Russia and Ukraine were no longer fighting the world war, or were they? They were making separate peace
negotiations with the Central Powers even as the Bolsheviks were invading Ukrainian territory.
Well one of those pieces was signed this week, and the other one blew up, and you know what it led to? Total chaos.
I'm Indy Neidell welcome to "the Great War".
last week the peace negotiations between Russia and the Central Powers were coming to an ugly head as
Germany demanded huge chunks of Russian territory while at the same time pushing for a separate peace with Ukraine that might
seriously damage German ally Austria-Hungary.
American troops heading to Europe drowned off the Irish coast and there were yet again machinations in the British High Command.
At this point that last thing is like a broken record. It continued this week British commander Sir Douglas Haig
was summoned to London to consult about the
Robertson situation a situation we saw last week on the 9th Lord Darby told Haig that Chief of Staff Wully Robertson
Was to be replaced whether Haig liked it or not and the military representative on the Allied supreme war council at Versailles,
Which was Henry Wilson at the moment would direct Haig in the matter of the inter-allied reserve.
That military rep would also be deputy Chief of Staff
Haig then met with Prime Minister David Lloyd George and pointed out that the council now had really
Wide-ranging powers and that the military rep had been given decision-making powers that should lie only with the British government
He also pointed out that only the British Army Council or Haig's British superiors had the legal authority to give him orders
Haig suggested letting Robertson and French General Ferdinand Foch
work together on reserves instead of Wilson and Foch. Lloyd George had come to the same conclusion and wanted to swap
Robertson and Wilson's roles of Chief of Staff and military rep
Robertson said he would serve at Versailles under Herbert Blumer who would refuse the Chief of Staff job,
but not under Wilson who he thought his junior.
Lloyd George actually also suggested that Haig be commander in chief of all land forces in all theatres
Which may have been a move to kick Haig upstairs from the Western Front,
but Haig rejected this on the grounds that with so many changes in the command structure already
being made, the British High Command in France should be left alone
It was a real mess, and it could not continue for long.
Another real mess was getting worse this week. See on
the 9th peace was signed between the Ukrainian Rada, the Parliament, and the Central Powers.
Ukraine promises to deliver a million metric tons of grain to the Central Powers by August first.
Austria-Hungary promises autonomy to its Ruthenian (Ukrainian) minority and crucially
Ukraine is promised the Cholm region of Russian Poland. We saw last week what a big deal
that would be if that happened,
but Austria was stuck trying to please Ukraine for the grain to prevent starvation,
to please its own Polish
population whose support for the Emperor was vital, and to please the Germans whose military would be needed to help secure Ukraine from the Bolsheviks.
After the treaty was signed,
mass demonstrations were held in Polish cities and Polish auxiliary serving with Habsburg forces even
mutiny. The Poles in the Reichsrat now went into opposition and declared themselves in favor of
independence and what could Emperor Karl do against that, short of
massive military repression which was the kind of thing Karl didn't do? Thing is this treaty also brought the situation
between the Russian Bolsheviks,
who are currently invading Ukraine
trying to support a Soviet government from Kharkov and the Central Powers to a boil. They had been
negotiating peace for two months since Russia had pulled out of the war and this
blew that out of the water. Leon Trotsky leading the Russian delegation walked out of the peace conference
declaring it was now a state of "no war, no peace" and Russia would not accept annexationist peace terms,
but was also demobilizing its army the Central Powers now had to decide if that was enough.
They decided pretty quickly that no, it was not enough! Kaiser Wilhelm announced plans for the division of European Russia.
Poland would be given to the House of Württemberg,
Lithuania to the House of Saxony, the rest of the Baltics to his own House of Hohenzollern and Finland to his son Oskar
He didn't give anything to the Austrians. Wilhelm by this point was
infuriated by Trotsky's revolutionary agitation and would be happy to see the Bolshevik government overthrown.
General Max Hoffman, the German military rep at the conference, wrote of the German plans to now resume the war against Russia.
"No other way out as possible,
otherwise these brutes will wipe up the Ukrainians, the Finns and the Balts, and then quickly get together a new
revolutionary army and turn the whole of Europe into a pigsty".
German Foreign Minister Richard von Kühlman argued for just agreeing to a Russian fait accompli,
Claiming a new German offensive would undermine political stability.
Quartermaster general
Erich Ludendorff argued that resolving the East could bring over troops to the West and not doing so, would risk
abandoning Finland and Ukraine to the Bolsheviks. Kuhlman was isolated and had to give way.
Trotsky and company, had been hoping for Bolshevik revolutions to break out in Berlin and Vienna, but that wasn't going to happen. Okay in
Austria in January there had been anti-war protests in fact, on January 14th, a
government
cut in bread and flour rations had provoked a huge general strike for peace.
The Social Democrats had supported it and even asked the strikers to form workers councils, Soviets,
but the strike ended when government authorities met the Vienna workers council, made concessions
and they returned to work. There was the naval mutiny last week at Cattaro, too,
but all of this showed that while the Empire may be losing control of its nationalities,
it could still keep its workers and army in line. There had also been those big January strikes in Germany,
which were actually more politicized than in Austria. A workers council elected by the strikers called for peace without annexations,
democratization of the Prussian franchise, better food, and amnesty for political prisoners.
This though, was not a revolutionary socialist set of ideas,
but a democratic one, which didn't make much difference because, unlike the Austrians, the Germans used force to put it down,
breaking up meetings and arresting leaders, and conscripting
50,000 strikers into the army. The movement collapsed and achieved nothing and the German working class was kept in line.
And at the war council meeting at Bad Homburg the 13th, the Kaiser spoke of a worldwide conspiracy
against Germany, which included the Bolsheviks supported by US President
Woodrow Wilson, international Jewry, and the Grand Orient Lodge of Freemasons. (Gilbert).
"He made no mention of the fact that as many as 10,000 Jews and many thousands of Freemasons, had already been killed
fighting in the ranks of the German army. Nor did he seem to remember the details he had been given only two months earlier of
German financial backing for the Bolsheviks, including a secret German subsidy for the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda".
There were other people hoping for peace as well, far to the southeast. The
Transcaucasian Federation made up of what is now Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
was pretty anxious to enter into peace
negotiations with the Ottoman Empire as soon as possible. The Ottoman government said it was willing to do this,
but would take time to get a conference organised, and stuff was already happening on the ground.
Vehip Pasha leader of the Ottoman 3rd Army,
had already begun military action against the Armenian detachment holding the front lines as the Russians withdrew on their way home.
First he sent repeated protests against the actions of
disbanded Russian soldiers and massacres of Muslims by Christian Armenian bands. In early February,
Kurdish activity increased near Erzingan, mainly skirmishes with a small Armenian force there.
That force was under the command of Colonel Morel,
formerly Russian military attache to Tokyo, and it consisted of the Erzingan regiment and some irregulars, around 2,000 troops.
They were pretty isolated, being a 160 km from the nearest Armenian troops in Erzurum, and had
communication lines that could be easily cut.
This week on the 12th Ottoman infantry suddenly appeared in front of the Armenian post at Chardakli and captured it.
More Ottomans appeared from Kemah, and by the 13th,
They were 10 km from Erzincan. Morel had no choice
but to evacuate and retreat, and this he began to do. And a note and two notable deaths to end the week.
American troops took offensive action for first time on the 13th, at the Butte de Mesnil in Champagne.
American artillery batteries took part in a six hour barrage before French attack. Russian general
Alexei Kaledin, who had recently resigned as leader of the Cossacks who were now fighting the Bolsheviks,
committed suicide the 11th. One day earlier Abdul Hamid,
former Ottoman Sultan, and the last Sultan to hold absolute power, had also died. And the week ends, with new action in Anatolia,
more confusion in the British High Command, one peace failing and another being signed,
but not seeming to actually bring peace. But can anything bring peace at this point? One guy signed a peace treaty
and it causes the other signatory to resume the war with a third party.
That's what we are now, in the clown car of
1918. New clowns spring up each week, in Britain, in Germany, in Russia, in Austria, everywhere!
But there's no one driving the clown car, and it is totally out of control.
If you'd like to learn more about the Transcaucasian region during the First World War,
you can click right here for our special on that. Our patreon supporter of the week is Rex
Higham III. Consider supporting us on Patreon to make this show ever better and better and do not forget to subscribe.
See you next time.