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| {{main|Polish-Soviet War}} | |||
| == The Aftermath == | |||
| According to the British historian ], the Polish-Soviet War "''largely determined the course of European history for the next twenty years or more. Unavowedly and almost unconsciously, Soviet leaders abandoned the cause of international revolution.''"{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Certainly the Bolsheviksʼ defeat in the war prevented Poland from becoming another Soviet republic and likely prevented Germany, Czechoslovakia and other nearby states from sharing a similar fate. | |||
| Soviet Communism was not eliminated, however, but only contained for a generation. Russia kept control of substantial western territories and their vast resources. Soon after the war officially ended, groups of Soviet-sponsored bandits and undercover agents began raiding Polish eastern frontier, prompting Poland to create a special, elite ] (''Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza'') to combat those constant incursions. A second Soviet effort at expansion was more successful. In August 1939 the Soviet Union signed the ] with ] and in cooperation with the latter invaded Poland on ], ], ensuring Polandʼs defeat in the ] of 1939. The Soviet occupation of eastern Poland rivaled in atrocities the German occupation of the remainder of the country. Persons who were deemed dangerous by the Communist authorities were subject to ], forced resettlement, and imprisonment in labor camps (the ]s), or were simply executed, as in the case of Polish officers in the ]s. Having served in the Polish-Soviet War on the side of Poland was punishable with death. After Poland had been occupied by the Red Army in ], Soviet atrocities included persecutions and prosecutions of Polish ] soldiers and executions of their leaders. In the ], the Soviet Union succeeded in acquiring control of more territory than ]{{Fact|date=October 2007}} had and partly fulfilled Leninʼs original dream of bringing communist revolution to Germany. Until ], while Communists held power in a ], the Polish-Soviet War was either minimized in significance or misportrayed in Polish and other ] countries' history books, for instance typically citing Poland as the aggressive initiator of the war on behalf of the Entente. | |||
| Much of what Poland had won during the 1920 war was lost in the peace negotiations that were characterized by many as short-sighted and petty. In 1921 Piłsudski was no longer the Head of State and was only an observer during the Riga negotiations, which he called ''an act of cowardice''. Due to the military defeat, the Bolsheviks offered the Poland substantial territorial concessions in the contested borderland areas, including the city of Minsk. However, the Polish delegation, pressured by the ], moderated the peace terms and signed the ] on ], ], splitting the disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Bolsheviks. The Ukrainians led by ] had been in alliance with Poland, but by the Riga treaty the Ukrainian alliance was effectively ended. Piłsudski disapproved the treaty and the apparent betrayal of an ally, he then told the Ukrainians, "Gentlemen, I deeply apologize to you". | |||
| The treaty actually violated Polandʼs military alliance with Ukraine, which had explicitly prohibited a separate peace, consequently it worsened relations between Polish state and its Ukrainian minority, a feeling that would eventually lead to ] in the ] and ]. | |||
| ] | |||
| The Polish military successes in autumn 1920 allowed Poland to reclaim the city of Wilno, but the control over city had been transferred to Lithuanians by the retreating Soviets. With Lithuanians unwilling to enter into an alliance with Poland, and wishing to avoid a full-out conflict and international condemnation, Poland staged a fake rebellion by Polish army units (under command by gen. ]) in the Wilno area, which allowed the Polish army to take control of the city in ] ]. The fighting ended that month. Despite the Polesʼ claim to it, the ] chose to ask Poland to withdraw, a request which Poland denied. France, however, did not wish to antagonize Poland, seen as an ally against both Germany and USSR, thus the League of Nations demands were not enforced, and Poland kept Wilno under a puppet government of (Komisja Rządząca ]). A ] was carried out and the Wilno Sejm voted on ] ] for incorporation into Poland. This would worsen Polish-Lithuanian foreign relations for many decades to come and was one of the reasons Piłsudskiʼs ] federation was never formed. Repercussions of this still continue (though to a diminishing extent) to affect the foreign relations among these countries. | |||
| The outcome of the Polish-Soviet War, while welcomed by some Polish politicians such as ], who favored a relatively small, ethnically rather homogeneous state, was a death blow to Piłsudskiʼs dream of reviving the powerful and multicultural ] in the form of a "] Federation." | |||
| ], ], ].]] | |||
| Piłsudskiʼs military and political victory ensured that the armed forces became an important national institution in the new government. His reputation as the creator of the miracle at Vistula had vastly risen, and the National Democrats ('']'') lost the post-war elections. The new president ] elected in 1922 was a socialist politician. In ], after Poland had experienced several years of political uncertainty and weak leadership, Piłsudski eventually took over the state in a ] (the ]), assuming the posts of minister of defense and general inspector of the army. | |||
| The Treaty of Riga led to ] granted ]. These Poles under Soviet jurisdiction suffered from the ] and other repressions of the late 1930s. The Ukrainian minority in Poland received some internal autonomy within the southeastern ], but plans for a broader autonomy or federative union were never realized. | |||
| Military strategy in the Polish-Soviet War influenced ], an instructor with the Polish Army who fought in several of the battles. He and ] were the only military officers who, based on their experiences of this war, correctly predicted how the next one would be fought{{Fact|date=October 2007}}. In ] they rose to command of their respective armed forces in exile. This war also influenced the Polish military doctrine, which for the next 20 years would stress the mobility of the elite cavalry units. | |||
| Among the technical advances associated with the Polish-Soviet War was one that would affect the course of World War II. In the Polish-Soviet War, Polandʼs Marshal Piłsudski and his staff enjoyed a vast advantage from their ] ]ing ("breaking") Red Army radio messages. These were ]ed in primitive ]s and ]s, and often involved incredible breaches of security by Bolshevik cipher clerks. The Polish ]s and commanders were thus regularly able to look over the shoulders of the Bolshevik commanders, including ] himself, and their superior, ].<sup>]</sup> (In this regard, the Red Army repeated mistakes that had been made in World War I by its Tsarist predecessor vis-a-vis the German Army, and that had contributed fundamentally to the Russian 1914 defeat at ].<sup>]</sup>) Polandʼs cryptological achievements in the Polish-Soviet War were a prelude to the spectacular achievements of her General Staffʼs Cipher Bureau (]), from December 1932, in decrypting German ] ciphers. Their subsequent decryption in World War II by the ] at ] – given a flying head-start by Polandʼs having revealed her techniques and technology to Britain and France at Warsaw a month before the outbreak of war – substantially affected the course of the war.<sup>]</sup> | |||
| == POWs == | |||
| {{main|Camps for Russian prisoners and interned in Poland (1919-1924)}} | |||
| {{main|Polish prisoners and internees in Soviet Union and Lithuania (1919-1921)}} | |||
| During the course of the war, waged by two countries experiencing great economic and social difficulties, and often unable to care even for their own populations, the treatment of the ] was far from adequate. | |||
| During the ], between 80,000 and 85,000 Soviet soldiers became ] and were held in Polish ]s<sup>]</sup>. The conditions in these camps were bad, as the newly recreated Polish state lacked many basic capabilities and had few resources to construct them. Thus the existing camps, many of which were adapted from ] German and Russian facilities or constructed by the prisoners themselves, were not adequate for holding the large number of prisoners, who suffered from hunger, bad sanitation and inadequate hygiene. Between 16,000 (Polish figures) and 20,000 (Russian figures) died as a result of communicable diseases which raged in the camps.<ref name="archiwa.gov.pl">. Official Polish government note about 2004 Rezmar, Karpus and Matvejev book. Accessed on ], 2008.</ref> | |||
| The condition of Polish POWs held by the Soviets during this time is less well known. There have been, however, reports of Soviet army executing Polish POWs when no POW facilities were available.<sup>]</sup> | |||
| == Notes == | |||
| # Ścieżyński, ''Radjotelegrafja...'' | |||
| # Kahn, ''The Code-Breakers''. | |||
| # Kozaczuk, ''Enigma''. | |||
| # Waldemar Rezmer, Zbigniew Karpus, Gennadij Matvejev, "Krasnoarmieitsy v polskom plenu v 1919–1922 g. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov", Federal Agency for Russian Archives, Moscow 2004 | |||
| # Karpus, Zbigniew, Alexandrowicz Stanisław, ''Zwycięzcy za drutami. Jeńcy polscy w niewoli (1919-1922). Dokumenty i materiały'' (Victors behind the fences. Polish POWs (1919-1922). Documents and materials). Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Toruń, 1995, ISBN 83-231-0627-4. | |||
| == References == | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| See ]. | |||
| {{Polish-Soviet War}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
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