Twilight of Empire: the Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917-1918'

H-SHERA Kasmach on Chernev, 'Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917-1918'

Review published on Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Borislav Chernev. Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East- Central Europe, 1917-1918. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. 328 pp. $36.95 (pdf), ISBN 978-1-4875-1334-4; $79.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4875-0149-5; $36.95 (e-book), ISBN 978-1-4875-1335-1.

Reviewed by Lizaveta Kasmach (Independent Scholar) Published on H-SHERA (March, 2020) Commissioned by Hanna Chuchvaha (University of Calgary)

Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53851

Borislav Chernev’s Twilight of Empire offers a unique study of the first peace negotiations of the First World War, leading to the signing of two peace treaties in Brest-Litovsk by the Central Powers and Ukraine on February 9, 1918, and the Central Powers and Russia on March 3, 1918. Aiming to look beyond the traditional notion of Brest-Litovsk as a settlement imposed by Germany on Russia, Chernev meticulously explores the course and backgrounds of the peace negotiations as well as the implications of the diplomatic proceedings on a number of different actors apart from the obvious Russo-German bilateral negotiation dynamic. With a focus on the entire region of East-Central Europe in 1917-18, Twilight of Empire ultimately seeks to explain imperial dissolution and the rise of the concept of national self-determination.

Analyzing various historiographical traditions (British, German, Ukrainian, Ukrainian Soviet, Russian, Soviet, post-Soviet, Belarusian, and Bulgarian) in evaluating Brest-Litovsk peace, Chernev formulates his chief approach in this study by choosing to treat negotiations outcomes from multiple perspectives since they went “beyond influencing any single nation, affecting rather the wider region of East-Central Europe thus ushering in an era of unparalleled ideological struggle which dominated Europe’s twentieth century” (p. 11). Consequently, from the very start, Chernev adopts a broad geographical definition of East-Central Europe, seeing it spatially as the areas between the Elbe and Dnieper Rivers, reminding readers of a similar focus in Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands (2010). In this context, Twilight of Empire offers a view on the origins and reordering of this particular region during the final stages of World War I. The value and novelty of this book is precisely in refocusing readers’ attention to the rather forgotten and short-lived first peace treaty of the war as the “focal point of the interrelated processes of peacemaking, revolutions, imperial collapse, and nation state creation in the multi-ethnic, entangled spaces of East-Central Europe during a decade-long continuum of violence between 1914 and 1923” (p. 4). Referring to Peter Holquist’s understanding that World War I in Eastern Europe transformed in other violent conflicts that lasted way beyond 1918 (Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia’s Continuum of Crisis, 1914-1921 [2002]), Chernev describes in detail how and why the ending phase of the war was about to introduce the great ideological struggles of the twentieth century.

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Kasmach on Chernev, 'Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917-1918'. H-SHERA. 03-17-2020. https://networks.h-net.org/node/166842/reviews/6020959/kasmach-chernev-twilight-empire-brest-litovsk-conference-and-remaking Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-SHERA

Chernev demonstrates an excellent command of Western, Soviet, and post-Soviet literature on the subject as well as all relevant historiographical debates, which requires a good working knowledge of at least several foreign languages. More important, he introduces previously overlooked Bulgarian and Austrian government documents as sources. These allow an insight into Bulgarian and Ottoman policies for a better interpretation of relations between Germany and Austria-Hungary in the final stages of World War I. An important and novel thesis arising from this analysis is a picture of a “less united, less German-dominated Central Powers alliance, with a greater divergence of individual policies and multiple foci of agency” (p. 6).

To give a better introduction for a reader outside of this specific area, the book starts with several maps and a glossary introducing all the major protagonists whom the reader will encounter. The extensive use of diaries gives a more intimate look into the circumstances and reasoning of diplomats. Throughout the book, Chernev also skillfully intersperses his narration with curious details and little anecdotes, creating an illusion of transporting his readers back in time (first encounters of Central Powers’ aristocrats with inexperienced Bolshevik delegates, Bolsheviks bringing a barrel of caviar to Christmas dinner, rowdy behavior of the peasant delegate Stashkov, etc.).

Structurally, the book consists of six chapters, with the major focus on Central Powers’ and Bolshevik positions regarding the approach to peace negotiations, the diplomatic history of the peace conference, and the evolution of national self-determination principle at the center of the story. Separate chapters present a detailed analysis of the repercussions that Brest-Litovsk proceedings had for Austria-Hungary, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. Setting the scene, chapter 1 introduces Central Powers’ and Bolshevik approaches (signing separate peace and territorial gains in the western borderland of the former Russian Empire versus Bolshevik utopian dreams of world revolution). The following chapter focuses on the start of negotiations in mid-December 1917 and the second phase of negotiations in January 1918 in Brest-Litovsk, a destroyed city in the borderlands, where Ober Ost staff headquarters chose to move.

Describing the initial encounters of Central Powers’ diplomats with the Bolshevik delegation, Chernev shows the debut of the self-determination concept, originating from the latter’s idealistic peace aspirations, based on “no annexations,” “no indemnities,” and demands of guaranteeing national self-determination and minority rights (so-called Ioffe Program). What follows is a careful comparison of the Ioffe Program to the Fourteen Points by Woodrow Wilson, where Chernev suggests that Wilson’s approach was rooted in liberal internationalism, progressive history, and cooperation, while the Bolshevik vision prioritized commitment to class struggle and world revolution over declared idealistic goals.

While the Central Powers hoped to instrumentalize national self-determination to gain more territorial control in the East, the Bolsheviks wanted to delay proceedings at Brest-Litovsk hoping that the world revolution would break out soon. These hopes were indeed close to coming true in Austria-Hungary, which was the most affected by the delay in the peace treaty and food crisis. Chapter 3 describes in detail why the Great January Strike in Austria-Hungary did not grow into a revolution, comparing it to the Russian Revolution. Chernev points out that the army and governing structures in Austria-Hungary remained intact and effective, managing to secure food shipments and successfully negotiating with social-democratic leaders, who were moderate in their demands. The absence of radicalism and functioning governing institutions averted the revolution, allowing Austria-

Hungary to focus on peacemaking.

Chapter 4 deals with the Ukrainian dimension of Brest-Litovsk, tracing the origins of Ukrainian national statehood to the peace negotiations. Chernev’s thesis here is that in 1918, Ukraine owed its existence to the Brest-Litovsk system, reinforced by the presence of the Central Powers’ troops. Introducing Austrian archival documents to the debate, Chernev states that Brest-Litovsk provided Ukrainian national elites with the diplomatic, political, and economic framework for national mobilization or, as Chernev chooses to refer to this process, Ukrainization policies, which anticipated Soviet indigenization. At this point, another example of Belarusian national mobilization could have helped the author to evaluate timely Ukrainian momentum for using national self-determination discourse. Even though they failed, Belarusian aspirations nevertheless could have provided an additional framework for highlighting the meaning of Brest-Litovsk for state-building processes in this period.

Chapter 5 deals with the Bulgarian dimension of Brest-Litovsk, and another sort of aspirations—to achieve regional hegemony and reclaim the lost “dream of Byzantium” (p. 158). Chernev demonstrates how Bulgarian diplomats chose the highest stakes and lost their struggle for the recognition of extended Bulgarian borders. These goals eventually exposed weaknesses of the Central Powers, threatening the very existence of the alliance. On another level, this analysis of failed illusions of grandeur also shows the weak footing of seeking national consolidation on the basis of regional hegemony as the only source of state security, one of the trends that continues to be the case even in modern times.

Chapter 6 concludes the story of the signing of the second treaty of Brest-Litovsk, focusing on rifts within Bolshevik ranks, from Leon Trotsky’s formula of “neither war, nor peace” to Vladimir Lenin’s view of peace as a tactical necessity for the survival of the Russian Revolution and Nikolai Bukharin’s option of a revolutionary war. Trotsky and Lenin proceeded in an alliance, which resulted in Trotsky’s famous declaration of leaving the war and not accepting the Central Powers’ conditions, followed by a German military offensive. Bolsheviks were forced to sign the harsh peace on March 3, 1918, which immediately became “a means of prosecuting war by other means” (p. 219).

Twilight of Empire represents a milestone study in the diplomatic and political history of East-Central Europe, taking a close look at the first and largely forgotten peace treaty of World War I and the circumstances that surrounded its conclusion not only at the peace conference but also internationally and domestically. This approach allowed Chernev to delve into the depth of imperial decay of the major powers in East-Central Europe and explore the origins of the national self- determination concept. From this perspective,Twilight of Empire offers a timely and balanced analysis of the rather overlooked first peace of the Great War that had repercussions throughout the entire short and violent twentieth century.

Citation: Lizaveta Kasmach. Review of Chernev, Borislav,Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917-1918. H-SHERA, H-Net Reviews. March, 2020. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53851

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.