isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

THE DRAMA OF BREST LITOVSK 355
So far all the great issues arising from the armistice had been
left open. The Bolsheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries had
made up their minds in favour of separate peace talks, but not
of a separate peace. And even those who, like Lenin, already
inclined towards a separate peace were not yet prepared to have
it at any price. The main purpose of the Soviet government was
to gain time, to proclaim loudly its peace aims amid the sudden
stillness on the front; to gauge the intensity of the revolutionary
ferment in Europe; and to test the attitude of allied and enemy
governments.
The Bolsheviks had no doubt about the proximity of social
upheaval in Europe. But they began to wonder whether the
road to peace would lead through revolution or whether, on the
contrary, the road to revolution did not lead through peace. In
the first case, the war would be brought to an end by revolutionary
governments. In the second, the Russian Revolution would
have to come to terms for the time being with capitalist rulers.
Only time could show which way events were moving and to
what extent the revolutionary impulse from Russia determined
or failed to determine their direction. So far the soundings had
produced no clear results. The German and the Austrian working
classes were unmistakably restless; but it could not be said
whether this pointed to the enemy's immediate collapse or towards
a crisis in a more remote future. The peace delegations of
the central powers had shown a surprising readiness to yield.
Their attitude might reflect the desperate position of the central
powers; but it might also conceal a trap. On the other
hand, the hostility of the Entente seemed to relax for a moment.
While still refusing to recognize the Soviets, the allied powers,
at the beginning of December, consented to exchange certain
diplomatic privileges which arc usually granted to recognized
governments. Soviet diplomatic couriers were allowed to move
between Russia and western Europe; diplomatic passports were
mutually recognized; Chicherin was at last released and returned
to Russia; and Trotsky exchanged diplomatic visits with some
western cnnivs. \\'as tht: Entente perhaps changing its mind
about peace? In Pravda, Trotsky wishfuliy commented on these
aggrandizement, and half that number might well have turned the scale in the
early stages of the battle of giants which was raging in the west.' Op. cit., p.
317.