On November 15, Stalin revealed the Decree on Nationality, which stated that the new Bolshevik government would treat all ethnic minorities within the Soviet sphere equally, and would respect the right of all minority nations (such as Ukraine, the Baltic peoples, and the Finnish) to secede from Russia. .
On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed; the Russians gave up Ukraine, most of Belorussia, the Baltic States, Poland, Transcaucasia, and Bessarabia. Stalin had initially argued against the treaty, agreeing with Trotsky that Russia could declare itself withdrawn from the war without having to sign any sort of diplomatic agreement. Stalin was, though, among the first of the dissenters to recant this objection and fall back into line behind Lenin. In the June of 1918, Stalin left Moscow (the new capital) and arrived in Volgograd (which, incidentally, would later be renamed Stalingrad) with a new job: "Director General of Food Supplies in the South of Russia". Russia was in the midst of a civil war between the Bolsheviks and a number of opponents (including a considerable number of foreign cadres--among them British, Czech, French, and American detachments). Stalin proved quite successful in this role, delivering large quantities of food from the lower Volga to Moscow and markedly improving the local railroad network. During the summer of 1918, Stalin's operations came under military attack by Cossacks and anti-Bolshevik forces from both the Caucasus and the Donets basin. Stalin appointed his own military commander (Voroshilov), who successfully defended the city. It was during this period that Stalin ordered his first executions (mostly of captured Whites and other various political prisoners). Stalin preferred to conduct the overall military operations in the lower Volga region himself, much to the chagrin of Leon Trotsky, who by now was the supreme commander of the Red Army.
