Polish–Soviet War

The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic. It was for control of what is now Ukraine and part of Belarus.

Polish–Soviet War
Part of Central and Eastern European military campaigns that included the Western Front of the Russian Civil War, Ukrainian War of Independence, Lithuanian Wars of Independence, Latvian War of Independence and Russian Civil War
Top left: Polish FT-17 tanks of the 1st Tank Regiment during the Battle of Dyneburg, January 1920 Below left: Polish troops enter Kiev, May 1920 Top right: Polish Schwarzlose M.07/12 machine gun nest during the Battle of Radzymin, August 1920 Middle: Polish defences with a M1895/14 machine gun position near Miłosna, during the Battle of Warsaw, August 1920 Bottom left: Russian prisoners following the Battle of Warsaw Bottom right: Polish defences in Belarus during the Battle of the Niemen River, September 1920
Date 1918/1919[a] – 18 March 1921 (2 years, 1 month and 4 days) Location Central and Eastern Europe Result Polish victory (see § Aftermath and legacy) Territorial changes Poland retained control of modern-day Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (Kresy in interwar Poland) Soviet forces retained control of modern-day Eastern Ukraine and Eastern Belarus
Belligerents
Russian SFSR  Ukrainian SSR  Byelorussian SSR Polrewkom	Poland  Ukraine (1920)  Belarus (1920)  Latvia (1920)[b] Support:  France  Hungary  Romania[4]  United Kingdom[c]  United States[c]
Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Lenin Leon Trotsky Sergey Kamenev Joseph Stalin Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny August Kork Hayk Bzhishkyan Nikolai Sollogub Alexander Yegorov Aleksandr Vasilevsky Felix Dzerzhinsky	Józef Piłsudski Józef Haller Franciszek Latinik T. Jordan-Rozwadowski Władysław Sikorski Kazimierz Sosnkowski Leonard Skierski Edward Rydz-Śmigły Stanisław Szeptycki Symon Petliura S. Bułak-Bałachowicz Jānis Puriņš
Strength
Early 1919: ~50,000[5] Summer 1920: 800,000–950,000[6] 5 million reservists, Ukrainian Galician Army (about 1,000 soldiers), Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia	Early 1919: ~80,000[7] Summer 1920: 348,286 troops on front,[8] about 700,000 reservists approx. 1,000,000[9] Ukraine: 20,000[10] Russian volunteers: 20,000[10]
Casualties and losses
Total reported: 140,000–145,000 (unknown wounded not included) c. 60,000 dead[11] c. 80,000–85,000 captured[12]	Total reported: 212,420 47,551 dead 17,213 KIA 30,338 died of wounds 113,518 wounded 51,351 captured or missing[13][14][15]

A formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, was signed on 18 March 1921. It divided the land between Poland and Soviet Russia. Much of the land that was given to Poland became part of the Soviet Union after World War II.

Notes

1. There is disagreement over the dates of the war. The Encyclopædia Britannica begins its "Russo-Polish War" article with the date range 1919–1920 but then states, "Although there had been hostilities between the two countries during 1919, the conflict began when the Polish head of state Józef Piłsudski formed an alliance with the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petlyura (21 April 1920) and their combined forces began to overrun Ukraine, occupying Kiev on 7 May." Some Western historians, including Norman Davies, consider mid-February 1919 the beginning of the war.^[1] However, military confrontations between forces that can be considered officially Polish and the Red Army were already happening by late autumn 1918 and in January 1919.^[2] The city of Vilnius, for example, was taken by the Soviets on 5 January 1919.^[3]
2. Battle of Daugavpils
3. Volunteers