After German and Polish representatives signed an evacuation agreement on 5 February 1919, the ten battalions of the
newly formed Polish Army were to pass through German Oberkommando-Ostfront (Ober-Ost) lines at Wolkowysk to reach the Bolshevik front, where on 12 January 1919, the Soviet Supreme Command ordered a "reconnaissance in depth", codenamed
Target Vistula. In February 1919, both Soviet Russia and newly reborn Poland were in their infancy, and both only months old. On 13 February 1919, at 7 in the morning, 57 Polish soldiers and 5 officers, led by Capt. Mienicki of the Polish Wilno Detachment, made a sortie into the township of
Biaroza (), a small city to the east of
Brzesc, capturing 80 soldiers of the
Red Army.
The second Battle of Bereza Kartuska One year later, between 21 and 26 July 1920, soldiers of the Polish 14th Infantry Division under General
Daniel Konarzewski once again clashed with the Red Army in Bereza Kartuska, soon after the
Battle of Warsaw (1920). Poles had retreated from
Baranowicze, abandoning German Imperial Army fortifications constructed there during
World War I, and took defensive positions along the
Jasiołda River. After three days of heavy fighting, the 14th I.D. once again was forced to retreat towards
Kobryn, after burning the bridges on the Jasiołda. The town of
Bereza Kartuska was retaken by the Polish Army and, at the end of the Polish–Soviet War, ceded to
Poland in the
Peace of Riga signed by Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus). The peace treaty remained in force until the
Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. == References ==