Page - 878 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

878 The Inner Front Empire, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria to be over. There was ‘neither war nor peace’. The Bolshevik delegation departed. The Central Powers had not been prepared for this breach, but they quickly gathered themselves. For Ludendorff, it was clear that the opportunity to advance into the Baltic should be used. The whole of Livonia and Estonia from Riga to Lake Peipus was even- tually occupied by German troops. Prime Minister Seidler declared in the Reichsrat that the Danube Monarchy would not participate in the German military operation. He also announced that Russia had declared that it was no longer at war with Aus- tria-Hungary. However, as it turned out shortly thereafter, this did not mean the end of Austro-Hungarian involvement in the east. After the conclusion of what Czernin had so pithily and exaggeratedly called the ‘Bread Peace’, Ukraine had been informed that in the event of a military threat coming from Russia, it was to turn to Austria-Hun- gary. This military threat was real. The new regime in Russia did not simply want to relinquish Ukraine either. Together with Ukrainian Bolsheviks, Russian Red Guards conquered ever larger parts of the country. The Central Rada under Mykhailo S. Hru- shevsky was trapped in Kiev and in danger of being liquidated. Only with the help of the Galician-Ukrainian Legion (‘Sicovi stril’ci’), which primarily comprised Austrian soldiers of Ukrainian nationality who had escaped from Russian prisoner of war cap- tivity, did the Rada succeed in slipping out of Kiev following days of street fighting. On its own, the People’s Republic could not survive. An appeal for help promptly arrived on 16 February, which was just as promptly used by Czernin for political blackmail. He only wanted to promise military support if Ukraine at least partially renounced the Chełm territory conceded to it in Brest. Ukraine did as it was asked. The border between Poland and Ukraine was again uncertain.2092 When, however, the Army High Command was already gearing itself up to order Austro-Hungarian troops to advance into Ukraine, the Emperor refused to grant his consent. He saw in such an invasion a breach of treaty. Prime Minister Seidler as- sisted him, since he needed the Social Democrats more than ever for the in any case weak parliamentary support that his government enjoyed. After the back and forth of the Chełm Governorate, the Poles of Austria were no longer prepared to agree to an extension of the provisional budget. Thus, the Social Democrats had to be won over, although they strictly rejected a revival of the war in the east. Therefore, the invasion of Ukraine was not to take place.2093 As a result of this, Czernin was now in an awkward position, since he had expressly made it known to Ukraine that not German but Austro-Hungarian troops would march in ; only on this condition had Ukraine been prepared to renounce the Chełm territory  – and now it was only German troops who came. The pledge of the Danube Monarchy turned out to be an empty promise. In this way, it had also become ques- tionable whether Austria would have a notable share in the immediate Ukrainian de-