78.3 Polish-Soviet War - Conclusion

A History of Europe Key Battles

Carl Rylett

History

4.4 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1920 the Polish and Soviet Russian armies clashed in a series of battles across a wide area of eastern Europe including Ukraine and Lithuania.

The Soviets advanced deep into Poland and reached the gates of Warsaw, with the aims of capturing the city and., more widely, exporting their revolution across Europe.

Picture: Polish soldiers in the Battle of Warsaw 1920

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Play Final One Standing by William Hill. It's free to play with a new league kicking off every Premier League match week. Enter and make your first pick your first pick a new team before each following round. You can only pick each team once and if you're the final one standing then the jackpot is yours. Final one standing by William Hill, football's ultimate elimination game. 18 plus wins EPL season, one active league at a time on less prize 100,000 pounds or more, minimum prize 1,000 pounds.
0:23.9	Prices vary and apply to public leagues only.
0:25.4	Price split and four losing the same hour.
0:26.7	Pay within 48 hours online, full teas and seas at Williamhill.com.
0:29.4	Play responsibly.
0:44.0	Hello and welcome to a history of Europe, the interwar years.
0:51.2	The Polish-Soviet War, 1919 to 1921, part 3 of 3.
0:58.5	In the previous two episodes, I talked about the beginning of the Polish-Soviet War and the first phases of the conflict.
1:02.2	The Poles initially made great territorial gains against the Russians,
1:06.8	especially in the borderlands of Ukraine,
1:09.5	where the chief military commander, Yosev Pelsitsky,
1:12.6	attempted to help the Ukrainians set up their own administration in the city of Kyiv.
1:18.6	However, the Polish army failed to land the decisive blow to the Russians that they were hoping for,
1:25.6	and they also lost diplomatic support in Europe.
1:29.8	The Russians regrouped and made the westward offensive towards Warsaw they had already been planning.
1:38.2	By the beginning of July 1920, the Russians had put together an army of 120,000 men under a general by the name of Mikal
1:47.6	Tukachevsky. This was twice the number of the Polish army facing them, and the Russians had many
1:54.6	more men in reserve. At this point, Polish morale now started to suffer. Tukuchewsky was given instructions to take Warsaw by the 12th of August,
2:05.6	which gave him six weeks to cover nearly 700 kilometres.
2:10.6	This meant he had no time to stop and fight any set-piece battles along the way.
2:15.6	Instead he had to break through enemy lines and to keep going
2:19.8	as fast as he could. He believed this would be possible because he expected the Poles to crumble
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Carl Rylett, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Carl Rylett and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.