The Battles for Vilnius in 1918–1919 (Polish: Walki o Wilno, Russian: Сражения за Вильно) were a series of battles fought in Vilnius between the pro-Polish Self-Defence of Lithuania and Belarus who were initially against the Imperial German Army retreating from the city and the Bolshevik paramilitaries (31 December 1918 – 3 January 1919) and then against the attacking Red Army (4–5 January 1919).

[5] At the beginning of December, the government of the Belarusian People's Republic, headed by Anton Lutskevich, also arrived in Vilnius, forced to leave Minsk due to its occupation by the Bolsheviks.

Even before Poland gained independence, part of the Polish population of the Vilnius region was preparing to join these lands to the emerging country.

An attempt was made to bring together the Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Jewish people to defend themselves against the approaching Bolsheviks, but it failed.

Polish troops in Vilnius were ordered to act independently in case the Red Army attempted to enter the city.

[7] As the Bolsheviks were approaching Vilnius, Lithuanians and Belarusians made joint efforts to form troops to defend the city.

At the end of December, the following officers joined the regiment: Siatkowski, Hasan Konopacki, Dawid Jakubowski, Remiszewski and Łukaszewicz.

[8] Therefore, on December 27, 1918, Belarusian military formations along with most members of the BRL government left Vilnius and evacuated to Grodno, which remained under German occupation.

The reason for the evacuation of the Lithuanian government was not only the approach of the Bolsheviks to the city but also the fear that after the Poles established themselves there, its further work would be very difficult or impossible.

[4] Władysław Dąbrowski became the actual commander of the Polish self-defence forces on his initiative and only later formally received this position from General Wejtka.

In the last days of the German occupation, the Soviet held two sessions, and declared itself the only legal authority in the city and issued the first decrees; its headquarters was in a building at Wronia Street.

[11][12] The chairman of the Council was Kazimierz Cichowski, former secretary of the Petrograd group of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), and the secretary of the praesidium was Jan Kulikowski, a Pole from Trakai County, member of SDKPiL and the Communist Workers' Party of Poland;[4] its headquarters was in a building at Wronia (now Jakšto) Street.

The Soviet was of a mixed nature; the largest but not dominant faction was the Bolsheviks, balanced by Mensheviks, Bundists, Lithuanian Social Democrats and other groups.

[15][16][d] At around 11 pm the leader of the Polish forces, General Władysław Wejtko, issued an ultimatum to surrender which the Soviet refused.

The suiciders included: the commandant of the people's militia, Leonas Čaplinskis, Antanas Liaudanskas, Jankelis Šapira, Julius Simelevičius (Brother of Boris Shimeliovich) and the Vilnius shoemaker, Bonifacas Verbickas.

[9] The order to capture Vilnius was given to the 2nd Rifle Brigade of Vladimir Olderogge's Pskov Division, which was in the Pabradė area on January 1.

Shortly afterwards, they encountered German forces on Wielka Pohulanka Street, as a result of which the Poles suffered further losses, including officers.

However, the command of the 5th Vilnius Regiment accused the leadership of incompetence in planning and directing the attack and refused to participate in the action.

The order issued by the Chief of Staff, Captain Klingera, only stated that the place where the troops were to assemble was the castle at Biała Waka, about 8 km south-west of Vilnius.

On the basis of the information received from the Germans and an analysis of the position of their own troops, General Wejtko and Captain Klinger came to the conclusion that an independent march to Podlasie was impossible.

The units did not have the wagons left in Vilnius, there was no food and money, the soldiers did not have winter uniforms, the area of the eventual march, inhabited mainly by Byelorussians, was devastated by the war, making it impossible to resupply during the retreat.

In this situation, through Captain Wenderlich of the 101st Battalion, negotiations began with several German commands (Ober-Ost in Kaunas, 10th army in Grodno and one of the Reserve Corps).

They ended with the signing of an agreement that the German military authorities would provide rail transport from Landwarow to Lapy, including provisions for the duration of the transit.

On the basis of this agreement, Captain Klinger issued an order which read: "During today's march to Waka (Count Tyszkiewicz's castle).

[28] The troops largely obeyed the order; the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Rifle Regiment marched to Landwarow, where, after laying down their arms, they were loaded onto wagons and transported to Łapy.

His government was dissatisfied with the fact that General Władysław Wejtko announced mobilization in Vilnius, which also included Belarusians living there.

In this way, he intended to make it clear that he treated the Vilnius region as part of the BRL and did not agree to any other country taking action there.

According to historian Dorota Michaluk, this type of protest in the situation of the ongoing siege of Vilnius by the Bolsheviks could have been treated very unfavourably by a significant part of its inhabitants, because it could easily be misinterpreted as an expression of pro-Bolshevik sympathies or a call to abandon the defence.

For this reason, most historians do not treat the above-mentioned fights as the beginning of a regular Polish-Bolshevik war, although they admit that it was an announcement of it in the near future.