Battle of Warsaw sealed Poland's independence 97 years ago
The 97th anniversary of the 1920 Battle of Warsaw will be observed on Tuesday, Aug. 15. Dubbed "the 18th most important battle in history", it sealed Poland's independence and protected Europe from the advance of Bolshevism.
The war between Poland and Soviet Russia broke out practically just after the former regained independence in 1918. For the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, defeating Poland was a means to an end, namely, supporting revolutionary movements in Germany and the former Austro-Hungarian empire.
The key part of the conflict began in 1920 when Poland allied itself with the Ukrainian leader Semen Petlura, regaining control of Lviv and advancing as far as Kiev, with the Red Army in retreat.
Just then, however, the Bolsheviks launched their own offensive, under one of their best leaders, Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In a three-pronged assault, Tukhachevsky's forces marched on Warsaw, Semion Budionny's army attacked Lviv, while Gai-Khan's cavalry headed into northern Mazovian province, to complete the encirclement of the Polish forces.
Warsaw looked destined to fall. But as the Red Army retrenched before the decisive battle, the Polish army regrouped its units according to a new plan. The Polish leader Marshall Jozef Pilsudski (se: NOTE 2) laid out the guidelines, while his staffers fleshed out the details. The crux of the plan was to cut off Gai-Khan's corps from Tukhachevsky's army as well as from its base, and provoke a concerted battle on the outskirts of Warsaw.
The battle itself was to be composed of three parts: defensive operations, a decisive flanking manoeuvre from the direction of the Wieprz river, and an encirclement of Tukhachevsky's army.
Meanwhile, the Russians expected Warsaw to surrender in a matter of hours.
The battle finally broke out on August 13, as the two sides fought on the outskirts of Warsaw, including the town or Radzymin, which changed hands more than ten times.
Eventually, the Polish plan worked to perfection, with Pilsudski's forces breaking through the Bolshevik defence around Kock and Cycow, and attacking the rear of Tukhachevsky's army which was assaulting Warsaw. Tukhachevsky was forced to retreat far to the North, in the region of the Niemen river.
The Polish forces now started to pursue the Red Army, parts of which were forced to cross the border with East Prussia, where they were subsequently interned. By 25 August, the Polish victory was complete.
In the Battle of Warsaw, an estimated 4,500 Polish soldiers were killed, with a further 22,000 injured and 10,000 unaccounted for. While Soviet losses are officially unknown, it is assumed around 25,000 Red Army soldiers died or suffered serious injuries, 60,000 were taken prisoner, while 45,000 were interned by the Germans.
As documents from Poland's Central Miltary Archive (CAW), unearthed over the past years and published in 2005, make clear, as early as September 1919, the Polish Army broke the Soviet ciphers. This paved the way for the successful counter-offensive in August 1920, as the Polish command knew the Bolshevik plans and orders, proving itself capable of taking advantage of this information.
The Battle of Warsaw is regarded as the 18th most important battle in world history. Poland's unlikely victory ensured it retained independence, while the westward march of the Bolshevik revolution was decisively stopped. (PAP)
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NOTE 1: The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was fought by Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic for control over an area covering today's Ukraine and parts of Belarus. The Soviets also hoped to invade and occupy Poland.
At the time, Poland's leader, Jozef Pilsudski, planned to expand the Polish borders as far east as possible pending the formation of a Polish-led Intermarium federation of East-Central European states, to serve as a rampart against Germany's and Russia's imperial ambitions.
For Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, Poland had to be crossed for his Red Army to aid European communist movements. The Soviets started to move westward, pushing Polish forces back to the Polish capital Warsaw. In August of 1920, the Polish side won an unexpected but important victory over the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw. In the wake of the following Polish advance eastward, the Soviets sued for peace and a ceasefire was sealed in October 1920.
Many historians consider the Battle of Warsaw, which saved Europe from a communist deluge, to be one of the most important battles in history. Given that Poland was the underdog in the conflict, the victory went down in history as the "Miracle on the Vistula" - a term authored by the National Democrat MP Stanislaw Stronski.
Under the formal peace treaty ending the Polish-Soviet War (the Peace of Riga) of March 18 1921, the disputed territories were divided between Poland and Soviet Russia. Much of the territory that fell to Poland was reclaimed by the Soviet Union after World War II, when the Allies redefined Poland's eastern frontiers according to the 1920 Curzon Line.
NOTE 2: Born on December 5, 1867, Jozef Pilsudski was Poland's post-World War I independence architect and inter-war state leader. After regaining independence by Poland in 1918, Pilsudski became the Chief of State, the Commander-in-Chief and Marshal of Poland. In May 1926, following a successful coup d'état he took over power in Poland. He was Poland's two-time PM, General Inspector of Armed Forces and minister for military affairs (1926-1935).
Jozef Pilsudski was a proponent of preemptive war against Hitler, to which he repeatedly tried to convince the French side. He died at Warsaw's Belweder Palace on May 12, 1935. His funeral became an international tribute with a series of masses, ceremonies and a funeral train touring Poland.
Pope Pius XI conducted a special ceremony in the Holy See on May, 18th. A commemoration was also held at the League of Nations seat in Geneva, and condolences poured in to Poland from world heads of state, including Britain's King George V, Japan's Emperor Hirohito, France's Albert Lebrun and Pierre-Etienne Flandin, Austria's Wilhelm Miklas as well as Germany's Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, and Italy's Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III. (PAP)
