Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917–1918 by Borislav Chernev (review)

Borislav Chernev's book is dedicated to one of the key events at the end of the Great War – the Brest-Litovsk Conference, which resulted in a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Imperial Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), later joined by a Ukrainian delegation. A close look at the peace negotiations allows us to see how wartime alliances make it difficult to reach a peace settlement because of the allies' conflicting agendas (P. 6). The author reconstructs the negotiation process and the very mechanisms of elaborating a treaty. This sets his book apart from the historiographic mainstream, which is concentrated on criticizing the draconian terms of the treaty imposed by militaristic Germany.¹ Moreover, Chernev brings to the fore of his study the actors neglected by traditional historiographic narratives, most notably Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ukrainian delegations. He also substantiates his vision of what he calls the "Brest-Litovsk system" as a key moment in the decolonizing process of Eastern and Central Europe.

The book begins with the discussion, in the first chapter, of the encounter between the Ostpolitik (German and Austria political and economic ambitions in Eastern Europe) and the World Revolution (Pp. 12–40). Specifically, it looks at the confrontation between a fractured alliance fighting on two fronts that needed peace on one of them, and a newborn political power that issued a utopian and "sweeping Decree on Peace demanding an end to hostilities in all theaters of war" (P. 40). In this respect, the Brest-Litovsk negotiations became a clash of worldviews. The second chapter (Pp. 41–78) presents the main demands contained in the Bolshevik Peace Decree – a universal peace without annexations and indemnities, upholding the right to national self-determination. Since the Central Powers intended to use self-determination as a tool for establishing control over the former western borderlands of the Russian Empire, the Soviet government used negotiations to delay any decision as long as possible, hoping for a revolution in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Great January Strike of January 1918 in Austria, described in the third chapter (Pp. 79–119), fueled Trotsky's hope for the revolution coming to the Central Powers. But the army remained loyal to the emperor, the line of procurement was improved, so the government succeeded in restoring order through negotiations with the leaders of the Social Democrats. In chapter 4 (Pp. 120–157), Chernev suggests that, although subdued, the mass social unrest forced Austria-Hungary to seek peace with renewed vigor and made it open talks with the Ukrainian delegation at Brest-Litovsk. These negotiations conferred much more importance on the Ukrainian delegates: they meant a recognition of the country by a foreign power and opened cooperation between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers. Ukraine offered food supplies to Austria-Hungary in exchange for military support, which alone made possible the development of modern Ukrainian statehood. The "Dream of Byzantium," Bulgaria's project of regional hegemony in the Balkans, threatened to derail the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk and the integrity of the alliance itself. As shown in chapter 5 (Pp. 158–182), the Bulgarian side attempted to play the card of national self-determination with the Bolsheviks and exploit the slogan of the Slavic brotherhood with the Ukrainian delegation in order to obtain additional leverage for renegotiating the future borders. This subversive activity was stopped after the news about it had reached Berlin, and the Bulgarian chief delegate Popov was recalled. Finally, chapter 6 (Pp. 183–220) presents the aftermath of Trotsky's famous démarche, the "No War, No Peace" declaration. The diplomats of Germany and Austria-Hungary had opposed to Erich Ludendorff's ambitious plans of annexations in the East...