Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Urban Guerrilla Warfare, by Anthony James Joes. 2007. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington

Polish-Bolshevik War. Warsaw Insurrection. Poland Betrayed and Subjugated

The author, a professor of political science, specializes in urban guerrilla warfare, and features guerrilla conflicts such as Budapest in 1956, and Grozny (Chechnya) in 1994-1996. He begins with the Poles’ 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and my review focuses on this.

THE UNAPPRECIATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POLISH VICTORY OVER THE USSR IN 1920

In considering the Soviet perfidy in refusing to support the Warsaw Uprising, author Joes goes back 24 years earlier, and writes, “The 1920 Bolshevik invasion of Poland–the first Soviet invasion of Europe–is one of the least known of modern wars, but its outcome may have been nearly as decisive for the destiny of Europe as Charles Martel’s victory at Tours.” (p. 9).

He adds that, “Concerning the battle of Warsaw, the distinguished British military historian J. F. C. Fuller wrote: ‘The influence of this decisive battle on history…was little grasped by Western Europe and has remained little noticed.’ Yet Tukhaczhevsky [Tukhachevsky] himself declared, ‘There is not the slightest doubt that, had we been victorious on the [River] Vistula [which runs through Warsaw roughly south to north], the revolution would have set light to the entire continent of Europe.'” (p. 11).

Finally, “British historian E. H. Carr concurs: “It was not the Red Army, but the cause of World Revolution, which suffered defeat in front of Warsaw in August 1920.'” (p. 12).

THE LEGEND ABOUT DECISIVE FRENCH HELP IN THE 1920 WAR

Joes comments, “A persistent myth holds that French general Maxime Weygand, chief of staff of the famous General Foch, saved Warsaw. This Weygand myth suited the purposes of the Bolsheviks, Pilsudski’s Polish critics, and French premier Millerand. But the honors of victory belong above all to Pilsudski…Weygand himself gallantly admitted that ‘the victory, the plan and the army were Polish'” (p. 11).

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THE VALUE OF POLISH ESPIONAGE IN WWII

Poland was under the occupation of Nazi Germany. Joes comments, “‘The Poles in London,’ wrote William Casey, later director of the CIA, ‘ran one of the most efficient and ambitious of the exile intelligence services.” (p. 17).

THE COURSE OF THE WARSAW UPRISING

The author hits all the major points of the Warsaw Insurrection. These include: The shortage of ammunition of the A. K. (Home Army), the German mass murder of Polish civilians, the German burning of Polish hospitals with wounded patients in them, the sight of burning Warsaw within eyesight of the perfidious and stalled Red Army, the difficulties of airdrops to fighting Warsaw, the crushing burdens on Warsaw’s civilian population, etc.

THE COUNTERPRODUCTICE SOVIET BETRAYAL OF THE WARSAW UPRISING

Joes opines that, “Stalin could have won much gratitude and prestige for his miniscule Polish Communist Party if he had saved–or even assisted–Warsaw.” (p. 36).

THE COUNTERPRODUCTVE GERMAN DESTRUCTION OF WARSAW

After the surrender of the Warsaw Insurgents, the vindictive Germans destroyed Warsaw. In doing so, they were shooting themselves in the foot. Joes declares that, “Perhaps even more incredibly, the Germans, despite being pressed east and west by the converging armies of the Grand Alliance, thought it worthwhile to spend precious manpower and materiel and time to raze completely what was left of Warsaw, painstakingly dynamiting the foundation of huge, eighteenth-century buildings.” (p. 31).

THE LEGACY OF THE BETRAYAL OF POLAND AT YALTA

Joes has an excellent grasp of the situation, “Close to a hundred thousand Polish troops in the west refused to return to Stalin’s Poland…The Poles had paid an incalculable price for a freedom they did not obtain.” (p. 37).