A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

The Final Stages of the War 917

opposition, had captured Riga, the fortified capital of Latvia, and was
advancing along the Baltic coast. The Germans were happy to comply with
Lenin’s request for an immediate armistice. In return, the German govern­
ment wanted the revolutionary government to agree to the independence
of Finland, Poland, Galicia, Moldavia, and the Baltic states of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania. Their goal was to create a series of small buffer
states between Germany and Russia that they could dominate. The Allies
understandably worried that such a peace between Germany and Russia
would make it difficult to obtain peace in the west, as the German army
could devote all its attention to that front.

The French and British governments feared the effect Russia’s with­
drawal from the war, in the wake of a revolution, might have on workers
and socialists at home, as well as on the war’s outcome. French Prime Min­
ister Georges Clemenceau and British Prime Minister Lloyd George
denounced the Bolsheviks, but relatively few people in Russia wanted the
war to continue. In December, the Bolsheviks unilaterally declared the war
over and signed a temporary armistice with Germany. When the revolu­
tionary Russian government did not agree to the German terms for a for­
mal armistice, the German armies marched into the Russian heartland.
They reached the Gulf of Finland—only 150 miles from Petrograd—as
well as the Crimean peninsula in the south, and advanced far into Ukraine.
The Germans then offered a cessation of hostilities in return for virtually
all Russian war materiel they could carry with them. They also again
demanded the independence of the border states of the Russian Empire.
The Bolsheviks abandoned Russian claims on Poland, Ukraine, and what
would become Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In March 1918, the Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk officially ended Russian participation in the war.

Offensives and Mutinies

The year 1917 brought another major Allied offensive in the west. General
Nivelle of France convinced his British counterpart in February that the
long-awaited knockout punch was at last possible if a British attack would
divert German forces along the Aisne River. But the British attack ran
headlong into the impenetrable German second line of defense, the “Hin­
denburg Line.” On April 16, Nivelle sent 1.2 million soldiers into battle
along the Aisne River in miserable weather. Allied tanks, which had been
introduced into battle for the first time in 1916, became stuck in the mud
or in shell craters. Ten days later, French losses totaled 34,000 dead, 90,000
wounded, and 20,000 missing. Soldiers sang, “If you want to find the old
battalion, I know where they are, I know where they are—They’re hanging
on the old barbed wire. I’ve seen ’em, I’ve seen ’em, Hanging on the old
barbed wire.” Nivelle again promised the increasingly anxious government
in Paris that the breakthrough was just around the corner. More troops
were sent into the meat grinder.