The Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Versailles and Moscow: Contesting Sovereignty and Hegemony in Eastern Europe in 1918–1939

Abstract

Abstract: This paper examines the content of Part III, Section XIV of the Versailles Peace Treaty which dealt with Russia and ‘the Russian States', i. e. States that in 1919 were in the process of secession from Russia. The obvious link between the Versailles Peace Treaty and the earlier German-Soviet Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918 is illuminated as far as sovereignty in Eastern Europe is concerned. Moreover, the often less discussed nexus between the Versailles Peace Treaty's Section XIV and the German-Soviet Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols of 1939 is examined. If the Versailles Peace Treaty was the anti-Brest-Litovsk Treaty, then the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact the anti-Versailles Treaty in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, sovereignty in Eastern Europe as we know it after 1989 and 1991 was to an important extent shaped at Versailles in 1919 which is a continuing legacy of the Versailles Peace Treaty.