and the internal dissolution of Austria-Hungary made the plans for the creation of Mitteleuropa obsolete. In November and December, the German army started a retreat westwards. Demoralised officers and mutinous soldiers abandoned their garrisons en masse and returned home. The areas abandoned by the Central Powers became a field of conflict between local puppet governments created by Germany as part of its plans, local nationalist governments that sprung up after the withdrawal of the German forces, Poland, and the Bolsheviks wanting to incorporate these areas into Soviet Russia. Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and even Cossack national governments were formed. Internal power struggles prevented any of the governments in Belarus from gaining lasting power. In Ukraine the situation was even more complex, with an ongoing conflict between Nestor Makhno's anarchists, communists, the White Movement, various governments of Ukraine and the reborn Polish Army. The entire region abandoned by the German forces became a gigantic free-for-all theatre, where dozens of factions competed for power. The Bolsheviks were also implementing a new strategy, "Revolution from abroad" (Revolutsiya izvne—literally, "revolution from the outside"), based on an assumption that revolutionary masses desire revolution but are unable to carry it out without help from more organized and advanced Bolsheviks. Hence, as Leon Trotsky remarked, the revolution should be "brought on the bayonets" (of the Red Army), as "through Kiev leads the straight route for uniting with the Austro-Hungarian revolution, just as through Pskov and Vilnius goes the way for uniting with the German revolution. Offensive on all fronts! Offensive on the west front, offensive on the south front, offensive on the all revolutionary fronts!". The concept was developed in 1918 but officially published under that name first in 1920 (Wojennaja Mysl i Riewolucija, 3/1920, Mikhail Tukhachevsky. Offensives Estonian direction The Gdov and Yamburg Detachments of the 7th Red Army attacked the German Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 405 defending the city of Narva on 22 November 1918. The 6th Red Division captured the railway junction of Tapa from the freshly formed 4th and 5th Regiments of the Estonian Land Forces on 24 December and advanced to from the capital Tallinn. On 29 November in Narva, Estonian Bolsheviks led by Jaan Anvelt proclaimed a pro-Soviet puppet government — "Commune of the Working People of Estonia". In south Estonia, the 49th Red Latvian Rifle Regiment took the railway junction of Valga on 17 December and the city of Tartu on