Excerpt of "World War I": The greatest such case, stretching from Central Europe almost to the Volga, was Ukraine, with a population of 40 million and three quarters of the coal and iron of the Russian empire, and it was with her representatives (graduate students in shapeless suits, plus an opportunistic banker or two) that the Germans signed the filmed treaty on Feb. 9 (the treaty with the Bolsheviks followed, on March 3). With Ukraine, Russia is a USA; without, she is a Canada – mostly snow."
