The collapse of the Russian Empire led to the formation of a number of new states on its ruins, the largest and most powerful of which were Soviet Russia and Poland. While the goal of the Bolsheviks was to suppress all anti-government forces operating in Russia and prevent the further collapse of the country, the Poles saw their main task as gathering together the Polish national lands within the borders of 1772 (as they existed before the First Partition of Poland by the great powers).
The vast lands of Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Baltic territory lay between the two centers of power and, in the wake of World War I and the withdrawal from the area of German troops, Warsaw and Moscow became embroiled in a ferocious scramble for them.
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