Seite - 879 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Continuation in Brest 879 livery of a million tons of grain. The dilemma could hardly be greater. The Chief of the General Staff eventually ordered on his own responsibility the participation of several Imperial and Royal formations in the advance into Ukraine in order in this way to salvage whatever they still could and fetch at least some grain. The fact that there was suddenly a ray of hope was least of all the achievement of the Danube Monarchy. Russia declared that it wanted to return to the negotiating table. Lenin enforced the acceptance of the peace conditions of the Central Powers, although the German Empire had expanded its territorial demands to include Estonia and Li- vonia. Czernin could no longer exert any influence. When Trotsky wanted to know whether Austria-Hungary would associate itself with the German approach, Czernin merely informed him that the Imperial and Royal government was prepared to con- clude the peace negotiations together with its ally. There was no longer any mention of a separate peace ; by all accounts, the Germans had succeeded with their politics. On 25 February, the last phase of the negotiations with Russia began. Austria-Hun- gary no longer influenced the amendments to the already negotiated text of the treaty. Since Ambassador Kajetan von Mérey remained part of the delegation of the Central Powers on behalf of his minister to the last and signed the completed treaty, however, Austria-Hungary also assumed full responsibility for its conditions. Russia had to regard the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a dictated peace. It was just as the leader of the Russian delegation to the negotiations, Grigori Sokolnikov, clearly stated : ‘The peace that is now to be concluded is not the fruits of an understanding between the two parties. It is a peace that […] is dictated to us with a gun in the hand.’2094 The Russians were eventually given three days for the final editing of the text of the treaty. According to the German conditions, the treaty had to be signed on 3 March. Russia only lost non-Russian territory, from Finland via the Baltic and Poland to Batumi on the Black Sea.2095 Nonetheless, it was a clear signal for a division of a multi-nation state. The severed belt on the periphery was either completely incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Central Powers or at least came under their protection. Article XII of the treaty stated that the respective prisoners of war were to be returned to their homelands. Accordingly, Austria-Hungary had more than 900,000 people to repatriate, and it must of course be asked who was to replace the 438,000 prisoners employed in agriculture alone. For this reason, it was intended to at least start off slowly with the re- patriation. The dilemma remained, however, since ultimately an estimated two million members of the Imperial and Royal Army were to be repatriated as soon as possible. In the end, the figures spoke for themselves : by summer 1918, 500,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers had returned home, i.e. around 25 per cent of those who had fallen into cap- tivity, whilst in the opposite direction only 50,000 members of the former Tsarist Army departed, with Ukrainians given preference.2096