the tensions in Berlin were as nothing compared to the situation in Petrograd. In January 1918, as the illusion of a cheap peace evaporated, the Bolsheviks were finally forced to face the seriousness of their situation. In 1917 the much maligned revolutionary defensists had refused to contemplate separate peace talks with Germany, precisely because they had foreseen the dilemma that Lenin and Trotsky now found themselves in.
