In general, opinions of the German occupiers were mixed, between those who hoped that the Germans would set up a new Polish state, and those who feared German domination. In any case, successful attacks by the Russian army, such as the 'Brusilov offensive', forced Germany to consider a quasi independent buffer state between the two empires, hopefully set up only in the former Russian Poland and linked to Germany by its own military means.[7] The idea of reconstituting Congress Poland for the Poles after the war, was a cynical ploy which stemmed from a desire to push Russia's frontiers further East with the least amount of German effort.[8] In reality, Germany planned to annex about 30,000 km² from former Congress Poland for German colonisation.[3] Most of the Polish population of those territories (about 2,000,000 people) was to be expelled into a small Polish puppet state.[4] The remaining population was to be used as agricultural labour for new German colonists.[4]