Above: Picture of Gen. Jozef Pilsudski

In Russia there was a change of guard. Tsarist rule came to an end and the Bolsheviks came to power. The Communist now wanted to spread their ideals and influence westwards and thus came into clash with Poland. The conflict between the two nations of Russia and Poland was also due to the federalist policy perused by Pilsudski.

Above: Map showing the Curzon Line (click map to enlarge)

The great western powers were not clear-cut in the policy towards the Bolsheviks. On the one hand they did not embark on an all out effort against the Russiansand on the other they were hesitating about following the line of peace. At first the Allies suggested the setting up of a line of control between the two warring nations, known as the Curzon Line. But neither country agreed to it.

Above: Map during the battle of Warsaw showing military advance (click map to enlarge)

Poland was alone in her fight against the Communists except for the support it got from the Ukranian nationalist leader, Petlyura, in April 1920, with whose help Poland invaded Ukraine and captured Kiev. But the Red Army soon forced Poland to fall back to the fringes of Warsaw. It was Pilsudski’s counter attack that saved the country from a total disaster on 16th May. It came to be known in history as the ‘Miracle of Vistula’. But the western Allies had a hand in stopping the Communists who had dangerously encroached into Poland flushed with revolutionary fervour and zeal. The allies feared that with a Communist government installed in Poland the next target of attention would be Germany. Therefore the French General Weygand was sent to advise the Poles. This armed posturing by the Allies forced the Reds to withdraw.

Above: Picture of General Lucjan Zeligowski

After much bitter warfare, an armistice was signed in October 1920, followed by the Peace of Riga in March 1921. The Bolsheviks gave up their ambitions about spreading Communism and the Poles had to surrender their federalist ideas. The frontier approximated to the 1793 borderline but it sliced through the Ukraine and Belarus. The major regions of Ukraine remained a Soviet Republic. A sizeable area of Belarus was given to Poland. The retention of Wilno in the north, taken by General Zeligowski turned out to be a cause of friction between Lithuania and Poland. The Russo-Polish borderline remained till the beginning of the World War II in 1939.

Below: Map during Polish-Bolshevik War 1919-1920 (click map to enlarge)