Paul Michael Giachetti

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: A post-Soviet assessment of the territorial stipulations Paul Michael Giachetti

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk has not fared well in both western and Soviet historiography. Its stipulations have been labeled "harsh," "draconian," and "unjust." Insofar as this criticism may have been true, the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 provided an opportunity to reassess the territorial settlements. Today, all of the territories the treaty was to remove from Soviet Russia in 1918 are no longer bound by the decrees and directives from Moscow.
This study will focus on how and why the territorial stipulations were drafted in the manner they were, in addition to the long-term consequences of the treaty's abrogation. Many historians have attributed questionable and at times, false accusations with respect to the areas Russia was to lose by the treaty in addition to the economic impacts that would accompany these losses. By considering the historical context and particulars of the treaty's territorial stipulations, this work will offer a more balanced assessment of their removal than that found in the past historiography of Brest-Litovsk.