battle of warsaw 1920
Had the war spread into Germany, another great European war would have ensued, dragging in France and Britain. To the 1920 period of war, polish historians define the scale of those “battles” as strategic. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Warsaw-1920, HistoryNet - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. He then appeared, hat in hand, before the Allied Supreme Council at Spa, Belgium to appeal for help in defending the Polish capital, only to be subjected to bitter criticism of Pilsudski’s eastern policy. In the city of Bialystok, the Russians installed a ‘Polish Revolutionary Committee,: headed by Felix Dzerzhinski, Julian Marchlevski and Felix Kon, longtime Communists known for their opposition to Polish independence. On July 12, Minsk, the Belorussian capital, fell to the Red,s followed by Wilno on the 14th and Grodno on the 19th. Frantic appeals from the Polish capital for arms and ammunition underscored the urgency of the situation. Almost a hundred years ago, between August 12 and 15, 1920, one of the most significant battles in the history of the Republic of Poland took place on the outskirts of Warsaw, which was at the same time the greatest victory of Polish army since the time of John III’s victory of Vienna in 1683. Lenin was forced to agree to peace terms that surrendered a large tract of territory whose population was in no way Polish—the Red Army returned to reclaim it in 1939. Three armies disintegrated, and thousands fled into East Prussia, where they were interned. The Poles, asserting their newly found independence, pressed eastward into Belarus and Ukraine, leading to clashes as the Red Army extended Bolshevik rule westward. While the Allies were able to produce a tentative settlement for Poland’s western frontiers, they had no means of establishing any agree-upon border between the new Polish state and the Russian colossus. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Different strata of Polish society oppose communist aggression from Soviet Russia. Reaching a climax during the summer of 1920, the Russo-Polish War is often regarded as the final episode of the Russian Civil War. In fact, it was much more — at once a reflection of the age-old enmity between two Slavic neighbors and a Marxist crusade bent on varying the torch of revolution into the heart of Europe. The Red Army had suffered its most disastrous defeat of the entire Russian Civil War period. Even the old aristocratic old tsarist General Aleksei Brusilov, the last Imperial Army commander, responded to this approach and joined in an anti-Polish campaign; many other patriotic ex-tsarist officers followed his example. Throughout 1918and 1919, the Reds turned the tables on their foes, one by one. To the 1920 period of war, polish historians define the scale of those “battles” as strategic. At Warsaw’s Mokotow Airfield, Polish mechanics labored day and night assembling former Royal Air force figher planes in order to deny the Soviets any aerial reconnaissance. None of the committee’s members had the remotest link to the Polish working class; indeed, one of the Bialystok group’s most important members, Dzezhinski, was Lenin’s close associate and the head of the Cheka, the Soviet secret police. Excited by some quick victories over Polish forces, Lenin conceived of a singularly dubious scheme: he would export revolution on the bayonet points of the Red Army. The Battle of Warsaw was a decisive Polish victory in 1920 in the Polish–Soviet War. The Polish government passed a resolution of praise for Pilsudski on May 18, and a Te Deum Mass was sung in his honor in every Polish church. How could a newly restored Poland, whose population had suffered terribly during World War I and whose economy was virtually nonexistent, even contemplate — let alone mount — a full-scale attack on Russia? The Ukrainians, while keenly desiring independence, were naturally suspicious of the Polish leader’s motives, realizing how much of the Ukraine was intended for incorporation within the Polish state. Portraits of the bushy-browed, heavily mustachioed old revolutionary were hung in all public buildings. He clearly regarded the new Polish army as his special province, and himself as the guarantor of independence. On the tips of their lances, the Polish cavalrymen carried a proclamation written by their chief of state that promised ‘all inhabitants of Ukraine, without distinction of class, race or religion’ the brotherly protection of Poland; it exhorted the Ukraine to drive out the Bolshevik intruders ‘to win freedom for itself with the help of the Polish Republic.’. By August 24, it was virtually over. The Western Allies, too, were decidedly against Pilsudski’s plans. Time was obviously of the essence. Bitter, centuries-long memories of Polish oppression could not be raised by raising the revolutionary red flag in Warsaw. Militarily, the sudden counterattack by which Pilsudski and his lieutenants split and routed the Bolshevik forces — themselves led by one of the enemy’s most brilliant generals — deserves a place among the tactical masterpieces of history. The British were represented by Viscount Edgar Vincent d’Abernon and Maj. Gen. Percy de B. 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