Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers

13 November] 1917 three Russian emissaries under a white flag entered the German lines to arrange for negotiations which they agreed would be held at the headquarters of the Central Powers Armies at Brest-Litovsk.

[4] In Soviet historiography there is some dispute about whether any agreement was signed on 5 December, and the explicit reference in the text of the armistice to a ceasefire of that date is dismissed as an error.

Russian overtures to their French, Italian, and British allies to join in were rejected with "an, angry stony silence".

[3] Foreign minister Leon Trotsky assembled a Russian delegation of twenty eight, which one of them described as a menagerie because they were chosen to represent the social groups supporting the revolution, including soldiers, sailors, and factory workers.

The offices and common facilities of the headquarters were in the fortress which had survived the fire and lodgings were in temporary wooden buildings erected in its courtyards.

The Russians ate in the officer's mess, where their hosts endeavored to establish friendly relations with their perplexing guests.

The sticking point was that Joffe's instructions were to sign a general armistice for all of the fighting fronts, which Hoffmann rejected because obviously they had no such mandate from their allies.

It provided for a commission to be set up at Petrograd to restore the postal system, trade relations and the transport of books and newspapers.