The Manuilskii Mission: An Early Soviet Effort to Negotiate with France, August 1918–April 1919

Abstract

In the spring and summer of 191 8 the Bolshevik party, which had taken power the previous November, extricated Russia from the Great War and concluded a separate peace with Imperial Germany. They paid a very high price for the privilege. In the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and subsequent supplementary agreements, Moscow surrendered the borderlands of the former Russian Empire and agreed to become a German client in eastern Europe. The Bolsheviks had little choice in this, because they were too weak to hold power in Russia if actively opposed by Germany. In accepting German protection, however, they were required to eliminate Western influence from the territories under their control. In particular, Berlin demanded that the Bolsheviks expel all allied armed forces from Russia. The attempt to do so promptly involved Soviet Russia in armed hostilities with the allied powers which, in any case, had decided to seek the replacement of the Bolsheviks by Russians committed to a resumption of the war against Germany. By August, the Red Army was fighting allied forces at Murmansk, Archangel, and in Siberia.1 The Bolsheviks had neither sought nor wished to continue this war. Even as hostilities began, they quietly (so as not to attract German attention) extended peace feelers to the allies. When German power collapsed in October, Moscow became more vocal and openly called for an armistice. The allies did not respond to this Soviet peace appeal, and, as a result, hostilities in Russia continued after the end of righting in other