The Miracle on the Vistula 1920: How Poland Saved Europe from the Soviet Union
August of 1920 — Trotsky’s Army Looked Invincible. Except For The Poles.
With the defeat of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War and the collapse of the Russian Empire in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, the 3 forces occupied Poland since 1795 were extinguished.
Thus, on November 11, 1918, the country returned to the map and until today it is on that date that Poland celebrates its national independence.
It was a short-lived joy
Three months and 3 days after independence, on February 14, 1919, the new country entered in a conflict with a new but incredibly aggressive enemy: the red army, led by Leon Trotsky, intending to spread the communist revolution throughout Europe.
In 1919, Communist forces already steamrolled over Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, and started their attack over Poland’s eastern border. The head of the Polish state at the time was Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, a military who rose to the government after victories in the independence battles.
Pilsudski’s forces repelled the first attacks and the Soviets offered a peace deal. However, mathematicians at the University of Warsaw and the…
