Feature History - Polish-Soviet War

today we're going to talk about when Poland won its independence won its independence from Russia from Russia in the 20th century from Russia in the 20th century through the means to conventional warfare there we go thank you hello and welcome to Fiji s3 featuring the polish-soviet war a war that came immediately after the war to end all wars ironic isn't it in fact a lot of conflicts didn't even wait for the great war to end before starting the Russian Revolution the rise of the Bolsheviks and the period of a very confusing Eastern European map all starting about 1917 of course it wasn't just the Russians getting in on the fun it was a whole Slavic salad of conflict and for this episode we're shining the spotlight on our beloved friends brothers and plumbers the Polish let's go back to the polish-lithuanian Commonwealth which was a state that existed from 1569 to spoilers 1795 as well as being a mouthful to say the Commonwealth was a fairly serious regional power well in the 17th century it amazed annex Russia but as said they came to an end as it had weakened further and further until it was partitioned by three empires Russia Prussia and Austria their sovereignty had been eliminated however their culture never died Polish nationalism would be a genuine concern for a long time skipping to the First World War Germany austria-hungary and Russia and also the rest of the world went to war a plethora of fighting dying and destruction was suffered by the Polish as the empires engaged back and forth across the region it was frustrating sure but the Polish nationalists saw it as an opportunity for independence The Statesman Jozef Pilsudski proposed that the Polish would have to be active in the war fighting for an empire so that Empire would fight for them which Empire though well you know yeah that wasn't so clear Germany and austria-hungary gave a shot at winning polish loyalty as they seriously needed it from 1915 Germany had been pushing itself for the liberators of the Polish suffering Russian subjugation because Germany would never subjugate the Polish in 1916 the two empires after talks with the esteemed Phil Sookie and a Polish delegation created the kingdom of Poland which even had a constitution but no pesky sort of government or borders the four mobitz born in 1917 but Pilsudski foresaw Germany's defeat and urged all Polish troops to not swear any oath leading to his resignation and arrest regardless through his actions the chance of Polish independence started to look more like a sure thing though of course Poland wasn't just a part of Germany and austria-hungary but also Russia who too saw its own fair share of the worries of war in the Sodom of Russia things have been going tits up for Nicholas a second since 1905 constantly urged to reform or resign he constantly responded with track downs and middle fingers the World War turned unrest to crisis and the Tsar's days dwindled alongside every moment the war continued in February 1917 a women's protests would turn into a where his protest which turned into an army mutiny which turned into a riot eventually turning into the Tsar's abdication the power of rule had been passed from Romanov to revolution the seat of power rested in Petrograd formerly known as st. Petersburg before has decided that chairmanship don't fly here the State Duma or National Assembly set up a provisional government but given circumstance their power was in fact shared with Petrograd Soviet or Council the Duma would continue the war which wasn't a great idea as people began to flock to the smaller Bolshevik Party whose leader Vladimir Lenin on top of promising to stop the war promised the redistribution of land destruction of bourgeoisie transfer of power to the local save it's an a bloody and brutal revolution to make a long story a little shorter up to the 1917 saw the Bolsheviks and their Red Army seize Petrograd in the name of revolution forcing Russia's descent into all-out Civil War well hello there a feature history guy My Lord is that d indy neidell from the great war channel which you can find at ww2 constructs the great war and enjoy new videos every Monday Thursday and Saturday yeah it is in fact me I came over here to tell your viewers the if they're enjoying learning all about the polish-soviet war and the Russian Revolution that over on our channel we have a new video about the bloody baron who forged his own interesting tale in that conflict way over on the other end of Russia well that sounds just marvelous I think I'll be watching that myself also where did my eyes go I don't mention it glad to have had you Vaughn I can't see no seriously I can't see geez what a nerd as the First World War came to a close the map of Central and Eastern Europe changed drastically many smaller nations had seen a chance to break away from foreign powers and the u.s. President Woodrow Wilson made special note on publish independence in his fourteen points presented at first sight the second polish Republic was birthed with marshal Joseph Pilsudski at the helm this new state though was a tad smaller than maybe it should have been the greater Polish uprising in 1918 saw insurgents attacked the weak in Germany and pressure Versailles to grant them and expanded western border the eastern border however well those writing the treaty must have skipped the question and forgot to come back to it the Bolshevik controlled Soviet Russia viewed states like Poland Ukraine Belarus Estonia Latvia Lithuania it's just temporary breakaways Lenin was confident they'd come back for them just as soon as the white army and Russia had been defeated only was this dispute a matter of days or claims but Lenin saw Poland as a bridge to Germany and if the revolution was to continue it was important that German socialist movement United with the Bolsheviks to create a communist Europe so a freshly independent Poland was already threatened with annexation again that didn't sit well with pilsudski so as the Russian Civil War dragged and the Red Army was bogged down it seemed better to start now rather than later and the Polish army made its first offensive in February 1919 the initial and disorganized offensive saw some victories and stalemates being a slow but steady advanced eastward if this was to be a serious war some work had to be done a diplomatic effort was swiftly undertaken Hitler said Sookie dreamed of a federation of friendly States revolved around Poland the support of Romania and Hungary agreed to simple and arms but for a military alliance Poland only managed to prevent Ukraine or what was left of it after this to churn up their diplomacy wasn't the only struggle logistics cold and God was she ugly the infrastructure and army of Poland was I most likely been built by three different empires what Poland did have though was spirit and you know that actually did count for something in early 1920 the Polish and Ukrainians began a southern offensive against the Red Army preczewski claimed it was an effort to restore the Ukrainian state but the fact of the matter was this alliance was purely temporary the Polish and Ukrainians hated one another they took some easy victories and during the abandoned Kiev by May 1920 however around the same time this civil war had begun to wrap up Lenin believed that was the end of the Red Army's defensive war and now it was time to begin an offensive one Lev Trotsky his comas our military affairs disagreed with the westward charge so soon but tough ship it was his job to get it done the front from the Soviet perspective was to be split between a northern polish one and a southern Ukrainian one trotsky's job was to coordinate this joint offensive between for the sake of simplicity let's say Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the north and your sister than in the south facing a now organized outnumbering and direct opponent a string of Red Army victories forced the Polish into retreat as the Soviets aim to into tkachev Sookie's words move onward to Berlin over the corpse of poet Poland's only effective resistance was their ability to intercept Soviet orders using this and their legendary cavalry they harassed the enemy in a guerilla like fashion panic looked to grip Polish resistance however in Pilsudski only managed to pull in the reins at the US final moment as the Red Army drew nearer and nearer to Warsaw now the French UK and US looked to support Poland in small ways now seeing the threat of the Soviet events the Polish people also prepared to throw everything they had at the enemy because everyone armed with anything was going to fight at the same time it seemed there was an issue in the Soviet side because a stupid ship ski prepared for battle Stalin's army was still in the South Sea jingly wolf he was determined to take the glory of having seized the city and against orders continued the siege Stalin may have sabotaged the battle for Warsaw before it even began regardless o-duca Chomsky still had a reasonable chance of taking the capital and so pursued he looked to employ an audacious plan interestingly the Red Army would intercept this and thought it was so silly that it was just an attempt to deceive them dismissing it once the battle commenced every Polish person and even some not Polish people gave it that all in the defense of the city but a suit Sookie had set up his army armor stupidly close to the enemy south and so when he caught the Red Army off guard and watched a counter attack the offensive was completely disrupted and the army routed the Polish took a decisive and important victory it wasn't enough to wrap me red army though it had to be destroyed the legendary Polish cavalry took on the attackers of the wolf in what would be the last cavalry battle in history the battle of Commodore the Soviet cavalry ten times a number were decisively defeated destroying the once feared Red Army as an effective fighting force at this time Trotsky was attempting to sue for peace presumably telling Lenin I told you so the polish continued to chase took a Chomsky's army leading to one last battle where poland took one last victory after that both sides were deeply exhausted in Pilsudski under the pressure of the West as well accepted the request to negotiate the peace of Riga was signed in march 1921 the Polish stuffed their faces in the treaty and did a brilliant job screwing over the Ukrainians as Ukraine was split between the Soviets in Poland Pilsudski himself was only able to observe and denounced the peace as an act of cowardice it permanently destroyed Poland's relations with neighboring states and made for a ticking time bomb between the Soviets and polish the new eastern border was militarily indefensible and economically unviable and this put a real dampener on their victory Poland did achieve something a little less superficial though in the defense of Warsaw not only had they gate kept their country but also the rest of Europe from the spread of communism causing the Bolsheviks to shelve the idea of a war for communism they also had affirmed themselves as a new strong and independent Poland one the world had not witnessed in centuries and yes the Second Republic did and in 1939 and they spent much time as a Soviet republic that was reversible if they had fallen in 1920 well here's to say what would have happened and truly it is for the best Paulin stood tall as without that how could I have wasted an entire month playing witcher 3 remember to check out the great wars video and the bloody baron wooden guns Sternberg I'll probably have linked it in front of your face right about now and also a big thanks to the patrons David Kendall Thomas Kelly your mum anal scrubs and all the other ones and that's it I'll be back probably 2022 with the next episode yeah

Channel: undefined

Views: 875,586

Rating: 4.8843579 out of 5

Keywords: Feature History, History, Education, Entertainment, Academic, Presentation, Polish-Soviet War, Poland, Soviet Union, Russia, 1920s, Interwar Period, The Great War, World War 1, Baltic Region, Slavic, Conventional War, Mechanized War, Battle of Warsaw, Jozef Pilsudski, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Germany, League of Nations, Weimar Republic, 2nd Republic of Poland, Nationalism, War, Interwar

Id: UJ3jQQ00pX0

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 11 2017