Battle of Warsaw, Polish victory on August 12–25, 1920, during the Russo-Polish War (1919–20). Polish forces won control of Ukraine, which resulted in the establishment of the Russo-Polish border that existed until 1939. In a war that pitted Bolshevik revolutionary fervor against Polish nationalism, the Russian Bolsheviks suffered a humiliating defeat. The Polish victory over the Red Army outside Warsaw ensured the survival of an independent Poland and may have prevented a Bolshevik invasion of Germany.
By 1920 the Bolsheviks had triumphed in the Russian Civil War, but the borders of the Bolshevik-ruled state were still uncertain. The Poles, asserting their newly found independence, pressed eastward into Belarus and Ukraine, leading to clashes as the Red Army extended Bolshevik rule westward. 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. 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. In vain Poles warned Lenin that an invasion by Russians would unite all Polish classes against Russia, their historic oppressor.
The Polish-born and much feared head of the Cheka (Bolshevik secret police), Feliks Dzerzhinsky, was made head of a Polish Revolutionary Committee, which would follow the Red Army and form the new government. Lenin was absolutely confident of success. Initially all went well, with the vaunted Red Cavalry under Semyon Budenny driving Polish forces from Ukraine, and within six weeks the Red Army, consisting of 20 full divisions, was at the gates of Warsaw. But as the Polish Communists had warned, all classes did indeed unite, and there was no rising in the city. Also the Polish commander, Józef Piłsudski, drew up a bold, if not foolhardy, plan of counterattack. The Polish army would stand on the defensive in front of the city, and when the Red Army was fully committed to the battle, Poland’s best units would launch a flanking attack from the south, cut the Bolshevik lines of communication, and encircle much of the Red Army. Some Polish generals were aghast at the risks involved, but in their desperation there seemed no alternative.
When the Red Army launched what was expected to be the final assault on Warsaw, Piłsudski had to begin his counterattack twenty-four hours early, with some units not yet in position, for fear that Warsaw might fall if he waited. The Red Army fought its way to the village of Izabelin, only 8 miles (13 km) from the city, but the Polish attack succeeded beyond wildest expectations. Driving through a gap in Bolshevik lines, the Poles advanced rapidly against little opposition. In the Red Army, all was chaos; commanders lost control of their units, with some divisions continuing their advance on Warsaw, others fleeing. Three armies disintegrated, and thousands fled into East Prussia, where they were interned. In an encounter that saw Polish lancers charging and overwhelming the invaders, the Bolshevik First Cavalry Army was all but annihilated.
The Fourth Army meekly surrendered after being encircled. Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky desperately tried to pull his troops back to a defensible line, but the situation was beyond redemption. A few more engagements followed, but the war was effectively won. 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, but the sting of defeat remained: Warsaw was one of the greatest disasters to befall the Red Army until Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Some military historians consider the Battle of Warsaw one of the pivotal battles of the 20th century. For their parts, Polish patriots hailed the victory as akin to King Jan Sobieski’s decisive victory over the Ottoman besiegers of Vienna in 1683. Describing the “miracle on the Vistula,” a French member of the Allied military mission to the Polish government, Major Charles de Gaulle, declared, “Our Poles have grown wings.”
Losses: Soviet, possibly some 15,000–25,000 killed, 65,000 captured, and some 35,000 interned in Germany; Polish, up to 5,000 dead, 22,000 wounded, and 10,000 missing.