On April 21, the Polish chief of state signed a military agreement with Peltyura and his Ukrainian National Council for a pre-emptive expedition against the Bolsheviks. The French contingent featured the prominent General Maxime Weygand, Marshal Ferdinand Foch’s chief of staff during World War I. Marcel Camus, French film director (Black Orpheus). On August 16, too, Marshal Pilsidski ordered his strike force into action. John Mortimer, British barrister and playwright (Rumpole of the Bailey). The Bolshevik commander apparently believed that the Poles posed no danger to his exposed periphery. This article was written by Robert Szymczak and originally published in the February 1995 issue of Military History magazine. The Soviets’ insistent rejection of that demand apparently convinced the Polish leader that an attack on his position was imminent. The representatives of France, Great Britain, Italy and the united States met in the mirrored halls of Versailles in 1919 to dismember the German and Austro-Hungarian empires and set the world right. Some groups, such as Ghai’s cavalry and the Red Fourth Army, were locked in battle with Sikorski’s troops and were trapped. However, at the 'Miracle at the Vistula', the Poles unexpectedly defeated their overconfident opponents. A Polish cavalryman (Borys Szyc) is called away on the day of his wedding to a … Breaking through the gap in the Bolshevik ranks, the Polish Fourth Army, supported by 12 French-built Renault M-17FT light tanks, reached Brest-Litovsk and in the process cut off and trapped the Red Sixteenth Army.

The Battle of Warsaw in August 1920 has been described as one of the decisive battles of European history. That body would then be forced to recognize Poland’s expanded eastern boundaries. The Battle of Warsaw was a decisive Polish victory in 1920 in the Polish–Soviet War. The Polish Fifth Army under the able General Wladislaw Sikorski was to hold the crucial Wkra River line north of the capital. Karol Radek, the Soviet expert on foreign policy, opined that the Polish and German people were not prepared to accept communism. The Poles surmised that a White government bent on the reconstruction of the old empire would prove more recalcitrant than the hard-pressed Bolsheviks. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 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? Bitwa warszawska 1920) is a Polish historical film directed by Jerzy Hoffman depicting the events of the Battle of Warsaw (1920) of the Polish–Soviet War. Media in category "Battle of Warsaw (1920)" The following 20 files are in this category, out of 20 total. At the same time in 1919, the Bolsheviks had gained the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, having dealt crippling blows to the Russian White Movement. Little remembered in the West, the Battle of Warsaw was in fact one of the most significant land engagements of the 20th century. Driving through a gap in Bolshevik lines, the Poles advanced rapidly against little opposition. Strategically, it reversed an ideological onslaught that might otherwise have carried Soviet Communism into Western Europe in 1920 — an eventuality the consequences of which can only be imagined by posterity. Throughout 1918and 1919, the Reds turned the tables on their foes, one by one. 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.’. In vain Poles warned Lenin that an invasion by Russians would unite all Polish classes against Russia, their historic oppressor. The question was, where and when would the Bolsheviks stop their advance? It was a hard-fought battle, which took place in August 1920 near Warsaw and ended in a decisive Polish victory over the Red Army of Soviet Russia. On July 10, Grabski, having little choice, signed the Protocol of Spa, in which Poland agreed to accept the council’s recommendations on the disputed Polish-Czechoslovakian and Polish-Lithuanian frontiers; to return Wilno to Lithuanian control; to respect the Allies’ solution for the Polish use of the port of Danizg; to abide by any future decision on the status of Ukrainian-inhabited eastern Galicia; and finally, to pull all Polish troops behind the Curzon Line until an armistice could be arranged. Battle of Warsaw, (12–25 August 1920), Polish victory in the Russo-Polish War (1919–20) over control of Ukraine, which resulted in the establishment of the Russo-Polish border that existed until 1939. Forward, Warsaw! In the compromise Peace of Riga (March 1921), the Bolsheviks abandoned their plans to communize Poland, but the Poles had to abandon their federalist concepts. The battle occurred near the town of Radzymin, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of Warsaw, between August 13 and 16, 1920.Along with the Battle of Ossów and the Polish counteroffensive from the Wieprz River area, this engagement was a key part of what later became … By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Adam Ferency - Czekista Bykowski 3. Denikin was willing to allow Poland to exist up to the borders of Privislanski Kaj, a former Russian province carved from Poland, in exchange for Polish participation in an anti-Communist crusade, but since those terms would deprive Poland of half the territory Pilsudski wanted, the Polish commander in chief rejected that and other White offers. The British felt it necessary under these circumstances to force the Poles to accept Weygand as de facto commander of the Polish forces. The Western Allies, too, were decidedly against Pilsudski’s plans. Historical Map of Russia & the former Soviet Union (12 August 1920 - Battle of Warsaw: In the west, the Soviets had beaten back a Polish invasion of the Ukraine and reached the gates of Warsaw. The Battle of Warsaw 1920 Photos View All Photos (13) Movie Info. They preferred to build their military strength by conscription and volunteers. With Daniel Olbrychski, Natasza Urbanska, Borys Szyc, Jerzy Bonczak. These articles have not yet undergone the rigorous in-house editing or fact-checking and styling process to which most Britannica articles are customarily subjected. On August 29, Sikorski’s vanguard Operation Group, consisting of the 13th Infantry Division and 1st Cavalry Division under the overall command of General Stanislaw Haller, confronted Budyonny’s Cossacks at Zamarsc. The Bolshevik leader’s political advisers warned him not to count on a proletarian insurrection anywhere in Poland. On August 17, delegates from both sides met in Mink, where Moscow presented its conditions for a cease-fire: the Polish army was to be dismantled and the Allied military commission was to be sent packing. They would invade Poland, and as they approached Warsaw the Polish Communists would lead the working class into revolution and welcome the Red Army as liberators, a pattern to be followed in Germany and beyond. This incredibly ambitious designed was destined to disintegrate almost immediately. The new Bolshevik government, besieged by a multitude of armies commanded by a politically diverse collection of generals ranging from tsarist aristocrats to disillusioned socialists to provincial warlords, had its hands full at the time. French marine infantry had to be sent to Danzig to expedite the unloading of munitions. After the guns of war fell silent on November 11, the three torn pieces of the Polish nation were triumphantly reunited. John Swift is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Cumbria. We invite you to read an article by Mirosław Szumiło, D.Sc. Arrested and imprisoned in Magdeburg for two years, he was released on November 10, 1918, and returned home to be acclaimed as a national hero. Tukhachevsky’s forces had left behind more than 200 artillery pieces, more than 1,000 machine guns, 10,000 vehicles of every kind and nearly 66,000 prisoners of war. The Red Army had suffered its most disastrous defeat of the entire Russian Civil War period. For the fourth time since 1918, the Ukrainian Soviet government under Christian Rakovsky was forced to flee its capital; once again, the anti-Bolshevik regime of Petlyura ensconced itself in the city and announced the end of Russian domination of the Ukraine. Undersupplied, outgunned, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the Poles fought hard but could not stop the Urssians’ northern drive. To the 1920 period of war, polish historians define the scale of those “battles” as strategic. Trotsky, who seconded that gloomy appraisal, also warned Lenin that the speedy capture of the Polish capital could only be achieved by stretching the Red Army’s supply lines to precariously thin limits. At that moment of chaos and civil war in Russia, the Poles struck.

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