In the Shadow of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Soviet-German Cooperation in the Interwar Period

The subject of the study is the Brest Peace Treaty of 1918 and its role in shaping Soviet-German relations between the two World Wars. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the historical background of the treaty, including the economic crisis and political instability in Russia, as well as Germany's desire to regroup forces on the Western Front. Special attention is paid to a detailed analysis of the main conditions of the Brest Peace, focusing on Russia's territorial losses, economic concessions and their impact on the domestic political situation in the country. It also explores the evolution of Soviet-German relations between the World Wars, including economic cooperation, covert military cooperation, and diplomatic games. An important aspect of the study is to debunk the myth of the unilateral nature of the Brest Peace, demonstrating the benefits received by Germany and the potential opportunities for the recovery of the Russian economy that opened up after its conclusion. The work uses historical, comparative and analytical methods to study the prerequisites, conditions and consequences of the Brest Peace. The novelty of the research lies in rethinking the role of the Brest Peace in the context of the history of the 20th century, considering it not only as an act of ending Soviet Russia's participation in the First World War, but also as a starting point for subsequent, complex and contradictory Soviet-German interaction. The main conclusions of the study are to demonstrate the long-term impact of the Brest Peace on the formation of the geopolitical map of Europe and the relationship between Russia and Germany. A special contribution of the author to the study of the topic is a reasoned refutation of traditional assessments that consider the Brest Peace solely as a defeat of Russia, emphasizing its multidimensional nature and impact on the further history of relations between the two countries, as well as on the pre-war situation in Europe. The study shows that the Brest Peace, despite its short-term negative consequences for Russia, became an important factor that predetermined the tragic war between the USSR and Germany in 1941.