Editing Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (section)

==Background==
{{main|Eastern Front (World War I)|Russian Revolution}}
[[Image:Lev Kamenev arrives at Brest-Litovsk.jpg|thumb|[[Lev Kamenev]] arriving at Brest-Litovsk|left]]
By 1917, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia were stuck in a stalemate on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front of World War I]] and the Russian economy had nearly collapsed under the strain of the war effort. The large numbers of war casualties and persistent food shortages in the major urban centers brought about civil unrest, known as the [[February Revolution]], that forced Tsar [[Nicholas II]] to abdicate. The [[Russian Provisional Government]] that replaced the Tsar in early 1917 continued the war. Foreign Minister [[Pavel Milyukov]] sent the Entente Powers a telegram, known as the [[Milyukov note]], affirming to them that the Provisional Government would continue the war with the same war aims that the former Russian Empire had. The pro-war Provisional Government was opposed by the self-proclaimed [[Petrograd Soviet|Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies]], dominated by leftist parties. Its [[Order No. 1]] called for an overriding mandate to soldier committees rather than army officers. The Soviet started to form its own [[paramilitary]] power, the [[Red Guards (Russia)|Red Guards]], in March 1917.{{sfn|Chernev|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?&id=mc3hDgAAQBAJ&pg=PP12 1. Ostpolitik Meets World Revolution]|pp=12–40}}{{sfn|Chernev|2017|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?&id=mc3hDgAAQBAJ&pg=PP3 Introduction: A Forgotten Peace]|pp=3–11}}

The continuing war led the German Government to agree to a suggestion that they should favour the opposition Communist Party ([[Bolsheviks]]), who were proponents of Russia's withdrawal from the war. Therefore, in April 1917, Germany transported Bolshevik leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] and thirty-one supporters in a [[sealed train]] from exile in Switzerland to Finland Station, Petrograd.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1963|loc=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.499045/page/n53 II. Kerensky, Lenin, and Peace]|pp=36–41}} Upon his arrival in Petrograd, Lenin proclaimed his [[April Theses]], which included a call for turning all political power over to [[soviet (council)|workers' and soldiers' soviets (councils)]] and an immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war. At around the same time, the United States entered the war, potentially shifting the balance of the war against the Central Powers. Throughout 1917, Bolsheviks called for the overthrow of the Provisional Government and an end to the war. Following the disastrous failure of the [[Kerensky offensive]], discipline in the Russian army deteriorated completely. Soldiers would disobey orders, often under the influence of Bolshevik agitation, and set up soldiers' committees to take control of their units after deposing the officers.

The defeat and ongoing hardships of war led to anti-government riots in Petrograd, the "[[July Days]]" of 1917. Several months later, on {{OldStyleDateNY| 7 November|25 October}}, Red Guards seized the [[Winter Palace]] and arrested the Provisional Government in what is known as the [[October Revolution]].

A top priority of the newly established Soviet government was to end the war. On 8 November [O.S.&nbsp;26&nbsp;October] [[Vladimir Lenin]] signed the [[Decree on Peace]], which was approved by the Second Congress of the [[Soviet (council)|Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies]]. The Decree called "upon all the belligerent nations and their governments to start immediate negotiations for peace" and proposed an immediate withdrawal of Russia from {{awrap|World War I}}. [[Leon Trotsky]] was appointed Commissar of Foreign Affairs in the new Bolshevik government. In preparation for peace talks with the representatives of the German government and the representatives of the other Central Powers, Leon Trotsky appointed his good friend [[Adolph Joffe]] to represent the Bolsheviks at the peace conference.