The Polish-Bolshevik War of the 1920 According to Reports of Western Observers

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to show how diplomats and military representatives of the Western countries evaluated the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War of the 1920 at the moment of the events and during the post-war period, to find out whether the reports of direct observers and participants of the events in Poland in 1920 influenced the policies of the western governments with regard to the Polish state, to depict the general image of Poland and the Poles of this period on the basis of the analyzed sources, as well as the mood of the Polish society, all of which were in a momentary transition from a state of anxiety and indifference to fear of a Bolshevik counteroffensive.

The methodology of the research is based on the method of philological analysis of the studied texts, as well as the comparative method.

The scientific novelty of the article is that the Polish-Bolshevik War of the 1920 was first analyzed on the basis of memoirs, personal notes, reports, letters from Western participants and observers.

Conclusions. Western observers of the events of the Polish-Bolshevik War of the 1920 critically evaluated the decisions and actions of the Polish authorities during this period, both in political and military matters. They mainly drew attention to the widespread chaos and political controversy, as well as to mistakes in commanding the Polish forces. However, in the majority of cases, they expected their governments to give Poland much more support in the fight against the Bolsheviks. While being there in Warsaw, they understood its meaning much better than politicians from London or Paris. Their military reports there were dominated by a pessimistic assessment of the possibility of protecting Warsaw against the Bolshevik invasion, the belief that the Polish capital would be inevitably seized by the Bolsheviks, and considered the possibility of transferring the residence of the authorities to another city. At the same time, all reports emphasized the great patriotic disruption of the Poles and their calm in the face of the threat. In the analyzed texts the figure of J.Piłsudski is very often mentioned. On the one hand, it emphasizes his greatness in comparison with other Polish leaders, but on the other hand it does not criticize his traits or lack of military knowledge. Notably interesting are the observations on J.Piłsudski’s complex relations with Western countries. The authors of the analyzed reports draw their attention to the significant decrease of J.Piłsudski’s popularity among the Polish society at the time of the deterioration of the situation at the front. In most of the analyzed texts, J. Piłsudski’s role in the victory over the Bolsheviks near Warsaw is minimized.