The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and Germany's Eastern Policy by Sir John W. Wheeler-Bennett A small (52 pages) but mighty book! Mr. Wheeler-Bennett was quite a distinguished and well-respected journalist, historian, and statesman of which I was unaware before I read a previous book he had written; I now have 3 additional on my shelf to read. This was by far his shortest book and the topic, the price Russia had to pay to get out of WWI to the Germans, was a topic that I only knew one word about: pricey! Bennett makes no bones about the predatory nature of the Germans in this treaty and also posits that this did as much to ally Russia and the US during WWII more than anything else and also saved the Bolshevik revolution. Among other things discussed was the German desire for the detachment of the Ukraine from Russia to become a German satellite state, the restoration of a Polish kingdom under the auspices of German/Austrian nobility, the installation of a German King in a semi-independent Finland, and the annexation of all the Baltic States. The basic purpose, as seen by the Germans, was the elimination of the Russian state, altogether. At this particular time, nobody was really sure what Bolshevism was. I have taken 5 pages of typed notes from this book and will probably go down a rabbit hole for quite some time as many things here piqued my interest. 52 pages 5 stars ( )