Miracle On The Vistula: How Poland Beat Back Lenin's Communists (12 pics)
Rarely seen photographs of the David-versus-Goliath fight between Poland and communist Russia that raged on the outskirts of Warsaw 100 years ago
https://www.rferl.org/a/miracle-on-the-vistula-the-1920-war-between-russia-and-poland/30744735.html
Polish troops march in Kyiv in May 1920.
After several skirmishes with Russian troops in the blurred border areas, Polish along with some nationalist Ukrainian fighters captured Kyiv in the spring of 1920. It was not a popular move. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George remarked, "The Poles are inclined to be arrogant and they will have to take care they don’t get their heads punched."
Vladimir Lenin rallies a crowd of Red Army soldiers in Moscow before they head west to fight the Poles.
Poland’s seizure of Kyiv was a gift for Russia's new communist rulers. With victory in the Russian Civil War looking assured for Lenin's forces, the Bolsheviks were plotting the spread of the "revolutionary fires" of communism to Western Europe, particularly to Germany.
Left-wing militants in Germany's Ruhr region in the spring of 1920
Germany was in economic turmoil after World War I and, with the streets seething with unemployed soldiers and political extremists, a communist revolution there looked increasingly possible if Lenin's cavalry could clatter into German cities to help kick off a violent uprising.
The only thing standing between Russia and Germany was Poland.
Red Army soldiers reading a newspaper while assigned to the Polish Front.
Russian communist cavalry on its way to fight Polish forces
Although the opposing armies had various modern weapons at their disposal including lumbering, unreliable tanks, the swiftly moving battlefronts meant cavalry was key, and much of the fighting resembled wars from another era.
Polish volunteers stand armed with scythes
A Polish horseman described watching one tense face-off between Polish and Bolshevik Cossack cavalry:
"A colorfully-dressed rider galloped out of the swarm of Cossacks on a magnificent black horse and, waving his sword above his head shouted: 'Well, my lords, I'm Cossack Kuzma Kruchkov. Who'll take me on?'
"At this, a murmur ran along the row of officers standing in front of the first lancers. 'Raciecki! Yes, Raciecki.' Captain Raciecki (the best swordsman in the regiment) passed his sword to his left hand to make the sign of the cross with his right and then began to move towards Kruchkov at a walk. Kruchkov sprang towards him at a gallop. Raciecki parried the first cut, aimed at his head, himself slashing fiercely to the right and down, cutting Kruchkov open from the collar to the waist. At this, a howl went up among the Cossacks and the whole lot turned tail as our regiment began to charge."
Polish fighters kneel to pray.
Polish troops being transported to the front line in boxcars. The troops were "decorated with flowers by Polish boys and girls as they passed."
On August 6, Polish forces planned a final stand at Warsaw as vast dust clouds from the advancing communist horsemen were spotted smudging the horizon, and panic swept over the city.
Polish troops just east of Warsaw await the communists.
One American pilot who volunteered for the Poles was Merian C. Cooper (above). After Cooper's plane was shot down he spent several months in Red Army captivity before escaping. He would later return to the United States to co-direct and produce the 1933 hit movie King Kong. It is Cooper himself depicted piloting the plane that finishes off King Kong in the film's final action sequence.
Polish fighters get ready for battle.
A Bolshevik delegation arrives for talks with Polish representatives before the battle for Warsaw.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Russia lost twenty percent of the empire's population and ninety percent of it's coal mines. Meanwhile the American Expeditionary Force, Siberia guarded the eastern railways for the Whites and for capitalism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Brest-Litovsk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Russia_Intervention
I like history 
