page_title: Polish–Soviet War
section_title: Conclusion
hierarchical_section_title: Polish–Soviet War / Course / 1920 / Conclusion
caption_attribution_description: English: Polish Voluntary II Death Squad in Lviv 1920. Second from right: Janina Łada-Walicka, on the left of the flag Artur Schroeder. Polski: II Ochotniczy Szwadron Śmierci w sierpniu 1920 r. Druga z prawej: Janina Łada-Walicka, po lewej stronie sztandaru Artur Schroeder.
context_page_description: The Polish–Soviet War was fought by the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Russia over a region comparable to today's westernmost Ukraine and parts of modern Belarus. Following the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Russia sought to relieve the pressure by crossing Poland in order to stimulate a Europe-wide communist revolution under the Trotskyist slogan "to give water to red horses out of the Wisła and Rhine".
  Poland's Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, felt the time was right to expand Polish borders as far east as feasible, to be followed by a Polish-led Intermarium federation of Central and Eastern European states, as a bulwark against the re-emergence of German and Russian imperialism. Vladimir Lenin saw Poland as the bridge the Red Army had to cross to assist other Communist movements and bring about more European revolutions. By 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine, emerging victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War. The West Ukrainian People's Republic, led by Yevhen Petrushevych, had tried to create a Ukrainian state on territories to which both Poles and Ukrainians laid claim.
context_section_description: Soon after the Battle of Warsaw the Bolsheviks sued for peace. The Poles, exhausted, constantly pressured by the Western governments and the League of Nations, and with its army controlling the majority of the disputed territories, were willing to negotiate. The Soviets made two offers: one on 21 September and the other on 28 September. The Polish delegation made a counter-offer on 2 October. On 5 October, the Soviets offered amendments to the Polish offer, which Poland accepted. The Preliminary Treaty of Peace and Armistice Conditions between Poland on one side and Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia on the other was signed on 12 October, and the armistice went into effect on 18 October. Ratifications were exchanged at Liepāja on 2 November. Long negotiations of the final peace treaty ensued.
  Meanwhile, Petliura's Ukrainian forces, which now numbered 23,000 soldiers and controlled territories immediately to the east of Poland, planned an offensive in Ukraine for 11 November but were attacked by the Bolsheviks on 10 November. By 21 November, after several battles, they were driven into Polish-controlled territory.
caption: Polish volunteers from Lwów, serving in the army's 2nd Death's Squadron c. 1920
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