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Soviet-Polish War (1919-1921)
Bereza Pinsk Lida Vilno Minsk (1) Berezina (1) Dvinsk Latichov Mozyr Korosten Kazatin Berezina (2) Kyiv (1) Kyiv (2) Volodarka Glubokoe Mironovka Olshanitsa Zhivotov Medvedovka Dzyunkov Vasilkovtsy Bystrik Brest (1) Grodno (1) Neman (1) Boryspil Auta Dubno Kobryn Lomza Brody Demblin Nasielsk Serock Radzymin Ossuv Warsaw Płock Wkra Kock Cycow Ciechanów Lviv Zadwuzhe Mława Białystok Komarov Dityatyn Neman (2) Grodno (2) Brest (2) Molodechno Minsk (2)

Soviet-Polish War(Polish wojna polsko-bolszewicka (wojna polsko-rosyjska) , Ukrainian Polish-Radian War) - an armed conflict between Poland and Soviet Russia, Soviet Belarus, Soviet Ukraine on the territory of the collapsed Russian Empire - Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in 1919–1921 during the Russian Civil War. In modern Polish historiography it is called the “Polish-Bolshevik War”. Troops of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic also took part in the conflict; in the first phase of the war they acted against Poland, then units of the UPR supported Polish troops.

Background

The main territories for the possession of which the war was fought until the middle of the 14th century were various ancient Russian principalities. After a period of internecine wars and the Tatar-Mongol invasion of 1240, they became objects of expansion by Lithuania and Poland. In the first half of the 14th century, Kyiv, the Dnieper region, the area between the Pripyat and Western Dvina rivers became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1352 the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality were divided between Poland and Lithuania. In 1569, according to the Union of Lublin between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some Ukrainian lands, previously part of the latter, came under the authority of the Polish crown. In - gg., as a result of three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, part of the lands (Western Belarus and most of Western Ukraine) came under the rule of the Russian crown, Galician territories became part of the Austrian monarchy.

Goals of the parties to the conflict

The main goal of the Polish leadership led by Józef Pilsudski was the restoration of Poland within the historical borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the establishment of control over Belarus, Ukraine (including Donbass) and Lithuania and geopolitical dominance in Eastern Europe:

On the Soviet side, the establishment of control over the western provinces of the former Russian Empire(Ukraine and Belarus) and their Sovietization, as a maximum program - the Sovietization of Poland, followed by Germany and the transition to world revolution. The Soviet leadership considered the war against Poland as part of the struggle against the entire Versailles international system that existed at that time.

Progress of the war

The situation in Eastern Europe at the end of 1918

Poland in 1918-1922

According to the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty of March 3, 1918, the western border of Soviet Russia was established along the line Riga - Dvinsk - Druya - Drisvyaty - Mikhalishki - Dzevilishki - Dokudova - r. Neman - r. Zelvinka - Pruzhany - Vidoml.

On January 1, 1919, the Belarusian SSR was proclaimed. On the same day, Polish units took control of Vilnius, but on January 6 the city was recaptured by units of the Red Army. On February 16, the authorities of the Byelorussian SSR proposed to the Polish government to determine the borders, but Warsaw ignored this proposal. On February 27, after Lithuania was included in the Byelorussian SSR, it was renamed the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR (Litbel Republic).

Poland could not provide significant assistance to the KZVO detachments, since part of the Polish troops were drawn into the border conflict with Czechoslovakia and were preparing for possible conflict with Germany for Silesia. , and there were still German troops in the western regions of Poland. Only after the intervention of the Entente on February 5, an agreement was signed that the Germans would let the Poles through to the east. As a result, on February 4, Polish troops occupied Kovel, on February 9 they entered Brest, and on February 19 they entered Bialystok, abandoned by the Germans. At the same time, Polish troops moving east liquidated the administration of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the Kholm region, Zhabinka, Kobrin and Vladimir-Volynsky.

On February 9 - 14, 1919, German troops allowed Polish units to reach the river line. Neman (to Skidel) - Zelvyanka river - river. Ruzhanka - Pruzhany - Kobrin. Soon units arrived there from the other side Western Front Red Army. Thus, a Polish-Soviet front was formed on the territory of Lithuania and Belarus. Although by February 1919 the Polish army nominally numbered more than 150 thousand people, the Poles initially had very insignificant forces in Belarus and Ukraine - 12 infantry battalions, 12 cavalry squadrons and three artillery batteries - only about 8 thousand people, the rest of the units were located on borders with Germany and Czechoslovakia or were in the process of formation. The size of the Soviet Western Army is estimated at 45 thousand people, however, after the occupation of Belarus, the most combat-ready units were transferred to other directions, where the position of the Red Army was extremely difficult. On February 19, the Western Army was transformed into the Western Front under the command of Dmitry Nadezhny.

To prepare for the offensive to the east, Polish troops in Belarus, which received reinforcements, were divided into three parts: the Polesie group was commanded by General Antoni Listovsky, the Volyn group - by General Edward Rydz-Smigly, on the Shchitno-Skidel line there was the Lithuanian-Belarusian division of General Vaclav Iwaszkiewicz-Rudoshansky . To the south of them were the divisions of generals Juliusz Rummel and Tadeusz Rozwadowski.

The offensive of Polish troops in Belarus

At the end of February, Polish troops crossed the Neman and launched an offensive in Belarus (which had been in a federation with the RSFSR since February 3). On February 28, General Ivashkevich’s units attacked Soviet troops along the Shchara River and occupied Slonim on March 1, and Listovsky’s units took Pinsk on March 2. The task of both groups was to prevent the concentration of Soviet troops along the Lida-Baranovichi-Luninets line and to prepare for the occupation of Grodno after the withdrawal of German troops from there. Soon Ivashkevich was replaced by Stanislav Sheptytsky.

Jozef Pilsudski in Minsk. 1919

On April 17 - 19, the Poles occupied Lida, Novogrudok and Baranovichi, and on April 19, the Polish cavalry entered Vilna. Two days later, Józef Pilsudski arrived there and made an appeal to the Lithuanian people, in which he proposed that Lithuania return to the union of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, Polish troops in Belarus under the command of Stanislav Sheptytsky continued to move east, receiving reinforcements from Poland - on April 28, the Poles occupied the city of Grodno, abandoned by the Germans. In May-July, the Polish units were replenished with the 70,000-strong army of Józef Haller, transported from France. At the same time, Western Ukraine comes under the control of the Poles - on June 25, 1919, the Council of Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, France, the USA, and Italy authorizes Poland to occupy eastern Galicia up to the river. Zbruch. By July 17, eastern Galicia was completely occupied by the Polish army, and the administration of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR) was liquidated.

The offensive of Polish troops in Belarus continued - on July 4, Molodechno was occupied, and on July 25, Slutsk came under Polish control. The commander of the Soviet Western Front, Dmitry Nadezhny, was removed from his post on July 22, and Vladimir Gittis was appointed in his place. However, the Soviet troops in Belarus did not receive significant reinforcements, since the Soviet General Staff sent all reserves to the south against Anton Denikin’s Volunteer Army, which launched an attack on Moscow in July.

Front in December 1919

Meanwhile, in August, Polish troops again went on the offensive, the main goal of which was Minsk. After a six-hour battle on August 9, Polish troops captured the Belarusian capital, and on August 29, despite stubborn resistance from the Red Army, Bobruisk was captured by the Poles. In October, units of the Red Army launched a counterattack on the city, but were defeated. After this, the fighting died down until it began next year: The parties entered into a truce. This was explained by the reluctance of the Entente countries and Anton Denikin to support plans for further Polish expansion. A long negotiation process began.

Diplomatic struggle

As mentioned above, the successes of the Polish troops in Belarus were largely due to the fact that the leadership of the Red Army sent the main forces to defend the southern direction from the advancing troops of Anton Denikin. Denikin, like the White movement as a whole, recognized the independence of Poland, but was opposed to Polish claims to the lands east of the Bug, believing that they should be part of a single and indivisible Russia.

The Entente's position on this issue coincided with Denikin's - in December the Declaration on the eastern border of Poland (see Curzon Line), coinciding with the line of ethnographic predominance of the Poles, was announced. At the same time, the Entente demanded that Pilsudski provide military assistance to Denikin’s troops and resume the offensive in Belarus. However, at that time, the Polish troops were located significantly east of the Curzon line and the Pilsudski government did not intend to leave the occupied territories. After months of negotiations in Taganrog between Denikin and Pilsudski's representative, General Alexander Karnicki, ended without result, Polish-Soviet negotiations began.

A conversation took place in Mikashevichi between Julian Marchlewski and Ignacy Börner. The release of political prisoners was expected - a list was compiled of 1,574 Poles imprisoned in the RSFSR and 307 communists in Polish prisons. The Bolsheviks demanded a plebiscite in Belarus among the local population on the issue government structure and territorial affiliation. The Poles, in turn, demanded the transfer of Dvinsk to Latvia and the cessation of hostilities against the UPR of Petliura, with which they had by this time entered into an alliance.

Although the negotiations ended without results, the break in hostilities allowed Pilsudski to suppress the pro-Soviet opposition, and the Red Army to transfer reserves to the Belarusian direction and develop an offensive plan.

Polish offensive in Ukraine

After failure peace talks fighting resumed. In early January 1920, the troops of Edward Rydz-Smigly took Dvinsk with an unexpected blow and then handed the city over to the Latvian authorities. On March 6, Polish troops launched an offensive in Belarus, capturing Mozyr and Kalinkovichi. Four attempts by the Red Army to recapture Mozyr were unsuccessful, and the Red Army’s offensive in Ukraine also ended in failure. The commander of the Western Front, Vladimir Gittis, was removed from his post, and 27-year-old Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who had previously proven himself during the battles against the troops of Kolchak and Denikin, was appointed in his place. Also, for better command and control of troops, the southern part of the Western Front was transformed into the Southwestern Front, the commander of which was appointed Alexander Egorov.

The balance of forces on the Soviet-Polish front by May 1920 was as follows:

On the southern sector of the front - from the Dnieper to Pripyat:

Polish Army:

6th Army of General Vaclav Iwaszkiewicz
2nd Army of General Antoni Listovsky
3rd Army of General Edward Rydz-Smigly

A total of 30.4 thousand bayonets and 4.9 thousand sabers.

12th Army of Sergei Mezheninov
14th Army of Hieronymus Uborevich

A total of 13.4 thousand bayonets and 2.3 thousand sabers.

On the northern section of the front - between Pripyat and Western Dvina:

Polish Army

4th Army (Polesie and Berezina region) General Stanislav Sheptytsky
Operational group of General Leonard Skersky (Borisov area)
1st Army (Dvina region) General Stefan Mayevsky
Reserve Army of General Kazimierz Sosnkowski

A total of 60.1 thousand bayonets and 7 thousand sabers.

15th Army of Augustus Cork
16th Army of Nikolai Sollogub

A total of 66.4 thousand bayonets and 4.4 thousand sabers.

Thus, in Belarus the forces were approximately equal, and in Ukraine the Poles had an almost threefold numerical superiority, which the Polish command decided to make maximum use of by transferring additional troops to this direction with a total force of 10 thousand bayonets and 1 thousand sabers. In addition, the actions of the Poles, in accordance with the agreement, were supported by Petliura’s troops, numbering about 15 thousand people at that time.

Polish-Ukrainian troops enter Kyiv. Khreshchatyk, 1920

On April 25, 1920, Polish troops attacked the positions of the Red Army along the entire length Ukrainian border and by April 28 they occupied the line Chernobyl - Kozyatin - Vinnitsa - Romanian border. Sergei Mezheninov, not risking engaging in battle, withdrew the troops of the 12th Army, parts of which were scattered at a great distance from each other, lost unified control and needed to be regrouped. During these days, the Poles captured more than 25 thousand Red Army soldiers, captured 2 armored trains, 120 guns and 418 machine guns. On May 7, the Polish cavalry entered Kyiv, abandoned by units of the Red Army, and soon the Poles managed to create a bridgehead up to 15 km deep on the left bank of the Dnieper.

The offensive of the Red Army in the spring-summer of 1920

Tukhachevsky decided to take advantage of the diversion of part of the forces of the Polish army from the Belarusian direction and on May 14 launched an offensive on the Polish positions with the forces of 12 infantry divisions. Despite the initial success, by May 27, the offensive of the Soviet troops had stalled, and on June 1, the 4th and parts of the 1st Polish armies launched a counteroffensive against the 15th Soviet army and by June 8 inflicted a heavy defeat on it (the army lost killed, wounded and more than 12 thousand soldiers were captured).

On the Southwestern Front, the situation was turned in the Soviet favor with the deployment of the 1st Cavalry Army of Semyon Budyonny, transferred from the Caucasus (16.7 thousand sabers, 48 guns, 6 armored trains and 12 aircraft). It left Maykop on April 3, defeated Nestor Makhno’s troops in Gulyai-Polye, and crossed the Dnieper north of Yekaterinoslav (May 6). On May 26, after the concentration of all units in Uman, the 1st Cavalry attacked Kozatin, and on June 5, Budyonny, having groped weakness in the Polish defense, broke through the front near Samogorodok and went to the rear of the Polish units, advancing on Berdichev and Zhitomir. On June 10, the 3rd Polish Army of Rydz-Smigly, fearing encirclement, left Kyiv and moved to the Mazovia region. Two days later, the 1st Cavalry Army entered Kyiv. Attempts by Egorov's small troops to prevent the retreat of the 3rd Army ended unsuccessfully. Polish troops, having regrouped, tried to go on a counteroffensive: on July 1, the troops of General Leon Berbetsky struck the front of the 1st Cavalry Army near Rovno. This offensive was not supported by adjacent Polish units and Berbetsky's troops were driven back. Polish troops made several more attempts to capture the city, but on July 10 it finally came under the control of the Red Army.

To the west!

To the West, workers and peasants!
Against the bourgeoisie and landowners,
for the international revolution,
for the freedom of all peoples!
Fighters of the workers' revolution!
Turn your eyes to the West.
The fate of the world revolution is being decided in the West.
Through the corpse of white Poland lies the path to world fire.
Let's carry happiness on bayonets
and peace to working humanity.
To the west!
To decisive battles, to resounding victories!
…

At dawn on July 4, Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Western Front again went on the offensive. The main blow was delivered on the right, northern flank, on which an almost twofold superiority in men and weapons was achieved. The idea of the operation was to bypass the Polish units with Guy's cavalry corps and push back the Polish Belorussian Front To Lithuanian border. This tactic brought success: on July 5, the 1st and 4th Polish armies began to quickly retreat in the direction of Lida, and, unable to gain a foothold on the old line of German trenches, retreated to the Bug at the end of July. In a short period of time, the Red Army advanced more than 600 km: on July 10, the Poles left Bobruisk, on July 11 - Minsk, on July 14, units of the Red Army took Vilna. On July 26, in the Bialystok area, the Red Army crossed directly into Polish territory, and on August 1, despite Pilsudski’s orders, Brest was surrendered to Soviet troops almost without resistance.

On July 23, in Smolensk, the Bolsheviks formed the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Poland (Polrevkom), which was supposed to assume full power after the capture of Warsaw and the overthrow of Pilsudski. The Bolsheviks officially announced this on August 1 in Bialystok, where Polrevkom was located. . The committee was headed by Julian Marchlewski. On the same day, August 1, Polrevkom announced the “Appeal to the Polish working people of cities and villages,” written by Dzerzhinsky. The “Appeal” announced the creation of the Polish Republic of Soviets, the nationalization of lands, the separation of church and state, and also contained an appeal to workers to drive away capitalists and landowners, occupy factories and factories, and create revolutionary committees as government bodies (65 such revolutionary committees were formed) . The committee called on the soldiers of the Polish Army to mutiny against Pilsudski and defect to the side of the Polish Republic of Soviets. Polrevkom also began to form the Polish Red Army (under the command of Roman Longwa), but did not achieve any success in this.

Polish trenches near Milosna, August 1920

Poland's position had become critical by the beginning of August - not only due to the rapid retreat in Belarus, but also due to the deterioration international situation countries. Great Britain actually stopped providing military and economic assistance to Poland, Germany and Czechoslovakia closed their borders with Poland, and Danzig remained the only point of delivery of goods to the republic. As the Red Army troops approached Warsaw, the evacuation of foreign diplomatic missions began from there.

Front in August 1920.

Meanwhile, the position of the Polish troops worsened not only in the Belarusian, but also in the Ukrainian direction, where the Southwestern Front again went on the offensive under the command of Alexander Egorov (with Stalin as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council). The main goal of the front was the capture of Lvov, which was defended by three infantry divisions of the 6th Polish Army and the Ukrainian army under the command of Mikhailo Omelyanovich-Pavlenko. On July 9, the 14th Army of the Red Army took Proskurov (Khmelnitsky), and on July 12 it stormed Kamenets-Podolsky. On July 25, the Southwestern Front began the Lvov offensive operation, however, he was never able to capture Lvov.

Battle of Warsaw

On August 12, the troops of Mikhail Tukhachevsky’s Western Front went on the offensive, the goal of which was to capture Warsaw.

Composition of the Western Front:

3rd Cavalry Corps Guy Guy
4th Army of Alexander Shuvaev
15th Army of Augustus Cork
3rd Army of Vladimir Lazarevich
16th Army of Nikolai Sollogub
Mozyr group of Tikhon Khvesin

The two fronts of the Red Army were opposed by three Polish ones: Northern Front of General Józef Haller

5th Army of General Wladislav Sikorski
1st Army of General Frantisek Latinik
2nd Army of General Bolesław Roja

Central Front of General Edward Rydz-Smigly:

4th Army of General Leonard Skersky
3rd Army of General Zygmunt Zielinski

Southern Front of General Vaclav Iwaszkiewicz:

6th Army of General Władysław Jędrzejewski
UPR Army of General Mikhailo Omelyanovich-Pavlenko

The total number of personnel differs in all sources. We can only say with confidence that the forces were approximately equal and did not exceed 200 thousand people on each side.

Mikhail Tukhachevsky's plan included crossing the Vistula in the lower reaches and attacking Warsaw from the west. According to some assumptions made, the purpose of “deviating” the direction of the attack of Soviet troops to the north was to quickly reach the German border, which was supposed to speed up the establishment of Soviet power in this country. 13 August two rifle divisions The Red Army struck near Radimin (23 km from Warsaw) and captured the city. Then one of them moved towards Prague, and the second turned right - towards Nieporent and Jablonna. Polish forces retreated to the second line of defense.

The Polish counteroffensive plan included concentration large forces on the Wieprz River and a sudden attack from the southeast to the rear of the troops of the Western Front. For this purpose, two strike groups were formed from the two armies of the Central Front of General Edward Rydz-Śmigły. However, order 8358/III fell into the hands of the Red Army soldiers on a counterattack near Wiepsz with detailed map, But Soviet command considered the found document to be disinformation, the purpose of which was to disrupt the Red Army's attack on Warsaw. On the same day, Polish radio intelligence intercepted an order from the 16th Army to attack Warsaw on August 14. To get ahead of the Reds, on the orders of Józef Haller, Wladislav Sikorski's 5th Army, defending Modlin, from the area of the Wkra River struck Tukhachevsky's extended front at the junction of the 3rd and 15th armies and broke through it. On the night of August 15, two reserve Polish divisions attacked Soviet troops from the rear near Radimin. Soon the city was taken.

On August 16, Marshal Pilsudski began implementing the planned counterattack. The information received by radio intelligence about the weakness of the Mozyr group played a role. Having concentrated more than a double superiority against it (47.5 thousand soldiers against 21 thousand), Polish troops (the first strike group under the command of Pilsudski himself) broke through the front and defeated the southern wing of Nikolai Sollogub’s 16th Army. At the same time, an attack was underway on Włodawa by the forces of the 3rd Legion Infantry Division, as well as, with the support of tanks, on Minsk-Mazowiecki. This created a threat of encirclement of all Red Army troops in the Warsaw area.

"Battle of Komarov". Hood. Jerzy Kossak

In the summer of 1920, Stalin, sent to the Polish front, encouraged Budyonny to disobey command orders to transfer the 1st Cavalry Army from near Lvov to the Warsaw direction, which, according to some historians, had fatal consequences for the Red Army campaign. Tucker Robert Stalin. The path to power. page 16

Only on August 20, after a sharp demand from the central leadership, the 1st Cavalry Army began moving north. By the time the 1st Cavalry Army began to march from near Lvov, the troops of the Western Front had already begun an unorganized retreat to the east. On August 19, the Poles occupied Brest, and on August 23, Bialystok. On the same day, the 4th Army and the 3rd Cavalry Corps of Guy Guy and two divisions from the 15th Army (about 40 thousand people in total) crossed the German border and were interned. At the end of August, through Sokal, the 1st Cavalry Army struck in the direction of Zamosc and Grubeshov, in order to then, through Lublin, reach the rear of the Polish attack group advancing to the north. However, the Poles advanced the General Staff's 1st Cavalry reserves to meet them. On August 31, 1920, the largest equestrian battle since 1813 took place near Komarov. Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army entered into battle with Rummel's 1st Polish cavalry division. Despite the superiority in numbers (7,000 sabers versus 2,000 sabers), Budyonny’s army, exhausted in the battles for Lvov, was defeated, losing more than 4,000 people killed. Rummel's losses amounted to about 500 soldiers. Budyonny's army, and behind it the troops of the Southwestern Front, were forced to retreat from Lvov and go on the defensive.

Polish soldiers display Red Army banners captured in the Battle of Warsaw

As a result of the defeat near Warsaw, Soviet troops on the Western Front suffered heavy losses. According to some estimates, during the Battle of Warsaw, 25 thousand Red Army soldiers died, 60 thousand were captured by Poland, 40 thousand were interned by the Germans. Several thousand people went missing. The front also lost a large amount of artillery and equipment. Polish losses are estimated at 15 thousand killed and missing and 22 thousand wounded.

Fighting in Belarus

After the retreat from Poland, Tukhachevsky consolidated himself on the line of the Neman - Shchara - Svisloch rivers, using German fortifications remaining from the First World War as a second line of defense. The Western Front received large reinforcements from the rear areas, and 30 thousand people from among those interned in East Prussia. Gradually, Tukhachevsky was able to almost completely restore the combat strength of the front: on September 1, he had 73 thousand soldiers and 220 guns. By order of Kamenev, Tukhachevsky was preparing a new offensive.

The Poles were also preparing for the attack. The attack on Grodno and Volkovysk was supposed to tie up the main forces of the Red Army and enable the 2nd Army to reach the deep rear of the advanced units of the Red Army through the territory of Lithuania, holding the defense on the Neman. On September 12, Tukhachevsky gave the order to attack Wlodawa and Brest with the southern flank of the Western Front, including the 4th and 12th armies. Since the order was intercepted and deciphered by Polish radio intelligence, on the same day the Poles launched a pre-emptive strike, broke through the defenses of the 12th Army and took Kovel. This disrupted the general offensive of the Red Army troops and threatened the encirclement of the southern group of the Western Front and forced the 4th, 12th and 14th armies to retreat to the east.

The defense of the Western Front on the Neman was held by three armies: the 3rd of Vladimir Lazarevich, the 15th of August Kork and the 16th of Nikolai Sollogub (in total about 100 thousand soldiers, about 250 guns). They were opposed by the Polish group of Jozef Pilsudski: the 2nd Army of General Edward Rydz-Smigly, the 4th Army of General Leonard Skerski, the reserve of the commander-in-chief (about 100 thousand soldiers in total).

On September 20, 1920, the bloody battle for Grodno began. At first, the Poles were successful, but on September 22, Tukhachevsky’s troops brought up reserves and restored the situation. Meanwhile, Polish troops invaded Lithuania and moved towards Druskenniki (Druskininkai). Having captured the bridge across the Neman, the Poles flanked the Western Front. On September 25, unable to stop the Polish advance, Tukhachevsky gave the order to withdraw troops to the east. On the night of September 26, the Poles occupied Grodno, and soon crossed the Neman south of the city. Lazarevich's 3rd Army, retreating to the east, was unable to restore the front and withdrew to the Lida region with heavy losses. On September 28, however, Soviet troops were unable to capture the city already occupied by the enemy and were soon defeated (most of the personnel were captured).

Pilsudski intended to build on his success, encircle and destroy the remaining troops of the Western Front at Novogrudok. However, the Polish units, weakened in battle, were unable to carry out this order and the Red Army troops were able to regroup and organize defense.

During the Battle of the Neman, Polish troops captured 40 thousand prisoners, 140 guns, a large number of horses and ammunition. Fighting in Belarus continued until the signing of the peace treaty in Riga. On October 12, the Poles re-entered Minsk and Molodechno.

Terror against civilians

During the war, troops from both countries carried out executions. civilian population and at the same time, Polish troops carried out ethnic cleansing, the targets of which were mainly Jews. The leadership of both the Red Army and the Polish Army initiated official investigations into the results of such actions and tried to prevent them.

The first documented use of weapons against non-combatants was the shooting by the Poles of the Russian Red Cross mission on January 2, 1919; this act was most likely committed by the Polish Self-Defense units, since the regular Polish army had not yet left Poland. In March 1919, after the Polish army occupied Pinsk, the Polish commandant ordered the shooting of 40 Jews who had gathered for prayer, who were mistaken for a Bolshevik meeting. Some of the hospital staff were also shot. . In April of the same year, the capture of Vilnius by the Poles was accompanied by massacres of captured Red Army soldiers, Jews and people sympathizing with the Soviet regime. The offensive of Polish troops in Ukraine in the spring of 1920 was accompanied by pogroms and mass executions of Jews: in the city of Rovno, the Poles shot more than 3 thousand civilians, in the town of Tetiev about 4 thousand Jews were killed, the villages of Ivanovtsy, Kucha, Sobachi were completely burned for resistance to food requisitions. Yablunovka, Novaya Greblya, Melnichi, Kirillovka and others, their residents were shot. Polish historians question these data; according to the Brief Jewish Encyclopedia, the massacre in Tetiev was carried out not by Poles, but by Ukrainians - a detachment of Ataman Kurovsky (Petlyurite, former Red commander) on March 24, 1920. A representative of the Polish Civil Administration of the Eastern Lands (the Polish administration in the occupied territories), M. Kossakovsky, testified that the Polish military exterminated people only because they “looked like Bolsheviks.”

A special place in terror against the civilian population is occupied by the activities of the Belarusian units of “ataman” Stanislav Balakhovich, who at first were subordinate to the Polish command, but after the truce acted independently. The Polish military prosecutor, Colonel Lisovsky, who investigated complaints about the actions of Balakhovich’s men, described the activities of Balakhovich’s division as follows:

...Balakhovich's army is a gang of robbers that transports stolen gold. To occupy a city, an army is sent, whose soldiers rob and kill. And only after numerous pogroms, two days later, Balakhovich arrives with his headquarters. After the robbery, drinking begins. ...As for Balakhovich, he allows plunder, otherwise they would refuse to move forward... every officer who joins Balakhovich's army pours mud on himself that cannot be washed away.

An investigation conducted by Colonel Lisovsky, in particular, established that in Turov alone, Balakhovites raped 70 Jewish girls aged 12 to 15 years.

Excerpt from the testimony of H. Gdanski and M. Blumenkrank to the investigation, given in the book of the Polish researcher Marek Kabanovsky “General Stanislav Bulak-Balachovich” (Warsaw, 1993):

[…] On the way there we met a Balakhov captain. He asked:
-Who are you leading?
- Jews...
- Shoot them.
There was another Jew with us - Marshalkovich.
The guards ordered us to lower our underwear and lick each other's asses. Then they also forced us to urinate in each other’s mouths and do other abominations... And the men were gathered around and ordered to watch all this... They forced us to have sexual intercourse with a chick. They raped us and scolded us on our faces...
Blumenkrank could not bear the abuse and asked to be shot. Marshalkovich is still ill after suffering bullying.

A resident of Mozyr, A. Naidich, described the events in the capital of the BPR Mozyr after the capture of the city by the Balakhovites (GA RF. F. 1339. Op. 1. D. 459. L. 2-3.):

At 5 o'clock. In the evening the Balakhovites entered the city. The peasant population joyfully greeted the Balakhovites, but the Jews hid in their apartments. Now the pogrom began with mass rape, beatings, bullying and murders. Officers participated in the pogrom along with soldiers. A small part of the Russian population robbed the shops opened by the Balakhovites. All night long there were heartbreaking screams throughout the city...”

The report of the commission for registering victims of Balakhovich’s raid in Mozyr district stated that

Girls from 12 years old, women 80 years old, women with an 8-month pregnancy... were subjected to violence, and violence was committed from 15 to 20 times. Although the local commission that was formed for examination and assistance promised complete preservation of medical confidentiality, the number of people seeking help reaches only about 300 women, most of whom are sick with sexually transmitted diseases or become pregnant...

On the Soviet side, Budyonny’s army gained fame as the main pogrom force. Particularly large pogroms were carried out by Budennovites in Baranovka, Chudnov and Rogachev. In particular, from September 18 to 22, the 6th Cavalry Division of this army committed more than 30 pogroms; in the town of Lyubar on September 29, during a pogrom, 60 people were killed by division soldiers; in Priluki, on the night of October 3, 12 people were wounded, 21 were killed “and many women were raped.” At the same time, “women were shamelessly raped in front of everyone, and girls, like slaves, were dragged away by beasts and bandits to their carts.” In Vakhnovka on October 3, 20 people were killed, many were wounded and raped, and 18 houses were burned. After on September 28, while trying to stop the pogrom in the town of Polonnoye, the commissar of the 6th division G. G. Shepelev was killed, the division was disbanded, and two brigade commanders and several hundred ordinary soldiers were put on trial and 157 were shot.

Polish officers captured by the Red Army were certainly shot on the spot, as were Bolshevik commissars captured by the Poles.

The fate of prisoners of war

Captured Red Army soldiers in the Tukholsky camp

There is still no exact data about the fate of Polish and Soviet prisoners of war. According to Russian sources, about 80 thousand Red Army soldiers out of 200 thousand who were captured by Poland died from hunger, disease, torture, bullying and executions

Polish sources give figures of 85 thousand prisoners (at least that many people were in Polish camps at the end of the war), of which about 20 thousand died. They were kept in the camps remaining after the First World War - Strzałkow (the largest), Dombier, Pikulice, Wadowice and Tuchol concentration camp. According to the 1921 agreement on the exchange of prisoners (addition to the Riga Peace Treaty), 65 thousand captured Red Army soldiers returned to Russia. If the information about 200 thousand captured and the death of 80 thousand of them is correct, then the fate of about 60 thousand more people is unclear.

The mortality rate in Polish camps reached 20% of the number of prisoners, mainly the cause of death was epidemics, which, in conditions of poor nutrition, overcrowding and lack of medical care, quickly spread and had a high mortality rate. This is how a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross described the camp in Brest:

A sickening smell emanates from the guardhouses, as well as from the former stables in which prisoners of war were housed. The prisoners are chillingly huddling around a makeshift stove where several logs are burning - the only way to warm themselves. At night, sheltering from the first cold weather, they lie in close rows in groups of 300 people in poorly lit and poorly ventilated barracks, on planks, without mattresses or blankets. The prisoners are mostly dressed in rags... due to the overcrowding of the premises, unsuitable for habitation; close cohabitation of healthy prisoners of war and infectious patients, many of whom died immediately; malnutrition, as evidenced by numerous cases of malnutrition; swelling, hunger during the three months of stay in Brest - the camp in Brest-Litovsk was a real necropolis.

In the prisoner of war camp in Strzalkow, among other things, numerous abuses of prisoners took place, for which the camp commandant, Lieutenant Malinowski, was later put on trial.

Of the 60 thousand Polish prisoners of war after the end of the war, 27,598 people returned to Poland, about 2 thousand remained in the RSFSR. The fate of the remaining 32 thousand is unclear.

The role of the “great powers” in the conflict

The Soviet-Polish war took place simultaneously with the intervention in Russia of the Entente countries, which actively supported Poland from the moment of its re-establishment as independent state. In this regard, Poland's war against Russia was considered by the "great powers" as part of the struggle against the Bolshevik government.

The Polish "Blue Army" was so named because of the blue French uniforms it wore.

However, the Entente countries' opinions regarding the possible strengthening of Poland as a result of the conflict differed greatly - the United States and France advocated all possible assistance to the Pilsudski government and took part in the creation of the Polish army, while Great Britain was inclined to limited assistance to Poland, and then to political neutrality in this conflict. The participation of the Entente countries concerned economic, military and diplomatic support for Poland.

From February to August 1919, Poland received 260,000 tons of food worth $51 million from the United States. In 1919, Poland received $60 million worth of military equipment from US military warehouses in Europe alone; in 1920, $100 million worth. In the spring of 1920, England, France and the USA supplied Poland with 1,494 guns, 2,800 machine guns, about 700 aircraft, and 10 million shells. The US military fought together with the Poles - the Kosciuszko squadron, which operated against Budyonny’s army, was made up of US pilots and was commanded by US Colonel Fauntleroy. In July 1919, a 70,000-strong army arrived in Poland, created in France mainly from emigrants of Polish origin from France and the United States. French involvement in the conflict was also reflected in the activities of hundreds of French officers, led by General Maxime Weygand, who arrived in 1920 to train Polish troops and assist the Polish General Staff. Among the French officers in Poland was Charles de Gaulle.

American pilots of the squadron named after. Kosciuszko M. Cooper and S. Fauntleroy

Britain's position was more restrained. The Curzon Line, proposed by the British minister as the eastern border of Poland in December 1919, assumed the establishment of a border west of the front line at that time and the withdrawal of Polish troops. Six months later, when the situation had changed, Curzon again proposed to fix the border along this line, otherwise the Entente countries pledged to support Poland “with all the means at their disposal.” Thus, throughout virtually the entire war, Great Britain advocated a compromise version of the division of the disputed territories (along the eastern border of the Poles).

However, even in the conditions of Poland's critical military situation, Great Britain did not provide it with any military support. In August 1920, a conference of trade unions and labor voted for a general strike if the government continued to support Poland and tried to intervene in the conflict; further shipments of ammunition to Poland were simply sabotaged. At the same time, the International Federation of Trade Unions in Amsterdam instructed its members to strengthen the embargo on ammunition destined for Poland. Only France and the United States continued to provide assistance to the Poles, but Germany and Czechoslovakia, with whom Poland managed to enter into border conflicts over disputed territories, at the end of July 1920 banned the transit of weapons and ammunition through their territory for Poland.

The reduction in assistance from the Entente countries played a significant role in the fact that after the victory at Warsaw, the Poles were unable to build on their success and defeat the Soviet troops of the Western Front. A change in Britain's diplomatic position (under the influence of the trade unions, which were in turn secretly financed by the Soviet government) precipitated the conclusion of the Riga Peace Treaty.

Results of the war

Polish-Soviet border after the war

Belarusian caricature on the division of Belarus between Russia and Poland: “Down with the shameful Riga division! Long live the free, undivided, people's Belarus!”

Neither side achieved its goals during the war: Belarus and Ukraine were divided between Poland and the republics that became part of the Soviet Union in 1922. The territory of Lithuania was divided between Poland and the independent by the state of Lithuania. The RSFSR, for its part, recognized the independence of Poland and the legitimacy of the Pilsudski government, and temporarily abandoned plans for a “world revolution” and the liquidation Versailles system. Despite the signing of a peace treaty, relations between the two countries remained tense for the next twenty years, which ultimately led to the Soviet participation in the partition of Poland in 1939.

Disagreements between the Entente countries that arose in 1920 on the issue of military-financial support for Poland led to the gradual cessation of support by these countries for the White movement and anti-Bolshevik forces in general, and subsequent international recognition of the Soviet Union.

Notes

Literature

Raisky N. S. The Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920 and the fate of prisoners of war, internees, hostages and refugees. - M., 1999. ISBN 0-7734-7917-1
“FROM THE WAR OF 1914 TO THE WAR OF 1939” (using the example of Poland). “Russian binding”, http://www.pereplet.ru/history/suvorov/suv_polsh.htm
Soloviev S. M. “History of Russia since ancient times”, M., 2001, ISBN 5-17-002142-9

At the beginning of the twentieth century, an undeclared Soviet-Polish war occurred, during which the Bolshevik leadership and the government of Jozef Pilsudski tried to resolve pressing territorial issues.

Background to the conflict and its causes

Since 1815, Poland was part of the Russian Empire. During the First World War, these territories were occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian troops, who, in order to gain support from the local population, declared Poland a formally independent state. The Petrograd Provisional Government also turned to the Polish leadership, proposing independence on Russian terms: drawing the border along ethnographic lines (that is, transferring Galicia and Silesia to Poland), as well as concluding peace with Russia.

The foreign policy of the Provisional Government was partially continued by Vladimir Lenin. One of the first events of the Bolsheviks after the victory of the Great October revolution There was the signing at the end of 1917 of several decrees that granted independence to many territories that were once part of the Russian Empire. The newly formed independent countries included Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.

Before the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which ended the First World War, there were German garrisons in Poland. But at the end of the autumn of 1918, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, a talented and decisive politician who set several main goals for the country, became the ruler of Poland:

Clear the country of German occupiers;
Oppose Bolshevism;
To revive the former Polish greatness and create a second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth within the borders of 1772 (that is, to include the western parts of Ukraine and Belarus into the state).

From a historical point of view, the Polish national-patriotic movement arose at a very opportune moment: Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary were exhausted by the world war. In addition, the Treaty of Versailles did not define the borders of Poland.

Meanwhile, on the territory central Russia The Civil War was also raging. By 1919, the Bolsheviks began to gain the upper hand over the white movement. The main centers of resistance to the new government, such as the Omsk Directory, were broken. Now, when the old regime did not pose a serious threat to the Bolsheviks, they decided to begin restoring the territorial integrity of the state and Sovietize the nearby countries - Belarus and Ukraine, where White Guard units still remained, and groups of anarchist atamans were also active. The most cherished and grandiose goal of the Soviet leadership was the establishment of a communist regime in Germany. Poland lay between two powers, and Pilsudski was an ardent opponent of Bolshevism and Russian domination.

Thus, the main goals of the Bolshevik leadership included:

Eliminate anti-Soviet groups in Ukraine and Belarus;
Establish your influence in Eastern Europe;
Prevent the expansion of Poland to the borders of 1772;
Eliminate all possible obstacles to the Sovietization of Germany.

At the end of 1918, the Polish leadership became familiar with two options for establishing new borders: Bolshevik and Western. Both Lenin and European countries were ready to expand the territory of Poland, but the proposed borders were smaller than the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which did not suit Pilsudski. The aggravation of relations between the two states reached its peak and led to an armed conflict.

Progress of the war

First stage: Polish offensive (January - October 1919)

In early 1919, while the Red Army was busy fighting Anton Denikin, Pilsudski launched an offensive against Belarus and Ukraine, once part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

One after another, the Polish army occupied: Vilna, Slonim, Pinsk, Grodno, Minsk, Bobruisk. During the decisive actions of the Polish command, the whole of Galicia was occupied. In order to continue advancing eastward, Warsaw had to find allies. It was planned to rely on the Entente countries and Denikin’s Volunteer Army, but in both cases the Polish proposals were accepted with great caution. Neither Denikin nor the Western powers wanted Poland to become too strong, especially at the expense of Russian lands. Therefore, the negotiations reached a dead end.

In turn, the Bolsheviks could not resist the Polish pressure, since the Red Army had to prepare for Denikin’s campaign against Moscow. As a result, both sides were forced to temporarily lay down their arms.

Pilsudski understood that the restoration of the monarchy in Russia, for which Denikin fought, was unlikely to bring independence to Poland. Therefore, the Polish marshal decided to take a wait-and-see position. Since, according to his calculations, the Volunteer Army was rather weak, he just had to wait until it was defeated by the Red Army, and only then strike at the Bolsheviks, exhausted from the fight against Denikin.

Resumption of hostilities, repeated Polish offensive (January - May 1920)

At the end of 1919, Piłsudski began preparing for a new offensive:

He concluded a military alliance against the Bolsheviks with the Ukrainian chieftain Simon Petlyura. At the same time, Petlyura was forced to cede large areas of Ukraine to the Poles;
Developed a strategic plan for an attack on Ukraine and a repeated campaign against Belarus.

The Bolsheviks also reorganized the army in the west of the country. As part of these transformations, two fronts were created:

Western, commanded by Tukhachevsky;
Southwestern, headed by Egorov.

In the Belarusian direction, the Poles reached the Berezina, which was their original goal. On the Ukrainian front, Polish regiments, as well as the armies of the atamans of Petlyura and Tyutyunnik, moved into battle. Pilsudski's main striking force was the Poznan Riflemen - those Polish units that served as part of the German army. Having learned about the approach of the Poles, the inhabitants of Galicia rose up in the rear of the Red Army, wanting to achieve the independence of Western Ukraine. The rebels hoped that Pilsudski would help them expel the Bolsheviks and create their own state, but this was not part of the Polish marshal’s plans. The rebels who came out to meet the “liberators” were immediately captured.

The Polish army, supported by the local population and atamans, quickly moved forward. The Poles managed to occupy Kyiv and even move to the left bank of the Dnieper.

English intervention

European powers tried several times to intervene in the course of events and stop the civil war in Russia, and at the same time the Soviet-Polish conflict. For this purpose, Great Britain turned to the Bolshevik and Polish governments several times. For a long time both sides ignored the messages of the British Foreign Minister Curzon. But in May 1920, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin suddenly agreed to accept British conditions:

Stop the Red Army's attack on Georgia and Armenia;
Start peace negotiations with Wrangel, who is entrenched in Crimea;
Through the mediation of England, begin negotiations with Poland on borders.

The Poles stubbornly continued their offensive because they understood that England would not insist on restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the borders of 1772. The Bolsheviks did not want to stop either. They kept part of their obligations and actually stopped the onslaught on Crimea and the Caucasus. But only in order to transfer the most combat-ready units of the Red Army to the west.

Counter-offensive of the Red Army (May - August 1920)

In the late spring of 1920, the Red Army launched an offensive in Ukraine. Budyonny's cavalry was especially effective, managing to oust the Poles from Kyiv, Zhitomir and Berdichev. While Budyonny was successfully advancing deep into Ukraine, Tukhachevsky launched an attack on Belarus. If the Ukrainians supported the Polish army and willingly joined its ranks, the population of Belarus was dissatisfied with the arrival of the Poles and sided with Tukhachevsky.

Pilsudski had to quickly withdraw his troops. At the height of the Polish flight and the advance of the Red Army inland of Eastern Europe Lenin received another message from Curzon from Great Britain. The British minister again insisted on starting negotiations with Poland. He also proposed drawing a demarcation line along which the border between the two states would run (“Curzon Line”). But this time the Bolsheviks wanted to bring the war to a victorious end. Tukhachevsky, Egorov, Budyonny and Stalin, who also held one of the commanding positions on the Southwestern Front, were ordered to speed up the offensive. Pilsudski was forced to leave the occupied lines and retreat to the capital. The forces of Egorov and Tukhachevsky moved towards Warsaw.

Miracle on the Vistula

In mid-August 1920, the battle for Warsaw began. Preparing for the strike, the Bolsheviks underestimated the Polish army and the capabilities of enemy intelligence. Therefore, part of the Red Army moved not to the capital, but to other cities. A very important document also fell into the hands of the Red Army soldiers - a detailed plan for the Polish counterattack near Wiepsz. However, Tukhachevsky decided that this paper was nothing more than an attempt to misinform him. At the same time, Polish intelligence officers managed to find out exact time attack of the Western Front on the capital. On August 14 and 15, the Poles launched several successful attacks on Tukhachevsky’s forces. The Poles even managed to destroy the radio station, disrupting the coordination of the front's actions.

On August 16, the Polish army went on the offensive. Pilsudski managed to break through the front and crush the main forces of the Bolsheviks. The frivolity with which Tukhachevsky treated Pilsudski turned out to be a complete failure for the red commander. The army was rapidly retreating, losing people, equipment and equipment.

Results

In March 1921, the Riga Peace Treaty was signed. According to this document:

Huge territories were transferred to Poland. The border was established much east of the “Curzon Line”;
The Bolsheviks were forced to pay considerable reparations to Poland, as well as the debts of the tsarist government;
The RSFSR pledged to return to Poland all valuables taken from there after 1772.

Subsequently, after the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and during the Tehran Conference, the Soviet government managed to achieve the drawing of the border exactly along the “Curzon Line”.

Soviet-Polish War (1920–1921)


	Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia
	Treaty of Riga 1921
Opponents

Ukrainian SSR

Byelorussian SSR
Latvian SSR	Entente intervention


Commanders
M. N. Tukhachevsky	J. Pilsudski
A. I. Egorov	E. Rydz-Smigly
S. M. Budyonny	S. V. Petliura
	M. V. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko
	P. S. Makhrov
Strengths of the parties
About 900 thousand fighters (summer 1920)	About 850 thousand fighters (summer 1920)
Military losses
100-150 thousand dead	About 60 thousand dead

Soviet-Polish War(Polish wojna polsko-bolszewicka (wojna polsko-rosyjska), Ukrainian Polish-Radian War) - armed conflict between Poland and Soviet Russia, Soviet Belarus, Soviet Ukraine on the territory of the collapsed Russian Empire - Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in 1920–1921 during the Russian Civil War. In modern Polish historiography it is called the “Polish-Bolshevik War”. Troops of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic also took part in the conflict; in the first phase of the war they acted against Poland, then units of the UPR supported Polish troops.

Background

The main territories for the possession of which the war was fought until the middle of the 14th century were various ancient Russian principalities. After a period of internecine wars and the Tatar-Mongol invasion in 1240, they fell into the area of influence of Lithuania and Poland. In the first half of the 14th century, Kyiv, the Dnieper region, the area between the Pripyat and Western Dvina rivers became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1352 the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality were divided between Poland and Lithuania. In 1569, according to the Union of Lublin between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some Ukrainian lands, previously part of the latter, came under the authority of the Polish crown. In 1772-1795, as a result of the three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, part of the lands (Western Belarus and most of Western Ukraine) came under the rule of the Russian crown, and the Galician territories became part of the Austrian monarchy.

After Germany's defeat in the war in November 1918, when Poland was restored as an independent state, the question of its new borders arose. Although Polish politicians differed on exactly what status the eastern territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth should have within the new state, they unanimously advocated their return to Polish control. The Soviet government, on the contrary, intended to establish control over the entire territory of the former Russian Empire, making it (as officially stated) a springboard for the world revolution.

Goals of the parties to the conflict

The main goal of the Polish leadership led by Józef Piłsudski was to restore Poland to the historical borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of 1772, establishing control over Belarus, Ukraine (including Donbass), Lithuania and geopolitical dominance in Eastern Europe:

On the Soviet side, the initial goal was to establish control over the western provinces of the former Russian Empire (Ukraine and Belarus) and their Sovietization. As the war progressed, the goal became the Sovietization of Poland, followed by Germany and the transition to world revolution. The Soviet leadership considered the war against Poland as part of the struggle against the entire Versailles international system that existed at that time.

Lenin subsequently noted that the attack on Warsaw created a situation in which “even in relation to Germany we tested the international situation.” And this “probing” showed: a) “the approach of our troops to the borders of East Prussia” led to the fact that “Germany was completely boiling”; b) “you won’t get Soviet power in Germany without a civil war”; c) "in internationally There is no other force for Germany other than Soviet Russia.”

Progress of the war

The situation in Eastern Europe at the end of 1918

On November 11, 1918, the Compiegne Truce was signed, ending the First world war, after which the withdrawal of German troops from the occupied territories began. In Eastern European countries, this led to a political vacuum that different forces tried to fill: on the one hand, local governments, most of them successors to the authorities formed during the German occupation; on the other, the Bolsheviks and their supporters, supported by Soviet Russia.

In November 1918, German units began to withdraw from the territories of the former Russian Empire they had occupied.

The Soviet Western Army, whose task was to establish control over Belarus, moved after the retreating German units on November 17, 1918 and entered Minsk on December 10, 1918. The Poles of Lithuania and Belarus created the organization “Committee for the Defense of the Eastern Outskirts” (KZVO) with combat units formed from former soldiers of the Polish corps, and turned to the Polish government for help. By decree of the Polish ruler (“temporary head of state”) Jozef Pilsudski dated December 7, 1918, KZVO units were declared integral part Polish troops under the overall command of General Władysław Veitka. On December 19, the Polish government gave the order to its troops to occupy Vilnius.

On December 21, 1918, a Polish administration was created in Vilnius: the Temporary Commission for the Administration of the District of Central Lithuania.

On January 1, 1919, the Belarusian SSR was proclaimed. On the same day, Polish units took control of Vilnius, but on January 6, 1919, the city was recaptured by units of the Red Army. On February 16, the authorities of the Byelorussian SSR proposed to the Polish government to determine the borders, but Warsaw ignored this proposal. On February 27, after Lithuania was included in the Byelorussian SSR, it was renamed the Lithuanian-Byelorussian SSR (Litbel Republic).

Poland could not provide significant assistance to the KZVO detachments, since some of the Polish troops were drawn into a border conflict with Czechoslovakia and were preparing for a possible conflict with Germany over Silesia, and there were still German troops in the western regions of Poland. Only after the intervention of the Entente on February 5, an agreement was signed that the Germans would let the Poles through to the east. As a result, on February 4, Polish troops occupied Kovel, on February 9 they entered Brest, and on February 19 they entered Bialystok, abandoned by the Germans. At the same time, Polish troops moving east liquidated the administration of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the Kholm region, Zhabinka, Kobrin and Vladimir-Volynsky.

On February 9 - 14, 1919, German troops allowed Polish units to reach the river line. Neman (to Skidel) - r. Zelvyanka - r. Ruzhanka - Pruzhany - Kobrin. Soon, units of the Western Front of the Red Army approached there from the other side. Thus, a Polish-Soviet front was formed on the territory of Lithuania and Belarus. Although by February 1919 the Polish army nominally numbered more than 150 thousand people, the Poles initially had very insignificant forces in Belarus and Ukraine - 12 infantry battalions, 12 cavalry squadrons and three artillery batteries - only about 8 thousand people, the rest of the units were located on borders with Germany and Czechoslovakia or were in the process of formation. The size of the Soviet Western Army is estimated at 45 thousand people, however, after the occupation of Belarus, the most combat-ready units were transferred to other directions, where the position of the Red Army was extremely difficult. On February 19, the Western Army was transformed into the Western Front under the command of Dmitry Nadezhny.

To prepare for the offensive to the east, the Polish troops in Belarus, which received reinforcements, were divided into three parts: the Polesie group was commanded by General Antoni Listovsky, the Volyn group - by General Edward Rydz-Smigly, on the Shchitno-Skidel line there was the Lithuanian-Belarusian division of General Vaclav Ivashkevich-Rudoshansky . To the south of them were the divisions of generals Juliusz Rummel and Tadeusz Rozwadowski.

The offensive of Polish troops in Belarus

Meanwhile, Polish troops in Belarus under the command of Stanislav Sheptytsky continued to move east, receiving reinforcements from Poland - on April 28, the Poles occupied the city of Grodno, abandoned by the Germans. In May-July, the Polish units were replenished with the 70,000-strong army of Jozef Haller, transported from France. At the same time, Western Ukraine comes under the control of the Poles - on June 25, 1919, the Council of Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, France, the USA, and Italy authorizes Poland to occupy eastern Galicia up to the river. Zbruch. By July 17, eastern Galicia was completely occupied by the Polish army, and the administration of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR) was liquidated.

Meanwhile, in August, Polish troops again went on the offensive, the main goal of which was Minsk. After a six-hour battle on August 9, Polish troops captured the Belarusian capital, and on August 29, despite stubborn resistance from the Red Army, Bobruisk was captured by the Poles. In October, units of the Red Army launched a counterattack on the city, but were defeated. After this, the fighting subsided until the beginning of next year: the parties concluded a truce. This was explained by the reluctance of the Entente countries and Anton Denikin to support plans for further Polish expansion. A long negotiation process began.