Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/194

RUSSIA 15, 1917, the Bolsheviki Government came to an agreement with Germany and her allies for an armistice. Immediately after peace negotiations were instituted at Brest-Litovsk. These lasted until Feb. 10, 1918, when the Russian delegates withdrew, refusing to accept the German terms, because the German Government refused to withdraw its forces from the Baltic provinces and allow their people to decide by plebiscites what form of government they desired. The Germans immediately, after the expiration of the armistice period, on Feb. 18, began an advance eastward into Russia, and the Soviet Government of Russia was forced to plead for a renewal of negotiations. This the Germans agreed to only after they had advanced a considerable distance, and then the Soviet was forced to accept terms extremely severe, including not only German occupation of the Ukraine and the Baltic provinces, but a heavy indemnity. Peace on these terms was finally declared, on March 3, 1918.

The impression now seemed to prevail in the Allied countries that the Soviet Government was not only submissive to Germany, but more than willing to play its game against the Allies. England, France, Japan and, later, the United States, thereupon came to an agreement of intervention in Russia. The ostensible reason given was to rescue the Czecho-Slovak contingents of the Russian Army in Siberia and the Urals, which had turned on the Bolsheviki Red Guards and were fighting their way toward Vladivostok. In August, 1918, Allied troops, and 7,000 United States regulars landed at Vladivostok and began an invasion of Siberia. At the same time an anti-Bolshevik Russian Government was set up in Siberia, at Omsk, constituted of Liberal and radical elements, but later superseded by the dictatorship of Admiral Kolchak, who had previously been in command of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, before it had been taken over by the Bolsheviki. Already, in July, 1918, Allied troops, including Americans, had been landed in northern Russia, on the Murmansk Peninsula, with the object of countering the Germans in Finland. These were now considerably augmented, and an offensive against the Bolsheviki was begun to the southward, but never with any success. Here a provisional government of North Russia was set up, with Nicholas Tchaikovsky, the old Nihilist leader, as Premier, but it never received popular support, and lasted only as long as the foreign occupation.

At the same time General Denikin, a Cossack leader in the S. of Russia, initiated a campaign from the Don region against Moscow. He was plentifully supplied with munitions from the British Government.

On July 5, 1918, the German Ambassador to Moscow, von Mirbach, was assassinated by Social Revolutionists, who were attempting to overthrow the Soviet. Similar attempts were made against high Soviet officials, one against Lenin. The Bolsheviki thereupon began a campaign of suppression which was known as the Red Terror. The Soviet had nationalized practically all industry and the banks, and was attempting to establish a Socialist Republic based on Marxian principles.

The defeat of Germany freed the Soviet Government from its obligations to the German Government and liberated the Ukraine from German control and occupation. Leon Trotzsky had been appointed Bolshevik Minister of War, and he now set to work with remarkable energy to organize an effective Red Army, with notable success. The Soviet forces now turned on their enemies on all fronts, and one after the other defeated them. In June, 1919, the United States decided to withdraw its troops from North Russia, and a few months later the British followed. By the end of the year the Bolsheviki had completely cleaned up what remained of this front. In Siberia the Czecho-Slovaks had shown themselves disgusted with the Kolchak dictatorship, and gradually withdrew. In the fall of 1919 the Soviet forces turned on Kolchak with full force, and before the end of the year he had been completely crushed, the dictator himself being executed. A few months later Denikin, in the S., was routed and compelled to retire, his forces having melted to almost nothing through desertions.

In January, 1920, the Supreme Council in Paris offered to resume trade with Soviet Russia through the Co-operative Movement, which carried on all distribution and a large part of the manufacturing activities which could be undertaken in the country. The Soviet Government immediately nationalized the Co-operative enterprises, and sent a trade delegation to London, to negotiate the reopening of trade relations. In the latter part of 1920 an agreement was reached between the Soviet Government and Great Britain whereby trade was to be resumed early in 1921.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1920, relations between the Soviet Government and Poland became strained, and the situation suddenly changed into open hostilities when, early in March, 1920, the Poles began an offensive against the