WARSAW 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe

In the summer of 1920, outside the gates of Warsaw, there took place a battle that ranks alongside Marathon and Waterloo for its influence on the course of history. Yet, dramatic as it was and fateful though its consequences were, the story of how Lenin came within a hair’s breadth of shattering the Versailles peace settlement and spreading Bolshevism from Russia to western Europe has been largely forgotten.

In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess, exhausted by a bloody civil war. The best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany, itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland, only recently restored to independence, and determined to hold on to it. But Poland was weak and her allies Britain and France, themselves fearful of social revolution, were in no position to help.

Adam Zamoyski describes how – in what became known as the ‘Miracle on the Vistula’ – the Polish army, led by self-taught general and former terrorist Józef Piłsudski achieved at the last minute one of the most decisive victories in military history, in which aeroplanes proved useless and tanks were swamped by swirling masses of cossacks and lancers in scenes reminiscent of the Napoleonic wars.

The shattering defeat his armies suffered in the battle for Warsaw forced Lenin to settle for communism in one country, while another major actor in the events, Joseph Stalin, nursed a grudge and a longing for revenge that he would fulfil in 1939.

Extracts from reviews of WARSAW 1920

‘Warsaw 1920 is battle history of the best kind. The international setting and the political context are gracefully sketched in, and Zamoyski integrates the voices of contemporaries to create a symphonic, three-dimensional chronicle. He conveys with consummate skill the movement of men across terrain, showing how the balance of forces shifted from one week to the next. His account of the two armies is highly textured and enlivened by evocative portraits of the most important personalities…’

Christopher Clark, Sunday Times

‘The book reads like a Boy’s Own yarn and is well worth it for that alone.’

Richard Overy, Literary Review

‘The mark of a great military historian is not only to do the battlefield descriptions and explain the tactics, but to give the political context and bring the characters of the commanders to life. Zamoyski manages it all in this concise and thrilling account of a forgotten war.’

Christopher Silvester, Daily Telegraph

‘For the greater part, it is a battlefield book and not a political one. In describing these battles, without losing sight of their great political consequences, Zamoyski shows himself to be a master. …with a rare capacity for casting light into dark corners, to pierce the fog of war and to make what at first seems incomprehensible easy to understand – processes which are greatly facilitated by a series of excellent sketch maps. Zamoyski’s battle pictures, indeed, are reminiscent of Tolstoy and they have the added advantage of of being without the latter’s rather strange view of history.’

Noble Frankland, Spectator

‘In this fine piece of historical resurrection, Zamoyski writes with thrilling immediacy and dramatic effect about a conflict of huge import that has been overlooked by almost everyone but the Poles themselves.’

Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times

‘The quality and excitement of the very best historical novels.’

John Bayley, Times Literary Supplement