The nullification crisis was a dispute over the power of the states to reject unconstitutional federal laws.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's participation in World War I.
They wanted a better economy. Money, first and foremost. They wanted to get more money by stealing, taxing, trade and business. This was the main reason they wanted an empire (and I think they were speaking for the majority when they were thinking of empire).