 Civil War broke out in Russia in late 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution, and Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the newly-formed Soviet Russia, recognised the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.Moreover, facing a German military advance, Lenin and Trotsky were forced to enter into the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ceded many western Russian territories to the German Empire.After Germany's collapse, a multinational Allied-led army intervened in the Russian Civil War (1917–22).