After the subsequent Soviet offensive in Ukraine, Lenin appointed Rakovsky as the Chairman of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Workers and Peasants of Ukraine, replacing Georgy Pyatakov on January 16, 1919 due to the latter's argument with Fyodor Sergeyev for excessive interference in Ukrainian affairs. On March 29, 1919 the government was reorganized as the Soviet of the People's Commissars. According to the British author Arthur Ransome, present in Moscow during early that year, "It had been found that the views of the Pyatakov government were further left than those of its supporters, and so Pyatakov had given way to Rakovsky who was better able to conduct a more moderate policy". While in office, Rakovsky totally ignored Ukrainian issues, considering Ukraine and its language merely "an invention" of intellectuals.