March 13 1920, Murmansk–Throughout early 1920, the Reds continued their victories in the Russian Civil War. There had been a longstanding White presence in northern Russia, backed by the Allies; however, the last Allied forces had pulled out in October, leaving only small White forces with limited population or resources to draw upon. On February 21, the Reds entered Archangelsk. Around the same time, a Bolshevik-aligned group seized power in Murmansk, stranding the last contingent of White forces on the Murmansk railway around 400 miles to the south. Those units collapsed or crossed the border into neighboring Finland. The Red Army entered Murmansk on March 13, ending the Russian Civil War in the north.
Sources include: Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War
Members of the Ehrhardt brigade in Berlin on March 13. The swastika was not at this point exclusively associated with the Nazis (at this point a minor political party that was too far removed from Berlin to play a significant role in the putsch before it collapsed), though the symbol clearly had strongly reactionary connotations at this point.
March 13 1920, Berlin–Despite provisions in the Versailles Treaty against them, and the end of German involvement in the Baltic, the German right-wing paramilitary Freikorps remained a powerful force in Germany. On February 29, war minister Noske ordered the dissolution of two of the largest Freikorps groups. One of them, the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, refused to comply, and received backing from the commander of Berlin’s regular army troops, General Lüttwitz, who demanded (among other things) a dissolution of the National Assembly and new elections for the Reichstag. When Chancellor Ebert did not accede, he ordered the Ehrhardt brigade into Berlin to seize government buildings; they began to move at 10PM on March 12.
No regular military troops resisted the Ehrhardt brigade. In an emergency session at 4AM on March 13, Ebert’s cabinet decided (with significant dissent) to flee the city for Dresden (and when that city proved unfriendly, Stuttgart) and to call for a general strike against the putsch. The meeting was cut short so that they could avoid capture by the Freikorps. Lüttwitz installed Wolfgang Kapp, from the right-wing DNVP, as the new chancellor. He was also joined by Ludendorff (who had largely been out of the picture since his sacking in the final weeks of the war) and con man and “spy” Trebitsch-Lincoln, who served as his press censor.
Ebert’s call for a strike was wildly successful; by March 15, over twelve million workers were participating. Lüttwitz’ position became untenable, and the non-left-wing parties attempted to ease him out of Berlin. On March 18, Lüttwitz resigned and the Ehrhardt brigade left Berlin (shooting some civilians who jeered at them while they did so) and Ebert’s government returned to Berlin two days later.
Ultimately, despite its failure, the results of the Kapp Putsch were a victory of sorts for reactionary forces in Germany. Lüttwitz’s allies did eventually get many of their demands anyway; the National Assembly would be dissolved the next month and Reichstag elections were moved forward. The Freikorps continued its prominent role in post-war Germany, as in the coming weeks they were used to end the general strike in the Ruhr (which had continued after the end of the putsch). A right-wing government took control of Bavaria at the same time, and Ludendorff continued his political intrigues there.
February 15 1920, Memel–The Treaty of Versailles specified that Germany give up the region around Memel, the northernmost part of East Prussia, to the Allies. Lithuania had designs on the area, hoping for access to the Baltic like Poland received through the Treaty of Versailles. The area was not majority-Lithuanian, however, so the area was to remain under Allied administration while it was to be decided whether to make it a free city like Danzig or give it to Lithuania. On February 15, French troops arrived in Memel, beginning what would become a three-year French administration of the area.
February 12 1920, Constantinople [Istanbul]–In the fall, the Ottoman government had come to an agreement with Kemal and his allies in Anatolia that new elections would be held in December. Kemal’s party took a decisive majority, and soon proclaimed their resistance to Allied plans for Turkey in its “National Oath” published on February 12. Arab-majority areas still under nominal Turkish control would hold a plebiscite, as would Western Thrace (taken from Bulgaria at Neuilly but whose final fate was yet to be decided) and areas taken back from Russia at Brest-Litovsk. Constantinople should remain securely under Turkish control, though questions of the navigation of the Straits would depend on negotiation with the Allies. Turkish-majority areas still under control of the Ottoman Empire should form a Turkish homeland, not to be occupied by the Allies; minorities within Turkey would have their rights respected as long as Muslim minorities in nearby countries were respected as well.
The Allies had put off discussion of the peace with the Ottoman Empire for some time, largely due to severe disagreements between British and French plans for the area; they only began again in earnest on the same day, at a new conference in London. The news of the Ottoman Parliament’s new, ardently nationalist stance concerned the Allies, especially the British, and plans began for more drastic action to be taken against the Ottomans.
With the peace terms largely settled, diplomats could return to questions that had been unsettled before the war. One of these was the issue of Spitsbergen [Svalbard], the northern archipelago heretofore not recognized to be part of any country. On February 9 in Paris, the Big Five, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway signed a treaty recognizing Norway’s right to sovereignty over the islands. However, the other countries would retain certain rights, including the ability to conduct mining and fishing, and their citizens would be able to exercise these rights freely. This was also extended to Russian citizens, as Russia clearly had an interest in the islands even if the other signatories did not recognize their government.
The treaty entered into force in 1925 upon Japan’s ratification; by that time Germany and the Soviet Union had signed it as well. It remains in force today, even if Norway and Russia are the only two countries who make extensive use of its provisions. Citizens of the other signatories may still visit the archipelago visa-free.
February 7 1920, Irkutsk–After the fall of Kransnoyarsk, and the near-simultaneous SR and Menshevik takeover of Irkutsk, Kolchak and his gold train were trapped in between, on a section of the Trans-Siberian controlled by the Czech Legion. No fans of Kolchak, and mainly wanting to get home, Kolchak was handed over to the new government in Irkutsk on January 15. After local Bolsheviks took control in the city on January 21, he was interrogated and a trial was planned once they could send him to Moscow.
However, the Red forces had not yet reached Irkutsk, and the remnants of Kolchak’s forces were approaching the city on foot (having been forced off the railway by the fall of Krasnoyarsk). Not wanting Kolchak to fall back into White hands, the Bolsheviks shot him in the wee hours of February 7. Lenin, who had wanted a trial, was not pleased and tried to keep the execution a secret. Ultimately, the White forces bypassed Irkutsk by crossing over the ice of Lake Baikal, and the Czechs bought their free passage on the Trans-Siberian with Kolchak’s gold.
The Reds reached Irkutsk a month later and then stopped, with Lenin telling Trotsky: “We would be idiots if we were to allow ourselves to be distracted by a stupid advance into the depths of Siberia, permitting Denikin to revive and the Poles to strike.”
Denikin’s forces were still ensconced firmly behind the Don, but the Reds had continuing success on other fronts. On the same day, Odessa fell to the Reds once again, preceded by the second evacuation from the city in less than a year. In Central Asia, the Reds had taken Krasnovodsk the previous day, ending resistance in Transcaspia. On February 2, Russia concluded a peace treaty with Estonia, recognizing its independence but ending any threat of a repeat of the Yudenich expedition the previous year.
Sources include: Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War
January 21 1920, Paris–Although the major players had left after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of June, the peace conference continued. The treaties with Austria and Bulgaria were signed, and the treaty with Germany had formally come into effect. Much work remained to be done, however–most notably treaties with Hungary and the Ottomans, let alone anything having to do with Russia. There was little the representatives in Paris could do on their own accord, however, and those questions (and other post-war considerations) would be left to future conferences. On January 21, just over a year after it opened, the Paris Peace Conference (originally designed to be purely a preliminary to the actual treaty negotiations), finally closed.
January 10 1920, Paris–The Treaty of Versailles had been signed on June 28, but still needed to be ratified by enough powers to come into effect. In theory, this had occurred by October 13, by which point Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and France had ratified, but the official entry into force of the treaty was delayed for another three months; perhaps this was to give time for the United States to ratify the treaty, or possibly lingering disputes over the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow needed to be resolved first.
Regardless, on January 10, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, the Italian PM, and German and Japanese representatives met in Paris to formerly deposit their countries’ ratifications and signify that the treaty had become effective. The United States, having not yet ratified the treaty, was not represented, but the treaty still went into effect between the remaining major powers. The war with Germany was now formally at an end. Furthermore, the League of Nations, as the first part of the treaty, was formally created that same day as well.
January 7 1920, Rostov–Denikin’s Volunteer Army had been in full retreat since the Reds took Kastornoye in mid-November, threatening to outflank them. Pursued by the a new Red cavalry force under Budyonny, they were forced back quickly, Kiev falling to the Reds (once again) on December 16, and Tsaritsyn on January 3. Denikin wanted to make a stand north of the Don around Rostov, but his troops would have none of it, crossing the frozen river as the Reds entered the city on January 7. Only an unexpected thaw in the river stopped the Red pursuit.
The White situation in Siberia was even worse. A month after the fall of Omsk, the Reds would take Novonikolayevsk [Novosibirsk] on the Ob, 450 miles to the east. The final collapse came in the rear, however. On January 4, an SR-backed uprising seized Krasnoyarsk, cutting off White forces to the west. The Reds arrived in the city on January 7, capturing 60,000 troops; those that escaped were force to proceed east towards Lake Baikal by sled in the middle of winter. Simultaneously, SRs and Mensheviks took control of Irkutsk, leaving Kolchak and his gold train trapped in between, on a section of the railway controlled by the Czechoslovaks, whose main priority at this point was exiting Russia alive.
Sources include: Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War.
December 12 1919, London–British Economist John Maynard Keynes had worked in the Treasury for much of the war, and had assisted at the negotiations in Paris, before quitting in the final weeks of the conference. Since then, he had been organizing his criticism of the Versailles treaty into a book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, drawing heavily from memoranda he wrote during the conference.
Keynes heavily criticized the Allied treatment of Germany after the Armistice, and the Allies’ lack of consideration for a rebuilding of Europe’s economy after the war. Instead of reopening European trade that had been disrupted with the outbreak of war, the blockade of Germany lasted until after the peace had been signed, and the peace terms only reinforced trade barriers between Germany and the Allies. Keynes believed the reparations on Germany were far too harsh, forming part of a “Carthaginian peace” intending to destroy the enemy. He laid the blame for these reparations, somewhat unfairly, almost entirely at the hands of the French. Germany would be unable to reasonably pay the reparations, crippling her economy and causing widespread resentment–especially since the final treaty bore little resemblance, in Keynes’ view, to the outline of a peace based on the Fourteen Points hoped for in October and November 1918.
Keynes included scathing critiques of Wilson, Lloyd George, and Clemenceau, though much of the criticism of Lloyd George was omitted from the first edition, on the recommendation of Asquith.
Largely focused on the Big Three and economic questions, Keynes paid little attention to other major issues–including Central and Eastern Europe, German disarmament, and the League of Nations. Nevertheless, the book proved extremely popular and influential, doing much to shape world opinion of the treaty in interwar years and beyond, especially in Britain, America, and Germany, and it has never left print to this day.
Sources include: Gregor Dallas, 1919: War and Peace; Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919.
