Battle of the Niemen River

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Battle of the Niemen
Part of the Polish–Soviet War
Polish and Bolshevik forces at the start of the battle.
Date September 15, 1920 – September 25, 1920 Location near Hrodna, along the Neman River 53°30′0.000″N 24°0′0.000″E / 53.50000000°N 24.00000000°E / 53.50000000; 24.00000000 Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Russian SFSR	Poland
Commanders and leaders
Mikhail Tukhachevsky	Józef Piłsudski
Strength
~100,000 on the Western Front (September 1)	96,300 (September 15)
Casualties and losses
40,000+	7,000
class=notpageimage| Location within Belarus Show map of Belarus Battle of the Niemen River (Europe) Show map of Europe

The Battle of the Niemen River was the second-largest battle of the Polish–Soviet War. It took place near the middle Neman River between the cities of Suwałki, Grodno and Białystok. After suffering almost complete defeat in the Battle of Warsaw (August 1920), Mikhail Tukhachevsky's Red Army forces tried to establish a defensive line, against Józef Piłsudski's counter-attacking Polish Army, running northward from the Polish-Lithuanian border to Polesie, and centering on Grodno. Between September 15 and September 25, 1920, the Poles outflanked the Soviets, once again defeating them. After the mid-October Battle of the Szczara River, the Polish Army had reached the Tarnopol-Dubno-Minsk-Drissa line.

Although this part of the conflict is usually referred to as a battle both in Polish and Russian historiography, some historians argue that it was more of a military operation with a series of battles fought often several hundred kilometres apart.^[1]