| Vilna Offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Polish–Soviet War[a] | |||||||||
 Polish Army enters Vilnius, 1919. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Poland |
 Russian SFSR | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Józef Piłsudski W. Belina-Prażmowski Edward Rydz-Śmigły | Unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
For the offensive:[1] 10,000 infantry 1,000 cavalry 16 guns For Vilnius:[1] 9 cavalry squadrons 3 infantry battalions artillery support local population Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division had 2,500 soldiers Polish cavalry of colonel Belina had 800 soldiers[2] |
For the offensive:[1] Western Rifle Division and other units of Western Army. 12,000 infantry 3,000 cavalry 44 artillery pieces. For Vilnius:[1] 2,000 soldiers | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 33 soldiers[3] | Unknown. Polish military communiques note "more than 1,000 prisoners" taken.[4] | ||||||||
The Vilna offensive was a campaign of the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. The Polish army launched an offensive on April 16, 1919, to take Vilnius from the Red Army. After three days of street fighting from April 19–21,[4] the city was captured by Polish forces, causing the Red Army to retreat. During the offensive, the Poles also succeeded in securing the nearby cities of Lida, Pinsk, Navahrudak, and Baranovichi.
The Red Army launched a series of counterattacks in late April, all of which ended in failure. The Soviets briefly recaptured the city a year later, in spring 1920, when the Polish army was retreating along the entire front. In the aftermath, the Vilna offensive would cause much turmoil on the political scene in Poland and abroad.
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