polish–soviet_war | commander | leon_trotsky <sep> the polish–soviet war (late autumn 1918 / 14 february 1919 – 18 march 1921) was primarily fought between the second polish republic and the russian soviet federative socialist republic in the aftermath of world war i and the russian revolution, on territories which were formerly held by the russian empire and the austro-hungarian empire on 13 november 1918, after the collapse of the central powers and the armistice of 11 november 1918, vladimir lenin's russia annulled the treaty of brest-litovsk (which it had signed with the central powers in march 1918) and started moving forces in the western direction to recover and secure the ober ost regions vacated by the german forces that the russian state had lost under the treaty lenin saw the newly independent poland (formed in october–november 1918) as the bridge which his red army would have to cross to assist other communist movements and to bring about more european revolutions at the same time, leading polish politicians of different orientations pursued the general expectation of restoring the country's pre-1772 borders motivated by this idea, polish chief of state józef piłsudski (in office from 14 november 1918) began moving troops east 
leon trotsky was a commander in the polish-soviet war.no information