Pilsudski accepts Bolshevik peace offer in late 1919

borderlands.jpg
In the autumn of 1919 the Bolsheviks were faced with Denikin's threat to Moscow and Yudenich's to Petrograd, and the last thing they wanted was to face a Polish offensive as well. So they put out peace feelers to Pilsudski which would have left Poland's eastern border considerably to the east of what it ultimately became under the Treaty of Riga. E.H. Carr in his *The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923, Volume Three* quotes Radek as saying that Poland was offered "White Russia as far as the Beresina" (in OTL Poland ultimately got only western Belarus) as well as "Volhynia and Podolia" (I am not sure if he means *all* of Volhynia and Podolia, which would certainly leave Poland extending well to the east of its OTL interwar borders with Soviet Ukraine--see attached map).
https://books.google.com/books?id=1laU3T9HWYsC&pg=PA155

Pilsudksi did not want the Whites to win the Civil War--he thought that with their "Russia one and indivisible" ideology they would be an even greater threat than the Reds to Poland--so he refrained from any major fighting against the Bolsheviks at this time. But beyond this "passivity" (as Carr calls it) he would not go; he would not agree to a formal peace with the Bolsheviks. His goal was to create a federation of Poland and the nations between Russia and Poland (Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine) and for that purpose he formed an alliance with the Ukrainian nationalist leader Petliura. The sequel in 1920 (Poles and Petliura take Kiev, are driven back, Bolsheviks cross the Curzon line, Poles defeat them, etc.) is well-known and often discussed here.

My question is, Suppose Pilsudski had accepted the Bolsheviks' late 1919 bid for a formal peace? An obvious argument against his doing so is that the Bolsheviks, once they had defeated the Whites, would not respect the borders agreed to but would attack the Poles. But would they? They would have to know that Poland was (unlike, say, Georgia) a fairly strong military power, and one moreover that might get substantial Western support if attacked without provocation. Anyway, suppose the border lasts (either because the Bolsheviks don't invade or are thrown back if they try). What are the consequences of Poland extending further east than in OTL and having larger Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish minorities?
 
Last edited:

Mrstrategy

Banned
Would Poland be better or not what kind of people are in the area that the soviets give up polish,Russian?
 
Would Poland be better or not what kind of people are in the area that the soviets give up polish,Russian?

They are mostly Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish. As it was, the Polish census of 1931 showed Polish-speakers to be only 69 percent of the population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_census_of_1931 (And this figure was probably an exaggeration.) The problem of minorities would of course be even greater in this ATL. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists would have a larger popular base, and would probably carry out more terrorist acts than in OTL, and the Polish repression would probably be even more brutal than in OTL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacification_of_Ukrainians_in_Eastern_Galicia
 
The Ukrainians living within the expanded territory of the Second Republic would almost certainly fare better than they did OTL under Stalin. All things being equal, the only impact I can see this larger Poland having on the European balance of power would be the possibility of a different Nazi-Soviet division of northeastern Europe. Will Stalin be able to annex as much territory to the Soviet Union with larger claims? This might well be a timeline where Lithuania stays in the German orbit, for instance.
 
I cannot think it would be more powerful. These territories would be relatively poor and underdeveloped, and their likely Ukrainian insurgencies would not help the Second Republic.
 
Note that in this ATL Pilsudski would not be the hero of the Battle of Warsaw because presumably there would be no Battle of Warsaw (or indeed any 1920 Soviet-Polish war). I'm not sure what effect that would have on later Polish politics.
 
I think this Poland would be weaker than IOTL. The eastern territories gained are extremely poor, and at a huge risk of local insurgencies. Plus no Battle of Warsaw means the best uniting factor just went out of the window.

Interwar Poland was, frankly speaking, a mess. The number of parties in the Sejm was in the TEENS!
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
More Belarussians and Ukrainians for the Poles to manage would not strenghten Poland at all.

For this to happen the National Democrats can not be handling the peace negotiations with Russia. They did not want a Poland where ethnic Poles wouldn't be the clear dominant ethnicity. Pilsudski would have accepted more of Belarus and the Ukraine in a heartbeat, but he wasn't the one negotiating the peace.

Another thing to mention is that most books mention the original Soviet offer in a line or two, without presenting sources, and not really goes into details exactly what the offer entailed, just that it was more of Ukraine and Belarus than Poland ended up getting.
 
Last edited:
This might well butterfly away the existence of a Byelorussian SSR, unless it develops similarly to Karelia or Transnistria in that it exists as a means to expand the regime. Either prospect would be interesting.
 
Top