ciple source of tension between Europe and the Soviet Union. A territorial concern that created much strife was over the Slavic area that lie between Russia and Germany. After World War I, Poland was created as an independent state out of the three empires that had once occupied it : Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary (Ulam, p. 107). Poland had also created its own democratic government with the support of the League of Nations (Harris). With Poland becoming its own free state, a buffer zone was created between the Soviet/German border that would make it difficult for the Bolsheviks to gain access to Germany and lead a Communist revolution (Harris). The Treaty of Versailles had also created the countries of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia and made careful arrangements to set up these counties as a bloc of democratic governments to curb Russian imperialism (Harris). Lenin’s plans for the expansion of Bolshevism into Germany became complicated by the new Polish state (Harris). They no longer had direct access to the German border. Russia also felt that Poland contained lands that were rightfully part of Russia. As a result, the Soviets invaded Poland in 1920 in an effort to reacquire lands that they had lost as a result of the Treaty of Versailles as well as regain access to Germany by taking further territory all the way to the German border (Harris). Upon their planned occupation of Poland, the Soviets intended to gather the support of the workers and lead a Communist revolution in Poland thereby destroying the Pole’s newly established non-Communist regime (Harris). Poland eventually defeated the Russians with the help of French troops in 1921, and the upstart attempt to create Communist revolution in the remains of a war tattered Europe failed (Harris). In 1921, Poland mounted its own offensive that pushed Russian troops all the way east to the city of Kiev. The expansionist actions of the Soviet Union undermin...
