.We are going out of the war. We inform all peoples and their Governments of this fact. We are giving the order for a general demobilization of all our armies opposed at the present to the troops of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. We are waiting in the strong belief that other peoples will soon follow our example." ((1), more)
"'I learn from a reliable source that France has issued the following notifications: We were already quite disposed to enter into discussion with Austria. Now we are asking ourselves whether Austria is still sound enough for the part it was intended to give her. One is afraid of basing an entire policy upon a state which is, perhaps, already threatened with the fate of Russia.' And Skrzynski adds: 'During the last few days I have heard as follows: It has been decided to wait for a while.'" ((2), more)
"IIIThe lads have all gone to the warsto serve in the Red Guard—to serve in the Red Guard—and risk their hot heads for the cause.Hell and damnation,life is such funwith a ragged greatcoatand a Jerry gun!To smoke the nobs out of their holeswe'll light a fire through all the world,a bloody fire through all the world—Lord, bless our souls!" ((3), more)
"The equilibrium of opposing forces on the Franco-British and Italian fronts is clearly in favor of the enemy on the first of these fronts and [in favor] of the allies on the Italian front. Thus it appears essential to bring back without delay from Italy part of the allied forces that are there. Since English reserves are actually less numerous than French reserves and the English front appears menaced more immediately, two English divisions should be brought back at once from Italy. French troops will follow." ((4), more)
"While Vienna was beflagged and rejoicing at the signature of the Ukrainian Peace, the Polish press in Warsaw and Lublin appeared with heavy black borders in mourning for the rape of Cholm. A general strike was declared in Warsaw, Cracow, and Lemberg on February 14 [1918]; the Polish Council of Ministers resigned and the three regents, Prince Lubomirski, Archbishop Kakowski, and Count Ostrowski, issues a manifesto in language savouring of the mediaeval: 'Before God and before the World; before men and the tribunal of history; before the German people and the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the Polish Council of Regency now raises its protest against the new partition of Poland, refuses to give its recognition, and brands the step as an act of violation'." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the February 10, 1918 speech by Leon Trotsky to the Central Power delegates at the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations. Both the Russians and German civilian representatives claimed to believe in the right of self-determination of the peoples of occupied territory, but the German High Command refused to evacuate. Trotsky considered such self-determination none at all, and would not sign a 'peace of annexation.' His formula was to have the Russians leave the war, with no peace in place, thinking there was a good chance the Germans would not resume the war. In this he was mistaken.
Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace; March 1918 by John W. Wheeler-Bennett by John W. Wheeler-Bennett, page 226, publisher: The Norton Library, publication date: 1971, first published 193
(2) Excerpt from the entry for February 11, 1918 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czernin headed the Austro-Hungarian delegation to the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. Hundreds of thousands of workers in Austria-Hungary and then Germany went on strike in January, 1918 as hunger and war-weariness bit. With the German military refusing to evacuate occupied territory, and anticipating revolutionary activity across war-weary Europe, Russian representative Leon Trotsky had played for time through the month. On the verge of despair, Czernin recognized his country was on the verge of collapse.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, page 279, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(3) Section III of "The Twelve" by Russian poet Alexander Blok. The Twelve are Red Guards patrolling Petrograd in a furious snowstorm. They encounter an old woman despairing at the sight of an enormous banner that would have clothed many children, a cleric, a bourgeois, a tramp, and a couple living it up as they patrol to keep at bay the enemies of the Revolution. A carriage races past, but is stopped, the driver and male passenger fleeing, escaping the patrol's rifle fire. Only the female passenger is hit, killed by one of the Twelve who had been her lover. In the final section XII, they are lured on by a mysterious figure they fire on, but who continues ahead of them waving a blood-red flag. The poem is dated January, 1918 (mid-January to mid-February New Style), as the negotiations between the Russians and the Central Powers were collapsing. Translation by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France.
The Twelve and Other Poems by Alexander Blok, page 147, copyright © 1970 by Jon Stallworthy & Peter France, publisher: Oxford University Press, publication date: 1970
(4) French General Ferdinand Foch writing to the British government on February 13, 1918. Both Britain and France had sent troops and materiel to Italy when it seemed on the verge of collapse during the Battle of Caporetto. But, after losing its Second Army, the Italians held on the Piave River with a shorter, more defensible line, facing an exhausted Austria-Hungary and a Germany focused on a spring offensive on the Western Front.
Pyrrhic Victory; French Strategy and Operations in the Great War by Robert A. Doughty, page 419, copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, publisher: Harvard University Press, publication date: 2005
(5) Nearing the end of fruitless negotiations with Russia, the Central Powers signed a peace treaty with the Ukrainian People's Republic at Brest-Litovsk on February 9, 1918. Desperate for food supplies, and expecting them from the new Ukraine, Austria understandably rejoiced, even as Polish nationals, hoping for their own nation, one that included Cholm, protested.
Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace; March 1918 by John W. Wheeler-Bennett by John W. Wheeler-Bennett, page 234, publisher: The Norton Library, publication date: 1971, first published 193
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