Compiègne Armistice of 1918

concluded on November 11 in the Compiégne forest, near the station of Rethondes (France), between Germany, which had suffered defeat in World War I, on the one side, and France, Great Britain, the USA, and other states of the anti-German coalition, on the other.

The most important of the conditions of the armistice, dictated by Marshal F. Foch to the German delegation (headed by M. Erzberger), provided for the cessation of military operations, the immediate withdrawal of German troops from the territories they occupied in the West, the surrender by Germany of part of its ground and naval armaments, the evacuation of German troops from the left bank of the Rhine, and the creation of a demilitarized zone on the right bank.

The armistice, however, did not provide for the removal of German troops from the Soviet territory they occupied. Part of the German forces was left intact for use in the struggle against the Soviet state and the revolutionary movement in Germany itself. The agreement guaranteed free entry to and departure from the Baltic to all military and trading vessels of the Entente, which was preparing armed intervention against the Soviet state. The armistice was the precursor of the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty.