File No. 861.00/2049
The Consul General at Moscow (Summers) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17, 10.21 a.m.]
432. Following is text treaty between Ukraine and Central powers. Text commercial and supplementary treaties promised few days.
TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE UKRAINE AND THE CENTRAL POWERS1
[Translation]
Inasmuch as during the present war the Ukrainian people have declared their independence and expressed a desire to establish a state of peace between the Ukraine and the powers at war with Russia, therefore the governments of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey proclaim the conclusion of a peace treaty with the People’s Republic of the Ukraine. They desire to take the first steps toward the establishment of a permanent universal peace, not only to end the horrors of war but also to reestablish friendly relations between the nations respecting political, judicial, economic and spiritual questions.
For this purpose the governments authorize the undersigned (for Germany, Von Kühlmann; for Austria-Hungary, Czernin von und zu Chudnitz; for Bulgaria, Radoslavoff, Toscheff, Stoyanovitch, military attaché Colonel Gantchew, Anastassoff; for Turkey, Talaat Pasha, Ahmed Nessimi Bey, Ibrahim Hakky Pasha, General Ahmed Izzet Pasha; for the Ukraine, Alexander Sewrjuk, Mykola Ljubynskyj and Mikola Lewytskyj) to enter into peace negotiations at Brest Litovsk, where they have met and agreed upon the following stipulations as acceptable to both parties:
Article 1
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, on the one hand, and the People’s Republic of the Ukraine on the other, declare the state of war between them ended. The powers concluding the treaty bind themselves to live in peace and concord in the future.
[Page 666]Article 2
- 1.
- The frontier between Austria-Hungary and the People’s Republic of the Ukraine, in so far as these countries border on each other, shall remain as it was before the war between the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Russia.
- 2.
- The northern frontier of the Ukrainian People’s Republic shall extend in a general way from Tarnogród along the line Biłgoraj, Krasnystaw, Puchaczów, Sarnaki, Mielnik, Wysokie Litewskie, Kamieniec Litewski, Prużana, and Wygonowskie Lake. In detail, the frontier shall be in accordance with ethnographic conditions and the will of the inhabitants after determination by a mixed commission.
- 3.
- In case the People’s Republic of the Ukraine has to decide frontier questions with other powers of the Quadruple Alliance, this shall be done in a special manner.
Article 3
Immediately upon the ratification of the present peace treaty the clearing of evacuated districts must take place. The method of clearing these districts shall be decided by the delegates of the interested countries.
Article 4
Diplomatic and consular relations between parties concluding the peace treaty shall be resumed immediately upon the ratification of the present peace treaty.
Article 5
The parties concluding the peace treaty mutually bind themselves to renounce repayment of military outlays, both governmental expenditures for carrying on the war and losses from military operations, including requisitions.
Article 6
The prisoners of war of both parties shall be allowed to return home if they do not desire to remain in their districts or emigrate to other countries.
- The translation has been left essentially in the form in which it was received. A few brief omitted passages have been supplied and occasional verbal corrections made after comparison with the German text as published in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, Feb. 11, 1918, and the translation thereof, which were printed for the Department of State in the booklet, Texts of the Ukraine “Peace” (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1918), prepared by the Inquiry, a body of scholars assembled by Colonel House to assist the Department in the study of problems of the coming peace settlement.↩