Page - 153 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 Brest-Litovsk,signedbytheCentralPowersandtheUkrainianPeople’sRepublic in thenightof9–10February1918.38 The first Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was the high-water mark of the Imperial mobilisationof ethnicityduring theGreatWar.TheHabsburgs and theRoma- novs(aswell as the latter’s immediatesuccessors, theProvisionalGovernment) had offered theirUkrainianpopulations a steadily increasing number of con- cessions, pairedwith theoftenviolent suppressionofundesirable formsofna- tional identity, in order to consolidate domestic support for thewarwhile de- stabilising the rival empire.Germanyhad contributed to this cumulative radi- calisationthroughthepursuitofapolicygearedtowardsrevolutionisingRussia. The emergence of an independentUkrainian state followed almost inexorably fromthecollapseof theImperialRussiancentre inFebruary1917.Thequestion washowviablethisnewUkrainianstatewouldbeatatimeofongoingtotalwar, revolutionary transformation, andsocietal collapse. FromtheTreatyofBrest-Litovsk to theAutumnCollapse Fromtheearlydaysof its existence in lateNovember1917, theUkrainianPeo- ple’sRepublic facedtherisinghostilityofBolshevikRussia to thenorth.By the time of the signing of the peace in early February 1918, the Bolsheviks had dislodgedtheCentralRadafrommostofCentralandEasternUkraine,confining it toaprecariousshadowexistenceinthewesterncityofZhitomir.If theCentral Powerswanted to receive theUkrainian foodstuffs theBrest-Litovsk treatyhad promisedthem,theywouldhavetointervenemilitarilyonbehalfofthefaltering CentralRada, therebybolsteringUkrainian statehood in another aspect of the general pattern of themobilisation of ethnicity. Although Emperor Karl was initially loath to join theGerman intervention,his resistance tomilitaryaction quicklygavewayonceherealisedthatonly thepresenceofHabsburgtroopson the ground could guaranteemuchneededUkrainian grain. By lateMarch, the Germanarmyand the quarter-million strongHabsburgOstarmeehad cleared 38 OntheBrest-LitovskPeaceConference,seeBorislavChernev,TwilightofEmpire.TheBrest- Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917–1918, Toronto 2017; Werner Hahlweg, Der Diktatfrieden von Brest-Litowsk 1918 und die Bolschewistische Weltrevolution (Schriften der Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Westfälischen Wilhelms- UniversitätzuMünster,44),Münster1960; IuriiFelshtinskii,Krusheniemirovoirevoliutsii. Brestskiimir.Okriabr’1917–Noiabr’1918,London1991;ontheUkrainiannegotiationsand treaty inparticular,seeStephanM.Horak,TheFirstTreatyofWorldWarI.Ukraine’sTreaty withtheCentralPowersofFebruary9,1918(EastEuropeanMonographs,236),Boulder1988; IrinaV.Mikhutina,UkrainskiiBrestskiimir.Put’ vykhodaRossiii izPervoimirovoivoiny i anatomiyakonfliktamezhduSovnarkomomRSFSRipravitel’stvomUkrainskoiTsentral’noi Rady(SerijaEvrovostok),Moscow2007. TheHabsburgMobilisationofEthnicity 153