Russia’s involvement in World War One had been a significant factor in the build-up to the October Revolution.  The summer of 1917 had seen the last major Russian manoeuvre, an ill-fated offensive that lost Russia most of the ground it had previously won.  The offensive’s failure was for many the last straw; the Eastern Front had proved an untaking that was unforgivably bloody and economically crippling.

In December 1917, at Brest-Litovsk, an armistice was agreed and implemented by Soviet Russia and the Central Powers.  The item on show is from the only volume printed of what was planned to be a multi-volume Soviet account of Brest-Litovsk.  The image here is of the moment of the 1917 armistice, provided in the book to set the background to the larger-scale negotiations for a permanent peace which started a week later.  The Central Powers are on the left and the Soviet Russians on the right.

Central Powers: 1. Zeki Pasha; 2. Kajetan von Mérey; 3. Leopold of Bavaria; 4. Max Hoffmann; 5. Petur Ganchev; 6. Horn; 7. Hey; 8. von Rosenberg; 9. Brinkmann; 10. Csaky.

Soviet Russia: 1. Lev Kamenev; 2. Adol’f Ioffe; 3. Anastasiia Bitsenko; 4. Lev Karakhan; 5. Vasilii Al’tfater; 6. Ivan Fokke; 7. Boris Dolivo-Dobrovol’skii; 8. V.A. Lipskii; 9. I.Ia. Tseplit.

Mirnye peregovory v Brest-Litovske (1920)  539.c.92.272