Operation Faustschlag

The Operation Faustschlag or Unternehmen Faustschlag (lit. 'Operation Fist Punch'), also known as the Eleven Days' War, was a Central Powers offensive in World War I. It was the last major offensive on the Eastern Front.

Russian forces were unable to put up any serious resistance due to the turmoil of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. The armies of the Central Powers therefore captured huge territories in Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, and Ukraine, forcing the Bolshevik government of Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

After the February Revolution (March 1917) brought down the Tsarist monarchy of the Russian Empire, the Imperial Russian Army was turned into the Russian Army. While vowing to continue the war, the Russian Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet made efforts to humanise and democratise its command structure from its notoriously corrupt Tsarist hierarchy, to one that based the authority of officers on the support of their troops, and would no longer tolerate abuses of power. In particular, the Petrograd Soviet Order No. 1 suggested more equal treatment between soldiers and officers of all ranks, and electing representatives to the Petrograd Soviet, while still maintaining a hierarchical command structure and military disciple. Although some Tsarist officers had fled during the February Revolution, or suppressed mutinies by their subordinate soldiers, order was generally maintained.

The post-imperial Russian Army conducted the Kerensky Offensive in July 1917, but it resulted in a defeat. This further weakened the military and fuelled distrust in the Alexander Kerensky-led Provisional Government, but the Bolshevik anti-Kerensky July Days protests in Petrograd as well as Polubotkivtsi uprising in Kiev were successfully repressed. Kerensky's government and the Petrograd Soviet consolidated domestic political order by proclaiming the Russian Republic on 1 September 1917, thereby definitively abolishing the Russian Empire, as well as foiling the Kornilov affair. Meanwhile, the Central Rada was gaining influence in Ukraine, negotiating with the Russian Provisional Government for an autonomous Ukraine within Russia, demands which Kerensky's government partially but not yet fully recognised (e.g. he recognised the General Secretariat of Ukraine on 13 July 1917).

On 7 November 1917, during the October Revolution, Bolsheviks of the Petrograd Soviet took power in the Russian Republic, rapidly transforming controlled areas into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) (better known as Soviet Russia), and announcing that "Soviet Russia" would be withdrawing from war. In the meantime during the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising (8–13 November 1917, starting the Ukrainian–Soviet War), Central Rada and Bolshevik forces jointly expelled the Russian Provisional Government's Kiev Military District, and the Central Rada proclaimed the autonomous Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) on 20 November 1917, which would have supreme authority within Ukraine until order in the Russian Republic would be restored (which would never happen).

Talks between the new Bolshevik-led Soviet Russian government and the Central Powers started in Brest-Litovsk on 3 December 1917, and on the 17th a ceasefire went into effect. Peace talks soon followed, starting on 22 December. As negotiations began, the Central Powers presented demands for the territory that they had occupied during the 1914–1916 period, including Poland, Lithuania and western Latvia. The Bolsheviks decided not to accept these terms and instead withdrew from the negotiations, eventually resulting in the breakdown of the ceasefire. Leon Trotsky, head of the Soviet Russian delegation, hoped to delay talks until a revolution occurred within Germany, which would force them out of the war.

Meanwhile on 17 December, the Kievan Bolsheviks demanded that the Central Rada of Ukraine recognise new Soviet government in Russia, but the Rada refused, and conflict erupted between them. The Bolsheviks fled from Kiev, regrouped in Kharkov (in eastern Ukraine) and established the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets there on 24 December 1917, subordinated to the RSFSR. The Rada tried to retake control quickly, but had to give up Kharkov (19 December 1917 – 10 January 1918).
In between on 25 December 1917, the Kiev-based UPR was invited to join the peace talks, and sent its representatives to Brest-Litovsk to negotiate for Ukrainian independence. On 10–12 January 1918, the Central Powers recognised the Ukrainian delegation at the talks in Brest as a separate and plenipotentiary to conduct negotiations on the behalf of the UPR. On 22 January 1918, an overwhelming majority of the Central Rada voted in favour of Ukrainian independence, which was subsequently proclaimed in the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council.

Trotsky was the leading advocate of the "neither war nor peace" policy, and on 28 January 1918 announced that Soviet Russia considered the war over. This was unacceptable to the Germans, who were already transporting troops to the Western Front. While negotiations were ongoing, Soviet Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Krylenko oversaw the demobilization and democratization of the Russian Army, introducing elected commanders, ending all ranks, and sending troops home. On 29 January, Krylenko ordered demobilization of the whole army. The same day, Bolshevik troops advancing on Kiev were defeated by the UPR in the Battle of Kruty, while the Bolshevik Kiev Arsenal January Uprising was repressed by UPR troops on 4 February. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks conquered Kiev on 8 February 1918, forcing the Rada out of Ukraine's capital and to consider inviting the Central Powers to intervene. The German Chief of Staff, general Max Hoffmann, responded by signing the peace treaty with the UPR on 9 February, and announced an end to the ceasefire with Soviet Russia in two-days time on 17 February, leading to the resumption of hostilities. The German and Austro-Hungarian authorities were happy to accept the invitation of the desperate Central Rada to occupy Ukraine, and secure food supplies for their armies and populations, while protecting the UPR against the advancing Bolshevik forces of Soviet Russia.