Chapter 10: The Age of Despair

In the spring of 1918, when the cold winds of the last winter blew through the French Western Front, and when another season was about to be launched, the war on the Western Front was on the verge of ending.

As mentioned earlier, this was not due to the inadequacy of the German army, but to the fact that it was precisely because of the "results" of the "brilliant strategy" of Lenin, the great revolutionary teacher, that the shameful imperialist monarch had dealt another heavy blow.

If we want to talk about it, the story is too long, and we can only tell you briefly. When the Party Central Committee of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin was still hiding in Switzerland, it was already financed by the German Emperor Wilhelm II at that time.

As for last year, the Bolsheviks also benefited from the protection of the German army, and they were able to cross the border safely and return to their homeland, successfully carry out the revolution and take power, and then the contradiction arose.

The most basic reason for the contradiction will be the unsimilar private affairs of children.

In the First World War, it can be roughly described as a contest between a group of cousins, or the children and grandchildren of Queen Victoria of England.

Aside from the others, a woman whom Wilhelm II once admired became the wife of the Russian Tsar, and she was originally named Alice. Victoria. Helen. Louise's princess, now known as Alexandra. Feodorovna's Russian Empress.

In addition to this, Wilhelm II was the most honest of all the statesmen of the First World War. Someone once said of him that his actions in the First World War were nothing more than a struggle between an honest farmer and a group of shrewd merchants.

Here we need not discuss the rights and wrongs of this matter, nor do we need to discuss whether His Majesty Wilhelm II is so honest. But the girl he once admired, first refused his rescue, and now in Yekaterinburg the Bolsheviks, whom he personally sent back to Russia, killed her entire family.

Although he was not a foolish German emperor, and he would not use his anger to rekindle the war on the Eastern Front, which had been so painstakingly ended, the price would certainly not be mentioned at all. We don't know the exact price, but we can see from what is recorded in history that Brest was ceded.

If William's earliest desire to support the Bolsheviks should have been to end the Eastern Front, then why did he cut an extra piece of Brest? Wasn't he worried about the backlash of the Bolshevik regime in Russia? The reasons for this are impossible to guess today, so we have to judge and analyze them based on these events at that time.

When the Russian Bolsheviks were faced with rebellion at home and ill intentions from neighboring countries, they had no choice but to accept this condition in humiliation.

On December 3, 1917, negotiations began, and Germany proposed a harsh condition of ceding Poland, Lithuania, parts of Estonia, and parts of Latvia and Belarus to Germany and paying reparations of 3 billion rubles, which caused serious divisions within the Bolshevik Party. Lenin advocated accepting Germany's terms and signing a peace treaty to gain respite for the new regime, and six members of the Central Committee, including Tivinov, Sokolnikov, Stalin, Artem, Stasova, and Sverdlov, supported Lenin.

The "leftist communists" represented by Bukharin opposed the signing of the peace treaty and advocated the continuation of the world war against imperialism, and the Central Committee members Bubnov, Uritsky, and Lomov supported Bukharin; Trotsky, on the other hand, advocated an armistice and the demobilization of the army, but did not sign a contract with Germany (i.e., no war or peace), and the Central Committee members Krestinsky, Dzerzhinsky, and Viet Fei supported Trotsky.

On February 15, 1918, the Germans approached Petrograd. In view of the gravity and urgency of the situation, Lenin showed great anxiety and made eight speeches in succession. He declared that if he continued to pursue a policy of empty talk of revolution, he would withdraw from the government and the Central Committee.

The meeting lasted all night and the debate was fierce, during which Stalin wavered, believing that it was okay not to sign the agreement, but began to negotiate. Lenin immediately criticized Stalin's attitude, saying: "It is not right that Stalin said that it is okay not to sign the peace treaty, and that you must sign these conditions, and if you do not sign them, then in three weeks you will have to sign the death sentence of the Soviet power." ”

Stalin quickly admitted his mistake and voted in favor of Lenin. As a result of Lenin's tireless work of persuasion, at 4:50 a.m. the next day, the conference adopted by a narrow majority the report on the signing of the contract with Germany.

On 30 February, the Brest Peace Treaty was signed.

According to the contract, Soviet Russia ceded more than a million square kilometers of territory and paid 6 billion marks in compensation. Trotsky was relieved of his post as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. But Soviet Russia managed to withdraw from the First World War, buying a respite for the fledgling Soviet power.

The Germans confidently turned to the Western Front, but then the situation reversed.

Time was approaching another Christmas, and the sailors of the Kiel military port had no sense of joy at all. They live a life of constant fear and constant worry.

This was because, when the French side had completed the airstrip aircraft carriers, they formed a joint fleet with the British Navy in the English Channel. Stronger air power had completely blocked the unfinished German Ocean Fleet in the harbor. Now, every sortie of the Ocean Fleet is like committing suicide, and all the warships that sail out on a hunting mission never see them return.

The German ocean-going fleet was confined only to military ports. And the improvised aircraft carriers they relied on to prop up the sky for the fleet had been blown up in the dock by the planes of the combined British and French fleets.

With this last hope dashed, the German Ocean Fleet had to retreat into a military port protected by air power, unable to move. In the ears of the desperate soldiers, such a voice was heard, and it slowly spread through the naval base in the port of Kiel.

"This is a war with no hope at all, are we going to keep fighting? Soldiers, the time has come when we should fight for our own interests, we have to organize soldiers' committees and tell those generals what we think......! ”

"Brothers, do you know that the proletarian revolution has broken out in Russia, and the soldiers, workers, and peasants have established their own political power, and they are the masters of their own affairs.

A hope, a glimmer of realization, spread among the Navy soldiers and junior officers. Desperate sailors and junior officers joined the group, which became known as the German Communist Party.

Prior to this, Wilhelm II had not strictly forbidden the spread of socialist doctrine at home, as other "imperialist" countries had done. Although their status was not officially recognized, as the socialists had hoped, at least not in the manner which other countries abhorred to bring them down as soon as possible.

At this time, the German Communist Party, with some financial support, took active action, and party members infiltrated the first institutions of the German army, whether it was the Belgian headquarters of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II or the Kiel military port, and gradually a factor of unrest slowly spread among the German army due to the unity of ordinary soldiers and junior officers.

Of course, not all people think this way, and not all soldiers are willing to lose the war now, because that could bring even greater disaster to Germany. However, due to the tradition of the German army, which is not very concerned with politics, these things have not been effectively stopped.

In March 1918, Germany's defeat was foregone in the eyes of the general public, mainly because they were facing a coalition of British, French, and American forces, but the German ruling circles still wanted to fight desperately. On 10 March, the naval command ordered the German ocean-going fleet in the port of Kiel to go to sea to fight the British, and if it failed, it would "sink with honor."

Under these circumstances, the 80,000 sailors in the port of Kiel, who had secretly organized a soldiers' committee, refused to lift anchor and extinguished the warship. Although the resistance of the sailors forced the German naval authorities to withdraw the order, the sailors were persecuted and several hundred arrested.

On 15 March, sailors took to the streets of Kiel to demonstrate against the naval authorities and demand the release of those arrested. The demonstrations then turned into an armed uprising, with the sailors disarming the officers and quickly seizing strategic points and taking control of the city.

The workers also responded with an armed uprising and established a Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. By the evening of the 14th, Kiel and the nearby suburbs were occupied by the insurgents, and on the 18th, the whole town of Kiel went on strike in support of the sailors' uprising.

The sailors' uprising in Port Kiel became the signal for the outbreak of the March Revolution in Germany, which spread rapidly throughout the country. By 8 April, armed uprisings had taken place in almost all the large German cities, and the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies had been established.

Even, from this point on, the generals who could see the world's strategy through the map with their eyes could not help but think seriously when they thought that victory was in sight. But it was no longer a question of how to suppress the uprising, but how to make it possible for Germany to end the war with dignity.

The sound of rifles rang out on the front lines of the German army, and the sound of gunfire in the war was not a big deal. But today, everything makes Crown Prince William unmoved.

"Why, how could this happen to us, my God, we were betrayed! I told Your Majesty a long time ago that those socialists are untrustworthy people! ”

Crown Prince William pulled his hair and looked worriedly out of the window of his headquarters. Although his headquarters was still very safe, and although there was no commotion in his elite Grandenburg 5th Army, it was an indisputable fact that Germany was in disarray.