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The Russo-Polish War
The Russo-Polish War was a warfare involving the military troops of Poland and Soviet Russia. It occurred in 1919 and lasted for one year with the main aim of seizing Ukraine. This hostility intensified following the association formed between the president of Poland and the national leader in Ukraine (Kinzer 20). This alliance was so powerful that its policies and principles overruled other political influences in Ukraine. This brought about counterattacks from the Red Army in Soviet Russia. They gradually but intensely extended their military power towards Poland before advancing to the further region of Warsaw. Afraid of the impact of this military encroachment, certain European leaders aided Polish to formulate a strategy that would force the Russian army to back away. This historical event occurred at a time when the communist revolution in Russia was at its peak. Accordingly, political and economic forces were major instigators of the warfare (Kinzer 23). The initial stages of the revolution transformed the ruling system from a monarchy to a provisional government while the second phase promoted communism under the headship of the Bolsheviks.
Based on this argument, the Russo-polish war was important in promoting communist principles in Russia and socialism in Poland. To begin with, Bolsheviks embraced internationalist principles. For example, they argued that revolutionary activities in one country would spread to other industrialized nations. In contrast, Lenin used the Marxist theory to justify his position on socialism. He argued that a nation attempting to use socialist principles would only succeed if the human resources in other nations embraced the process of social revolution (Kinzer 38). According to his argument, this would result in a united Europe in terms of its socialist policies and operations. Accordingly, he attempted to impose the socialist revolution in Poland in 1918 by invading the region. However, he received intense resistance from the Polish armed forces. Later, he restructured his tactics and decided to promote Communist International as an organization comprising of communists. His efforts aimed at establishing a communist system in this nation. Accordingly, his failure to invade Poland led the Bolsheviks to transform their ruling system (Kinzer 46). This involved establishing socialism in one country as opposed to spreading the embedded principles.
Following the Treaty of Riga, which
indicated the end of the Russo-Polish War, there was a friendly environment
between the two nations for a few years. Between 19243 and 1934, the
Poland-Romania phases of Soviet military strategies foresaw combats between the
alliance formed by central European countries including Poland and Romania and the influential parties
in the western region. The involvement of Germany under the leadership of
Hitler led the two countries to sign a peace treaty, the Non-Aggression Pact,
in 1932 (Kinzer 55). Nonetheless, the government of Soviet Russia believed that
the Polish centralized administration was secretly collaborating with the NAZI
Germany in order to attack the USSR.
These allegations were because of the reports
presented by Razvedka, which was the chief intelligence organ of the Red Army. Some
leaders in the modern administration of Russia still believe in these
allegations. These events led to a deterioration of the cordial relations maintained
between the two nations following the Treaty of Riga. For example, between 1935
and 1938, over 140,000 Russian citizens with a Polish heritage experienced
physical torture from the military during the Stalin Terror (Kinzer 61). The government
charged them with spying for the Poland administration, a
supposition used to justify their death.
Work Cited
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt, 2006. Print.