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move of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic into areas abandoned by the Ober Ost garrisons that were being withdrawn to Germany following that country's defeat in World War I. The initially successful offensive against Estonia ignited Estonian War of Independence which ended with Estonian troops at the gates of Petrograd. War against Latvia and Lithuania was more successful and short-lived Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics were established. In Belarus the Belarusian People's Republic was conquered and Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia proclaimed.