with the treaty of brest-litovsk, soviet russia had given up estonia, latvia, lithuania, poland, belarus and ukraine, enabling those territories to develop independently from russian influence. germany's intention was to turn these territories into political and territorial satellites, but this plan collapsed with germany's own defeat within a year. after the german surrender, the soviets made an attempt to regain lost territories. they were successful in some areas like ukraine, belarus and the caucasus, but were forced to recognize the independence of the baltic states, finland, and poland.