Explanation: After the Bolsheviks took power from the elected constituent assembly of Russia in 1918, the issue was raised of what to do about Russia’s continued presence in WW1 - very unpopular amongst the people, but the Entente (whom Russia was previously allied with) threatened the suspension of economic aid if Russia was pulled out of the war, and Imperial Germany had not reduced its (extreme) demands for some of the most productive areas of Russia to be ceded.

Of the major Bolshevik figures, Lenin, Trotsky (later of the Soviet Union’s Left Opposition, then exiled and assassinated by Stalin), and Bukharin (later of the Soviet Union’s Right Opposition, and executed by Stalin) all had different ideas of how to deal with the ongoing war.

Lenin, knowing that the war was deeply unpopular, favored signing a peace treaty and being done with it. The Bolsheviks had gained what popularity they had on the slogan “Peace, Land, Bread!” and peace was (seemingly) the easiest to immediately deliver.

Trotsky, who eventually won out, favored a curious position of “No War, No Peace”, wherein the Russian Army would not make any attacks, but not attempt to negotiate on the terms offered by Imperial Germany either. This… did not work out, and Germany would overrun static and unresponsive Russian forces, eventually forcing the Bolsheviks to sign a humiliating treaty that conceded to all of Imperial Germany’s maximalist demands.

Bukharin, however, favored continuing the war… not for the Entente, but the WORKERS! He believed that world revolution was at hand, and that Russia would lead the socialist charge only by overthrowing the tyrants suppressing the heart of socialist thought (as before the Soviet Union, Germany was the epicenter of most socialist agitation)! Germany, the land of thinkers and dreamers! Surely but a moment away from revolution!

Interestingly, Germany would have a democratic socialist revolution later that year, so Bukharin perhaps wasn’t entirely wrong! But Russian forces at that point were deeply demoralized and not particularly effective, so it’s doubtful that Bukharin’s plan would have worked.