During thePolish–Soviet War of 1919–1921,Soviet Russia and its client state,Soviet Ukraine, were in combat with the re-establishedSecond Polish Republic and the newly establishedUkrainian People's Republic. Both sides aimed to secure territory in the often disputed areas of theKresy (present-daywestern Ukraine andwestern Belarus), in the context of the fluidity of borders inCentral and Eastern Europe in the aftermath ofWorld War I and the breakdown of theAustrian,German, andRussian Empires. The first clashes between the two sides occurred in February 1919, but full-scale war did not break out until the following year. Especially at first, neither Soviet Russia, embroiled in theRussian Civil War, nor Poland, still in the early stages of state re-building, were in a position to formulate and pursue clear and consistent war aims.
In the winter of 1918–19 the recently established Russian Soviet Republic had already undertaken a "Westward Offensive", leading to the establishment ofSoviet client republics inLatvia,Lithuania andByelorussia. The overarching aim ofVladimir Lenin,Joseph Stalin andLev Trotsky was to spread theBolshevik revolution into Germany and other parts of Europe, while realising their limited capacity to engage in large-scale conflict in Europe. The Soviets built up forces positioned for an attack on Poland, although officially denying that an invasion was planned.
For their part, thePoles aimed to secure their independence, contain any resurgence of the Russian or German Empires, and reclaim areas in the east that had ethnic Polish populations as per the historicalPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth borders that existed prior to thePartitions of Poland. An ambitious plan formulated by Polish head of stateJózef Piłsudski aimed to create a wide "Intermarium" (Międzymorze) federation of independent states to the west of Russia, of which Poland would be the leading member. Limiting Russian control of Ukraine was essential to this plan, and Poland was alreadyat war with Ukrainian forces overEastern Galicia.
As 1919 progressed, Soviet forces conqueredKiev. In early 1920, Poland formed an alliance with theUkrainian People's Republic, which had lost much of its territory to the Russian Bolsheviks. Both Polish and Soviet forces in the theatre were rapidly increased, and full-scale war began with Poland'sKiev offensive into Soviet-controlled Ukraine.
The territory, where this conflict broke out, was a part of the medievalKievan Rus', and after the disintegration of this unitedRuthenian state (in the middle of the 12th century) belonged to the Ruthenian princedoms ofHalych-Volhynia,Polotsk,Lutsk,Terebovlia,Turov-Pinsk etc. The majority of these principalities have been ruined during theTatar–Mongol invasion in the middle of the 13th century. Some territories in theDnieper region and Black Sea Coast for long years lostRuthenian settled population and became the so-calledWild Steppe (i.e., territory of thePereyaslavl). After the Tatar–Mongol invasion these territories become an object of expansion of thePolish kingdom and theLithuanian princedom. For example, in the first half of 14th century Kiev, the Dniepr region, also the region between the riversPripyat andWest Dvina were captured by Lithuania, and in 1352 the Halych-Volhynia princedom was divided by Poland and Lithuania. In 1569, according to theLublin Union, the majority of the Ruthenian territories possessed by Lithuania, passed to thePolish crown. Theserfdom and Catholicism extended in these territories. The local aristocracy was incorporated into thePolish aristocracy. Cultural, language and religious break between the supreme and lowest layers of a society arose.
The combination of social, language, religious and cultural oppressions had led to destructivepopular uprisings of the middle of 17th century, which the Polish–Lithuanian state could not recover from.[1] In many territories incorporated into theRussian Empire in 1772–1795 afterthe partitions, the domination of the Polish aristocracy was kept, in the territories incorporated into theAustro-Hungarian Empire, the domination of the Polish aristocracy has been added with active planting of German language and culture. During the First World War Austro-Hungarian authorities undertook reprisals againstRussia-oriented people of theEastern Galicia and the Polish left-nationalist movement led byPiłsudski got the support of theCentral Powers for struggle against Russia. In the consequence of therevolution in Russia and the fall of Hohenzollern and Habsburg empires in the end of World War I Poland regained independence. The Polish leaders decided to retrieve as many of the territories that were parts of thePolish–Lithuanian state in 1772 as possible.
In theaftermath of World War I, the map of Central and Eastern Europe had drastically changed.[2] TheTreaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918), by which Russia had lost toImperial Germany all the European lands that Russia had seized in the previous two centuries, was rejected by the Bolshevik government in November 1918, followingarmistice, the surrender of Germany and her allies, and the end of World War I.
Germany, however, had not been keen to see Russia grow strong again and—exploiting her control of those territories, had quickly granted limited independence asbuffer states toFinland,Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania,Poland,Belarus andUkraine. As Germany's defeat rendered her plans for the creation of thoseMitteleuropapuppet states obsolete, and as Russia sank into the depths of theRussian Civil War, the newly emergent countries saw a chance for real independence and were not prepared to easily relinquish this rare gift of fate. At the same time, Russia saw these territories as rebellious Russian provinces but was unable to react swiftly, as it was weakened and in the process of transforming herself into theSoviet Union through theRussian Revolution and Russian Civil War that had begun in 1917.
With the success of theGreater Poland uprising in 1918, Poland had re-established itsstatehood for the first time since the1795 partition and seen the end of a 123 years of rule by three imperial neighbors:Russia,Germany, andAustria-Hungary. The country, reborn as aSecond Polish Republic, proceeded to carve out its borders from the territories of its former partitioners. TheWestern Powers, in delineating the new European borders after theTreaty of Versailles, had done so in a way unfavorable to Poland. Her western borders cut her off from thecoal-basin and industrial regions ofSilesia, leading to theSilesian Uprisings of 1919–1921. The easternCurzon line left millions of Poles, living east of theBug River, stranded inside Russia's borders.
Poland was not alone in its newfound opportunities and troubles. Most if not all of the newly independent neighbours began fighting over borders:Romania fought withHungary overTransylvania,Yugoslavia withItaly overRijeka, Poland withCzechoslovakia overCieszyn Silesia, with Germany overPoznań andwith Ukrainians overEastern Galicia (Galician War).Ukrainians, Belarusians,Lithuanians,Estonians andLatvians fought against themselves and against the Russians, who were just as divided.[3]
Spreading communist influences resulted in communist revolutions inMunich,Berlin,Budapest andPrešov.Winston Churchill commented: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies begin."[4] All of those engagements – with the sole exception of the Polish-Soviet war – would be short-lived 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.[5][6]
Poland, its territory a major frontline of the First World War, was unstable politically; it had just won the difficult conflict with the West Ukrainian National Republic and was already engaged in new conflicts with Germany (theSilesian Uprisings) andwith Czechoslovakia. Polish government was just beginning to organise and had little if any control over various border areas. Sixcurrencies affected by various (and rising rapidly)inflation rates were in circulation.Economy was in shambles, some areas were experiencing food shortages,crime was high and a threat of an armedcoup d'etat by some factions was serious.
The situation in Russia was similar. The attention of revolutionary Russia, meanwhile, was predominantly directed at thwarting counter-revolution andintervention by the western powers. Bolshevik Russia had barely survived its second winter ofblockade and resulting massstarvation and was in the middle of a bloody civil war. Lenin controlled only a part ofcentral Russia, and the Bolsheviks were surrounded by powerful enemies who needed to be defeated before any thought could be given to advance beyond the unclear Soviet borders. No matter their intent, Lenin and other communist leaders were simply incapable of moving beyond those borders. 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.[5]
Polish politics were under the strong influence of statesman and MarshalJózef Piłsudski, who envisioned a Polish-ledfederation (the "Federation ofMiędzymorze", akaIntermarium) comprisingPoland,Czechoslovakia,Hungary,Ukraine,Latvia,Lithuania,Estonia, and other Central and East European countries now re-emerging out of the crumbling empires after the First World War. The new union would have had borders similar to those of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 15th–18th centuries, and it was to be a counterweight to, and restraint upon, anyimperialist intentions of Russia and/or Germany. To this end, Polish forces set out to secure vast territories in the east. However Piłsudski's federation plan was opposed by another influential Polish politician,Roman Dmowski, who favoured creating a larger, national Polish state.
Poland had never any intention of joining the Western intervention in the Russian Civil War or conquering Russia, as it has done once in the 17th century during theDimitriads. On the contrary, after theWhite Russians refused to recognise Polish independence, Polish forces acting on orders from Piłsudski delayed or stopped their offensives several times, relieving pressure from Bolshevik forces and thus substantially contributing to White Russian defeat.[citation needed]
In April 1920, when the Red Army's major push towards Polish hinterlands took place, the soldiers and commanders were told that defeat of Poland was not only necessary but simply sufficient for the "oppressed masses of the proletariat" to rise worldwide and create a "workers' paradise." In the words of General Tukhachevski: "To the West! Over the corpse of White Poland lies the road to world-wide conflagration. March on Vilno, Minsk, Warsaw!".[7]
In late 1919 the leader of Russia's newcommunist government,Vladimir Lenin, was inspired by the Red Army's civil-war victories overWhite Russian anti-communist forces and their western allies, and began to see the future of the revolution with greater optimism. The Bolsheviks doctrine said that historical processes would lead toproletariat victory worldwide, and that thenation states would be replaced bya worldwide communist community. War with Poland was needed if the communist revolution in Russia was to be linked with the expected revolutions in the West, such asthe one in Germany. Early Bolshevikideology made it clear that Poland, which was located in between Russia and Germany, had to become the bridge that theRed Army would have to cross to fulfill theMarxist doctrine. It was not, however, until the Soviet successes in mid-1920 that this idea became for a short time dominant in Bolshevik policies.
Germany in 1918-1920 was a nation torn by social discontent and embroiled in political chaos. Since theKaiser'sabdication at the end of the First World War, it had seen a series of major internal disturbances, including government takeovers, severalgeneral strikes, some leading to communist revolutions (e.g. theBavarian Soviet Republic), By July 1920, which is when the Soviets were on the verge of takingWarsaw, theWeimar Constitution was still brand new and the humiliatingPeace of Versailles, even more so. Germany unstable government had to deal withseparatist tendencies, an ongoing conflict, not far from a civil war between theSpartacist League's andCommunist Party of Germany and the right-wingFreikorps, all under the watchful and humiliating eyes of the Allied powers. Red Army's remaking of the Versailles system was seen as a major force that could shake the existing system imposed by the victorious westernEntente. As Lenin himself remarked, "That was the time when everyone in Germany, including the blackest reactionaries and monarchists, declared that the Bolsheviks would be their salvation."
In April 1920 Lenin would complete writingThe Infantile Disease of "Leftism" in Communism, a guide to the final stages of the Revolution. He became overconfident, entertaining the thoughts of a serious war with Poland. According to him and his adherents, the Revolution in Russia was doomed unless it was to become worldwide. The debate in Russia was "not as to whether the Polish bridge should be crossed, but how and when." According to Lenin's doctrine of "revolution from outside" Red Army's advance into Poland would be an opportunity "to probe Europe with thebayonets of the Red Army", the first attempt toexport the Bolshevik Revolution by any means necessary. In atelegram, Lenin wrote: "We must direct all our attention to preparing and strengthening the WesternFront. A new slogan must be announced: Prepare for war against Poland."[8]
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