Author:
Chernev, Borislav, author.
ImprintToronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, [2017]
Imprint2017
Descriptionxviii, 301 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Note:Introduction: a forgotten peace -- Ostpolitik meets world revolution -- Peacemaking and self-determination at Brest-Litovsk -- The Great January Strike as a prelude to revolution in Austria -- The Brest-Litovsk system and modern Ukrainian statehood -- Brest-Litovsk and the elusive Bulgarian "dream of Byzantium" -- The second treaty of Brest-Litovsk and after -- Conclusion: Brest-Litovsk and Europe's twentieth century.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-286) and index.
Note:Twilight of Empire is the first book in English to examine the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference during the later stages of World War I with the use of extensive archival sources. Two separate peace treaties were signed at Brest-Litovsk - the first between the Central Powers and Ukraine and the second between the Central Powers and Bolshevik Russia. Borislav Chernev, through an insightful and in-depth analysis of primary sources and archival material, argues that although its duration was short lived, the Brest-Litovsk settlement significantly affected the post-Imperial transformation of East Central Europe. The conference became a focal point for the interrelated processes of peacemaking, revolution, imperial collapse, and nation-state creation in the multi-ethnic, entangled spaces of East Central Europe. Chernev's analysis expands beyond the traditional focus on the German-Russian relationship, paying special attention to the policies of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. The transformations initiated by the Brest-Litovsk conferences ushered in the twilight of empire as the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, and Ottoman Empires all shared the fate of their Romanov counterpart at the end of World War I.
