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Review
‘A thorough, beautifully written account of one of the great turning-points in Europe’s hisory. Adam Zamoyski knows Polish, Russian and European archives as few others do, and writes with the dash of a Polish cavalry officer.’ Independent
‘The mark of a great military historian is not only to do the battlefield descriptions and explain the tactics, but to give the political context and bring the characters of the commanders to life. Zamoyski manages it all in this concise and thrilling account of a forgotten war.’ Daily Telegraph
‘Battle history of the best kind. The international setting and the political context are gracefully sketched in and…[the] account of the two armies is highly textured and enlivened by evocative portraits of the most important personalities.’ Sunday Times
‘Zamoyski, as a prolific popular historian, has pretty much single-handedly raised the historical profile of Poland in the West.’ The Times
‘There is no doubt that Warsaw 1920 was a significant event that deserves more attention than it has received from historians. In a brief but compelling book Zamoyski tells the story concisely and clearly, and with his customary colourful detail.’ History Today
Praise for ‘Rites of Peace’:
‘Deeply researched, elegantly written, gleaming with the political and sexual depravity of the Congress that decided the fate of Europe, Zamoyski's “Rites of Peace” is outstanding – a delicious, triumphant feast of a book.’ Daily Maily
Product Description
The dramatic and little-known story of how, in the summer of 1920, Lenin came within a hair's breadth of shattering the painstakingly constructed Versailles peace settlement and spreading Bolshevism to western Europe.
In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, following a brutal civil war, and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension.
Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was economically and militarily weak and its misguided offensive to liberate the Ukraine in the spring of 1920 laid it open to attack. Egged on by Trotsky, Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky.
All that Great Britain and France had fought for over four years now seemed at risk. By the middle of August the Russians were only a few kilometres from Warsaw, and Berlin was less than a week's march away. Then occurred the 'Miracle of the Vistula': the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history.
As a result, the Versailles peace settlement survived, and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country. The battle for Warsaw bought Europe nearly two decades of peace, and communism remained a mainly Russian phenomenon, subsuming many of the autocratic and Byzantine characteristics of Russia's tsarist tradition.
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Zamoyski is to be commended for bringing his status, hard won from fuller tomes on more popular subjects, to bear on this fascinating 'brawl', its origins, myths,conduct and consequences.
Lenin's response was one of overwhelming numerical superiority in weapons and men but the lack of a logistical model and the idea that the Russians would be able to live off the land like they did in their fight against the Whites. Lenin had hoped for a quick victory in Poland, that would lead to a People's Revolution in Germany that would then merge with the Hungarian Bolshevik Republic to the take over the Balkans. Didn't happen.
The Russian attack was a two pronged approach with Tuchachevsky in the North towards Warsaw and then towards Berlin, and Voroshilov (with Stalin as his political Kommissar) to the South through Lvov and then onto Vienna and Prague. As the Northern attack actually passed above Warsaw, Trotsky (War Kommissar) ordered Voroshilov to attack from the South. Voroshilov refused (Trotsky wanted both him and Stalin executed but was stopped by Lenin) and sent Budionny and his cavalry to try and encircle Lvov. Budionny and his accompanying infantry were fought to a standstill by the Poles and were almost surrounded. These forces then had to retreat being no help to the northern attack.
After almost a year of battle and the deaths of many soldiers on both sides, they ended up almost where the started and signed a peace treaty with boundaries that were the same as were approved final by the Allies at Versailles. [NOTE: During the purges in the late 1930s of the Russian military, all of the officers involved in the Northern prong were liquidated, but Voroshilov and Budionny were left alone. What might have been the outcome of the execution of Stalin on the future USSR and World War 2?]
Zeev Wolfe
I don't agree with some of the author's conclusions .... IE.. Read more
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