Варшавская битва 1920 года: Чудо на Висле

Battle of the Polish–Soviet War

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The Battle of Warsaw (Bitwa Warszawska; Варшавская битва, Varshavskaya bitva), also known as the Miracle on the Vistula (Cud nad Wisłą), was a series of battles that resulted in a decisive Polish victory in 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. Poland, on the verge of total defeat, repulsed and defeated the Red Army. After the Polish Kiev offensive, Soviet forces launched a successful counterattack in summer 1920, forcing the Polish army to retreat westward in disarray. The Polish forces seemed on the verge of disintegration and observers predicted a decisive Soviet victory. The Battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25, 1920, as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress. On August 16, Polish forces commanded by Tadeusz Rozwadowski counterattacked from the south, disrupting the enemy's offensive, forcing the Russian forces into a disorganized withdrawal eastward and behind the Neman River. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded. The defeat crippled the Red Army; Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, called it "an enormous defeat" for his forces. In the following months, several more Polish follow up victories secured Poland's independence and led to a peace treaty with Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine later that year, securing the Polish state's eastern frontiers until 1938. The politician and diplomat Edgar Vincent regards this event as one of the most important battles in history on his expanded list of most decisive battles, since the Polish victory over the Soviets halted the spread of communism further westwards into Europe. A Soviet victory, which would have led to the creation of a pro Soviet Communist Poland, would have put the Soviets directly on the eastern border of Germany, where considerable revolutionary ferment was present at the time.

In the aftermath of World War I, Poland fought to preserve its newly regained independence, lost in the 1795 partitions of Poland, and to carve out the borders of a new multinational federation (Intermarium) from the territories of their former partitioners, Russia, Germany, and Austria Hungary.

By the beginning of August, the Polish retreat had become more organized, as their supply lines were steadily shortened. At first, Józef Piłsudski wanted to stop the Soviets at the Bug River and the city of Brest Litovsk, but the Soviet advance resulted in their forces breaching that line, making that plan obsolete. After the battle, many reports suggested that the plan was in fact prepared either by Weygand or by the Polish Chief of Staff Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski.

Mikhail Tukhachevsky planned to cross the Vistula River northwest of Warsaw, around the city of Włocławek, and then attack from that direction to encircle the capital. With 24 divisions in four armies under his command, he planned to repeat the classic maneuver of Ivan Paskevich, who in 1831, during the November Uprising, had crossed the Vistula at Toruń and reached Warsaw practically unopposed, crushing the Polish uprising. According to the historian Thomas Fiddick in 1973, rumors of disobedience to orders on the Soviet side by General Semyon Budyonny, or possibly even Joseph Stalin, were baseless. Moscow had decided for political reasons to reinforce the Crimean front at the expense of the Polish front. It meant it was replacing its goals of Europe wide Communist revolution with a sort of "peaceful coexistence" with the West amidst internal consolidation. However, more recent historians have stated that Stalin disobeyed orders in early August 1920 when he attempted to conquer Lvov rather than transfer his troops to assist Tukhachevsky's forces that were attacking Warsaw. In Moscow, Lenin and Trotsky blamed him for his behaviour in the Polish–Soviet War. Tukhachevsky himself blamed Stalin for his defeat at the Battle of Warsaw.

While the Red Army pushed forward, Gayk Bzhishkyan's Cavalry Corps, together with the 4th Army, crossed the Wkra River and advanced towards the town of Włocławek, the 15th and 3rd Armies were approaching Modlin Fortress and the 16th Army moved towards Warsaw. The final Russian assault on Warsaw began on August 12. The Soviet defeat was therefore considered a setback for Soviet leaders supportive of that plan (particularly Vladimir Lenin). A National Democrat Sejm deputy, Stanisław Stroński, coined the phrase, "Miracle on the Vistula" (Polish: Cud nad Wisłą), to underline his disapproval of Piłsudski's earlier "Ukrainian adventure". In response, Poland's Prime Minister Wincenty Witos commented, "Whatever you want to write and say – whoever you want to dress in laurels and merits – this is 1920's 'Miracle on the Vistula'."

According to documents found in 2005 at Poland's Central Military Archives, Polish cryptanalysts broke Russian ciphers they had intercepted as early as September 1919. At least some of the Polish victories, not only the Battle of Warsaw but also other battles, can be attributed to this. Lieutenant Jan Kowalewski, credited with the original breakthrough, received the Order of Virtuti Militari in 1921.

M. Tarczyński, Cud nad Wisłą, Warszawa, 1990. Józef Piłsudski, Pisma zbiorowe, Warszawa, 1937, reprinted by Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1991, Mikhail Tukhachevski, Lectures at Military Academy in Moscow, February 7–10, 1923, reprinted in Pochód za Wisłę (March across the Vistula), Łódź, 1989.