, the most important battle of the war, was one of the battles the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division took part in. With the end of the
World War I in the West, a growing series of territorial disputes between
Poland,
Soviet Russia and several other local provisional governments erupted in a series of wars in Central and Eastern Europe, the most prominent of these being the
Polish–Soviet War. Starting in the last years of the First World War, many smaller units of self-defence forces were created out of local volunteers in those areas, among them likely the best known being the
Lithuanian and Belarusian Self-Defence (). Self-Defence units were organized in the areas of the
Kresy region with Polish majorities or significant minorities – usually urbanized areas like the cities of
Vilnius,
Minsk,
Hrodna,
Lida and
Kaunas, or towns like
Ašmiany,
Wilejka,
Nemenčinė,
Świr and
Panevėžys; until December 1918 those units had no central command or organization and many of them were named after the local cities or regions (like ). The first task of those units was curbing the crime wave by German
deserters, and later, defence from the pro-
Bolshevik groups. Despite its name, most of the members of that organization were either Poles or
polonized, and therefore supported the cause of attaching those territories with the newly recreated
Polish state. Regarding the division,
Michał Pius Römer wrote in his diary on December 9, 1918, that:the "Lithuanian-Belarusian" division, which is being formed and supposedly intended to eventually "rescue" Lithuania, in reality, harbors the seeds of a military annexation.
Operational history The initial core of the division was formed in December 1918 in
Minsk, where a group of roughly 1,500 Poles and Belarusians rose to arms to defend the city against the advancing forces of
Soviet Russia. In June 1919, the Bolsheviks deployed the Jewish 1st Guard Battalion from Minsk (at the insistence of its own members) against
the Polish Army which included the 1st and the 2nd Lithuanian–Belarusian Divisions. The pro-communist Jews had won the first skirmish, forcing the Poles and Belarusians to retreat several kilometers. On August 8, 1919, Polish troops
recaptured Minsk from the Bolsheviks. The main attack was in the direction of Maladzechna, Minsk, and Polatsk along the railroad lines. However, due to Russian numerical superiority and lack of support from the side of the short-lived
Belarusian People's Republic, the group withdrew towards central Poland. Other such self-defence groups, resistance organizations, and veterans of the
Green Army of the
Russian Civil War also reached Poland, where they were reformed into a single unit under the command of general
Władysław Wejtko formerly from the
Imperial Russian Army. . Another large group of volunteers to join the division were the remnants of roughly 2,500 men strong force created in
Vilnius to defend it against the Reds in January 1919. In the effect of four-day-long fights for the city and the area of
Naujoji Vilnia, the Polish forces were pushed back and the city had to be abandoned. Finally, after the
League of Nations-brokered
Suwałki Agreement, the units of the division – then commanded by Gen.
Lucjan Żeligowski – occupied the
Vilnius Region from the Lithuanian forces and formed the core of the armed forces of the disputed
Republic of Central Lithuania. Following the elections held in Polish-occupied Vilnius and the state merger with Poland in 1923, the division was partially demobilized, while its remnants were incorporated into the Polish
19th Infantry Division stationed in Vilnius.
Composition •
81st Grodno Rifles Regiment •
10th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment ==2nd Lithuanian–Belarusian Division==