Primary Documents - Alexander Severyuk on the Ukraine Brest-Litovsk Peace Settlement, 9 February 1918
Reproduced below is the
text of the response given by Alexander Severyuk - on behalf of the Ukraine
government - to
an address given by the Chairman of the
Brest-Litovsk Conference, Richard von Kühlmann (also German
Foreign Secretary), acclaiming news of the peace settlement.
Click here to read the reaction of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Karl I. Click here to read the terms of the peace treaty agreed between the Ukraine and the Central Powers.
Alexander Severyuk on the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, 9 February 1918
We state with joy that from this day peace begins between the Quadruple Alliance and Ukrainia.
We came here in the hope that we should be able to achieve a general peace and make an end of this fratricidal war. The political position, however, is such that not all of the powers are met here to sign a general peace treaty.
Inspired with the most ardent love for our people, and recognizing that this long war has exhausted the cultural national powers of our people, we must now divert all our strength to do our part to bring about a new era and a new birth.
We are firmly persuaded that we conclude this peace in the interests of great democratic masses, and that this peace will contribute to the general termination of the Great War.
Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. VI, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923
"Beachy Bill" was the name given to one of the Turkish guns which regularly shelled Anzac Cove.
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