Each was, like Germany proper, subdivided into (districts); (rural districts) and (urban districts). In 1917 the following districts existed: The total area was , containing a population of 2,909,935 (by the end of 1916). Main military units in 1919 the 10th Army ( or ), Commanding Officer , Grodno the Army Group Mackensen () Aftermath With the end of the war and collapse of the empire, the Germans started to withdraw, sometimes in a piecemeal and disorganized way, from around late 1918 and early 1919. In the vacuum left by their retreat, conflicts arose as various former occupied nations declared independence, clashing with the various factions of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War, and with each other. For details, see: Soviet westward offensive of 1918–19, part of the Polish–Soviet War (the largest of the resulting conflicts) Ukrainian–Soviet War and Polish–Ukrainian War Estonian War of Independence Latvian War of Independence Lithuanian Wars of Independence Parallels with Nazi German policy The Lithuanian historian Vėjas Gabrielius Liulevičius postulates in his book War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I, that a line can be traced from s policies and assumptions to Nazi Germany's plans and attitudes towards Eastern Europe. His main argument is that "German troops developed a revulsion towards the 'East' and came to think of it as a timeless region beset by chaos, disease and barbarism", instead of what it really was, a region suffering from the ravages of warfare. He claims that the encounter with the East formed an idea of "spaces and races", which needed to be "cleared and cleansed". Although he has garnered a great deal of evidence for his thesis including government documents, letters and diaries in German and Lithuanian, there are still problems with his work. For example, he does not say much about the reception of German policies by native populations. Also, he "makes almost no attempt to relate wartime occupation policies and practice in to those in Germany's colonial territories overseas". See also Notes References Further reading German Empire in World War I 1910s in Lithuania Poland in World War I 1910s in Belarus 1914 establishments in Europe 1919 disestablishments in Europe States and territories established in 1914 States and territories disestablished in 1919 Military occupation