Do you believe that Jozef Pilsudski should have done more to support the White Russian armies during the RCW?

[Futurist]

Do you believe that Jozef Pilsudski should have done more to support the White Russian armies during the Russian Civil War? I've heard of a claim that Pilsudski's refusal to support the White Russian armies might have helped the Bolsheviks win the Russian Civil War and that Pilsudski did this because he felt that he could get a better peace deal from the Bolsheviks than from the Russian Whites. However, if so, this seems awfully self-centered on Pilsudski's part considering that he condemned Russians, most Ukrainians, and a lot of Belarusians to decades of Communist rule and Communist tyranny simply so that Poland could acquire more territory.

Anyway, what do you personally think about this? As in, did Pilsudski's make a mistake in regards to this?

[wm]

The Bolsheviks offered much more than the White Russians so the choice was easy.

It wasn't about "that Poland could acquire more territory" because Poland controlled the territory already and the Bolsheviks were more or less ok with that (at least theoretically).
The goal was to weaken the Bolsheviks and to create an independent, buffer state of Ukraine.

[Futurist]

The Bolsheviks offered much more than the White Russians so the choice was easy.

It wasn't about "that Poland could acquire more territory" because Poland controlled the territory already and the Bolsheviks were more or less ok with that (at least theoretically).
The goal was to weaken the Bolsheviks and to create an independent, buffer state of Ukraine.

Wouldn't it be better to see a non-Bolshevik Russia controlling Ukraine than it would have been to see the Bolsheviks controlling Russia but having (central and western) Ukraine be independent, though?

[gebhk]

Wouldn't it be better to see a non-Bolshevik Russia controlling Ukraine than it would have been to see the Bolsheviks controlling Russia but having (central and western) Ukraine be independent, though?

Why would having a state dedicated to annexing you on your border be better than having one that recognises your independence and there being a buffer state between you and them to boot? I don't understand.

[Futurist]

Wouldn't it be better to see a non-Bolshevik Russia controlling Ukraine than it would have been to see the Bolsheviks controlling Russia but having (central and western) Ukraine be independent, though?

Why would having a state dedicated to annexing you on your border be better than having one that recognises your independence and there being a buffer state between you and them to boot? I don't understand.

I thought that the White Russians were, in fact, willing to recognize Polish independence west of the Curzon Line?

[gebhk]

I never met a White Russian who thought of Poland in any way differently to the way English people think of Scotland and Wales.

[Futurist]

I never met a White Russian who thought of Poland in any way differently to the way English people think of Scotland and Wales.

And yet the UK was willing to let Scotland hold an independence referendum several years ago.

[wm]

And that time Russia was leaderless, and the White generals weren't willing (or even had the right) to cede even a square centimeter of Russian territory.
They were just generals.

[Futurist]

And that time Russia was leaderless, and the White generals weren't willing (or even had the right) to cede even a square centimeter of Russian territory.
They were just generals.

So, who did have the right to do this?

[wm]

Nobody. Similarily in 1945, the Polish Government in Exile had no right to accept what the Allies cooked for it and they didn't do it.
In war, in politics, sometimes sh.t happens, and there is no way out.

[Futurist]

What gave the 1989-1990 Polish government the authority to accept Poland's 1945 borders?

[wm]

The acts of the communist goverment are considered lawful unless revoked by the post-communist legislature.

[Futurist]

So, if the Polish government-in-exile would have been restored to power in Poland in 1945, it would have indeed had the power to recognize Poland's new borders?

[wm]

According to the constitution only the legislature (both the Senate and the Sejm) had the right to change borders.

[Futurist]

Wouldn't such a restoration have included the restoration of the Polish legislature, though?