Controversies of the Polish – Soviet War Controversies of the Polish - Soviet War , fought in 1919 – 20 , concern the behaviour of the military forces and crimes they committed . Both sides raised charges of many violations of international law in order to sway public opinion in the West which was felt to be important for both sides . Prisoners of war . One of the most controversial issues that surfaced in the 1990s , was the situation of Soviet prisoners of war in Poland . During this war between two countries experiencing great socioeconomic difficulties , and often unable to care for their own populations , the treatment of prisoners of war was far from adequate , with tens of thousands on both sides , in Russian and Polish camps , dying of communicable diseases . Between 16 , 000 to 20 , 000 of Soviet POWs – out of 80 , 000 – died in Polish camps ; and a similar number of Polish POWs – out of about 51 , 000 – died in Soviet and Lithuanian camps . After 1922 the Polish and Russian prisoners were exchanged among two sides . Ekaterina Peshkova the chairwoman of organization " Assistance to Political Prisoners " ( Pompolit , " Помощь политическим заключенным " , Помполит ) . was awarded by an order of Polish Red Cross for her participation in the exchange of POW s after the Polish - Soviet War . Atrocities . The Polish side claimed that during the Soviet retreat from Berdychiv , Kiev and Zhytomyr mass hostage - taking of civilians occurred , with hostages forced to go with the Reds all the way to the rear of the front . Similar claims were made that returning to Berdychiv the Bolsheviks threw out the sick and wounded from the hospital " disregarding the lives and honor of the medical personnel " and that in general the Soviet advance into Ukraine was characterized by mass killing of civilians and the burning of entire villages , especially by Budyonny ' s cossacks , designed to cow the Ukrainian population . Behind Polish lines , the Soviet forces hanged suspected enemies on the spot . Ultimately , in the pacification of Ukraine that began during the Soviet counteroffensive in 1920 and which would not end until 1922 , the Soviets would take tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives . On 7 June the same day Budionny ' s Cossacks , spreading terror in the rear of recently broken Polish frontlines , burned a hospital in Berdychiv , with 600 patients and Red Cross nuns inside . Some first hand accounts from participants may support the claim that such behavior was found on both sides . The rights of prisoners of war were often diseregarded ; for example in January 1918 in Cichinicze near Mohylow Bolsheviks shot patients and personnel of a Polish hospital . Particularly notorious were the accounts concerning the former officer of the Imperial Russia n and Bolsheviks armies , Stanisław Bułak - Bałachowicz , who switched sides in the conflict and became a general in Poland . Although Bułak - Bałachowicz is claimed to be a national hero to Belarusians in Poland for protection against Bolshevik terror , and his refusal to kill peasants on orders from Soviets , witness accounts claim that he was known to behave like an absolute ruler of the territories controlled by his troops , even conducting public executions As one Polish officer wrote in a letter to his wife : " " This is the person without ideology . The bandit and the murderer and his comrades – subordinates are just like that . They know no shame and are similar to barbarians . . . I witnessed throwing the cut - off heads of Bolsheviks under his feet . . . I drank with him all night long and in the morning he with his group and me with my regiment went to the fighting . The massacre of Bolsheviks was horrific " " . There is evidence that the bands of Cossack " Colonel " Vadim Yakovlev were similarly cruel . He was a Don Cossack Ukrainian and Bolshevik officer who also switched to the Polish side along with his band and allegedly was a bloody marauder of villages and towns in Ukraine , Belarus , and was responsible for several anti - Jewish pogroms . Pogroms . In 1919 , Russian Jews were caught in the middle of a civil war , and became the victims of warring Red and White Russian , Ukrainian and Polish forces , among others . Thousands of pogroms resulted in the loss of an estimated 100 , 000 Jewish lives . Polish troops , Petlura ' s soldiers , and Bałachowicz ' s squads staged pogroms against Jews in practically every town they captured . Jews , accused by the Poles of treason , espionage and support of communism , were victims of murders in a string of cities in the course of the Polish - Soviet War . In Ukraine at this time , murders of Jews took place on an unprecedented scale , second only to the Holocaust years of World War II . Isaac Babel , a war correspondent embedded with the Red Army , in his 1920 diary wrote down many first - hand accounts of atrocities committed by both sides against the Jews . On 5 April 1919 in Pinsk a Polish officer , after hearing reports that Jewish inhabitants of the city were preparing to riot , panicked and instead of carrying the proper investigation ordered the execution of thirty - five Jews ( Pinsk massacre ) . Similar hostilities , resulting in fewer casualties , took place in other towns . In Lida soldiers stopped several elderly Jews and cut off their beards with sabres and knives . During the pillage of Lida , Jewish homes were looted and 30 Jews were killed . Violence against Jews caused a major uproar and condemnation in the Polish parliament . Ignacy Daszyński , leader of the Polish Socialist Party , called all soldiers that commit acts of violence against the Jewish population " hooligans in uniform " . However , Minister of War General Józef Leśniewski , in his written reply to the speaker of Parliament , defended anti - Jewish violence by Polish units in Lida , referring to Jews as a Communist - minded community and stating that the Polish Army had the right to kill their adversaries . The reports of these incidents caused the United States to send a commission led by Henry Morgenthau , Sr . and Sir Stuart M . Samuel . According to the findings of this Anglo - American Investigating Commission , a total of about 300 Jews lost their lives in all incidents . The commission also found out that the Polish military and civil authorities did do their best to prevent the incidents and their recurrence in the future . According to the Morgenthau report , some forms of discrimination against Jews was of political rather than anti - Semitic nature , rooted in political competition . The report specifically avoided use of the term " pogrom , " noting that the term was used used to apply to a wide range of excesses , and had no specific definition . Tadeusz Piotrowski noted that Morgenthau Reported admitted that the word pogrom was inapplicable to the conditions existing within a war zone . Richard C . Lukas argues that in some places , Jews had made themselves vulnerable by collaborating with Poland ' s Lithuanian and Soviet enemies . Property destruction . Similar to the Polish side , the Soviet government raised complaints on every occasion in diplomatic notes addressed to the Entente . One note stated that during the Soviet advance the retreating Poles , disappointed by their military misfortunes , engaged in " vengeful vandalism " , as in Borisov where the Poles , following their retreat , shelled the city with artillery from another bank of the Berezina River " killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands without shelter . " Another joint diplomatic note issued by Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia to the Entente blamed the Poles for heavily damaging Kiev including its civilian and art objects , such as St . Volodymyr ' s Cathedral , a charge the Poles denied , admitting only to the Kiev bridges destruction , claimed necessary to slow the Red Army ( the bridges survived multiple hostilities and conflicts prior to Polish occupation of Kiev ) . That particular note seems to be based on Leon Trotsky ' s telegraph , and Trotsky himself admitted parts of it were false . Around the same time , on 7 June – two days after breaking Polish front line – Budyonny ' s 1st Army destroyed the bridges in Zhytomyr , wrecked the railway station and burned various buildings ; Budyonny ' s troops would both spread terror and wreck infrastructure , to delay Polish army and disrupt it logistics , over the coming month in West Ukraine and East Poland .