Battle of Warsaw

In August 1920 Soviet forces approached Warsaw after a rapid advance westwards. The Polish government and army faced the prospect of defeat while foreign observers debated whether the capital and the restored Polish state could survive.

Polish forces held key approaches to the city while Józef Piłsudski launched a counter-offensive from the south against the exposed Soviet flank. The manoeuvre forced a rapid Red Army retreat and transformed the strategic position of the war.

Often called the Miracle on the Vistula, the battle became the centrepiece of Adam Zamoyski’s Warsaw 1920. His nonfiction account links battlefield operations to the political ambitions of Lenin, Piłsudski and the competing revolutionary and national projects.