The Implementation of the Polish-Soviet Peace Preliminaries (October–November 1920

Abstract

The article clarifies the actual date of the entry into force of the Soviet-Polish treaty on the preliminary conditions of peace and armistice of October 12, 1920. The preliminary treaty stipulated that the enactment should happen no later than November 2, and after that date, the withdrawal of Polish troops to the state border line was to begin. The parties pledged not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs and not to support organizations aimed at overthrowing the state and social system of the other party from the moment the truce was ratified under article II of the treaty. Realizing the importance of the armistice, the Ukrainian SSR, Poland and the RSFSR ratified the treaty within the agreed time frame, and it seemed that nothing prevented them from immediately starting work on the final text of the peace treaty in accordance with the agreements. However, the Soviet peace delegation that had arrived in Riga on November 3 did not find the Polish delegation there. It turned out, moreover, that the Polish army was in no hurry to leave the regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the Belorussian SSR occupied by it, and thus covered the flanks of the anti-Soviet armies of Symon Petliura, Boris Piermikin, and Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz which invaded Soviet territory. The protests expressed by the Soviet side yielded results only aer the Red Army had broken through the defense of the Crimea on November 9-10. On November 13, a Polish delegation finally arrived in Riga and a meeting of the heads of the Soviet and Polish delegations, Adolph Joffe and Jan Dąbski, took place, following which Poland undertook to begin the withdrawal of its troops from November 19, 1920. Its yesterday’s eastern allies retreated to Poland and were interned. The analysis of the problem shows that the armistice agreement was actually put into effect not on November 2, but on November 19, 1920, and Józef Piłsudski and the Polish military command are primarily to blame for this.