Miracle On The Vistula
'Had Pilsudski and Weygand failed to arrest the triumphant advance of the Soviet Bolshevik Army at the Battle of Warsaw, not only would Christianity have experienced a dangerous reverse, but the very existence of Western civilisation would have been imperilled.'
Thus wrote the British peer and Warsaw envoy Edgar Vincent D'Abernon, reflecting on a battle that took place on this day in 1920. The date of the Polish victory was soon declared a national holiday, and every August 15th Poles across the country will have a cday off from work. Naturally, August 15th was not deemed worthy of a holiday during Poland's later spell as a Soviet satellite (1945-1990) but the holiday was swiftly installed following the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
D'Abernon concluded: 'The army that had marched on Warsaw was over a million strong and was nearing the gates of Warsaw when the Polish Cavalry attacked at the Bolshevik hind quarter. The Bolsheviks were so surprised by a viable and active military response to their sure victory that the Bolshevik army in shock routed and fled in complete disarray. The Polish western boundary stood until 1939 and World War II. On the essential point, there can be little room for doubt; had the Soviet forces overcome Polish resistance… Bolshevism would have spread throughout Central Europe and might well have penetrated the whole continent.'