Treaty Gallery

Anastasia Bitsenko going to Brest-Litovsk peace meeting

Anastasia Bitsenko (also spelt Biecenko and Bizenko) in a motor car on the way to the peace negotiations which led to the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3rd March 1918 between the Central Powers headed by Germany and newly-Bolshevik Russia, marking the end of Russia's involvement in World War One. Bitsenko was one of the Soviet delegates. On 5th December 1905, she had shot and killed the former war minister Viktor Sakharov but was sentenced to imprisonment rather than death for the assassination. Date: C.1917

© Robert Hunt Library/Mary Evans

Signing the Treaty of Peace at Vienaa [sic]

Signing the Treaty of Peace at Vienaa [sic]. Coloured aquatint by J C Stadler after William Heath, published by Thomas Tegg, 1 April 1818. Wellington, with heads of state of Austria, Prussia and Russia. Illustration for a narrative poem by Dr Syntax, 1818. The Duke of Wellington signs the treaty, which was aimed at redrawing the continent's political map after the defeat of Napoleonic France. Across from him sits Tsar Alexander of Russia with King Frederick of Prussia standing to the Tsar?s right. Behind the table stands Marshal Blucher. The treaty was signed on 30 May 1814 and restored the Bourbon monarchy to the French throne and withdrew the nation?s borders to their 1792 locations. The treaty was hugely unpopular in France and helped mobilise support behind Napoleon on his return from exile and resumption of power in March 1815. Date: 1814

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

Welcome to the British Squadron to Japan

Following the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 British Military contingents arrived in Japan. The Alliance was to run for five years before being renewed, was primarily directed against the potential shared menace posed, it was believed, by France and (most probably) Russia in the Far East. The alliance obligated either power to remain neutral if one or other found itself at war. However, should either power be obliged to fight a war against two or more powers, the other signatory was obliged to provide military aid. This postcard (produced by Mitsukoshi, Ltd. an international department store chain with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan) featuring a Japanese woman in a garden setting, is a celebration of the arrival of the British Squadron in July, 1906. Date: 1906

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection