Battle of Warsaw (1920)

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Battle of Warsaw
Part of the Polish–Soviet War
Clockwise from top left: Polish infantry on the move; dinner while on duty; 120 mm battery firing on Russian positions; Machine gun nest; Polish reinforcements on the way to the front; Captured Soviet flags displayed by defenders.
Date August 12–25, 1920 Location Near Warsaw, Poland 52°18′N 20°49′E / 52.300°N 20.817°E / 52.300; 20.817 Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Poland	Russian SFSR Supported by:  Byelorussian SSR  Ukrainian SSR
Commanders and leaders
Józef Piłsudski T. Jordan-Rozwadowski Władysław Sikorski Józef Haller Edward Rydz-Śmigły Bolesław Roja Franciszek Latinik Leonard Skierski Zygmunt Zieliński Wacław Iwaszkiewicz	Leon Trotsky Sergey Kamenev Mikhail Tukhachevsky Hayk Bzhishkyan Nikolai Sollogub Joseph Stalin Semyon Budyonny Aleksandr Yegorov August Kork Aleksandr Shuvayev Vladimir Lazarevich
Strength
113,000–135,000[1]	104,000–140,000[1]
Casualties and losses
4,500 dead 26,000 wounded 10,000 missing[1] Total: 40,500	10,000–25,000 dead 30,000 wounded 65,000–85,000 captured 30,000–35,000 interned in East Prussia[1][2] Total: 110,000–126,000
class=notpageimage| Location within Poland

The Battle of Warsaw (Polish: Bitwa Warszawska; Russian: Варшавская битва, Varshavskaya bitva), also known as the Miracle on the Vistula (Polish: Cud nad Wisłą), was a series of battles that resulted in a decisive Polish victory and complete disintegration of the Red Army in August 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War.

After the Polish Kiev offensive, Soviet forces launched a successful counterattack in summer 1920, forcing the Polish army to retreat westward. The Polish forces seemed on the verge of disintegration and observers predicted a decisive Soviet victory.

The Battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25, 1920, as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress. On August 16, Polish forces commanded by Józef Piłsudski counterattacked from the south, disrupting the enemy's offensive, forcing the Russian forces into a disorganized withdrawal eastward and behind the Neman River. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded.

The defeat crippled the Red Army; Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, called it "an enormous defeat" for his forces.^[3] In the following months, several more Polish follow-up victories secured Poland's independence and led to a peace treaty with the Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine later that year, securing the Polish state's eastern frontiers until 1939.

The politician and diplomat Edgar Vincent regards this event as one of the most important battles in history on his expanded list of most decisive battles, since the Polish victory over the Soviets halted the spread of communism further westwards into Europe. A Soviet victory, which would have led to the creation of a Soviet-established government in Poland, would have put the Soviets directly on the German border, where they were expecting or were promised aligned forces, as well as other such areas.