The extreme moment in the negotiations oocured simultaneously with the critical moment in the South, with the critical moment upon the Black Sea, when Germany demanded that the Russian fleet near Novorossisk return to Sebastopol. The Germans did not limit their military forces to the nine governments added to the Ukraine on March 29th, but occupied Taganrog and Rostov on the Don (both of the Sea of Azof) on May 6. Their further advance came to a halt at the important railroad junction Batarsk (opposite Rostov on the Don), which was occupied by a Soviet army.
On April 22, the German troops had already invaded the Crimea and had more extensively occupied the peninsula of Tauri, while a certain part of our Black Sea fleet had time to leave for Novorossisk. We received a number of notes from Germany, wherein she complined of hostile treatment in different places upon the Black Sea, where ships belonging to our Black Sea fleet were destroyed.
On the South, the Turkish army advanced into the Caucasian regions, occupied Alexandropol (south of Tiflis) and threatened Baku, while southern Trans-Caucasia sent troops against Soviet Russia, against the adherents of the Soviet movement in the vicinity of Suchum (in South Caucasia on the Black Sea), and in the entire Abchasie (South Caucasian Moutain region). The advance of the Germans and their allies in the Kuban regions (the western part of North Caucasus) had already started.
And in this critical moment the demand was made of us to order the return of the Black Sea fleet from Novorossiesk to Sebastopol.
As a result of further negotiations, we received the guarantee from Germany that the ships would not be used during the war and after the conclusion of a general peace they would be returned to Russia. At the same time, the troops would not advance further upon the entire line of demarkation on the Ukrainian front, which was similar to the real position of the occupation at the beginning of the Ukrainian negotiations, which did not extend beyond Walveki upon the Woronesj frontier at Batasjk (opposite Rostov) upon the Southwest frontier. In case we refused, the advance to Kuban would continue, and besides we were told that the possibility of economic and political agreements, the order to cease all advances upon Ukrainian frontier, and even the beginning of the work of the joint commission in Berlin, depended upon our consent to the return of the Black Sea fleet from Novorossisk to Sebastopol.
The question of the return of the fleet thus became the centre of the whole German diplomacy against us, so that they might inflence the whole further progress of our relations. The return of a part of the fleet to Sebastopol on June 18 and the sinking of the rest on June 19 made an end of this critical event.
Quickly upon this, the commission in Berlin, which had not convened for a long time, began to hold sessions, and the advance of the German troops upon the Ukrainian front ceased. The negotiations progressed even more rapidly. Three days after our consent was obtained for the return of our fleet, on June 12, a general armistice with the Ukraine was concluded. On June 17, on agreement concerning the line of demarkation of the Northern Ukrainian front was arrived at, and representatives were sent to Vitebsk to determine upon this line of demarkation. The most important point in the peace negotiations was the question of the boundaries of the Ukraine. It
