At the same time in 1919, the Bolsheviks had gained the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, having dealt crippling blows to the Russian White Movement. Vladimir Lenin viewed Poland as a bridge to bring communism to Central and Western Europe, and the Polish–Soviet War seemed the perfect way to test the Red Army's strength. The Bolshevik's speeches asserted that the revolution was to be carried to western Europe on the bayonets of Russian "soldat"s and that the shortest route to Berlin and Paris lay through Warsaw. The conflict began when Polish head of state Józef Piłsudski formed an alliance with the Ukrainian leader Symon Petlyura (on April 21, 1920) and their combined forces began to push into Ukraine, liberating Kiev on May 7.