A Forgotton War: Warsaw 1920

A friend of mine, originally from Krakow, Poland recommended this book to me. I had never heard of this war—at this critical time and place in European history. In this book, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe  by Adam Zamoyski reminds us about an obscure war that had great ramifications. Coming as it did between the World Wars the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 was pivotal in stemming the Soviet advance into Europe and in saving the Versailles peace conference and a reconstructed Poland. Zamoyski believes that this Polish victory saved Western Europe from being overrun by the Russians, with consequences that would have created Communist states in Germany, other Eastern European states, and possibly even as far West as France.

The new Soviet state was a mess after their brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to a ruined Germany. As usual, geography dictates. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland. Egged on by Trotsky, Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky and the Russians were only a few kilometers from Warsaw, and Berlin was less than a week’s march away. Then the Miracle of the Vistula occurred: the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country—for a time. What a mess it was, hundreds of thousands of men fought and died and a look at the maps seemed to me like four football teams on one field with no set boundaries or goals. So many mistakes, such a big victory.