The Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919 was part of the general move of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic into areas abandoned by the Ober Ost garrisons that were being withdrawn to Germany following that country's defeat in World War I. The initially successful offensive against Estonia ignited the Estonian War of Independence which ended with the Soviet recognition of Estonia. The war against Latvia and Lithuania was more successful and the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics were established. In Belarus the Belarusian People's Republic was conquered and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia proclaimed.