Beginning on 22 December 1917 the first round of formal peace talks at Brest went eerily well.32 The agreement on the armistice principles of ‘self-determination, no annexations and no indemnities’ held. On Christmas Day the Central Powers and the Bolshevik negotiators issued a communiqué announcing their agreement on the basic principles of a peace of no annexations and a withdrawal of occupying forces, a formula to which they still hoped the Entente might adhere.
