Posts Tagged ‘Red Army’

As part of the European Union program, „Europe for Citizens”, the Museum of the City of Warsaw has published an anthology of writings in Polish, English, and German. Below is an abbreviated version of the story of an eleven-year-old girl.
Our family was intact at the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising (my parents must have known when it was about to begin). The first of August, at 5 pm. The sirens began, and the city began to come to life. Through the open window of our apartment on the first floor of 5 Grzybowska Street, the sounds of war came bursting in, growing louder. The residents began building a barricade at the beginning of the street, near the gate of the building. In several hours the barricade had grown high and wide and the soldiers of the Home Army felt safe behind it. Finally, Warsaw, tortured by the occupation, was attacking its enemy. (more…)

The Polish triumph of 1918, the regaining of independence, was short; the indeterminate borders of the state turned out to be a great misfortune. By December 10th, the Red Army had occupied Mińsk; the fight for Vilnius was taking place from January 3-5. After three days of fighting, Polish troops were forced to withdraw from the city. January 3, 1919 is recognized in the most recent literature as the beginning of the Polish-Soviet War.

Throughout the entire war we can see the miraculous hand of fate, the successful attack of the relatively small Polish military against the great Bolshevik divisions, exactly at the time when they were regrouping and in a brief moment of chaos. Another time, the Russians began to withdraw to Lithuania, and the Poles moved in right behind them. There were many such situations. Our military attacked the target directly and agilely avoided being hit; somehow, during the entire war the Polish army and its divisions were not encircled or destroyed.

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