Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, the workers across the Austro-Hungarian Empire became increasingly active around the issue of food shortages and a desire for a "peace without annexations. This led to the 1918 Austro-Hungarian January Strike in which Czernin had to personally intervene. On 24 January 1918, he announced he accepted Wilson's Fourteen Points. He then negotiated a separate peace treaty with the newly created Ukrainian People's Republic that was signed on 9 February 1918 and in which he agreed to cede Chelm. The so-called bread peace did not solve the Dual Monarchy's food supply problem, but it did earn Count von Czernin the loathing of Austrian Poles, who also had claimed Chelm. He reached the highlight of his career by subsequently signing peace treaties with Russia on 3 March and Romania on 14 April and was considered the leading diplomat of the Central Powers.