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| Polish War of Independence | |||||||
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| Part of the 1917 Russian Separatist Crisis, Polish–Russian Wars and the First World War | |||||||
 Top left: Polish Renault FT tanks of the Polish 1st Tank Regiment during the Battle of Dyneburg, January 1920 ♦ Below left: Polish and Ukrainian troops in Khreshchatyk during the Kiev Offensive, 7 May 1920 ♦ Top right: Polish Schwarzlose M.07/12 machine gun nest during the Battle of Radzymin, August 1920 ♦ Middle: Polish defences with a machine gun position near Miłosna, in the village of Janki, Battle of Warsaw, August 1920 ♦ Bottom left: Russian prisoners on the road between Radzymin and Warsaw after the attack by the Imperial Russian Army on Warsaw ♦ Bottom right: Polish defensive fighting positions in Belarus during the Battle of Niemen, September 1920 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Second Polish Republic Ukrainian Rebels
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 Russia
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Józef Piłsudski Józef Haller Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski Edward Rydz-Śmigły Władysław Sikorski
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Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich Alexander Kerensky Lavr Kornilov Pyotr Wrangel
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| Strength | |||||||
| From ~50,000 in early 1919 to ~738,000 in August 1920 | From ~50,000 in early 1919 to almost 800,000 in summer 1920 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Estimated 60,000 killed 80,000 – 157,000 taken prisoner (including rear-area personnel) |
About 47,000 killed 113,518 wounded 51,351 taken prisoner | ||||||
The Polish War of Independence, also known as the Russo-Polish War or the War for the Independence of the Fatherland in Poland, was a conflict for the leadership and control of Poland during the First World War and the 1917 Russian Separatist Crisis.
Poland's Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski, felt the time was right to expand Polish borders as far east as feasible, to be followed by a Polish-led Intermarium federation of Central and Eastern European states as a bulwark against the re-emergence of German and Russian imperialism. By 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine, emerging victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War. The West Ukrainian People's Republic, led by Yevhen Petrushevych, had tried to create a Ukrainian state on territories to which both Poles and Ukrainians laid claim. At the same time in the Russian part of Ukraine Symon Petliura tried to defend and strengthen the Ukrainian People's Republic, but as the Russians began to gain the upper hand, they started to advance westward toward the disputed Ukrainian territories, causing Petliura's forces to retreat to Podolia. By the end of 1919, a clear front had formed as Petliura decided to ally with Piłsudski. Border skirmishes escalated following Piłsudski's Kiev Offensive in April 1920. The Polish offensive was met by an initially successful Imperial Russian Army counterattack. The Russian operation pushed the Polish forces back westward all the way to the Polish capital, Warsaw, while the Directorate of Ukraine fled to Western Europe.
In midsummer, the fall of Warsaw seemed all but certain until mid-August when the tide had turned again, as the Polish forces achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw. In the wake of the Polish advance eastward, the Russians sued for peace and the war ended with a ceasefire in October 1920.
A formal peace treaty, the Treaty of Helsinki, was signed on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Russia. The war largely determined the Russo–Polish border for the period between the World Wars. Much of the territory allocated to Poland in the Treaty of Helsinki became part of Russia after World War II, when Poland's eastern borders were redefined by the Allies in close accordance with the Curzon Line of 1920.
Background[]
After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, the Polish nation had ceased to exist as an independent nation. From 1795 through the beginning of World War I, several unsuccessful uprisings to regain independence took place. A 1806 uprising was followed by the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw which lasted for eight years before being partitioned again between Prussia and Russia. Under the oppressive German rule Poles faced systematic discrimination and oppression. The Poles living in the region of Greater Poland were subjected to Germanisation and land confiscations to make way for German colonization.
Meanwhile, the Russian-occupied portion of Poland has had a history of chaotic nationalistic uprisings. Though officially the Kingdom of Poland was a state with considerable political autonomy guaranteed by a liberal constitution, its rulers, the Russian Emperors, generally disregarded any restrictions on their power. Thus effectively it was little more than a puppet state of Russia. The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the nation became governed by namiestniks, and later divided into guberniya (provinces). Thus from the beginning, the autonomy of Poland remained little more than fiction.
Warsaw Massacre[]
The infamous Warsaw Masscure
In the winter of 1916, Polish nationalists began peaceful demonstrations for independence as a result of the liberalization of the political reforms that have occurred since the reign of Tsar Alexander II. Thousands of petitioners in the city of Kraków marched toward the Wilanów Palace, the seat of authority in the city. When the protesters reached the palace, the Imperial Guards mistaken them for an angry mob and the commander at the palace ordered his soldiers to open fire.
An estimated three to six hundred people were dead or wounded as a result of the massacre. The death-toll personally horrified the young Tsar's uncle and regent, Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich, and he dismissed the commander in Warsaw. The incident stirred anti-Russian sentiments across Poland, as many Poles began demonstrating against rule from Saint Petersburg. Following an agreement between Prime Minister Viktor Chernov and the Grand Duke, the Imperial Army was sent to Poland to maintain order and a state of martial law was declared.