sheviki assumption of power, and were now
repudiated by the new government.

During the period of the armistice Lenine began his move for a separate
peace, in spite of the formal protests of the Allied representatives at
Petrograd.

The first sitting took place on Saturday, December 22, 1917. Among the
delegates were Dr. Richard von Kuhlmann, Foreign Minister, and General
Hoffman, of Germany; Count Czernin, Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary;
Minister Kopov, of Bulgaria; Nesimy Bey, former Foreign Minister of
Turkey, and a large delegation from Russia, composed of Bolshevist
leaders. Dr. von Kuhlmann was chosen as the presiding officer and made
the opening speech. The Russian peace demands and the German
counter-proposals were then read, and considered.

The German proposals proved unacceptable to Russia, and a second session
of the peace conference was held at Brest-Litovsk on January 10, 1918.
Trotzky himself attended this meeting as one of the representatives from
Russia, and there was also a representative from Ukraine, which had
declared its independence, and was allowed to join the conference.
General Hoffman protested strongly against the Russian endeavor to make
appeals of a revolutionary character to the German troops.

[Illustration: Map: Europe and Eastern Asia.]
RUSSIA AS PARTITIONED BY THE BREST-LITOVSK TREATY

The armistice having expired, it was agreed it should be continued to
February 12th. After a long and acrimonious debate the Conference broke
up in a clash over the evacuation of the Russian provinces. On January
24th it was announced that the Russian delegates to the peace conference
had unanimously decided to reject the German terms. They stated that
when they asked Germany's final terms General Hoffman of the German
delegation had replied by opening a map and pointing out a line from the
shores of the Gulf of Finland to the east of the Moon Sound Islands, to
Valk, to the west of Minsk, to Brest-Litovsk, thus eliminating Courland
and all the Baltic provinces.

Asked the terms of the Central Powers in regard to the territory south
of Brest-Litovsk General Hoffman replied that was a question which they
would discuss only with Ukraine. M. Kaminev asked: "Supposing we do not
agree to such condition, what are you going to do?"

General Hoffman's answer was, "Within a week we would occupy Reval."

On January 27th, Trotzky made his report to the Soviets at Petrograd.
After a thorough expla