Aftermath of the Polish – Soviet War The Aftermath . According to the British historian A . J . P . Taylor , the Polish - Soviet War " largely determined the course of European history for the next twenty years or more . [ . . . ] Unavowedly and almost unconsciously , Soviet leaders abandoned the cause of international revolution . " Certainly the Bolsheviks ' defeat in the war prevented Poland from becoming another Soviet republic and likely prevented Germany , Czechoslovakia and other nearby states from sharing a similar fate . Soviet Communism was not eliminated , however , but only contained for a generation . Russia kept control of substantial western territories and their vast resources . Soon after the war officially ended , groups of Soviet - sponsored bandits and undercover agents began raiding Polish eastern frontier , prompting Poland to create a special , elite Border Defence Corps ( " Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza " ) to combat those constant incursions . A second Soviet effort at expansion was more successful . In August 1939 the Soviet Union signed the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and in cooperation with the latter invaded Poland on September 17 , 1939 , ensuring Poland ' s defeat in the Polish Defensive War of 1939 . The Soviet occupation of eastern Poland rivaled in atrocities the German occupation of the remainder of the country . Persons who were deemed dangerous by the Communist authorities were subject to sovietization , forced resettlement , and imprisonment in labor camps ( the Gulags ) , or were simply executed , as in the case of Polish officers in the Katyn massacre s . Having served in the Polish - Soviet War on the side of Poland was punishable with death . After Poland had been occupied by the Red Army in 1944 , Soviet atrocities included persecutions and prosecutions of Polish Home Army soldiers and executions of their leaders . In the aftermath of World War II , the Soviet Union succeeded in acquiring control of more territory than Imperial Russia had and partly fulfilled Lenin ' s original dream of bringing communist revolution to Germany . Until 1989 , while Communists held power in a People ' s Republic of Poland , the Polish - Soviet War was either minimized in significance or misportrayed in Polish and other Soviet bloc countries ' history books , for instance typically citing Poland as the aggressive initiator of the war on behalf of the Entente . Much of what Poland had won during the 1920 war was lost in the peace negotiations that were characterized by many as short - sighted and petty . In 1921 Piłsudski was no longer the Head of State and was only an observer during the Riga negotiations , which he called " an act of cowardice " . Due to the military defeat , the Bolsheviks offered the Poland substantial territorial concessions in the contested borderland areas , including the city of Minsk . However , the Polish delegation , pressured by the League of Nations , moderated the peace terms and signed the Peace of Riga on March 18 , 1921 , splitting the disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Bolsheviks . The Ukrainians led by Symon Petliura had been in alliance with Poland , but by the Riga treaty the Ukrainian alliance was effectively ended . Piłsudski disapproved the treaty and the apparent betrayal of an ally , he then told the Ukrainians , " Gentlemen , I deeply apologize to you " . The treaty actually violated Poland ' s military alliance with Ukraine , which had explicitly prohibited a separate peace , consequently it worsened relations between Polish state and its Ukrainian minority , a feeling that would eventually lead to ethnic violence in the 1930s and 1940s . The Polish military successes in autumn 1920 allowed Poland to reclaim the city of Wilno , but the control over city had been transferred to Lithuanians by the retreating Soviets . With Lithuanians unwilling to enter into an alliance with Poland , and wishing to avoid a full - out conflict and international condemnation , Poland staged a fake rebellion by Polish army units ( under command by Gen . Lucjan Żeligowski ) in the Wilno area , which allowed the Polish army to take control of the city in 9 October 1920 . The fighting ended that month . Despite the Poles ' claim to it , the League of Nations asked Poland to withdraw , a request which Poland denied . France , however , did not wish to antagonize Poland , seen as an ally against both Germany and USSR , thus the League of Nations demands were not enforced , and Poland kept Wilno under a puppet government of Komisja Rządząca Litwy Środkowej . A plebiscite was carried out and the Wilno Sejm voted on 20 February 1922 for incorporation into Poland . This would worsen Polish - Lithuanian foreign relations for many decades to come and was one of the reasons Piłsudski ' s Międzymorze federation was never formed . Repercussions of this still continue ( though to a diminishing extent ) to affect the foreign relations among these countries . The outcome of the Polish - Soviet War was welcomed by some Polish politicians such as Roman Dmowski , who favored a relatively small , ethnically rather homogeneous state . It was also a death blow to Piłsudski ' s dream of reviving the powerful and multicultural Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth in the form of a " Międzymorze Federation " . Piłsudski ' s military and political victory ensured that the armed forces became an important national institution in the new government . His reputation as the creator of the miracle at Vistula had vastly risen , and the National Democrats ( " endecja " ) lost the post - war elections . The new president Gabriel Narutowicz elected in 1922 was a socialist politician . In 1926 , after Poland had experienced several years of political uncertainty and weak leadership , Piłsudski eventually took over the state in a coup d ' état ( the May Coup ) , assuming the posts of minister of defense and general inspector of the army . The Treaty of Riga led to ethnic Poles granted autonomy within USSR . These Poles under Soviet jurisdiction suffered from the Great Purge and other repressions of the late 1930s . The Ukrainian minority in Poland received some internal autonomy within the southeastern voivodeships of Poland , but plans for a broader autonomy or federative union were never realized . Military strategy in the Polish - Soviet War influenced Charles de Gaulle , an instructor with the Polish Army who fought in several of the battles . He and Władysław Sikorski were the only military officers who , based on their experiences of this war , correctly predicted how the next one would be fought . In World War II they rose to command of their respective armed forces in exile . This war also influenced the Polish military doctrine , which for the next 20 years would stress the mobility of the elite cavalry units . Among the technical advances associated with the Polish - Soviet War was one that would affect the course of World War II . In the Polish - Soviet War , Poland ' s Marshal Piłsudski and his staff enjoyed a vast advantage from their military intelligence decrypt ing ( " breaking " ) Red Army radio messages . These were encrypt ed in primitive cipher s and code s , and often involved incredible breaches of security by Bolshevik cipher clerks . The Polish cryptologist s and commanders were thus regularly able to look over the shoulders of the Bolshevik commanders , including Mikhail Tukhachevski himself , and their superior , Leon Trotsky . ( In this regard , the Red Army repeated mistakes that had been made in World War I by its Tsarist predecessor vis - a - vis the German Army , and that had contributed fundamentally to the Russian 1914 defeat at Tannenberg . ) Poland ' s cryptological achievements in the Polish - Soviet War were a prelude to the spectacular achievements of her General Staff ' s Cipher Bureau ( Biuro Szyfrów ) , from December 1932 , in decrypting German Enigma machine ciphers . Their subsequent decryption in World War II by the Western Allies at Bletchley Park – given a flying head - start by Poland ' s having revealed her techniques and technology to Britain and France at Warsaw a month before the outbreak of war – substantially affected the course of the war . POWs . The treatment of the prisoners of war during the course of the war was far from adequate : both countries were experiencing great economic and social difficulties , and often unable to care even for their own populations . During the Polish - Soviet War , between 80 , 000 and 85 , 000 Soviet soldiers became prisoners of war and were held in Polish POW camp s . The conditions in these camps were bad , as the newly recreated Polish state lacked many basic capabilities and had few resources to construct them . Thus the existing camps , many of which were adapted from World War I German and Russian facilities or constructed by the prisoners themselves , were not adequate for holding the large number of prisoners , who suffered from hunger , bad sanitation and inadequate hygiene . Between 16 , 000 ( Polish figures ) and 20 , 000 ( Russian figures ) died as a result of communicable diseases which raged in the camps . The condition of Polish POWs held by the Soviets during this time is less well known . There have been , however , reports of Soviet army executing Polish POWs when no POW facilities were available . Units commanded by Gayk Bzhishkyan murdered more than 1000 of POWs . After 1922 the Polish and Russian prisoners were also 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 POWs after the Polish - Soviet War . References . See Polish - Soviet War # References .