adhering to the treaty as they had agreed (p. 80). The Germans pushed the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine and Finland and in many instances failed to withdraw troops from the front lines (p. 80). Ironically, only an Allied victory of World War I saved Russia from Germany’s grasp. The Allies won the war in the end without the help of Russia and the fall of Germany allowed the reparations to be paid in Brest Litovsk to be null and void (Harris). However, the damage had been done. The Germans had little sympathy for a torn Russian state and exploited Russia for all that it could. After the conclusion of World War I in March of 1918, the concern of a democratically driven counter-revolution became imminent. Lenin knew that division between the new Bolshevik regime and supporters of the provisional government known as “Kadets” drew a line through Russian society. The Russian people were becoming disillusioned with the new Bolshevik regime and a civil war between the “Whites” (socially democratic driven “Kadets”) and the “Reds” (Bolsheviks) consequently erupted in 1918 (Harris). Lenin felt control of Russia slipping away and knew that the focus of his regime had to be in the domestic rather than international arena (Ulam, p. 84). The Allies attitude towards Russia had changed as a result of World War I (Ulam, p. 84). By signing the peace treaty, for the first time the Bolshevik regime was seen as being the official government of Russia by most of the world, and free states of the west began to take notice of the ideological differences between themselves and the Russians (p. 80). In 1918, near the end of World War I, forces from the United States, France, and Britain gathered in Russia to “expand the eastern front” against the Germans (p. 84). The purpose of these interventions at first was to use Russian soil to win World War I, not to support either side of an ideological civil war...
