Leon Trotsky, Lubinski, Ottokar Graf Czernin et al:

Plenary Session of 1 February

[Proceedings of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference. Washington 1918, p. 139-146]

[From the (British) Daily Review of the Foreign Press, 14 February, 1918, p. 869.]

Russian wireless (Feb. 12) sends out the following fragment of a report on the proceedings at Brest-Litovsk on Feb. 1, preceding the part printed in yesterday’s Review:

Sewfjul. “… that several regiments at Petrograd have revolted against the authority of the Council of the People's Commissioners in favor of the Constituent Assembly, that the battle ended unfavorably to the actual Government. On the basis of such a telegram, we could, like M. Trotsky, demand the nonrecognition of the Delegation of the Council of the people’s Commissioners, but we are doing no such thing, because that is a question for Russia, and not for the Ukraine, and, true to the principle of nonintervention, we have no concern with such questions. Regarding the telegram itself, like other telegrams which M. Trotsky might present to us, we do not consider it unnecessary to take such questions into consideration. With the object of avoiding a variety of comments and declarations by the Russian Delegation, I declare, in the name of the Governments of the four allied Powers, that we recognize the Ukrainian People’s Republic as an independent State. We recognize, formally, the Ukrainian Republic as an independent State, and we thus define also its international position and recognize the powers of the Delegation as a mandate of a legal Government.”

Medvediev. “Honored Assembly, the great Russian Revolution has cast away, by the domination of a rational Revolution, the oppression of the landlords and capitalists; it has given land to the peasants, and has placed the working men at the head of affairs. The Third Congress of the Councils has established the Great Russian Federal Republic of Workmen and Peasants, a free union of free people, a republic of the Councils of Workmen’s, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Deputies. Here, at Brest-Litovsk, the Delegation of the Kiev Rada has spoken in the name of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. The Ukrainian Councils – the only authority recognized by the working classes of our country – have had no representation here. The Ukrainian Executive Committee, the sovereign body of the Ukrainian people, has never recognized the right of the Kiev Rada to speak in the name of the Ukrainian people. Recognizing its weakness and also its isolation from the working classes of our country, the Kiev Delegation began its negotiations secretly, without the knowledge of the Ukrainian people, and separately from the Russian Delegation. When the news of such procedure reached the Ukrainian people, a violent protest was raised by the working classes, and it definitely dissipated the authority of the Kiev Rada. The Ukrainian people is striving toward a speedy peace, but it will conclude this peace together with the All-Russian Federal Republic, in a fraternal union of all the working classes. Those who believe that the Ukraine was tied to Russia only by the ties of Tsarism are profoundly wrong; these ties have been cast aside, but economic and cultural common interests remain, and have been strengthened by free agreement.

We consider it our duty to warn the peoples of Germany and Austria-Hungary that the attempts to found a peace upon the opposition of the Ukraine to Russia will be in vain, the Kiev Rada is on the wrong track, and its policy must be regarded by every statesman as an unreal policy … these who desire not merely temporary successes, but a solid peace, must try to conclude a general peace with all the peoples of the Federal Republic. We who are the plenipotentiaries of the Ukrainian Executive Committee – the People’s Secretariat – and who have been sent here to meet the Russian peace delegation, we declare that the People’s Secretariat is striving to create such conditions that the whole of the Ukrainian people, living in the Ukraine, Galicia, Bukovina, and Hungary, may exist independently of political frontiers, as an entity. The political future of the whole of the Ukrainian people must also be settled by the free voting of the whole nation. We know the position taken up on this question by the Government of Austria-Hungary, which does not permit the discussion of the All-Ukrainian question at the peace negotiations. But we express our profound conviction that further democratic development will give to the Ukrainian people unity and freedom in fraternal harmony with all peoples. Concerning the present peace negotiations, the people’s Secretariat of the Ukrainian Republic, in defending the principles of democratic peace as proclaimed by the Russian Revolution and accepted by the Ukrainian Councils, demands a peace without annexations and indemnities and the right of self-determination of nations. Concerning the occupied regions, we agree entirely with the Russian Delegation that the peoples concerned must have the right to decide their own future by means of a referendum. With this object, all foreign troops must be withdrawn. In conclusion, we once more categorically declare that no agreement with the Kiev Rada will be recognized by the Ukrainian people, and will not be carried into effect unless it has the approval of the All-Russian Federal Delegations, of which we form a part.”

Trotsky. “It is beyond doubt, as the Russian Delegation has repeatedly declared, that the conflicts between it and the Kiev Rada in no case limit the recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian Republic. It is necessary to avoid confusing the independence of a State with the recognition or nonrecognition of its Government. Nobody here will doubt the independence of the Russian Republic, but all are aware that many States have not recognized the Council of the People’s Commissioners as its Government. Finland is recognized by many States as an independent Republic, but the latest information is that the Government which obtained the recognition of Finland’s independence has been deposed by a Government of the workmen and peasants of Finland. Finland's Government, immediately after Its recognition, expressed its willingness to take part in the peace negotiations. We do not see any objection to such participation, but, if we are properly informed, the attitude of the four Allied Powers is different, because Finland’s Government at the present has not the same recognized international rights as has the Republic of Finland.”

[Message ends.]

[From the (British) Daily Review of the Foreign Press, 13 February, 1918, p. 858.]

Russian wireless sends out the following report of the debate at Brest on Feb. 1 (see Daily Review, Feb. 5) :

Trotsky. “At the moment when the question of the recognition of the Delegation of the Kiev Secretariat came before us in a practical form the procedure with regard to the self-determination of the Ukrainian Republic had not so far taken final … of the Rada pointed out that, owing to the indefiniteness of the position of the Ukrainian Republic, especially in regard to its frontiers, an agreement between both parties was necessary on all questions of dispute. This declaration, of course, involved also the reverse possibility – a negative consequence – namely, that any agreement between the Delegation of the Kiev Rada and the Central Powers which, owing to the frontiers of these two States being undefined –, calls for objections on the part of the Russian Delegation becomes invalid and inoperative.

All references to internal happenings in Ukrainia can not, of course, have any judicial significance. This we are ready to recognize, but, owing to the absence of a definite and regularized juridical position in regard to all questions in which we are interested, we must regard every question in dispute from the material point of view. For this reason alone have I taken the liberty to refer to the problems which have actually arisen in Ukrainia as a result of the struggle between two organizations, each of which claims to represent the power of the State. The question which is now laying before us is an historical one. The Central Empires, as States, are interested in defining their relations with Ukrainia in a substantive manner, and they are also concerned in not accepting alleged quantities as actual facts.

It is for this reason that I must point out that in some circles there may perhaps be a tendency to overestimate the forces and importance of the separatist tendencies in present-day revolutionary Russia. In various regions of Russia the periphractic separatist tendencies at the present moment appear amongst those classes, groups, or spheres which before the Revolution were the most persistent and even the most relentless partisans of centralization. No lasting historic tendency can be found in this separatism; separatism is only a temporary tool for self-defense among certain classes which regard their existence as menaced by the power of the Revolution. In the same measure as the authority of the Soviets becomes established throughout the whole of the country, so the landed proprietors carry their separatist tendencies farther and farther to the borders. A fact of great importance for the elucidation of this question is that the most ardent separatism is at present being manifested by the landowners and the leaders of the Cossacks, that is, by those groups which in the past were supporters of rigid centralization, and if we were for one moment to admit the victory of these groups in present-day Russia, it is clear to every real thinking politician that they would again become the apostles of centralization. I say, therefore, that those governments which desire to reckon with real and not with fictitious quantities must of necessity, in order to define their relations with the Russian Republic, come to one conclusion or another, not on the basis of juridical formulas which they endeavor artificially to deduce from the declarations made here during the negotiations, but from actual facts as they are happening in present-day Russia. I, of course, do not consider that the representatives of the Quadruple Alliance are entitled to assume the role of an arbitrary judge in regard to the internal relations of Russia and Ukrainia. I have had in mind merely the giving of a scrupulous report to them as to how matters stand at present, and I remain as before, of the same opinion as I expressed in the name of our government when this question first arose, and as long as the Kiev Rada retains its mandate we do not object to its independent participation in the negotiations, but now, when the Ukrainian Executive Committee has become a composite part of our Delegation, we repeat with redoubled emphasis that only such agreements with the Ukrainian Rada will be valid as have been recognized by us.”

The Chairman. “The representative of the Ukrainian Republic, M. Lubinski, will now address you.”

M. Lubinski. “After the declaration made by the representative of the Kharkov Executive Committee, M. Medvediev, and the declaration made by the Chairman of the Russian Delegation, M. Trotsky, it is necessary that I should make the following remarks: Gentlemen, the members of the Ukrainian Peace Delegation have always held the view that the representatives assembled at Brest-Litovsk, who are striving for peace amongst nations, can not during their deliberations touch upon questions relating to the internal affairs of their adversaries, and that facts regarding the internal struggles and dissentions of one party must in no case, during the official sittings, be brought to the notice of its adversary. We have often had occasion to make energetic protests against the declarations of M. Trotsky, who has wrongfully disclosed the fact of mutual relations between the peoples residing within the borders of the former Russian Empire, and between the States which have arisen within this territory, but true to the principle, which I have mentioned above, we have honorably abstained from official utterances, as we did not care, by our remarks, to lessen the authority of the Russian Delegation. Now, however, after the declaration contained in the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada of the full independence of our Republic by friendly, and even enemy, States, the question ceases to be one of internal life, and our responsibility to our nation compels us to pronounce an energetic protest against the calumnies made in our absence by M. Trotsky.

We therefore, while maintaining the same position of principle as heretofore, can not abstain from disclosing also our point of view of the internal situation in Russia and in Ukrainia, in order to justify ourselves, not only before those present here, but also before the nations which are represented here, whose opinions for us are not less precious than the opinion of M. Trotsky. In 1917, Russia was a State inhabited by many peoples having the most varied political ideas, by peoples speaking different languages, who have lived under various historical conditions, and have even now survived the present Revolution which is fighting for social as well as national problems, and have created (in the course of the year?) several Governments.

This year of 1917 began under the scepter of an Emperor, and having passed through the stages of Government by the Cadets, and Socialists and Cadets, ended by shooting in the streets of Petrograd and the hurried preparations of the Bolshevik Government to break up the Constituent Assembly, which was convoked on a basis alone acceptable to the democracy. These various Governments have remained completely solid in one respect, and that is in regard to their plans for centralization, and in their greedy desire to torment to death regenerated nations and to cover them all with their mighty hand. The Government of the Bolsheviks, in full accordance with the program of that party, wholly dissents from the ideals of a federation which are inspiring the leaders of non-sovereign peoples. The Government of the Bolsheviks, disregarding the fate of predecessors in power, which were thrown down by the common efforts, not only of a social but also of a national Revolution, have proclaimed the principle of self-determination of peoples only for the purpose of the more energetically fighting against this principle being applied practically. The noisy declarations of the Bolsheviks regarding the complete freedom of the peoples of Russia are simply a mean demagogic trick. The Government of the Bolsheviks, having broken up the Constituent Assembly, a Government whose power rests on the bayonets of hired Red Guards, will never elect to apply in Russia the very just principle of self-determination, because they know only too well that not only the Republics of Ukrainia, the Don, the Caucasus, Siberia, and others do not regard them as their Government, but that also the Russian people themselves will gradually refuse them this right; and only because they are afraid of the development of a National Revolution, they declare here at the Peace Conference and within Russia, with a spirit of demagogy peculiar to themselves, the right of self-determination of the peoples, but they are struggling against the realization of this principle and are recoursing, not only to hired bands of Red Guards, but also to meaner and less admissible means.

They disperse assemblies, they arrest and shoot politically active personalities, and finally they resort to quite foundless and false calumnies, endeavoring to break confidence in the authority of the new Governments of the young Republics. They accuse known Socialists and old revolutionaries with having bourgeoisie and counter-revolutionary ideas. Besides this, the Bolshevik Government declares a holy war against the Republic and demands the dispersion of the Bourgeoisie Governments, with which it pretends to be unable to conduct negotiations, not even on the question of the cessation of the fratricidal war. In this way the Government of the Bolsheviks introduced to Russian life, instead of the principle of self-determination, the principle of anarchy and devastation, as they know that it is easier to destroy than to construct, and have in mind the French saying, 'Calumniate, calumniate, but something will remain.'

The struggle of the Petrograd Government with the Government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the visible insincerity of the recognition of the full rights of our Delegation had already awakened our not foundless suspicions. We were quite sure that M. Trotsky would very soon endeavor to renounce his quite clear and not ambiguous recognition of our Delegation as plenipotentiary representatives of our Republic.

Our suspicions were justified. On the very day of our departure for Kiev, for the purpose of receiving final instructions, a new Delegation, convoked by the Bolsheviks and kindly assisted by them, arrived via Petrograd and Dvinsk, with the intention of breaking our authority in the eyes of the laboring classes in Europe. In order to give a complete explanation of the character and the rights of this Delegation we would like to treat this matter fully.

The Ukrainian People, united by common national problems and national ideals and inclined toward tranquil and well-ordered forms of political life, commenced the long-awaited reconstruction of their State at the very beginning of the Revolution. The Ukrainian peasants, soldiers, and workers, with the assistance of the deeply democratic intellectuals from amongst them, were able not only to organize themselves unaided, but all the democratic organizations, composed of representatives of the Ukrainian peasants, soldiers, and workers, became accustomed to this work of reconstruction.

The Central Rada, by issuing their Universals, has shown the political way to the Ukrainian people. The Ukrainian Central Rada, being elected as long as June last, the first Ukrainian Government – the Ukrainian General Secretariat – was the first Government In Russia composed exclusively of Socialists. In this way the Ukrainian people, step by step, has created its Government with its own forces, and therefore the Petrograd Government had no right and no ground to interfere in our internal life. But as the matters stood in the time of the Tsar’s Government, there were sent to the Ukrainian territory and to the fronts bordering on the Ukrain soldiers the majority of which were not of Ukrainian origin, and during the revolution it was not possible to get rid of this alien element in the Ukraine. At the time when the Ukrainian soldiers sent from all parts of Russia and from all fronts their delegates to the Central Ukrainian Assembly and organized themselves around the Central Ukrainian Military Rada in Kiev, which is a part of the Ukrainian Central Rada, the soldiers of non-Ukrainian origin formed in several towns of the Ukraine their local Soviets of Soldiers’ Deputies, which had no influence whatever on the life of the country, although it is true that representatives of the workers of these towns are also members of these Soviets. The Petrograd Bolsheviks, anxious under any pretext to interfere with the internal life of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, put forward a demand to the Ukrainian Government to transfer the whole power in the Ukraine to these Soviets of the soldiers, without any regard to their demands which they made at the Conference that all foreign troops ought to be withdrawn from foreign territories, in order not to hinder the appliance of the principle of self-determination. As a matter of course, the Ukrainian Government could not give satisfaction to this demand. A second attempt to intervene in the internal life of our Republic was made by the Bolsheviks of Petrograd in the request that the Ukranian Central Rada should be reelected. We will pass by the fact that such a request is not only often to disregard of the principle of self-determination, but it is not practicable because representation in the Central Rada is organized in such a manner that the electors can at any moment recall their representative and replace him by another. The elections to the Constituent Assembly at the end of November proved all over the Ukranian territories to be a splendid victory for the Ukrainian Central Rada and for the parties cooperating with it. The Ukrainian lists secured 75 per cent of the total number of deputies; other parties which have their representatives in the Central Rada secured about 15 per cent, but the Bolsheviks received less than 10 per cent of the deputies.

Then the Petrograd Government decided to use the last and final means. Going back a little for the moment, I shall add some other examples. In the province of Kiev our lists won 20 seats out of 22, in the province of Podolia 18 of 19, in the province of Volhynia, 9 out of 10, in the province of Poltava 14 out of 17, and so on. I think that proves the highly representative character of the Ukrainian Central Rada. We are speaking here in the name of these peoples.

I have stated already that the Bolsheviks had decided to use their final means. They called to-day at Kiev, on Dec. 3, with the silent agreement of the Central Rada, a Congress of representatives of peasants, soldiers, and workmen of all parts of Ukraine. To this Congress more than 2,000 delegates arrived. Disappointing the expectations of the initiators of the Congress, they began their work with a stormy ovation in the honor of the President of the Ukrainian Central Rada, Grushevsky, and expressed with a crushing majority of votes their approbation of the activities of the Rada. After this event, a small group of Bolsheviks, about 80 persons strong, fled from this Congress to Kharkov, and there they declared themselves as being the new Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The People's Commissaries sent to them unorganized mobs of the Red Guards with the object of robbing the population of the province of Kharkov and of guarding the Kharkov Government against the inhabitants of the province of Kharkov. This is the manner in which the Kharkov Government was created, and these are the forces upon which it is based. There can be no doubt that it does not represent the Ukrainian People's Republic, hut it can be doubted if it represents even Kharkov.

To the other observations of M. Trotsky, which were made openly or merely suggested, I regard it unnecessary to reply. Our future, our history, our children, and the large masses of the working classes, which are now on the one or the other side of the front, will decide themselves who of us is right and who is wrong, who is a Socialist, and who a counter revolutionary, who is creating, and who is destroying what has been created.”

President. “Has the President of the Russian Delegation anything to declare?

Trotsky. “I can only thank the President that he, in harmony with the dignity of this assembly, has not opposed in any way the free speaking of the preceding orator, nor has he intervened in the exact translation except to make some improvements in expression.”

The President. “Until now all the speakers here hate had full freedom of speech, and certainly the President could not make an exception for the preceding speaker.”

Trotsky. “I fully agree.”

Czernin. “In the name of the Delegation of the four Allied Powers. I have the honor to reply as follows to the declaration of the Ukrainian Delegation:

As announced, the President of the Ukrainian Delegation, Secretary of State Golubovich, declared in the plenary session on Jan. 23 that the Ukrainian People’s Republic, in basing itself upon the decision of the Ukrainian Central Rada of Nov. 20, 1917, is renewing its international existence, and enters fully into the international intercourse in these regions, with all the rights belonging to it. In connection with that decision, the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic decided to take up ail independent position at the present peace negotiations. In reply to that I declared at the plenary session of Jan. 25 in the name of the four allied Powers as follows: We recognize the Ukrainian Delegation as being an independent Delegation which possesses the powers to represent the independent Ukrainian Republic. But in view of the fact that the President of the Russian Delegation has changed his attitude to this question at the session of Jan. 30, 1918, in proclaiming that only such agreements with Ukraine …, on the contrary, we consider ourselves as bound to recognize immediately the Ukrainian people's Republic as an independent free sovereign State, which is able to enter into international agreements independently.”

Trotsky. “I must remark once more that the suggestions of our changed attitude are not true. I have already twice read the passage in my declaration upon this subject. This passage does not admit any commentary. In any case, and independently from the position taken up until now by the four allied Powers toward Ukraine, it must be clear that the interested Powers themselves are not able to tell even the geographic frontiers of the new Republic which they have recognized at this moment. But in view of the fact that in the peace negotiations the question of frontiers is not a matter of indifference, the objection which I have made retains all its force.”

Von Kühlmann. “I should like to ask the President of the Russian Delegation if the declaration which was read by the Ukrainian member of the Russian Delegation is an official declaration of the Russian Delegation?”

Trotsky. “So far as this declaration concerns the peace negotiations, and so far as it expresses its full agreement with our declarations, we certainly accept full responsibility for it. I think the declaration can be discussed here only within these limitations.”