Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Poland in 1920?

In 1920, the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland following a joint Polish-Ukrainian offensive aimed at Kiev. In this video I look at the turbulent history of Poland in the early 20th Century and why the Soviet Union and Polish Second Republic decided to go to war with one another in 1919 and 1920.

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[historywithhilbert]

Thanks for watching everyone, hope yous enjoyed the video! Be sure to check out my other videos on Poland if you found it interesting and give me a thumbs up or considering subscribbling if you're new!

[HistoryHustle]

This Summer I was in Poland and the one hundred year anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw was held. A very interesting but in the West mainly unknown battle. The whole turmoil in Central and Eastern Europe after WW1 is kinda unknown for many. Great you adress this!

[cebenify]

Hungary: I'm broke, can't help
Poland: Help!
Hungary: Here are all my rifles

[Artur_M.]

I had so many things to say about this topic that in the end, I didn't manage to write anything in the chat.
It is really hard to tell when this war started because for example there was already fighting in Belarus between Bolsheviks and Polish forces (Polish formations created in the Russian Army after the February Revolution and the "self-defense" militias formed by local Poles) before Poland even regained independence. Similarly, the Polish-Ukrainian War started already in November 1918, when Piłsudski was still in the Magdeburg prison and the independent Polish state didn't quite exist yet. Piłsudski himself was from the Wilno (Vilnius) region. All that should give some context to the apparent Polish drive to expand eastward just after regained independence. As was said in the video Piłsudski wanted to create a Polish-led federation but the majority of Polish nationalist, especially those following Roman Dmowski, arguably the second most influential Polish political figure at the time, wanted to incorporate the eastern territories of the old Commonwealth with a "significant Polish population" into a unitary Polish nation-state, without caring for Ukrainian, Lithuanian or Belarusian aspirations at all.

Speaking about Belarus, could you please consider making a video about the Belarusian national symbols? It is kinda a very timely topic and between your interest in this part of Europe and experience with covering the history of Scotland, which has, in my opinion, parallels to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, you would be an ideal person to cover it.

PS. I highly recommend _The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999_ by Timothy Snyder to anyone striving to make sense of this mess (by which I also mean the current events). It's very insightful and surprisingly easy to read and short book, considering the scope and complexity of the topic.

[mordapl]

Heres a quick guide to speeding up your Polish learning:
1. Buy a crate of vodka (prefferably Polish brand)
2. Meet up with your local poles for a "few" shots
3. Watch as you begin to understand and speak fluent Polish in a matter of minutes
Source: Im that local pole

[TCTC]

Great vid! I'm off to uni to study history next week and you've been such an inspiration

[scygnius]

I’m super excited to hear about more Polish history from your channel I have started learning Polish recently so this is great timing!!!

[thecringekid]

At the battle of Warsaw, it is said that Władysław Sikorski was a +5 defence general and that he also rolled a 9.

[Pigraider]

I like you chose this not well known episode of Polish history. It really is interesting and deserve some recognition. Am really glad you did it and am waiting for more top tier content ^^

[marcinterlecki]

Two notes - I guess due to limited time (and complexity of the subject) you didn't separate W-UPR from UPR, but those were two different Ukrainian states, with very different background (Galicia and Volhynia were parts of Kingdom of Poland twice as long as rest of the Ukraine). And secondly - Kiev Offensive failure had to be attributed mostly to Petlura's inability to gather Ukrainians around him... That was the closest Ukraine was to independent state before 90'.

[napoleonibonaparte]

The player didn’t wait until the Soviets finished ‘Demand Eastern Poland’ to release Poland as an independent state.

[jj]

That’s not what Poland looked like in 1920 (thumbnail), those are the post 1945 borders

[satyr]

Bit too light on the details of the whole period and dual wars (especially the Soviet invasion) but I'm still glad you posted this!

[jorder]

Actually good sponsor! As it happens I’ve been trying to learn Polish for a bout a year at this point, another program will help!

[missnorthumbria]

Envious on your future dig. I wish I could do it too.
Enjoy this wonderful experience Hilbert ❤

[samuelluce]

Why in the thumbnail does Poland have its present day western borders

[legitplayin]

Really good video Hilbert! Definitely would love more about Poland, but that’s just my patriotic part speaking.

[daniilfedotov]

I'd like to correct that the Soviet Union was only created in 1922, after the war with Poland. During the were there were semi-independent allied republic of Soviet Russia, Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Belarus and a bunch of others.
As for the claims, the bolshevik government of the time (specifically Lenin) explicitly denounced any legacy of the Russian Empire and their claims mostly based on the Lenins decrees proclaiming that all empires should be gone. And Lenin, as many politicians of the time, seen polish state as a product of the Versailles system which like was a manifestation of the western european imperialism.
It's important to understand the the russian soldiers of the time were not keen to fight for any imperialist cause and it wasn't something you could sell to them.
Later when USSR was formed and Stalin came to power, he started to push for more irredentist and imperialist position on foreign policy.
Also the bolshevik government had a lot of polish members who were interested in bringing communism to their homeland. Some of them even moved to Poland later to join the Polish communist party.

[VaqueroCoyote]

It's weird Communists like to use Imperialist as an insult when every Communist country has been Imperialist.

[Enevan]

Come to think of it, war didn't end when The Great War ended... Karinthian conflict, Greco-Turkish was and probalbly other conflicts as well.