Page "Treaty of Brest-Litovsk" Paragraph 12

After a week of negotiations from December 22 through December 28, 1917, the delegation from the Central Powers withdrew from the conference to consider the Bolshevik peace proposals.

Over Christmas of 1917, the Central Powers released a declaration stating that they were in favor of the separate peace with all the Allies without indemnities and without annexations provided the peace was immediate and all belligerents took part in the negotiations.

V. I. Lenin was in favor of signing this agreement immediately.

Lenin was convinced that only an immediate peace would provide the young Bolshevik government with the necessary breathing space it needed to consolidate its power inside Russia.

However, he was virtually alone in this opinion among the Bolsheviks sitting on the Central Committee.