Page 26 - The Chief Culprit

e Struggle for Peace, and Its Results y 3

Every regiment elected committees of soldiers. Delegates from each regiment began con-
ducting their own peace talks with the enemy. ey paid no attention to their regimental or
division commanders, or higher authorities. At first every regiment, and later on every bat-
talion, independently designed the conditions for peace, without taking into consideration
the demands of the other battalions. e Russian army crumbled into hundreds of uncon-
trollable regiments and thousands of battalions, ceasing to exist as a single unified organism.
e front collapsed. Nobody was left to defend Russia. Following the decree to stop fighting,
Lenin and his cohorts immediately instituted committees to demobilize and take apart the
Russian army.
No major power had ever voluntarily dismantled its army during peacetime. Yet Lenin
and Trotsky demolished the Russian army during the peak of World War I, when victory
was within their grasp. Germany’s position was already completely hopeless during this time.
Germany had almost no natural resources. Germany and her allies were blockaded, and had
no supply route by sea. Russia’s natural resources, in contrast, were limitless. In the fight
against Germany, Russia was allied with the mighty French and British colonial empires. In
April 1917, the United States of America joined the conflict and declared war on Germany.
Against such formidable adversaries, Germany could not have triumphed under any circum-
stances. All Russia had to do in the given situation was to patiently wait for Germany to beg
for peace.
Instead, what happened was something even the German Kaiser could not have dreamed
of. e Russian army, acting under Lenin and Trotsky’s orders, abandoned its trenches and
went home. ousands of guns, mortars, machine guns, millions of small arms, and huge
stores of ammunition, uniforms, and supplies were left behind on the frontlines. Lenin’s
“Peace Decree” was an act of Russia’s utter capitulation before Germany. From this moment
the Eastern Front ceased to exist. Germany received the chance to concentrate its efforts on
the Western Front against Russia’s former allies. In adopting the “Peace Decree” Russia be-
trayed her allies. Lenin and Trotsky singlehandedly brought Russia out of the war and made
their country subject to Germany’s mercy.
Despite Russia’s withdrawal, the situation in Germany and Austria-Hungary continued
to worsen. A general strike broke out in Austria-Hungary in January 1918. During the same
month, a general strike was called in Germany. Both countries stood on the verge of chaos.
Russian Communists saved their day. To be capable of fighting in the war as long as pos-
sible, Germany needed strategic resources in large quantities. Lenin and Trotsky again came
to Kaiser Wilhelm’s aid. ey signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty in March 1918. e Russian
Communists, without battle, handed over approximately a million square kilometers of their
territory to the Germans. Fifty-six million people, about a third of the Russian empire’s popu-
lation, inhabited this territory. e occupied area encompassed more than a quarter of the
nation’s cultivated lands; it housed 26 percent of the railways, and major industrial capabili-
ties. Seventy-three percent of Russia’s iron and steel was cast in these territories, and 89 per-
cent of Russia’s coal was mined there.
Most important of all, these were Russia’s most fertile lands. Mass export of food to
Germany began immediately. A financial agreement, signed on August 27, 1918, stated that
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Russia had to pay Germany war reparations totaling 6 billion marks. Without such a gift,
Germany would have been unable to support herself until November of 1918.
Communists are proud of their love of peace. However, the stubbornness with which
they fought for peace far surpasses common sense, to the point of suspicion. For the sake of