" There is
little reason for doubting that they were sincere in this in the sense that
what they wanted was a _general_ peace, if that could be possibly obtained.
Peace they had to have, as quickly as possible. If they could not persuade
their Allies to join with them in making such a general peace, they were
willing to make a _separate_ peace. That is quite different from _wanting_
a separate peace from the first. There was, indeed, in the demand made at
the beginning of December upon the Allies to restate their war aims within
a period of seven days an arrogant and provocative tone which invited the
suspicion that the ultimatum--for such it was--had not been conceived in
good faith; that it was deliberately framed in such a manner as to prevent
compliance by the Allies. And it may well be the fact that Lenine and
Trotzky counted upon the inevitable refusal to convince the Russian people,
and especially the Russian army, that the Allied nations were fighting for
imperialistic ends, just as the Bolsheviki had always charged. The
Machiavellian cunning of such a policy is entirely characteristic of the
conspirator type.
On December 14th the armistice was signed at Brest-Litovsk, to last for a
period of twenty-eight days.
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