Polish-Soviet War

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the... creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917 . In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik government. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd . In the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament or Duma assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last Tsar of Russia, abdicated. The Soviets , which were led by more radical socialist factions, initially permitted the Provisional Government to rule, but insisted on a prerogative to influence the government and control various militias.
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The Battle of Komarów was one of the most important battles of the Polish-Bolshevik War. It took place on August 31, 1920, near the village of... Komarowo near Zamość. It was the biggest cavalry battle in the history of war since 1813 and the last great battle of any significance in which cavalry was used as such and not as mounted infantry. The Battle of Komarów was a complete disaster for the Russian 1st Cavalry Army, which sustained heavy casualties and barely avoided being outflanked. After the battle, the morale of the 1st Cavalry Army collapsed, and the army which was once the most feared of the Soviet troops was no longer considered an effective fighting force. After the Battle of Zadwórze, the forces of Bolshevist 1st Cavalry Army under Semyon Budyonny were halted for more than one day. Although still in almost perfect shape, the Russian cavalry units lost much of their impetus and did not make it to the Battle of Warsaw. After the Bolsheviks lost the struggle for the capital of Poland and started their retreat eastwards, the forces of Budyonny started their march northwards to attack the right flank of forces of Józef Piłsudski.
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Battle of Zadwórze was a battle of the Polish-Soviet War. It was fought on August 17, 1920 near the train station of Zadwórze, a small... village located 33 kilometres from the city centre of Lwów . The battle, lasting roughly 24 hours, resulted in the complete destruction of the Polish forces but at the same time halted the Soviet advance, preventing the forces of Siemion Budionnyi from seizing Lwów and so contributing to the successful defence of Warsaw. By mid-August 1920 the Red Army broke all Polish lines of defense and was marching towards Warsaw. The Polish headquarters prepared a plan to counter-attack the Red Army on its left flank from the Wieprz River area, in what became known as the Battle of Warsaw. To gather enough forces for the offensive, Gen. Józef Piłsudski, Polish Commander in Chief, ordered all available units to move to the Wieprz area and withdrew a number of formations from the Polish Southern Front, leaving only two-and-a-half infantry divisions to oppose the 12th Red Army and Budyonny’s cavalry.
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The Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919 was part of the general move of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic into the areas... abandoned by the Ober-Ost garrisons, that were being withdrawn to Germany following that country's defeat in the World War I. The Soviet Western Front offensive against the Republic of Estonia ended in stagnation on the borders of the state. The offensive in the Vistula river direction by the newly created Western Army had the aim of establishing Soviet governments in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland and to drive as far west as possible and possibly join up with the German Revolution. The campaign eventually led to the Estonian Pskov Offensive, the White Russian Petrograd Offensives, and the Polish-Soviet War. The best known comprehensive historical analysis of the campaign against Poland was performed by Norman Davies in his book White Eagle, Red Star . Davies mentioned the codename for this offensive: Target Vistula; however, it is not commonly used in historiography. After signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Bolshevik Russia lost the European lands it annexed in the 18th century and 19th century.
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The 1920 Kiev Offensive , sometimes considered to have started the Soviet-Polish War, was an attempt by the newly re-emerged Poland, led by... Józef Piłsudski, to seize central and eastern Ukraine, torn in the warring among various factions, both domestic and foreign, from Soviet control. The stated goal of the operation was to create a formally independent Ukraine, although much of the Ukrainian population were ambivalent as many viewed the Polish advance as a new occupation aimed at subordinating Ukraine under Polish rule, while others greeted the Polish and allied Ukrainian forces as liberators. With their loyalties divided, Ukrainians fought for both sides of the conflict. A major military operation, this campaign was conducted from April to June 1920 by the Polish Army in alliance with the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic under the exiled nationalist leader Symon Petliura, opposed by the Soviets who claimed those territories for the Ukrainian SSR and whose Red Army also included numerous Ukrainians in its ranks. Initially successful for the Polish army, which captured Kiev on May 7, 1920, the campaign was dramatically reversed.
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