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Vilna offensive

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This article is about the 1919 battle. For the 1944 battle, see Operation Ostra Brama.

Template:Disputed title

Operation Wilno
Part of Polish-Soviet War[1]

Polish Army enters Wilno, 1919.
Dateearly 1919
Location
near Wilno
Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Second Polish Republic Bolshevist Russia
Commanders and leaders
Józef Piłsudski
Władysław Belina-Prażmowski
Edward Rydz-Śmigły		 Unknown
Strength
For the offensive:[2]
10,000 infantry
1,000 cavalry
16 guns
For Wilno:[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 Wilno:[2]
2,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown. Polish military communiques note 'more than 1000 prisoners' taken.[4]

The Operation Wilno was an offensive by the Polish Army aimed at taking over the city of Vilna (Vilnius; known to Poles as Wilno) from the Red Army. The offensive began on April 16th. After a a three-day long street fight[4] from the 19th to the 21st of April, Wilno, the main target of the offensive, was captured by Polish forces and the Red Army retreated. The offensive also succeeded in securing nearby cities (Lida, Nowogrodek, Barnanowicze). Red Army launched a series of couterattacks to regain Wilno, but failed; it would be only in the following spring that the city was recaptured by the Red Army as the Poles retreated on the entire front.

Prelude

The Soviets, while at that time publicly supporting Polish independence, sponsored communist agitators working against the government of the Second Polish Republic, and considered that the eastern borders of any Polish state should approximate those of the defunct Congress Kingdom. Poles, on the other hand, inspired by memories of the greatness of the erstwhile Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, saw their their borders as lying much farther east,[5] and their leader, Józef Piłsudski, discerned an opportunity for military expansion, exploiting the turmoil and disarray in the territories of the former Russian Empire, shaken by the 1917 Revolution and the ongoing Russian Civil War.[6]

Eastern front in 1919. Poles fighting with Soviets in the north and Ukrainians in the south - mid-February 1919.

In the first weeks of 1919, following the retreat of German Ober-Ost forces under Max Hoffmann, Wilno found itself in a power vacuum. It promptly became the scene of struggles among competing political groups, and experienced two revolutions.[7]

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.[8] Samoobrona rule did not last long. On January 5, 1919, the Polish forces were forced to retreat when the Russian Western Army marched in from Smolensk to support local communists as part of the Russian westward offensive.[7]

Wilno became part of a Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and soon the capital of a Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed in the city on February 27, 1919. "Lit-Byel" became the eighth government to control the city in two years.[9] The short period during which the Lithuanian SSR and Lit-Byel controled the city was eventful, as the new communist government turned Wilno into a social experiment, testing various solutions on the city's inhabitants.[10] [11]

Józef Piłsudski, Polish revolutionary, military leader and statesman,[12] himself a Lithuanian of Polish culture[13][14], a descendant of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth nobility (szlachta)[14] polonized to an extent that most sources call his family Polish[12] a native of the Vilnius region[13][14] and Polish commander-in-chief,[15] decided that regaining control of the city — whose population comprised mostly Poles and Jews[16], with some Belarusians and about 2% Lithuanians[11] — should become a priority of the renascent Polish state.[17] He had been working on plans to take control of Wilno since at least March; he gave preeliminary orders to prepara 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 Wilno before Western diplomats at Paris Peace Conference could rule on whom the city, demanded by various factions, should be given to.[18] The action was not discussed with Polish politicians and government,[18] who at that time were more concerned with the situation on the southern Polish Ukrainian front.[19] By the time of early April when members of Kresy Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Kresów) - Michał Pius Römer, Aleksander Prystor, Witold Abramowicz and Kazimierz Świtalski met with Pilsudski, stressing the plight of occupied Wilno, and the need for the creation of self-government of city's inhabitants, Piłsudski is ready to move.[20]

The offensive

Diversionary attacks

Battle of Wilno and related operations.

Piłsudski arrived at the front near Lida on 15 April, bringing reinforcements from Warsaw. His plan calling for exploitation of the gap in Soviet lines between Wilno and Lida, and advance towards Wilno using the road and railway. Amidst diversionary attacks, diverting Russian attention from the main Polish thrust towards Wilno, Polish forces attacked on dawn of 16 April.[3]

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

Soviet forces in the area were composed Western Rifle Division (a unit which had many pro-communist Polish volunteers)[21] and other units of Western Army; Soviet garrison of Wilno was about 2,000, but the troops were newly trained and mostly green. Remaining Soviet forces in the area estimated at 7,000 infantry, few hundreds of cavalry, and 10 artillery pieces.[2] Those forces were to be engaged by other Polish forces and thus prevented from coming to aid the Wilno garrison.

The diversionary attacks went well, with Soviet forces acting under the impression that Poles had other targets than Wilno. Despite the attacks being planned as diversionary, they succeeded themselves, with generał Józef Adam Lasocki taking Lida in two days (despite unexpectedly strong resistance[19]), and generał Stefan Mokrzecki taking Nowogrodek in three and Baranowicze in four days.[3]

Attack on Wilno

On 18 April Col. Belina decided to use the element of surprise and move into Wilno without waiting for the slower infantry units.[22] Polish forces left the village of Myto in early morning.[2] At 0330 on 19 mjr Zaruski took Lipówka near Wilno.[2] Belina's cavalry bypassed the city and attacked from behind, taking train station on the night of 18 to 19 April.[23] On 19 April the cavalry uner lt. Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer - future Polish general - charged into the suburbs, spread panic among the confused garrison, seized the train station and sent a train down the line to collect infantry.[22][19] In this suprise raid about 400 prisoners, 13 trains, and various military supplies were captured.[2] Piłsudski would declare Belina's cavalry action a most excuisite military action carried out by Polish cavalry in this war.[2]

Cavalryman fought for control of Wilno's center and took the Cathedral's square,[23] Vilnius Castle Complex on the hillside and quarters at the southern riverbank; they also captured hundreds of Bolshevik soldiers and officials;[2] but their numbers were too small compared to enemy who begun to reorganize, particulary in the north and west of the town, and counterattack.[19] Belina sent a message reporting that "enemy is resisting with extreme strenght"[4] and asking for immediate reinforcements;[23] around 8 in the evening the train sent in the morning returned with first infantry reinforcements; the Polish troops were also supported by city's predominantly Polish population which formed militia to aid them.[19] By the evening of 19 April half of Wilno was in Polish control;[22] however the Red Army troops and supporters put up a stubborn and coordinated defence.[19] Only with the arrival of main forces of Polish infantry under Generał Śmigły on April 21 the Poles gained the upper hand attacking decisively those parts of the town still held by Russian troops.[19] Polish infantry reinforced the thinly spread cavalry in the city center; during the night with help of local guides Polish forces crossed the river and took one of the bridges.[2] On April 20 bridges are in Polish hands, and more and more of the city fell to the Poles.[2] During the afternoon of that day, after a three-days long city fight the city was in Polish hands.[22] Piłsudski himself reached Wilno on the same day.[22] The last Soviet forces were pushed out of Surpiszki on 21 April.[2]

Soviet counteroffensive

The Polish victory angered the Soviets; dozens of people connected with Lit-Byel were arrested, and some were executed (Davies cites a death toll of 65 under Polish rule, and 2,000 under the brief 1920 Soviet reoccupation)[24]; the former Lit-Byel 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).[25]

Near the end of April about 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 210 ckms and 44 guns are gathered by the Soviets in the area of Szyrwiany, Podbrodzie, Soły - Oszmiana. Polish forces in the area under general Stanisław Szeptycki number 11,000; in Wilno Rydz-Śmigly has 8 infantry battalions, 18 calvary szwadrons and 18 guns. Rydz-Śmigły decides to engage enemy forces before they combine their strenght. On the night of 28 to 29 general Stanisław Dąb-Biernacki takes Podbrodzie, taking one of the Soviet formations. Soviets attack in Deliny-Ogrodniki direction, south of Wilno. Polish counterrack stops that thurst and pushes Soviets back towards Szkodziszki-Grygajce. In reply Soviets launch another counterattack from the north of Wilno; this one is more succesfull; breaks through Polish defences in that area and stops several kilometers from Wilno when Soviets delay the attack not wanting to storm a hostile city in the night; during that time Poles strenghten defence and counterattack, forcing the Soviets retreat toward Mejszagoła and Podberezie; Poles pursue and take those two settlements as well as Giedrojsc and Smorgoń. By mid-May Poles reach the line of Narocz lake - Hoduciszki - Ignalino - Lyngniany; Wilno is by than safely behind the front line.[2]

Aftermath

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

Because of the succesfull suprise attack, Polish army in Wilno managed to take sizable stocks of supplies, and hundreds of prisoners.[4] When Piłsudski entered the city, a victory parade was held in his honor. The city's Polish citizens on the whole were delighted; their politicians envisaged a separate Lithuanian state closely allied with Poland;[26] majority of the Jewish population, the only other sizable community in Wilno, also welcomed the Polish government[26] although a significant pro-communist minority activly cooperated with the Bolsheviks.[27] Representatives from the city were immediately sent to the Paris Peace Conference, and the University of Wilno, which had been closed in 1832 following the November 1830 Uprising, was reopened.[26]

Acting in accordance with his vision of a Polish-led "Międzymorze" federation of East-Central European states, Piłsduski 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 ordain "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."[28] Piłdudski's proclaration was aimed at showing good will boh 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 Bolshvicks dicatorship and liberating other nations'; however the Lithuanians who demanded exclusive control over the city were much less convinced.[29] Piłsudski's words caused much controversy also on Polish political scene; they were not discussed with Sejm, and caused much anger among Piłsudski's opponents from endecja faction; deputies from PSL Piast demanded incorporation of Wilno region into Poland and even accused Piłsudski of treason; however Piłsudski's supporters in PPS managed to deflect those attacks.[29]

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

Notwithstanding the fact that Wilno's population consisted mostly of Poles, the Lithuanian government in Kaunas, which viewed the town as the historic capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, saw the Polish incursion as an occupation pure and simple. Relations between the Polish and Lithuanian governments, unable to reach a compromise over Wilno, 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).[30] In 1920, also, the Soviets recaptured Wilno, followed by the Poles' establishment of short lived puppet state[31] the Republic of Central Lithuania.

Polish capture of Wilno set the stage for further escalation of Polish conflicts with Soviet Russia and Lithuania. In the coming months, the Polsh forces would be pushing steadily to the east, launching the Operation Minsk in mid-August.[32]

See also

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 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.
  5. ^ Davies, p.30
  6. ^ Speaking of Poland's future 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."
    MacMillan, Margaret, Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0-375-76052-0, p.212"
  7. ^ a b Davies, p.25-26
  8. ^ Davies, p.25
  9. ^ Davies, p.48
  10. ^ Davies, p.48-49
  11. ^ a b THE REBIRTH OF POLAND. University of Kansas, lecture notes by professor Anna M. Cienciala, 2004. Last accessed on 2 June 2006.
  12. ^ a b Norman Davies, God's Playground. Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present. Columbia University Press. 1982. ISBN 0231053525. Page 40
  13. ^ a b Davies, p.62
  14. ^ a b c "Josef Pilsudski was born in 1867 in Zulovo of the Vilna region in the family of the impoverished landowner from a very old and distinguished in the Rzeczpospolita line... The first of many paradoxes that surrounded Josef Pilsudsku all his life and even after his death is that the future restorer of the Polish statehood essentially was not... a Pole. Similarly to Adam Mickiewicz he was a Litvin. Litvin is not exactly the same as the Lithuanian in a modern sense of this term. This is a szlachtic of the Lithuanian or Belarusian origin from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, originally independent, and later united with the Polish kingdom into the Rzeczpospolita. By the 18th century, the overwhelming majority of them became Catholic and Polonized to degree that they did not even understand the Lithuanian, which preserved among the peasantry. Litvins spoke Polish exclusively (well, some spoke Latin as well) and did not see the future of their beloved Lithiania other than the common with Poland, but still they were not Poles to a full degree."
    Oleksa Pidlutskyi, Postati XX stolittia, (Figures of the 20th century), Kiev, 2004, ISBN 9668290011, LCCN 20-0. Chapter "Józef Piłsudski: The Chief who Created Himself a State" reprinted in Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), Kiev, February 3-9 February, 2001, in Russian and in Ukrainian.
  15. ^ MacMillan, Margaret, Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0375760520, p. 213-214.
  16. ^ Jews of Wilno 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
  17. ^ Davies, pp.48, 53-54
  18. ^ a b Antoni Czubiński, Walka o granice wschodnie polski w latach 1918-1921 Instytut Slaski w Opolu 1993 p.83
  19. ^ 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
  20. ^ Grzegorz Lukowski, Rafal E. Stolarski, Walka o Wilno, Oficyna Wydawnicza Audiutor, 1994, ISBN 8390008505
  21. ^ Template:Pl icon Zachodnia Dywizja Strzelców. WIEM Encyklopedia. Last accessed on 9 April 2007
  22. ^ a b c d e Davies, p.50
  23. ^ a b c Template:Pl icon Bohdan Urbankowski, Józef Piłsudski: marzyciel i strateg (Józef Piłsudski: Dreamer and Strategist), Wydawnictwo ALFA, Warsaw, 1997, ISBN 8370019145, p. 296
  24. ^ Davies, p.240
  25. ^ Gintautas Ereminas, Ochrona toru Wilno - Lida
  26. ^ a b c Davies, p.53-54
  27. ^ Template:En icon Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... McFarland & Company. pp. p. 41-42. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |chapterurl= and |coauthors= (help)
  28. ^ Davies, p.51
  29. ^ a b Czubiński, p.92
  30. ^ Davies, p.57
  31. ^ Template:En icon George J. Lerski. Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. 1996, p.309
  32. ^ Davies, p.51-53

Further reading

  • Davies, Norman (2003) [1972]. "White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20". Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-0694-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
  • Davies, Norman (2001) [1984]. "Heart of Europe The Past in Poland's Present". Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280126-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
  • Przemysław Różański, Wilno, 19-21 kwietnia 1919 roku (Vilnius, April 19-21, 1919), Jewish History Quarterly (01/2006), C.E.E.O.L.
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