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The Polish-Soviet War (February and Belarus, which they viewed as a part of Foreign Intervention In The Russian Civil War . The frontiers between Poland and Soviet Russia had not been defined in the ; the crumbling of the Russian , German and Austrian empires; the Russian Civil War ; the Central Powers ' withdrawal from the Eastern Front ; and the attempts of Ukraine and Belarus to establish their independence. Poland's Chief Of State , Józef Piłsudski , felt the time expedient to expand Polish borders as far east as feasible, to be followed by the creation of a Polish-led federation ( Międzymorze ) of several states in the rest of East-Central Europe as a bulwark against the potential re-emergence of both German and Russian Imperialism . Lenin , meanwhile, saw Poland as the bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to assist Other Communist Movements and help conduct other European revolutions. By 1919 , the Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine, with victory in the Polish-Ukrainian War ; the West Ukrainian People's Republic had tried unsuccessfully to create a Ukrainian state on territories to which both Poles and the Ukrainians laid claim. At the same time, the Bolsheviks began to gain the upper hand in the Russian Civil War and advance westward towards the disputed territories. By the end of 1919 a clear front had formed. Border skirmishes escalated into open warfare following Piłsudski's Major Incursion Further East Into Ukraine in April 1920. He was met by a nearly simultaneous and initially very successful Red Army Counterattack . The Soviet operation threw the Polish forces back westward all the way to the Polish capital, Warsaw . Meanwhile, western fears of Soviet troops arriving at the German frontiers Increased The Interest Of Western Powers in the war. In midsummer, the fall of Warsaw seemed certain but in mid-August the tide had turned again as the Polish forces achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at the Battle Of Warsaw . In the wake of the Polish advance eastward, the Soviets sued for peace and the war ended with a Ceasefire in October 1920. A formal Peace Treaty , the Peace Of Riga , was signed on 18 March , 1921 , dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. The war largely determined the Soviet-Polish border for the Period Between The World Wars . NAMES AND DATES The war is referred to by several names. "Polish-Soviet War" may be the most common, but is potentially confusing since "Soviet" is usually thought of as relating to the or of the Civil War itself.--> Other points of contention are the starting and ending dates of the war. For example, was put in force in fall 1920, the Official Treaty Ending The War was signed months later, in March 1921. While the events of 1919 can be described as a border conflict and only in early 1920 did both sides realize that they were in fact engaged in an all-out war, the conflicts that took place in 1919 are closely related to the war that began in earnest a year later. In the end, the events of 1920 were only a logical, though unforeseen, consequence of the 1919 prelude. PRELUDE See Also: Causes of the Polish-Soviet War
In the , 2004. Last accessed on 2 June 2006. but was unable to react swiftly. With the success of the , Germany , and Austria-Hungary . The country, reborn as a Second Polish Republic , proceeded to carve out its borders from the territories of its former partitioners. Poland was not alone in its newfound opportunities and troubles. Virtually all of the newly independent neighbours began fighting over borders: , ''Germany and European Order'', Manchester University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-7190-5428-1 Google Print, p.75 All of those engagements – with the sole exception of the Polish-Soviet war – would be shortlived border conflicts. The Polish-Soviet war likely happened more by accident than design, as it is unlikely that anyone in Soviet Russia or in the new Second Republic of Poland would have deliberately planned a major foreign war.) and With Czechoslovakia . The attention of revolutionary Russia, meanwhile, was predominantly directed at thwarting counter-revolution and Intervention By The Western Powers . While the first clashes between Polish and Soviet forces occurred in February 1919, it would be almost a year before both sides realised that they were engaged in a full war. ]] .]] In late 1919 the leader of Russia's new .) Page 29 Lenin’s aim was to restore control of the territories ceded by Russia in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty was to infiltrate the borderlands, set up soviet governments there as well as in Poland, and reach Germany where he expected a socialist revolution to break out. He believed that Soviet Russia could not survive without the support of a socialist Germany. By the end of summer 1919 the Soviets managed to take over most of Ukraine, driving the Ukrainian government from Kiev. In early 1919, they also set up a Lithuanian-Belorussian Republic (Litbel). This government was very unpopular due to terror and the collection of food and goods for the army. It was not until after the Kiev Offensive had been repelled, however, that some of the Soviet leaders would see the war as the real opportunity to spread the revolution westwards. Ronald Grigor Suny , ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States'', Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508105-6, Google Print, p.106 Indeed, the Bolsheviks stated: Before the start of the Polish-Soviet War Polish politics were strongly influenced by Chief of State ('', 1921. Translated fom the Russian by Harriet E Kennedy B.A. London & Edinburgh, Sampson Low, Marston & Co Ltd 1921. Piłsudski said: “Poland can have nothing to do with the restoration of old Russia. Anything rather than that – even Bolshevism”. Quoted from this site . COURSE
1919 See Also: Polish-Soviet War in 1919 Chaos in Eastern Europe In 1918 the German Army in the east, under the command of Max Hoffmann , began to retreat westwards. The territories abandoned by the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria ) became a field of conflict among local governments created by Germany, other local governments that independently sprang up after the German retreat, and the Bolsheviks, who hoped to incorporate those areas into Soviet Russia. As a result, almost all of Eastern Europe was in chaos. On November 18 , 1918 , the Soviet Supreme Command issued orders to the Western Army of the Red Army to begin a Westward Movement that would follow the withdrawing German troops of Oberkommando Ostfront ( Ober-Ost ). The basic aim was to secure as much territory as possible with the few resources locally available. At the start of 1919, Polish-Soviet fighting broke out almost by accident and without any orders from the respective governments when self-organized Polish military units in Vilnius (Wilno) clashed with Bolshevik forces of Litbel , each trying to secure the territories for its own incipient government. Eventually the more organized Soviet forces quelled most of the resistance and drove the remaining Polish forces west. On January 5 , 1919, the Red Army entered Minsk almost unopposed, thus putting an end to the short-lived Belarusian People's Republic . At the same time, more and more Polish self-defense units sprang up across western Belarus and Lithuania (such as the Lithuanian And Belarusian Self-Defence ). Łukowski, Grzegorz and Rafał E. Stolarski , ''Walka o Wilno. Z dziejów Samoobrony Litwy i Białorusi, 1918-1919'' (''Fight for Wilno. From the history of the Self-Defence of Lithuania and Belarus, 1918-1919''), Adiutor, 1994, ISBN 83-900085-0-5 and engaged in a series of local skirmishes with pro-Bolshevik groups operating in the area. The newly organized Polish Army began sending the first of their units east to assist the self-defense forces, while the Russians sent their own units west. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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