Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe

This book is excellent for what it is. And what it is, is a brief overview at the Military Operational Level of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. Concentrating mostly on the movements at the Divisional Level.

Zamoyski does provide a brief introduction to the “table setting” in January 1920 - amount of troops available to both sides, comments on the commanders of both sides, the Polish scramble to form a nation coming out of the ashes of WW1, and the Bolshevik belief that they were going to ignite the downtrodden masses aflame in the former Central Power capitals (Berlin, Budapest, Prague, and even Vienna) with a march through Poland and further West. And then it’s off to the races with the Polish preemptive attack on the Ukraine.

The Author details the movements of the units involved – with the tide running out to Kiev, back to Warsaw, and out to Minsk once again. He details Tukhachvesky’s blunder in rushing forward into a vacuum of undefended northern Polish territory, and Pilsudsky’s tremendous “right hook” which hemmed in the Soviets against Eastern Prussia, followed by the Polish exploitation eastward into Russia which drove the Bolsheviks to the peace table.

This is military history pure and simple, no discussion of diplomats at the peace negotiation, it is simply enough to know that a cease fire was agreed upon at a certain date. Mind you there are no down in the weeds first hand accounts of the soldiers involved, or civilians attempting to survive; this is a book about military units and how they moved “on the chessboard”.

Cons: Superficial account of the politics & diplomacy of Europe which brought this war into being. And no thrilling first hand accounts of the battles.

Pros: Concise telling of the war, with plentiful maps to follow the flow of the armies. The author also writes with an up tempo style that keeps the narrative moving along at a brisk pace which holds the reader’s interest.

In about 160 pages, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe by Adam Zamoyski, American born of an ancient Polish family relates the history of a brief, intense war between the newly made Communist Russia and the essentially newly drawn Poland. The war lased form October of 1920 to March 1921. His narrative can be a challenge if you are not used to either Russian or Polish names and geography, but it is well enough written that I will be looking to sample from his dozen or so other titles. The audience for this book is any of several varieties of history buffs and the more so for military history buffs. However, the implication of how nearly this war could have changed European history should make this book worth a few hours of time for a larger audience.

Like most of us, what I learned about Russian history, either in a modern history class or in a Russian History class, was that during WW I, a poorly generally and failing government fell to the Bolshevik Party and Communism. The new Soviet Union rushed into what was a punitive peace with Germany and then the rest was back to Lenin, then Stalin and so forth. Much later I read of a British and American military invasion of the Soviet Union, in part to assist elements of the Polish Army and elsewhere I read of British secret effort to support a Polish effort to overthrow the Bolshies.

The political back drop to this war was that Lenin felt that the Europeans, exhausted by WW I could be motivated to carry into their lands the promise of a unified Communist future. Poland, indirectly encouraged by the West and feeling ill used by the Treaty of Versailles felt that with the support of the various White Russian Armies it could end the Soviet hold on Russia and improve its eastern boundaries.

Very quickly the Polish forces would be on the defensive and by a very last ditch and unexpected victory the Poles would secure a peace that kept the Soviet Army out of Germany and Austria, and in essence stopped the direct export of Russian Communism. At least stopped it until the end of WW II and the Iron Curtin.

This a short book, appropriate for a less than one year event. It had is oddities, like this war was one of the last to pivot on the skills of large cavalry actions, and the novel use of horse drawn chariots armed with Machine Guns. Both sides made rough use of the local population and Jews in particular could expect that lives, women and property would receive the worst of what was never good. Much of Poland is large flat plains, making it very easy to invade. Roads were few and River crossing points well known to both sides. Neither side could depend on the loyalties of major units. The Russians’ attempted to anticipate the problem by forcing unit commander to accept a Political Party Officer. This would be part of Stalin’s raise to power. In the end everything would depend on the decisions of a single leader, not of the warrior class.

That is, there is a dramatic flourish to the end. We have all known the larger scale aspects of Post WW I European history. Thanks to Historian Adam Zamoyski we can quickly fill in some of the rarely appreciated details. Part of why Communism spread no farther than it did was the blood spilled by Poles.

This is an excellent, brief history of the Soviet-Polish War of 1920. Let me repeat. This is a military history. Its primary concern is with the composition of armies, military leadership, strategic objectives, battlefield tactics, weapons, etc. T. Kunikov's review notwithstanding, it is not a book about the grand political objectives of the Soviet regime or a treatise on the Communist threat to western civilization (although these are taken for granted by the author).

Kunikov's review is typical of the kind of knee-jerk reaction so many Marxist apologists experience whenever they perceive the slightest criticism of Soviet (or Chinese or Cuban) Communism.

As I have said, this is essentially a book of military history which makes only occasional, oblique references to the motives and objectives of the Soviet (and Polish) leaders. The Soviet leaders' desire to spread their revolution to Germany and Western Europe is alluded to in the book's subtitle, "Lenin's Failed Invasion of the West," which, if I know anything about the publishing business, was probably dreamed up by an editor eager to give the book more pizzazz. Subsequently, it is referred to in one short paragraph on page 2, which consists almost entirely of two quotations form Lenin himself; in one sentence on page 6 about the Bolshevik's general belief in the necessity of overthrowing the "established world order;" a phrase on page 7 about "ensuring the survival of Communism in Russia" by exporting revolution to Germany; and another indefinite remark on page 9 about the Communists' expectations of the "immanent triumph of revolution throughout the world." That's it.

The rest of the book's 224 pages consist of a detailed history of military operations during the Soviet-Polish War of 1920, filled with excellent maps, easy to read and understand.

Even the concluding chapter does not discuss Soviet intentions in their invasion of Poland, except for one sentence in which the author refers to Stalin's success in 1945 in achieving "much of what Lenin had set out to do in 1920," and noting "the dark night of Communism that engulfed [Poland] for half a century" thereafter. No one but an ideologically blinded Marxist could deny the truth of that statement.

The Polish attack on the Soviet armies massing on their eastern frontier in 1920 was clearly an act of pre-emptive self defense against an immanent, well prepared Soviet plan to invade their country (similar to Israel's pre-emptive attack on Egypt and Syria in 1967). The Soviet invasion was scheduled to be launched within forty eight hours. The Poles were well aware of Soviet intentions because they had the world's most highly developed capability for decoding and reading their opponents radio messages, a talent which was to prove invaluable to the British in World War II.

I find it astonishing that certain reviewers can continue to ignore the openly declared intentions of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and the rest of the Soviet leadership of the time ("World Revolution" was their slogan), as well as all of the facts that have emerged from the Soviet Archives since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russian scholars like Viktor Suvorov, Dmitri Volkogonov, and Arkady Vaksburg, as well as their American and British counterparts such as Albert Weeks, Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, Ronald Radosh, Richard Pipes and J. Arch Getty, have been using this material for nearly two decades now. Many of the original documents are also accessible to any interested reader in the Yale University Press "Annals of Communism" series, which consists of some twenty volumes of Soviet archival documents edited by American and Russian scholars. But, of course, one must first read the documents, then make up their mind.

I think that most readers would have the same reaction I did when hearing of Adam Zamoyski's book Warsaw 1920: gosh, I didn't know Poland and Russia went to war in 1920.

Poland and Russia had a long and often violent joint history. In 1920 there was communist unrest in Germany and Lenin assembled an army to cross Poland and support the German revolutionaries. The Polish, acting on intelligence, preempted any invasion by attacking the Russians. Consequently there is debate as to who "started" this war. The Russians drove back the Poles to the gates of Warsaw but were subsequently routed when the Polish army, under Marshall Jozef Pilsudski, outflanked them. Of interest to me was the youth of the Russian commanders, many in their early twenties and most fated to disappear in Stalin's show trials in the 1930s, and the involvement of figures such as Joseph Stalin (political commissar on the southern front) and Charles de Gaulle (the French military observer).

The strength and weakness of Zamoyski's book are one in the same: a concentrated focus on the military activities in the field. Consequently the reader has a good understanding of the strategies, the battles and why the Polish army routed the Russians. The author is very clear about the military focus but it does leave the reader, especially those without prior knowledge, only the most rudimentary understanding of the political context and even less understanding of the concurrent social and economic effects of the war.

Although Adam Zamoyski is a Polish historian I, without prior knowledge of the subject and independent of any Polish or Russian cultural ties, considered the book to be reasonably impartial. He is clearly pro-Polish and occasionally an adjective or adverb describing the Russians "pops" out as being deliberately negative. However the focus on military rather than political activities definitively minimizes any bias.

The writing itself is quite clear and direct. The material is well organized, primarily on a chronological basis, and benefits significantly from the maps and photographs. The author, presumably recognizing the minimal context provided, has included an appendix with suggested further reading in English.

To my mind the best type of book because I learnt something with every page.

It is refreshing to read a book which deals with a key battle in the history of the Western world. Lenin's dream of sweeping into Germany and beyond to impose a soviet system with it's class warfare, secret police, etc. was stopped by a new country which had suffered perhaps more than Russia during the First World War. If the Poles had not defeated the Red Army in 1920 the history of the remainder of the century would have been far different, but not necessarily better. All one has to do is review the failures and crimes of the the Soviets over a period of seventy years and imagine those crimes being inflicted over all Europe.

The world owes a thanks to the valiant Poles who sacrificed so much to defeat of the Red Army. This book presents in a short, concise manner the key personalities, strategies, errors and color of that dramatic time. A worthwhile read to better understand the outlook of Eastern Europe from that time to today.

Adam Zamoyski has produced a fascinating account of a little remembered war, full of portents for the future. In 1920, Soviet Russia was two years old, Bolshevik rule was barely consolidated after a vicious civil war but Lenin was already eager for world revolution. Even younger was the re-established Poland, one of the many creations of the Versailles Peace Conference with borders its nationalist leaders wished to expand. Into this high stakes arena came a cast of characters who would later play seminal roles in WWII. Stalin and Budyenny who would become household names to a future generation, cut their teeth as military strategists for the Red Army. General Weygrand and a young Colonel de Gaulle were French observers in Poland, each drew different conclusions from the new forms of warfare on display - Weygrand unable to break from the defensive mindset of the Maginot Line, de Gaulle grasping quickly the devastating impact of mobile armour deployed in fast moving pincer strikes. And the Polish officer corps who would later be destroyed in Katyn Forest and the brave but doomed Warsaw uprising.

Was there ever a war where fortunes swung as dramatically as this one, between two such bitter and historic enemies? A pre-emptive attack by Pilsudski brought the Polish forces deep into Russian territory. Only months later they were fighting a desperate defence of Warsaw itself, hundreds of kilometers away. In the end, the truce agreed by the exhausted protagonists simply deferred the big issues in this region where conflict has been endemic for centuries. Less than 20 years later, brutal conflict broke out again, leaving devastation in its wake on a scale the world had never seen before.

This book is a good military history of the conflict between Poland and Russian during the waning years of the Russian Civil War. The maps are good and the photos interesting. What is lacking is the history of the political side of the conflict. There is a hint, but really nothing more. Also, one gets overwhelmed with the number of persons referenced in the book. For those who might know the players intimately, these references might have been important; for someone like me being introduced to the subject -- it became tedious. Nevertheless, I would recommend the book as a quick and interesting read.

Zamoyski has produced an excellent recounting of a long forgotten conflict. The book, although containing only 138 pages, is quite dense. He accomplished this account by clearly laying out the profound events: establishing a prologue to the battle, describing the area of operations, and offering tables of organization and equipment for both sides, much in the same manner as I did with While Boston Watched. He also provided good maps, which are not always the case with authors. He also underscored how destitute the Poles and Bolsheviks were upon entering this bitter struggle. The Reds were still mopping up the Whites, executing Greens (Government employees) and chasing Ukrainians. The Poles were were just coalescing after serving in the armies of three different countries during the Great War and trying to solidify their borders. There was no equipment or clothing or food. The infrastructure of Poland was barely extant. (One might also want to read Norman Davies', Red Eagle White Star, and Jozef Pilsudski's, The Year 1920, with an introduction by Sosnkowski for a total enlightenment.) Fortunately for the Poles, they had Jozef Pilsudski, the Commander, for a leader. Pilsudski took no guff from anyone or any leader, to include Lenin, Stalin, Tukhachevski, or Budyonny. What makes this story quite distinct, for me, is the recounting of the last cavalry battle fought between Budyonny's Golden Horde, and the Polish Cavalry. This is a fantastic episode of history. Too bad it's so little known.

Ein faszinierendes Buch über ein Ereignis, welches ein Unheil über Europa abwendet hat.

Voilà un bon livre sur le sujet très peu évoqué qu'est la guerre qui opposa en 1919 et 1920 les jeunes nations qu'étaient alors la Pologne et l'Union Soviétique.

L'ouvrage s'applique à traiter la guerre dans une perspective principalement militaire. De ce fait, le texte s'ouvre sur un bref récapitulatif de la situation politique de l'Europe de l'est au lendemain de la Grande guerre, mais ne s'étendra pas ensuite sur le contexte régional mouvementé dans lequel a lieu le conflit ou sur la politique extérieure et intérieure des belligérants. L'auteur va plutôt s'attarder dans un premier temps sur les deux adversaires en présence. Cette partie s'avère très intéressante, évoquant l'équipement et l'armement dont disposent les deux armées, mais s'attachant également à traiter de la mentalité des hommes et des chefs et de la politique que ces derniers entendent mener dans une guerre si particulière.

Le livre décrit ensuite en détail les opérations s'étalant d'avril à octobre 1920, délaissant les escarmouches de 1919. La relation des événements se fait de façon très fluide, ceci grâce à la présence de nombreuses cartes précises et appropriées, ce qui est assez rare pour être souligné. On peut toutefois regretter l'absence d'une carte concernant les opérations sur le front sud-ouest pendant la bataille de Varsovie. Les particularités de ce conflit sont également soulignées, et ce en s'appuyant encore sur la dimension humaine, notamment par le biais de citations.

Du fait de sa brièveté, l'ouvrage ne s'attarde que rapidement sur les événements faisant suite à l'entrée en vigueur de l'armistice. Ceci est d'autant plus regrettable que l'impact militaire et politique du conflit ainsi que les polémiques concernant le "miracle de la Vistule" ne sont donc qu'effleurés alors que ces points auraient mérité un plus ample développement.

Pour ceux intéressés par le sujet, l'ouvrage s'avère tout de même très plaisant et constituera un bon complément au livre de Normand Davies qui s'attarde plus sur les questions politiques.

An informative account of a little known episode in European history, one of several at the time of the upheaval left by the collapse of three European empires. This account brings this largely forgotten war to life with emphasis on several of the key figures in contemporary and later history. An excellent purchase!

たまたまこの戦争について調べていると、ノーマン・デーヴィスのWhite Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-20にも出逢って同時買いしてしまいました。

すぐには読みきれないので、特徴を上げていきますと

　・INDEXは凄く充実しています。ですから、調べたい項目がどのページに載っているのかすぐに分かります。

　　（電子本のメリットとして検索機能が挙げられますが、最初からインデックスがあるのと無いとでは大違いです）

　・写真はありません。

　・地図は凄く綺麗（おそらくスキャンではなく、最初から電子本用途にデータで作成されています）です。

　・戦況地図がやや局地的で、各部隊の配置は良く分かりますが、進行経路がやや曖昧です。

　・著者がポーランド人です。私は個人的に、ポーランド史はポーランド人の書いたモノが一番良いと思っています。

Very interesting book , well worth the money.