Vilna offensive

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This article is about the 1919 battle. For the 1944 battle, see Operation Ostra Brama.
Vilna Offensive
Part of Polish-Soviet War[1]

Polish Army enters Vilna, 1919.
Date early 1919
Location near Vilna
Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Second Polish Republic Bolshevist Russia
Commanders
Józef Piłsudski
Władysław Belina-Prażmowski
Edward Rydz-Śmigły		 Unknown
Strength
For the offensive:[2]
10,000 infantry
1,000 cavalry
16 guns
For Vilna:[2]
9 cavalry squadrons
3 infantry battalions
artillery support
local population
Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division had 2,500 soldiers
Polish cavarly of col. Belina had 800 soldiers[3]		 For the offensive:[2] Western Rifle Division and other units of Western Army.
12,000 infantry
3,000 cavalry
44 artillery pieces.
For Vilna:[2]
2,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
33 soldiers[4] Unknown. Polish military communiques note "more than 1,000 prisoners" taken.[5]
v • d • e
Polish-Soviet War
1919
Target Vistula – Bereza Kartuska – Pińsk – Lida – Vilna – Minsk – 1st Berezina – Daugavpils

1920
Latyczów – Mozyr – Korosteń – Koziatyn – 2nd Berezina – Kiev – Wołodarka – Głębokie – Mironówka – Olszanica – Żywotów – Miedwiedówka – Dziunków – Wasylkowce – Bystrzyk – 1st Brześć – 1st Grodno – 1st Niemen – Boryspol – Auta – Dubno – Kobryn – Łomża – Brody – Dęblin – Nasielsk – Serock –

Radzymin – Warsaw – Płock – Wkra – Cyców – Ciechanów – Lwów – Zadwórze – Mława – Białystok – Komarów – Dytiatyn – 2nd Niemen – 2nd Grodno – 2nd Brześć – Mołodeczno – 2nd Minsk
Eastern front in 1919. Poles fighting with Soviets in the north and Ukrainians in the south - mid-February 1919.
Eastern front in 1919. Poles fighting with Soviets in the north and Ukrainians in the south - mid-February 1919.

The Vilna offensive was a campaign of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919 – 1921. The Polish army launched an offensive on April 16, 1919, to take Vilna (Polish: Wilno, Lithuanian: Vilnius) from the Red Army. After three days of street fighting (April 19–21),[5] the city was captured by Polish forces, and the Red Army retreated. The Poles also succeeded in securing the nearby cities of Lida, Navahrudak and Baranovichi during this offensive.

The Red Army launched a series of counterattacks in late April but failed. The Soviets briefly recaptured the city the following spring of 1920, at a time when the Polish army was retreating along the entire front. In the aftermath, the Vilna offensive would cause much turmoil on the political scene in Poland and abroad.

Contents

[edit] Prelude

The Soviet Russia, while at that time publicly supporting Polish and Lithuanian independence, sponsored communist agitators working against the government of the Second Polish Republic, and considered that its eastern borders should approximate those of the defunct Congress Kingdom. Poles and Lithuanians, on the other hand, inspired by memories of the greatness of the erstwhile Grand Duchy of Lithuania, part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, saw their borders as lying much farther east.[6] Polish leader, Józef Piłsudski, discerned an opportunity for military expansion in the territories of the former Russian Empire, shaken by the 1917 Revolution and the ongoing Russian Civil War.[7]

In the first weeks of 1919, following the retreat of the German Ober-Ost forces under Max Hoffmann, Vilna found itself in a power vacuum. It promptly became the scene of struggles among competing political groups and experienced two revolutions.[8]

On January 1, Polish officers led by generals Władysław Wejtko and Stefan Mokrzecki took control of the city, establishing a "Samoobrona" ("Self-Defense") provisional government. Their aim was to defeat another faction active within the city, the communist "Workers' Council", which was plotting to seize the city.[9] Samoobrona rule did not last long. Four days later January 5, 1919, the Polish forces were forced to make a hasty retreat when the Russian Western Army marched in from Smolensk to support the local communists as part of the Russian westward offensive.[8]

Vilna, the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and was soon proclaimed capital of the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic ("Lit-Byel") on February 27, 1919. Lit-Byel became the eighth government to control the city in two years.[10] During the month and a half that the LBSSR controlled the city, the new communist government turned Vilna into a social experiment, testing various applications on the city's inhabitants.[11] [12]

Józef Piłsudski, Polish commander-in-chief,[13] decided that regaining control of the city, whose population consisted mostly of Poles and Jews,[14] should be a priority of the renascent Polish state.[15] He had been working on plans to take control of Vilna since at least March; he gave preliminary orders to prepare a push in that direction—and counter an expected Soviet westward push—on 26 March.[2] One of Piłsudski's objectives was to take control of Vilna before Western diplomats at the Paris Peace Conference could rule on whom the city, demanded by various factions, should be given to.[16] The action was not discussed with Polish politicians or the government,[16] who at that time were more concerned with the situation on the southern Polish Ukrainian front.[17] By early April, when members of the Kresy Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Kresów) Michał Pius Römer, Aleksander Prystor, Witold Abramowicz, and Kazimierz Świtalski met with Pilsudski, stressing the plight of occupied Vilna and its inhabitants' need for self-government, Piłsudski was ready to move.[18]

[edit] The offensive

[edit] Diversionary attacks

Battle of Vilna and related operations.
Battle of Vilna and related operations.

Piłsudski arrived at the front near Lida on 15 April, bringing reinforcements from Warsaw. His plan called for exploitation of the gap in the Soviet lines between Vilna and Lida by an advance towards Vilna using the road and railway. Amidst diversionary attacks, designed to draw Russian attention away from the main Polish thrust towards Vilna, the main Polish attack began at dawn on 16 April.[3]

The forces moving on Vilna included the cavalry group of Colonel Władysław Belina-Prażmowski (nine squadrons supported by a light battery of horse artillery, about 800 men) and infantry under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły (three battalions of the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division with two batteries of heavy artillery, about 2,500 men).[3]

Soviet forces in the area were composed of the Western Rifle Division, a unit which had many pro-communist Polish volunteers,[19] and other units of the Western Army. The Soviet garrison of Vilna numbered about 2,000 newly trained, green troops. Soviet forces in the area around Vilna are estimated at 7,000 infantry, a few hundred cavalry, and 10 artillery pieces.[2] These forces were to be engaged and thus prevented from coming to the aid of the Vilna garrison.

The diversionary attacks went well, with Soviet forces acting under the impression that the Poles had targets other than Vilna. Despite their diversionary intent, these attacks succeeded in their own right, with Generał Józef Adam Lasocki taking Lida in two days despite unexpectedly strong resistance[17], and Generał Stefan Mokrzecki taking Nowogrodek in three days and Baranowicze in four.[3]

[edit] Assault on Vilna

On 18 April, Col. Belina decided to use the element of surprise and move into Vilna without waiting for the slower infantry units.[20] Polish forces left the village of Myto in early morning.[2] At 03:30 on 19 April, Maj. Zaruski took Lipówka near Vilna.[2] Belina's cavalry bypassed Vilna and attacked from behind, taking the train station on the night of 18 to 19 April;[21] on 19 April, cavalry under Lt. Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer—future Polish general—charged into the suburbs, spreading panic among the confused garrison. He seized the train station and sent a train down the line to collect infantry.[20][17] In this surprise raid about 400 prisoners, 13 trains, and various military supplies were captured.[2] Piłsudski would declare Belina's cavalry action the "most exquisite military action carried out by Polish cavalry in this war".[2]

Cavalrymen fought for control of the center of Vilna and took Cathedral Square,[21] the castle complex on the hillside, and the enemy quarters on the southern riverbank. They also captured hundreds of Bolshevik soldiers and officials,[2] but their numbers were too small compared to the enemy forces, who had begun to reorganize, particularly in the north and west of the town, and prepare a counterattack.[17] Belina sent a message reporting that "enemy is resisting with extreme strength"[5] and asking for immediate reinforcements.[21] At around 8:00 in the evening the train he had sent in the morning returned with the first infantry reinforcements. The Polish troops were also supported by the city's predominantly Polish population which formed a militia to aid them.[17] By the evening of 19 April half of Vilna was under Polish control,[20] however, the Red Army troops and supporters were putting up a stubborn and coordinated defence.[17] Only upon the arrival of the main force of Polish infantry under Generał Śmigły on 21 April did the Poles gain the upper hand, attacking decisively those parts of the town still held by the Red Army.[17] The Polish infantry was able to reinforce the cavalry in the city center, and during the night, with help of local guides, Polish forces crossed the river and took one of the bridges.[2] On April 20, the bridges were in the hands of the Poles, and more of the city fell under their control.[2] During the afternoon of that day, after a three-day-long urban battle, the city was in Polish hands.[20] Piłsudski arrived in Vilna on the same day.[20]

[edit] Jewish deaths

Dozens of people connected with Litbel were arrested, and some were executed; Norman Davies cites a death toll of 65 under Polish rule.[22] Jews constituted close to one-half of Vilna's population, according to the German census of 1916,[23] and many victims of fighting and subsequent repression in Vilna were Jews. Henry Morgenthau, Sr. counted 65[4], Joseph W. Bendersky counted over a hundred,[24] while Norman Davies cites a death toll for all - Jews and non-Jews - as 65.

There was a common belief among the Poles that most Jews were Bolsheviks and Communists, in league with the enemy of the Polish state, Soviet Russia.[25] The Polish army stated that any Jews it killed were militants and collaborators engaged in actions against the Polish army.[26][27][24] Having been fired at from Jewish homes, Polish soldiers took this as an excuse to break into many Jewish homes and stores, beating the Jews and robbing them, desecrating synagogues, arresting hundreds, depriving them of food and drink for days and deporting them from the city;[24] such abuses were, however, not supported by - and even specifically forbidden by - the Polish high command.[4][24][27]

The US Army representative on the scene, Colonel Wiliam F. Godson, agreed with the version of events presented by the Polish general staff.[24] In his reports, Godson wrote that "Jews constituted at least 80% of every Bolshevik organization" and that, unlike the "harmless Polish Jews" (who really "had become Poles"), the "Litwaks or Russian Jews" are "extremely dangerous," making the "Jewish question the most important one [for the country]".[24] Neglecting the plight of the Jews[24], Godson had only noted in his report the instances of Bolsheviks executing and mutilating civilians and Polish prisoners of war.[24] The Nobel-Prize-winning author Władysław Reymont, in an article published by Gazeta Warszawska, the main organ of the openly antisemitic National Democratic Party,[28] also denied that pogroms had taken place.[27] Henry Morgenthau, Sr. of the Anglo-American Investigating Commission in his report acquitted the Polish side of having organized pogroms, noting the wartime confusion and the fact that some Jews had indeed shot at the Polish forces.[27] The report was, however, highly critical of the activities of the Polish Army in Vilna, noting that 65 Jews with no proven connections to the Bolsheviks had been killed, and that many arrests, robberies and mistreatments had occurred, while soldiers guilty of these acts had not been punished.[4]

[edit] Soviet counteroffensive

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The Polish victory angered the Soviets; dozens of people connected with Litbel were arrested, and some were executed [22]; the former Litbel leaders began accusing one another of culpability for the loss of their capital. Lenin considered the city vital to his plans, and ordered its immediate recapture (the Red Army in late April 1919 attempted a counteroffensive).[29]

Near the end of April about 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 210 HMGs and 44 guns were gathered by the Soviets in the area of Szyrwiany, Podbrodzie, Soły - Oszmiana. Polish forces in the area under general Stanisław Szeptycki numbered 11,000; in Vilna Rydz-Śmigly had 8 infantry battalions, 18 cavalry squadrons and 18 guns.[2] Rydz-Śmigły decided to engage enemy forces before they combined their strengths. On the night of 28 to 29 general Stefan Dąb-Biernacki took Podbrodzie, taking one of the Soviet formations. Soviets attacked in Deliny-Ogrodniki direction, south of Vilna. Polish counterattack stopped that thrust and pushed Soviets back towards Szkodziszki-Grygajce. In reply Soviets launched another counterattack from the north of Vilna; this one is more successful and broke through the Polish defences in that area and stopped several kilometers from Vilna when Soviets delayed the attack not wanting to storm a hostile city in the night; during that time Poles strengthened their defence and counterattacked, forcing the Soviet's retreat toward Mejszagoła and Podberezie; Poles pursued and took those two settlements as well as Giedrojsc and Smorgoń. By mid-May Poles reached the line of Narocz lake - Hoduciszki - Ignalino - Lyngniany, leaving Vilnius behind the frontline.[2]

[edit] Aftermath

Polish Army badge commemorating the fighting over Vilna in the spring of 1919.
Polish Army badge commemorating the fighting over Vilna in the spring of 1919.

Because of the successful surprise attack, the Polish army in Vilna managed to appropriate sizeable stocks of supplies, and hundreds of prisoners.[5] When Piłsudski entered the city, a victory parade was held in his honour. The city's Polish citizens on the whole were delighted; their politicians envisaged a separate Lithuanian state closely allied with Poland;[30] majority of the Jewish population, the only other sizeable community in Vilna, also welcomed the Polish government[30] although a significant pro-communist minority actively cooperated with the Bolsheviks.[27] Representatives from the city were immediately sent to the Paris Peace Conference, and the Stefan Batory University in Vilna, which had been closed in 1832 following the November 1830 Uprising, was reopened.[30]

Acting in accordance with his vision of a Polish-led "Międzymorze" federation of East-Central European states, Piłsudski on April 22, 1919, issued a bilingual statement, in Polish and Lithuanian, of his political intentions — the "Proclamation to the inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania," pledging to provide "elections [which will] take place on the basis of secret, universal and direct voting, without distinction between the sexes" and to "create an opportunity for settling your nationality problems and religious affairs in a manner that you yourself will determine, without any kind of force or pressure from Poland."[31] Piłsudski's proclamation was aimed at showing good will both to Lithuanians and international diplomats; the latter succeeded as the proclamation dealt a blow to the image of 'Polish conquest' and replaced it with the image of 'Poland fighting with Bolsheviks dictatorship and liberating other nations'; however the Lithuanians who demanded exclusive control over the city were much less convinced.[32] Piłsudski's words caused much controversy also on the Polish political scene; they had not been discussed with the Sejm and caused much anger among Piłsudski's National-Democratic opponents; PSL Piast deputies demanded incorporation of the Vilna Region into Poland and even accused Piłsudski of treason; however, Piłsudski's supporters in the Polish Socialist Party managed to deflect those attacks.[32]

Piłsudski's bilingual "Proclamation to the Inhabitants of the Former Grand Duchy of Lithuania" (April 22, 1919).
Piłsudski's bilingual "Proclamation to the Inhabitants of the Former Grand Duchy of Lithuania" (April 22, 1919).

Notwithstanding the fact that Vilna' population consisted mostly of Poles, the Lithuanian government in Kaunas, which viewed the city as the historic capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, saw the Polish incursion as an occupation. Relations between the Polish and Lithuanian governments, unable to reach a compromise over Vilna, continued to worsen, destroying the prospects for Piłsudski's plan of a Międzymorze federation and leading to open hostilities in the ensuing Polish-Lithuanian War (1920).[33] In 1920, also, the Soviets recaptured Vilna, followed by the Poles' establishment of short lived Republic of Central Lithuania.[34]

The Polish capture of Vilna set the stage for further escalation of Polish conflicts with Soviet Russia and Lithuania. In coming months, Polish forces would be pushing steadily eastward, in mid-August launching Operation Minsk.[35]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ For controversies about the naming and dating of this conflict, refer to the section devoted to this subject in the Polish-Soviet War article.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Janusz Odziemkowski, Leksykon Wojny Polsko-Rosyjskiej 1919-1920' (Lexicon of Polish-Russian War of 1919-1920), Oficyna Wydawnica RYTM, 2004, ISBN 8373990968
  3. ^ a b c d Davies, p.49
  4. ^ a b c d Mission of The United States to Poland, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. Report
  5. ^ a b c d Collection of Polish military comminiques, 1919-1921, "O niepodległą i granice", Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczna, Pułtusk, 1999. Pages - 168-172.Part available online in this letter to Rzeczpospolita.
  6. ^ Davies, p.30
  7. ^ Speaking of Poland's frontiers Piłsudski said: "All that we can gain in the west depends on the Entente — on the extent to which it may wish to squeeze Germany," while in the east "there are doors that open and close, and it depends on who forces them open and how far."
    Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0-375-76052-0, p.212"
  8. ^ a b Davies, p.25-26
  9. ^ Davies, p.25
  10. ^ Davies, p.48
  11. ^ Davies, p.48-49
  12. ^ THE REBIRTH OF POLAND. University of Kansas, lecture notes by professor Anna M. Cienciala, 2004. Last accessed on 2 June 2006.
  13. ^ MacMillan, Margaret, Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0375760520, p. 213-214.
  14. ^ Jews of Vilna had their own complex identity, and labels of Polish Jews, Lithuanian Jews or Russian Jews are all applicable only in part. See also: Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0195083199, Google Print, p.8 and Mark Abley, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2003, ISBN 061823649X, Google Print, p.205
  15. ^ Davies, pp.48, 53-54
  16. ^ a b Antoni Czubiński, Walka o granice wschodnie polski w latach 1918-1921 Instytut Slaski w Opolu, 1993 p.83
  17. ^ a b c d e f g Adam Przybylski, 1928, Poland in the Fight for its Borders, April – July 1919 - this chapter contains an account of the battle, mostly identical with the one presented by Davies
  18. ^ Grzegorz Lukowski, Rafal E. Stolarski, Walka o Wilno, Oficyna Wydawnicza Audiutor, 1994, ISBN 8390008505
  19. ^ (Polish) Zachodnia Dywizja Strzelców. WIEM Encyklopedia. Last accessed on 9 April 2007
  20. ^ a b c d e Davies, p.50
  21. ^ a b c (Polish) Bohdan Urbankowski, Józef Piłsudski: marzyciel i strateg (Józef Piłsudski: Dreamer and Strategist), Wydawnictwo ALFA, Warsaw, 1997, ISBN 8370019145, p. 296
  22. ^ a b Davies (p. 240) cites a death toll of 65 under Polish rule, and 2,000 under the brief 1920 Soviet reoccupation)
  23. ^ Piotr Łossowski, Konflikt polsko-litewski 1918-1920, Książka i Wiedza, 1995, ISBN 8305127699, p.11
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h Joseph W. Bendersky, The "Jewish Threat": Anti-semitic Politics of the American Arm, Basic Books, 2000, ISBN 0465006183, Google Print, p.84-86
  25. ^ Michlic, Joanna Beata (2006). Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press, p.117-118. ISBN 0803232403. 
  26. ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland, Columbia University Press, 2005, ISBN ISBN 0231128193, Google Print, p.192
  27. ^ a b c d e (English) Piotrowski, Tadeusz (1 997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, p. 41-42. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. 
  28. ^ Words to Outlive Us: Voices from the Warsaw Ghetto. Michał Grynberg, 2002.
  29. ^ Gintautas Ereminas, Ochrona toru Wilno - Lida
  30. ^ a b c Davies, p.53-54
  31. ^ Davies, p.51
  32. ^ a b Czubiński, p.92
  33. ^ Davies, p.57
  34. ^ George J. Lerski. Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. 1996, p.309
  35. ^ Davies, p.51-53

[edit] Further reading