Polish-Soviet war
1919–1921), military force proved the determinant of Poland's frontiers in the east, a theater rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian Revolutions and civil war.
Józef Piłsudski envisioned a new federation with Lithuania and Polish domination of western Ukraine, centered at Kiev, forming a Polish-led East European confederation as a counterweight to Russia.
Lenin, leader of the new communist government of Russia, saw Poland as the bridge over which communism would pass into the labor class of a disorganized postwar Germany.
Fighting started in 1919, when Polish self-organised military units in an area known as Kresy (Belarus, Western Ukraine and Lithuania) started quarrelling with local communist units and Bolsheviks attacking from the east. Eventually Polish forces took over the whole area.
When Piłsudski carried out a military thrust into Ukraine in 1920 after a deal made with Symon Petliura, he was met by a Red Army counterattack that drove into Polish territory almost to Warsaw. Although many observers thought Poland would soon become a new Soviet Republic, Piłsudski halted the Soviet advance before Warsaw (famous Battle of Warsaw or Miracle at Vistula) and resumed the offensive. The Poles were not able to exploit their new advantage fully, however; and the Soviets were more eager to sign a peace treaty. The Soviets offered the Polish delegation as much territory as they wanted; the Poles preferred to sign a compromise (the Peace of Riga) in early 1921 that split the disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia.
The treaty avoided ceding historically Polish territory back to Russia, and ethnic Poles initially had two Polish Autonomous Districts within the Soviet Union, an attempt which ended tragically for the Poles.
The Polish-Soviet war heavily influenced Charles De Gaulle, who was an instructor for the Polish military and even fought in some battles. He and Władysław Sikorski were the only military officers who, basing on experiences of this war, correctly predicted how the next war would look.
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