As Polish troops advance into the Ukraine during the 1920 Kiev offensive, they linked up with the remnants of the Czechslovak Legion, who after capturing the Tsar's Gold reserves in 1919 attempted to head for Vladivostok only to be caught in a battle near Omsk and sent fleeing in the opposite direction, finally winding up in the Ukraine, having been smuggled across the Black Sea by Nestor Makhno and his Black Army.
Makhno had been keeping the Czechslovak Legion hostage in order to use the captured gold to buy weapons from the West. However elements of the Polish Army, aided by anti-anarchist Ukrainian Nationalist Groups managed to Raid the Black Army encampment where the Czechslovak Legion and their Stolen Gold was being kept resulting in the Czechslovak Legion and some 500 tons of gold falling into Polish Hands.
The Polish Army, fighting alongside the Czechslovak Legion and Ukrainian Nationalist Partisans then engaged in the Battle of Kiev in August. However by August the Soviet Red Army had managed to mostly consolidate their hold on Russia, with only the Japanese Backed Far Eastern Republic hanging on to a small pocket around Vladivostok. This freed up huge amounts of men for battle in Kiev and over a week of fighting, the Poles, Czechslovaks, and Ukrainian Nationalists were forced to retreat. By October the lines had moved back to the Polish Border as the Red Army advanced in the face of rear guard actions by elements of the Polish Army. Winter 1920 saw Lwow under siege.
By may of 1921 the lines had shifted to the outskirts of Warsaw, however with the Polish Army having retreated to gain time to gather reinforcements, the numbers were now in Poland's favor. Over five days the battle of Warsaw Raged, with the Polish Army and Czechslovak Legion fighting side by side in a vicious city battle. The Battle was grueling but in the end the Red Army in the west was ground bloody and forced to retreat. By October 1921 the Poles had pushed back into the Belarusian SSR and had taken Polotsk. Faced with another invasion of Ukraine, the Soviets Sued for peace. Poland would gain the captured parts of the Belarusian SSR and some other border territories.
However the real prize was the Imperial Gold Reserves. Poland took 100 tons of the Gold and sent the Czechslovak Legion and the remaining 400 tons on to Czechoslovakia. The bonds forged in battle against the Soviets would carry over into the political arena. General Jan Syrovy, commander of the Czechslovak Legion would go on to run for Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia after Edvard Benes' stroke in 1922. He would be successful and his policies of reconciliation with Poland over the Teschen War were helped by a personal friendship with Jozef Pilsudski forged in battle and Poland's General remembrance of the Legion fighting alongside the Polish Army at Warsaw and Kiev.
This warming of relations would happen over the next 3 years. Poland would use the gold they gained to further industrialize, with Czech help. By 1926 Poland had managed to grow her economy by 30 percent of what it was in 1921.
Meanwhile the Czechs were able to use the experience gained fighting the Soviets to better develop tactics with which to fight a larger enemy. They too used the gold to further industrialize, CKD, Avia, and Skoda all set up new factories further inland from Sudetenland in places like Ziln and Jihlava.
This new industrial renaissance in Czechoslovakia and Poland was matched by Polish Investment into Romania, fueled by silver being struck by the Polish State Mining Company whilst drilling for copper in Silesia. Polish Silver was invested in mines and factories in Romania, allowing the Romanians to get in on the action from 1926 onwards.
In 1928, a deal was negotiated between Poland and Czechoslovakia that saw Zaolzie returned to Poland via French-Backed Plebiscite, the warming of relations that had been ongoing for 6 years plus French pressure being the impetus. This was capped off with a secret alliance negotiated between Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania as a French Backed Counterweight to Germany and the Soviets.
However while things had been going well for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and to a lesser extent Romania, things in Germany had been deteriorating. The economic situation had resulted in massive hyperinflation, which led to a rise of extremist groups in Germany. Fascist Brownshirt Paramilitaries skirmished in the streets of Berlin and other cities with their Communist Antagonists and the police had to call in the Reichswehr on several occasions to keep order. The in situation of the Dawes Plan in 1928 lessened the severe economic hardship going on in Germany and for a time both Fascist and Communist Paramilitaries quieted down, however this would prove to be the calm before the storm as a once small Fascist Group known as the National Socialists got together to retool their strategy in Bavaria. Street violence was turning the average German away from them. They had to come up with a new strategy if they were to lead the German People into a Glorious new 1000 year reich.
The First of the Great Nazi Party Rallies was held on January 2nd 1929. It was a taste of things to come. . .