The Russo-Polish War, 1919-1920: A Bibliography of Materials in English

by John A. Drobnicki
The following article was originally published in thePolish Review, XLII, no. 1 (Mar. 1997), 95-104. Copyright © 1997 by The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Polish diacritical marks are not included.

One would think, from the scant attention paid to it in textbooks, that the Russo-Polish War of 1919-1920 has also been neglected in the historical literature. As the reader will see, this is an erroneous assumption, for it has been the subject of numerous monographs, several doctoral dissertations, and scores of articles. Perhaps one of the reasons that this Polish-Soviet War is often overlooked in the classroom, aside from the bias against East Central European history in general, is that it was just one of a series of conflagrations raging almost simultaneously. Since the borders in the area were tenuous, and in some cases non-existent, several countries came into territorial conflict. According to Iwo C. Pogonowski's Historical Atlas of Poland, there were six concurrent wars on the borders of Poland from 1918 to 1922, between Poland and: Ukraine, Germany (over Poznan), Germany (over Silesia), Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. Add to this the end of the First World War, the Russian Civil War, Allied Intervention in that war, and the Paris Peace Conference, and the reader can see just how confusing and unstable the European political situation was.

Although it is usually glossed over in many Western History college courses, the Russo- Polish War was a pivotal event in twentieth century history, "the most portentous event facing post-Versailles Europe," according to Yale historian Piotr S. Wandycz. Had Poland been overrun, the Soviet Union could, theoretically, have invaded Germany. Thus not only did Poland deal the Red Army its first defeat, it also greatly expanded the territory of the fledgling republic to its historic, pre-partition borders.

This bibliography has been limited to scholarly materials in the English language; contemporary major news articles (New York Times, Living Age, etc.) have not been included. It is hoped that this bibliography will facilitate the study of this fascinating period of Polish and European history.



I. PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS

II. MONOGRAPHS

III. DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS AND MASTER'S THESES

IV. ARTICLES

I. Published Documents

Degras, Jane, editor, The Communist International in Documents. Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press, 1956.

________, Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy. Vol. 1: 1917- 1924. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951; rpt. New York: Octagon Books, 1978.

Bulletin of the Polish Voluntary Army. Warsaw: Printing Office K. Kopytowski and Company, 1920.

Eudin, Xenia J., and Harold H. Fisher, editors, Soviet Russia and the West, 1920- 1927: A Documentary Survey. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957.

Horak, Stephan, editor, Poland's International Affairs 1919-1960: A Calendar of Treaties, Conventions, and Other International Acts, with Annotations, References, and Selections from Documents and Texts of Treaties. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964.

Hunczak, Taras, editor, Ukraine and Poland in Documents, 1918-1922, two volumes. New York: Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1983.

Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918-1943: Documents. New York: Polish Information Center, 1943.

Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918-1943: Official Documents. Washington, DC: Polish Embassy, 1943.

Senn, Alfred Erich, "Lithuania's Fight for Independence: The Polish Evacuation of Vilnius, July 1920." Baltic Review, no. 23 (November 1961), pp. 32-39.

United States, Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1920. Washington: GPO, 1935-36.

Woodward, E. L. et al., editors, Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919- 1939. London: HMSO, 1947-55.

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II. Monographs

Bandrowski, Juliusz Kaden, The Great Battle on the Vistula, Harriet E. Kennedy, translator. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., 1921; reprinted New York: AMS Press, 1972.

Bankwitz, Philip Charles Farwell, Maxime Weygand and Civil-Military Relations in Modern France. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Brooks, Sidney, America and Poland, 1915-1925. American Relief Administration Bulletin, ser. 2, no. 44. New York: American Relief Administration, 1925.

Carroll, E. Malcolm, Soviet Communism and Western Opinion, 1919-1921, Frederic B. M. Hollyday, editor. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965.

Cornebise, Alfred E., Typhus and Doughboys: The American Polish Typhus Relief Expedition, 1919-1921. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1982.

D'Abernon, Edgar V., The Eighteenth Decisive Battle of the World: Warsaw 1920. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.

Davies, Norman, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20. London: Macdonald and Co., 1972.

Debicki, Roman, Foreign Policy of Poland, 1919-1939. New York: Praeger, 1962.

Dennis, Alfred L. P., The Foreign Policies of Soviet Russia. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1924.

Dziewanowski, M. K., Joseph Pilsudski: A European Federalist, 1918-1922. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1969.

Fiddick, Thomas C., Russia's Retreat from Poland, 1920: From Permanent Revolution to Peaceful Coexistence. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

German General Staff, The Polish-Soviet Russian War 1918-1920, edited by the General Staff of the [United States] Army, Department of Military Science. Fort Bragg, North Carolina: 525th Military Intelligence Group, 1955.

Grabski, Stanislaw, The Polish-Soviet Frontier. New York: Polish Information Centre, 1943.

Grove, William R., War's Aftermath (Polish Relief in 1919), with a chapter on Poland of 1940 by Stefan de Ropp. New York: House of Field, Inc., 1940.

Karolevitz, Robert F., and Ross S. Fenn, Flight of Eagles: The Story of the American Kosciuszko Squadron in the Polish-Russian War 1919-1920. Sioux Falls, South Dakota: Brevet Press, 1974.

Komarnicki, Titus, Rebirth of the Polish Republic: A Study in the Diplomatic History of Europe, 1914-1920. London: William Heinemann, 1957.

Korbel, Joseph, Poland Between East and West: Soviet and German Diplomacy Toward Poland, 1919-1933. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Lenin, Vladimir I., Against the Plague of Nations: An Address to Thinking People on the Polish Question. Cleveland: Toiler Publishing Association, 1920.

Murray, Kenneth Malcolm, Wings Over Poland: The Story of the 7th (Kosciuszko) Squadron of the Polish Air Service, 1919, 1920, 1921. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1932.

Musialik, Zdislaw, General Weygand and the Battle of the Vistula, 1920, Antoni Jozef Bohdanowicz, editor. London: Jozef Pilsudski Institute of Research, 1987.

Palij, Michael, The Ukrainian-Polish Defensive Alliance, 1919-1921: An Aspect of the Ukrainian Revolution. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1995.

Pilsudski, Jozef, Year 1920 and its Climax: Battle of Warsaw During the Polish- Soviet War, 1919-1920. New York: Pilsudski Institute of America, 1972.

Ripetskyi, Stepan, Ukrainian-Polish Diplomatic Struggle, 1918-1923. Chicago: Ukrainian Research and Information Institute, 1963.

Shotwell, James T., and Max M. Laserson, Poland and Russia, 1919-1945. New York: Published for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by King's Crown Press, 1945.

Stachiw, Matthew, and Jaroslaw Sztendera, Western Ukraine at the Turning Point of Europe's History, 1918-1923, two volumes, Joan L. Stachiw, editor. New York: Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1969-1971.

Umiastowski, Roman, Russia and the Polish Republic, 1918-1945, written with the assistance of Joanna Mary Aldridge. London: Aquafondata, 1945.

Wandycz, Piotr S., France and Her Eastern Allies, 1919-1925: French- Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from the Paris Peace Conference to Locarno. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

________, Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917-1921. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.

Zamoyski, Adam, The Battle for the Marchlands. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1981.

Zoltowski, Adam, Border of Europe: A Study of the Polish Eastern Provinces. London: Hollis & Carter, 1950.

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III. Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Bryant, F. Russell, "Anglo-Polish Relations During the Soviet-Polish War, 1919-1921." M.A. thesis, Florida State University, 1963.

Cameron, Brian David, "German-Soviet Cooperation in the Baltic States and Poland, 1918 to 1920." M.A. thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada), 1991.

Dabrowski, Stanislaw, "The Peace Treaty of Riga, 1921." Ph.D. dissertation, Kent State University, 1968.

Fiddick, Thomas C., "Soviet Policy and the Battle of Warsaw, 1920." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1974.

Flynn, John James, "British Diplomacy and the Polish-Soviet War of 1920." M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1983.

Haczynski, Leo John, "The Problem of Eastern Galicia at the Paris Peace Conference: A Re-examination in the Light of American Materials in the Archives of the United States." Ph.D. dissertation, Fordham University, 1971.

Lukas, Richard C., "The Polish-Lithuanian Boundary Dispute, 1918-1923." M.A. thesis, Florida State University, 1960.

Musialik, Zdislaw, "General Maxime Weygand and the Battle of the Vistula, 1920." Ph.D. dissertation, St. John's University, 1973.

Porebski, Barbara, "Polish-American Participation in the Armed Struggle for the Independence of Poland in World War I and in the Russian-Polish War." M.A. thesis, State University of New York College at Buffalo, 1977.

Shewchuk, Serge Michiel, "The Russo-Polish War of 1920." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland College Park, 1966.

Urbaniak, George, "White Eagle, White Knight: The Polish-Lithuanian Dispute, 1918- 1920." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 1985.

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IV. Articles

Biskupski, M. B., "Paderewski, Polish Politics, and the Battle of Warsaw, 1920," Slavic Review, vol. 46 (1987), pp. 503-512.

________, "Pilsudski, Poland, and the War With Russia, 1919-1920" (review article), Polish Heritage, vol. 35 (Winter 1984), pp. 5, 12.

Blank, Stephen, "Soviet Nationality Policy and Soviet Foreign Policy: The Polish Case 1917-1921," International History Review, vol. 7 (1985), pp. 103-128.

Carley, Michael Jabara, "The Politics of Anti-Bolshevism: The French Government and the Russo-Polish War, December 1919 to May 1920," Historical Journal, vol. 19 (1976), pp. 163-189.

Dabrowski, Stanislaw, "The Peace Treaty of Riga," Polish Review, vol. 5 (Winter 1960), pp. 3-34.

Davies, Norman, "August 1920," European Studies Review, vol. 3 (1973), pp. 269-281.

________, "The Genesis of the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20," European Studies Review, vol. 5 (1975), pp. 47-67.

________, "Lloyd George and Poland 1919-20," Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 6 (1971), pp. 132-154.

________, "The Missing Revolutionary War: The Polish Campaigns and the Retreat from Revolution in Soviet Russia, 1919-21," Soviet Studies, vol. 27 (1975), pp. 178-195.

________, "The Red Army's Only Defeat," Sunday Times Magazine (London), May 7, 1972; reprinted in The Kosciuszko Foundation Monthly Newsletter, vol. 29 (December 1974), pp. 3-5.

________, "Sir Maurice Hanky and the Inter-Allied Mission to Poland, July-August 1920," Historical Journal, vol. 15 (1972), pp. 553-561.

________, "The Soviet Command and the Battle of Warsaw, 1920," Soviet Studies, vol. 23 (1972), pp. 573-585.

Dziewanowski, M. K., "Joseph Pilsudski, the Bolshevik Revolution and Eastern Europe," Polish Review, vol. 14 (Autumn 1969), pp. 14-31.

________, "Pilsudski's Federal Policy, 1919-1921," Journal of Central European Affairs, vol. 10 (1950), pp. 113-128, 271-287.

________, "Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21," in The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, Joseph L. Wieczynski, editor, (Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1982) vol. 28, pp. 229-234.

Elcock, H. J., "Britain and the Russo-Polish Frontier 1919-21," Historical Journal, vol. 7 (1969), pp. 137-154.

Farman, Elbert E., Jr., "The Polish-Bolshevik Cavalry Campaign of 1920," Cavalry Journal, vol. 30 (July 1921), pp. 223-239.

Fibich, Michael J., "On the Polish-Bolshevik Front in 1919 and 1920," Field Artillery Journal, vol. 13 (1923), pp. 272-286, 440-452.

Fiddick, Thomas C., "The 'Miracle of the Vistula': Soviet Policy versus Red Army Strategy," Journal of Modern History, vol. 45 (1973), pp. 626-643.

Foster, Gaines M., "Typhus Disaster in the Wake of War: The American-Polish Relief Expedition, 1919-1920," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 55 (Summer 1981), pp. 221-232.

Fuller, J. F. C., "The Battle of Warsaw, 1920," in J. F. C. Fuller, Decisive Battles of the Western World and Their Influence Upon History; reprinted as The Battle of Warsaw, 1920. London: The Council of the Polish Ex-Servicemen Associations, 1970.

Garlinski, Jozef, "The Polish-Ukrainian Agreement, 1920," in The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914-23, Paul Latawski, editor. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 55-70.

Gasiorowski, Zygmunt J., "Joseph Pilsudski in the Light of American Reports, 1919-1922," Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 49 (1971), pp. 425-436.

________, "Joseph Pilsudski in the Light of British Reports," Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 50 (1972), pp. 558-569.

Himmer, Robert, "Soviet Policy Toward Germany During the Russo-Polish War, 1920," Slavic Review, vol. 35 (1976), pp. 665-682.

Hunczak, Taras, "'Operation Winter' and the Struggle for the Baltic," East European Quarterly, vol. 4 (1970), pp. 40-57.

Jackson, Robert, "The Russo-Polish War," in Robert Jackson, At War With the Bolsheviks: The Allied Intervention Into Russia, 1917-20. London: Tom Stacey, Ltd., 1972, pp. 228-233.

Johnston, R. F. A., "The Battle of Warsaw, 1920," Military Quarterly, vol. 5 (1923), pp. 235-246.

Kukiel, Marian, "The Polish-Soviet Campaign of 1920," Slavonic Review, vol. 8 (June 1929), pp. 48-65; reprinted as The Polish-Soviet Campaign of 1920. Scottish-Polish Society Publications, No. 1. London: Published for the Society by Oliver and Boyd Ltd., 1941.

Kusielewicz, Eugene, "New Light on the Curzon Line," Polish Review, vol. 1 (Spring-Summer 1956), pp. 82-88.

Kutrzeba, Stanislaw, "The Struggle for the Frontiers, 1919-1923," in The Cambridge History of Poland, W. F. Reddaway et al., editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1941; reprinted New York: Octagon Books, 1978, vol. 2, pp. 512-534.

Lerner, Warren, "Attempting a Revolution from Without: Poland in 1920," Studies on the Soviet Union, vol. 11 (1971), pp. 94-106.

________, "Poland in 1920: A Case Study in Foreign-Policy Decision Making Under Lenin," South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 72 (1973), pp. 406-414.

Lukas, Richard C., "The Seizure of Vilna, October 1920," Historian, vol. 23 (1961), pp. 234-246.

Macfarlane, L. J., "Hands Off Russia: British Labour and the Russo-Polish War, 1920," Past and Present, vol. 38 (December 1967), pp. 126-152.

McCann, James M., "Beyond the Bug: Soviet Historiography of the Soviet-Polish War of 1920," Soviet Studies, vol. 36 (1984), pp. 475-493.

Posey, John P., "Soviet Propaganda as a Diplomatic Prelude to the Russo-Polish War, 1920," Southern Quarterly, vol. 7 (1969), pp. 141-154.

________, "Soviet Propaganda, Europe and the Russo-Polish War 1920," Southern Quarterly, vol. 6 (1968), pp. 213-232.

Sworakowski, Witold, "An Error Regarding Eastern Galicia in Curzon's Note to the Soviet Government of July 11, 1920," Journal of Central European Affairs, vol. 4 (April 1944), pp. 1-26.

Symmons-Symonolowicz, Konstanty, "Polish Political Thought and the Problem of the Eastern Borderlands of Poland, 1918-1939," Polish Review, vol. 4 (Winter-Spring 1959), pp. 65-81.

Tukhachevski, Mikhail, "The March Beyond the Vistula," reprinted in Jozef Pilsudski, Year 1920 and its Climax. New York: Pilsudski Institute of America, 1972, pp. 223-266.

Wandycz, Piotr S., "French Diplomats in Poland, 1919-1926," Journal of Central European Affairs, vol. 23 (January 1964), pp. 440-450.

________, "General Weygand and the Battle of Warsaw of 1920," Journal of Central European Affairs, vol. 19 (January 1960), pp. 357-365.

________, "Polish Federalism 1919-20 and its Historical Antecedents," East European Quarterly, vol. 4 (1970), pp. 25-39.

________, "Secret Soviet-Polish Peace Talks in 1919," Slavic Review, vol. 24 (1965), pp. 425-449.

________, "The Treaty of Riga: Its Significance for Interwar Polish Foreign Policy," Polish Review, vol. 14 (Autumn 1969), pp. 31-36.

Weygand, Maxime, "The Red Army in the Polish War, 1920," in The Soviet Army, B. H. Liddell Hart, editor. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956, pp. 45-51.

White, Stephen, "Labour's Council of Action 1920," Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 9 (1974), pp. 99-122.

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The author would like to thank Karen Venturella (St. John's University) and Paul Tallarico (Queens Borough Public Library) for their kind assistance.




Thanks to William Skeith for the email-hider.

Last modified: Apr. 15, 2014

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