1.
Vilnius
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Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 542,664 as of 2015. Vilnius is located in the southeast part of Lithuania and is the second largest city in the Baltic states, Vilnius is the seat of the main government institutions of Lithuania as well as of the Vilnius District Municipality. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies and its Jewish influence until the 20th century has led to it being described as the Jerusalem of Lithuania and Napoleon named it the Jerusalem of the North as he was passing through in 1812. In 2009, Vilnius was the European Capital of Culture, together with the Austrian city of Linz, the name of the city originates from the Vilnia River. The city has also known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable names for the city include, Polish, Wilno, Belarusian, Вiльня, German, Wilna, Latvian, Viļņa, Russian, Вильнюс, Yiddish, ווילנע , Czech. A Russian name from the time of the Russian Empire was Вильна/Вильно, the name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Wilna is still used in German, along with Vilnius, the neighborhoods of Vilnius also have names in other languages, which represent the languages spoken by various ethnic groups in the area. Historian Romas Batūra identifies the city with Voruta, one of the castles of Mindaugas, during the reign of Vytenis a city started to emerge from a trading settlement and the first Franciscan Catholic church was built. These letters contain the first unambiguous reference to Vilnius as the capital, According to legend, Gediminas dreamt of an iron wolf howling on a hilltop and consulted a pagan priest for its interpretation. He was told, What is destined for the ruler and the State of Lithuania, is thus, the Iron Wolf represents a castle and a city which will be established by you on this site. This city will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of their rulers, the location offered practical advantages, it lay within the Lithuanian heartland at the confluence of two navigable rivers, surrounded by forests and wetlands that were difficult to penetrate. The duchy had been subject to intrusions by the Teutonic Knights, Vilnius was the flourishing capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the residence of the Grand Duke. Gediminas expanded the Grand Duchy through warfare along with strategic alliances and marriages, at its height it covered the territory of modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Transnistria, and portions of modern-day Poland and Russia. His grandchildren Vytautas the Great and Jogaila, however, fought civil wars, during the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, Vytautas besieged and razed the city in an attempt to wrest control from Jogaila. The two later settled their differences, after a series of treaties culminating in the 1569 Union of Lublin, the rulers of this federation held either or both of two titles, Grand Duke of Lithuania or King of Poland. In 1387, Jogaila acting as a Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Władysław II Jagiełło, the city underwent a period of expansion. The Vilnius city walls were built for protection between 1503 and 1522, comprising nine city gates and three towers, and Sigismund August moved his court there in 1544
2.
Battle of Daugavpils
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Battle of Daugavpils was the final battle in the Polish-Soviet campaign of 1919. A joint Polish and Latvian force, operating under Polish Staff orders known as Operation Winter, attacked the Red Army garrison in Dunaburg, or Daugavpils, from 3-5 Jan.1920. From the Polish perspective it was a part of the Polish-Bolshevik War, the Polish commander of the 1st Legions Infantry Division and 3rd Legions Infantry Division, general Edward Rydz-Śmigły had been occupying the left bank of the Dvina since Aug. The Latvian Foreign Minister had met with Pilsudski in Wilno in Oct.1919, the Poles wanted to prevent the Soviet XVth and XVIth armies from consolidating at this juncture, and readily agreed. A final agreement was reached on 30 Dec.1919, in addition, the force included Renault FT tanks of the 2nd company, 1st Tank Regiment, commanded by the French Capt. The Polish 3rd Legionary Division stormed the Daugavpils fortress, while the 1st Infantry Division attacked from the north, the Red garrison retreated to the west where they surrendered to the Latvians. 1920, Dunaburg was turned over to the Latvian Republic, thanks to that, the inter-war relations between Poland and Latvia were good, although Latvia refused to join Poland in its continued struggle against Soviet Russia. Several forms of alliance were proposed by Poland, such as Latvia joining the Międzymorze federation of Poland and it chose to join the Baltic Entente instead. List of battles of the Polish–Soviet War
3.
Kiev Offensive (1920)
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The operation led to a Soviet counteroffensive resulting in the creation of the short-lived Galician Soviet Socialist Republic, and ended amicably with the formal Peace of Riga of 1921. The stated goal of the operation was to create a formally independent Ukraine, some Ukrainians greeted the Polish and allied Ukrainian forces as liberators, although Ukrainians fought for both sides of the conflict. The campaign was conducted from April to June 1920 and it was a major military operation of the Polish Army thanks to new alliance with the forces of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic under the exiled Ukrainian leader Symon Petliura. It was opposed by the Soviets who claimed most of the territories for the Ukrainian SSR afterwards, initially successful for the Polish and Ukrainian armies which captured Kiev on May 7,1920, the campaign was dramatically reversed, chiefly by the cavalry of Semyon Budyonny. The city of Kiev had undergone numerous recent changes of government, the Ukrainian Peoples Republic was established in 1917, a Bolshevik uprising was suppressed in January 1918. The Red Army took it in February 1918, followed by the Army of the German Empire in March, during February 1919 the Red Army regained control, in August it was taken first by Symon Petluras men and then by Denikins army. The Soviets regained control in December 1919, the treaty was followed by a formal alliance signed by Petlura and Piłsudski on April 24. However, such objections were brushed aside, the initial expedition in which 65,000 Polish and 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers took part started on April 24,1920. The military goal was to outflank the Soviet forces and destroy them in a single battle, the Polish southern flank was to be held by Polish-allied Ukrainian forces under a friendly government in Ukraine. On May 7, Polish and Ukrainian soldiers entered Kiev, pilsudskis forces were divided into three armies. Arranged from north to south, they were the 3rd, 2nd, facing them were the Soviet 12th and 14th armies led by Alexander Ilyich Yegorov. Pilsudski struck on April 25, and captured Zhytomyr the following day, within a week, the Soviet 12th army was largely destroyed. In the south, the Polish 6th Army and Petliuras forces pushed the Soviet 14th army out of central Ukraine as they quickly marched eastward through Vinnytsia, the combined Polish-Ukrainian forces entered Kiev on May 7, encountering only token resistance. On May 9 the Polish troops celebrated the capture of Kiev with the parade on Kreschatyk. Following this parade, however, all Polish forces were withdrawn from the city and control was given to the Ukrainian 6th division under the control of Petluras Ukrainian government. On April 26, in his Call to the People of Ukraine, many Ukrainians were both anti-Polish and anti-Bolshevik, and were suspicious of the Poles. The Soviet propaganda also had the effect of encouraging negative Ukrainian sentiment towards the Polish operation, the success of the joint Polish-Ukrainian political campaign depended on the creation of a strong Ukrainian army capable of defeating the Soviets in Ukraine. While initially successful, the ultimately failed
4.
Battle of Warsaw (1920)
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The Battle of Warsaw refers to the decisive Polish victory in 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. Poland, on the verge of defeat, repulsed and defeated the invading Red Army. It was, and still is, celebrated as a victory for the Polish people over Soviets. As Soviet forces invaded Poland in summer 1920, the Polish army retreated westward in disarray, the Polish forces seemed on the verge of disintegration and observers predicted a decisive Soviet victory. The battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25,1920 as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed,500 missing,30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed,10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded. The defeat crippled the Red Army, Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, at the same time in 1919, the Bolsheviks had gained the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, having dealt crippling blows to the Russian White Movement. Vladimir Lenin viewed Poland as a bridge to bring communism to Central and Western Europe, the Bolsheviks speeches asserted that the revolution was to be carried to western Europe on the bayonets of Russian soldats and that the shortest route to Berlin and Paris lay through Warsaw. The two sides were embroiled in the Polish–Ukrainian War, amidst competing territorial claims, after early setbacks against Poland in 1919, the Red Army was overwhelmingly successful in a counter-offensive in early 1920 that nullified the Polish Kiev Operation, forcing a Polish retreat. By mid-1920, Polands very survival was at stake and foreign observers expected it to collapse at any moment, the Russian strategy called for a mass push toward the Polish capital, Warsaw. The Russian 1st Cavalry Army under Semyon Budyonny broke through Polish lines in early June 1920, the effects of that were dramatic, Budyonnys success resulted in a collapse of all Polish fronts. On July 4,1920, Mikhail Tukhachevskys Western Front began an assault in Belarus from the Berezina River. On July 19 the Red Army seized Grodno and on July 28, on July 22, the Brześć Fortress was captured. 3 Fronts,7 Armies, a total of 32 divisions,46,000 infantry,2,000 cavalry,730 machine guns,192 artillery batteries, and several units of tanks. At first, Józef Piłsudski wanted to stop the Soviets at the Bug River and the city of Brest-Litovsk, on the night of August 5–6, Piłsudski, staying at the Belweder Palace in Warsaw, conceived a revised plan. In the first phase, it called for Polish forces to withdraw across the Vistula River and defend the bridgeheads at Warsaw and at the Wieprz River, a quarter of the available divisions would be concentrated to the south for a strategic counteroffensive. Additionally, five divisions of the 5th Army were to protect Warsaw from the north, General Franciszek Latiniks 1st Army would defend Warsaw itself, while General Bolesław Rojas 2nd Army was to hold the Vistula River line from Góra Kalwaria to Dęblin. The crucial role, however, was assigned to the approximately 20, 000-strong, newly formed Task Force and this unit, composed of the most elite Polish units from the southern front, was to be reinforced by General Leonard Skierskis 4th Army and General Zygmunt Zielińskis 3rd Army
5.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
6.
Wincenty Kowalski
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Wincenty Kowalski was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. A veteran of both World War I and World War II, he fought in all the conflicts of Poland. During the Invasion of Poland of 1939 he commanded the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division, Wincenty Kowalski was born on 11 September 1892 in Warsaw to a family of humble workers. After graduating from a lyceum of Stanisław Konarski, he joined the school of Hipolit Wawelberg. Afterwards he moved to Liège in Belgium, where he graduated from the Machinery Building faculty of the Polytechnical Institute, during that time he joined the Związek Walki Czynnej, a secret Polish anti-tsarist organization preparing the cadres for a future anti-Russian uprising aimed at liberation of Poland. He was also a member and a tutor of the Związek Strzelecki, drafted into the Russian Army, between 1912 and 1913 he studied at the Officers School of Artillery in Smolensk. After that he moved to Austro-Hungarian Galicia, where he settled in Kraków, there he continued his military training at the NCO and officers school of the ZS. After the outbreak of the Great War, in August 1914 he joined the Polish Legions, initially a member of the legendary 1st Cadre Company, with time he became a battalion commander within the 1st Legions Infantry Regiment. After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he was interned in Beniaminów, in November 1918, after Poland regained her independence, he joined the newly formed Polish Army and was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. As one of the first experienced officers to join the army, he was dispatched to Lwów, where he took part in the battle for that city. He also fought with distinction in the Polish-Bolshevik War, for which he was promoted to the rank of Captain, after the Peace of Riga he remained in active service. Initially both a tutor and a student at the Centre for Infantry Training in Rembertów, with time he became one of the professors of the Warsaw-based Higher War School. After finishing his studies he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1922, after that he returned to active service in line units and served in a number of detachments based in Wilno and Modlin, among them the Wilno Fortified Camp. Between 1937 and 1938 he served as the officer of the 8th Infantry Division. After the outbreak of the Invasion of Poland in 1939, during the stages of World War II. The units under his command entered in contact with the enemy on 4 September in the forests around Długosiodło, delaying the German forces in a number of skirmishes and battles along the Narew and near Różan, Kowalskis units managed to retain most of their combat readiness. After the battle for Pułtusk, on 7 September, the Poles were outnumbered 3,1, thanks to Kowalskis actions, overnight 2 divisions and, as well as the Mazowiecka Cavalry Brigade were not only rallied but also safely transported to the other side of the Bug River. Kowalski then withdrew with his forces to the area between Wyszków and Kamieńczyk, and organized a defence of the line there
7.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
8.
Polish Land Forces
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The Land Forces are a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland. They currently contain some 65,000 active personnel and form many components of European Union, Polands recorded military history stretches back for hundreds of years – since the 10th century, but Polands modern army was formed after 1918. When Poland regained independence in 1918, it recreated its military which participated in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921, the Polish land forces as readied for the Polish-Soviet War was made up of soldiers who had formerly served in the various partitioning empires, supported by some international volunteers. There appear to have been a total of around 30 Polish divisions involved, boris Savinkov was at the head of an army of 20,000 to 30,000 largely Russian POWs, and was accompanied by Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius. The Polish forces grew from approximately 100,000 in 1918 to over 500,000 in early 1920, in August 1920, the Polish army had reached a total strength of 737,767 people, half of that was on the frontline. Given Soviet losses, there was rough numerical parity between the two armies, and by the time of the battle of Warsaw Poles might have even had an advantage in numbers. Among the major formations involved on the Polish side were a number of Fronts, including the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front, the German invasion of Poland began on 1 September 1939, and the Wehrmacht seized half the country quickly despite heavy Polish resistance. Among the erroneous myths generated by this campaign were accounts of Polish cavalry charging German tanks, in the east, the Red Army took the other half of the country in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Following the countrys fall, Polish soldiers began regrouping in what was to become the Polish Army in France. Both the Polish Armed Forces in the West and the Polish Armed Forces in the East, as well as interior forces, while the forces fighting under the Allied banner were supported by the Polish air force and navy, the partisan forces were an exclusive land formation. However the army today has its roots in the surrogate force formed in support of Soviet interests during the establishment of the Peoples Republic of Poland after the Second World War. Two Polish armies, the First Army and the Second Army fought with the Red Army on the Eastern Front, the formation of a Third Army was begun but not completed. The end of the war found the Polish Army in the midst of intense organisational development, although the implementation of the Polish Front concept was abandoned, new tactical unit and troop types were created. As a result of mobilisation, troop numbers in May 1945 reached 370,000 soldiers, Military districts were organised in liberated areas. The districts exercised direct authority over the units stationed on the territory administered by them, the southern border, from Jelenia Gora to the Użok railway station was occupied by the First Army. Its headquarters staff formed the basis of the Silesian Military District, in mid-1945, after the end of World War II, the Polish Army, as part of the overall armed forces, the Peoples Army of Poland, was divided into six districts. In June 1945 the 1st, 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions were assigned internal security duties, the rule was that military units were used primarily against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, while the Internal Security Corps was used to fight the armed underground independence. Often however army units fought the underground resistance, and vice versa, the culmination of the UPA suppression operation was the so-called Wisła Action which took place in 1947
9.
Polish Legions in World War I
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General Haller escaped to France to form the Polish army in the West against the anti-Polish German-Bolshevik treaty. The Legions took part in battles against the forces of the Imperial Russia. They suffered horrendous casualties outnumbered three to one in the Battle of Łowczówek and they captured Kielce, and in 1915 took part in the offensive on Warsaw. In June 1916 the unit had approximately 25,000 soldiers, both the number of troops and the composition of units changed rapidly. The Polish Legions became the Polish Auxiliary Corps, after the Act of 5th November of 1916 which pronounced the creation of the puppet Kingdom of Poland of 1916–18, the Polish Legions were transferred under German command. However, most of the refused to swear allegiance to the German Kaiser and were interned in Beniaminów. Approximately 3,000 of them were drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and they were sent to the Italian Front. The formation of the Legions was declared by Józef Piłsudski in his order of August 22,1914, the Austrian government, having jurisdiction over the area, officially agreed to the formation August 27,1914. The unit became an independent formation of the Austro-Hungarian Army thanks to the efforts of the KSSN, initially the Polish Legions were composed of two legions, the Eastern and the Western Legion, both formed on August 27. After a Russian victory in the Battle of Galicia the Eastern Polish legion refused to fight on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian side against Russia and was disbanded on September 21, karol Trzaska-Durski, Gen. Stanisław Puchalski, Col. Stanisław Szeptycki, and Col. Zygmunt Zieliński. After the war ended the officers of the Polish Legions became the backbone of the Polish Army, below is a list of prominent Polish battles against the Imperial Russian Army in 1914–16, leading to victories in most cases, with notable exceptions especially during the Brusilov Offensive of 1916
10.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
11.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
12.
Daugavpils
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Daugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. It is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, Daugavpils is located relatively close to Belarus and Lithuania, and some 120 km from the Latvian border with Russia. Daugavpils is a railway junction and industrial centre and lies approximately midway between Riga and Minsk. The city is surrounded by lakes and nature parks. It is also known for its overwhelmingly Russian-speaking population, historically, several names in various languages have identified Daugavpils. Some are still in use today, as of 1 January 2012, the city had a population of 101,057. In Daugavpils 85% of the supported the proposal to make Russian the second state language in the 2012 referendum. The towns history began in 1275 when the Livonian Order built Dünaburg castle 20 km up the Daugava river from where Daugavpils is now situated, in 1561 it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, subsequently, of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. In 1621 Daugavpils became the capital of the newly formed Inflanty Voivodeship, in 1577 the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible captured and destroyed Dünaburg castle. That same year, a new castle was built 20 km downriver, in 1582 Daugavpils was granted Magdeburg town rights. Russia returned the area to Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Treaty of Andrusovo and it became part of the Russian Empire after First Partition of Poland in 1772. From 1784 onwards the city had a large and active Jewish population among them a number of prominent figures, according to the Russian census of 1897, out of a total population of 69,700, Jews numbered 32,400. As part of the Russian Empire the city was called Dvinsk from 1893 to 1920, the newly independent Latvian state renamed it Daugavpils in 1920. Latvians, Poles and Soviet troops fought the Battle of Daugavpils in the area from 1919 to 1920, Daugavpils and the whole of Latvia was under the Soviet Union rule between 1940–41 and 1944–1991, while Germany occupied it between 1941 and 1944. The Nazis established the Daugavpils Ghetto where the towns Jews were forced to live, during the Cold War the Lociki air-base operated 12 km northeast of Daugavpils itself. On 16 April 2010 an assassin shot vice-mayor Grigorijs Ņemcovs in the center of the city and he died almost immediately and the crime remains unsolved. Daugavpils is an important cultural centre in eastern Latvia, there are 22 primary and secondary schools, four vocational schools, and the Saules College of Art. More than 1,000 teachers and engineers graduate from Daugavpils University, there is also one Polish school, the only in the city, on Varšavas iela
13.
Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language
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Zhytomyr
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Zhytomyr is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the center of Zhytomyr Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion. Zhytomyr occupies an area of 65 square kilometres, Zhytomyr is a major transportation hub. The city lies on a route linking the city of Kiev with the west through Brest. Today it links Warsaw with Kiev, Minsk with Izmail, Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne airbase, a key Cold War strategic aircraft base located 11 kilometres southeast of the city. Important economic activities of Zhytomyr include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments. Zhytomyr Oblast is the center of the Polish minority in Ukraine. It is regarded as the third biggest Polish cemetery outside Poland, after the Lychakivskiy Cemetery in Lviv, legend holds that Zhytomyr was established about 884 by Zhytomyr, prince of a Slavic tribe of Drevlians. This date,884, is cut in the stone of the ice age times. Zhytomyr was one of the prominent cities of Kievan Rus, the first records of the town date from 1240, when it was sacked by the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan. In 1320 Zhytomyr was captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after the Union of Lublin the city was incorporated into the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and in 1667, following the Treaty of Andrusovo, it became the capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. In the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 it passed to Imperial Russia, following the Union of Lublin, Zhytomyr became an important center of local administration, seat of the starosta, and capital of Żytomierz County. Here, sejmiks of Kiev Voivodeship took place, in 1572, the town had 142 buildings, a manor house of the starosta and a castle. Following the privilege of King Sigismund III Vasa, Zhytomyr had the right for two fairs a year, the town, which enjoyed royal protection of Polish kings, prospered until the Khmelnytsky Uprising, when it was captured by Zaporozhian Cossacks and their allies, Crimean Tatars. Its residents were murdered, Zhytomyr was burned to the ground, in 1667, Zhytomyr became capital of Kiev Voivodeship, and in 1724, a Jesuit school and monastery were opened here. By 1765, Zhytomyr had five churches, including 3 Roman Catholic and 2 Orthodox, in 1793 Zhytomyr was annexed by the Russian Empire, and in 1804 was named capital of the Volhynian Governorate. In 1798, a Roman Catholic Diocese of Zhytomyr was established, during the January Uprising, the town was a stronghold of Polish rebels. During a brief period of Ukrainian independence in 1918 the city was for a few weeks the national capital, nicolas Werth claims that armed units of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic were also responsible for rapes, looting, and massacres in Zhytomyr, in which 500–700 Jews lost their lives
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Kiev
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Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many industries, higher education institutions. The city has an infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport. The citys name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, during its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varangians in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus, completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland. The city prospered again during the Russian Empires Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, Kiev became its capital. From 1919 Kiev was an important center of the Armed Forces of South Russia and was controlled by the White Army. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, during World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. During the countrys transformation to an economy and electoral democracy. Kievs armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science, Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. As a prominent city with a history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The early English spelling was derived from Old East Slavic form Kyjev, the name is associated with that of Kyi, the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, on one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, in the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall, the city is referred to as Kiovia
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Wieprz
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The Wieprz is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the ninth longest river, with a total length of 303 km. Its course near the town of Łęczna includes the area known as Wieprz Landscape Park. The river has its sources in Lake Wieprz, near Tomaszow Lubelski, the Wieprz is connected to another river, the Krzna, through the 140-kilometer Wieprz-Krzna Canal, built in 1954 -1961. Because the Wieprz with its valley has not been regulated. The meandering river with its oxbow lakes is inhabited by birds, European otters. During the Polish-Soviet War, units of the Polish 4th Army concentrated along the Wieprz, in September 1939, during the Invasion of Poland, the Battle of Tomaszow Lubelski took place by the Wieprz. Krasnobród Zwierzyniec Szczebrzeszyn Krasnystaw Łęczna Lubartów Dęblin List of rivers in Poland
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Battle of the Niemen River
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The Battle of the Niemen River was the second-greatest battle of the Polish–Soviet War. It took place near the middle Neman River between the cities of Suwałki, Grodno and Białystok, between September 15 and September 25,1920, the Poles outflanked the Soviets, once again defeating them. After the mid-October Battle of the Szczara River, the Polish Army had reached the Tarnopol-Dubno-Minsk-Drisa line, following the Battle of Warsaw in mid-August, the armies in the centre of the Russian front fell into chaos. Russian armies retreated in a fashion, with entire divisions panicking and disintegrating. The Red Armys defeat was so great and unexpected that, at the instigation of Piłsudskis detractors, although successful, the Polish counter-attack in the battle of Warsaw created an awkward situation for Polish commander in chief Józef Piłsudski. Most of his forces were facing north while Russian heartland was located east of the front rather than north, because of that, the Polish Army needed some time to reorganise and regroup before a new offensive could be mounted. The Russian commanding officer Mikhail Tukhachevsky took this as an opportunity to establish a new line along the Niemen River. The new Soviet line ran from the Russian-Lithuanian demarcation line in the north, to the forests and swamps of Polesie. Both the Polish Army and the opposing Red Army suffered heavy casualties in the course of war, moreover, both opposing armies were still in the phase of organisation. By August, the Poles mobilised almost 1 million men, which allowed them to reinforce most front-line units to approximately 50-60% of their nominal strength. Out of that number almost 350000 were in service on the eastern front. The Polish brigades and divisions were usually ill-equipped, but were commanded by experienced officers, veterans of the Great War, moreover, with fresh forces arriving to the front almost every week the reserves of the Polish C-i-C were sufficient for waging an offensive war. The Red Army suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Warsaw in August, although the reserves of fresh, untrained recruits were almost unlimited, the Russian units lacked experienced officers. Also, in the course of the war the Soviet forces lost large parts of their artillery and this tactic allowed the Poles to outgun their enemies. Also, the Russian air forces were almost non-existent while the Polish Army could use its few aeroplanes to successfully disrupt enemy moves, the Red Army was organised in several fronts. The Western Front facing the Poles had more than 700,000 soldiers in August, however, a large part of its forces were either taken prisoner of war by the Poles, interned in East Prussia or routed. After the arrival of 68,000 reinforcements in August and additional 20,500 in September, however, both the morale and the reinforcement abilities of the Russian troops were seriously harassed. The order of battle of the Polish Army as after the reorganisation of September 11, the position of units as of September 15,1920
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Grodno
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Grodno or Hrodna is a city in western Belarus. It is located on the Neman close to the borders of Poland and it is the capital of Grodno Region and Grodno District. In Belarusian, the city is referred to as Го́радня or Гаро́дня. In Latin it was known as Grodna, in Polish as Grodno, the Lithuanian name of the city is Gardinas. The modern city of Grodno originated as a fortress and a fortified trading outpost maintained by the Rurikid princes on the border with the lands of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians. The first reference to Grodno dates to 1005, the official foundation year is 1127. Along with Navahrudak, Grodno was regarded as the city on the western borderlands of Black Ruthenia. The border region neighboured the original Lithuania and it was often attacked by various invaders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the 1240–1250s the Grodno area, as well as the most of Black Ruthenia, was controlled by princes of Lithuanian origin to form the Baltic state—Grand Duchy of Lithuania—on these territories, after the Prussian uprisings a large population of Old Prussians moved to the region. The famous Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas was the prince of Grodno from 1376 to 1392, since 1413, Grodno had been the administrative center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship. To aid the reconstruction of trade and commerce, the grand dukes allowed the creation of a Jewish commune in 1389 and it was one of the first Jewish communities in the grand duchy. In 1441 the city received its charter, based on the Magdeburg Law, the city was the site of two battles, Battle of Grodno and Battle of Grodno during the Great Northern War. After the First Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Grodno became the capital of the short-lived Grodno Voivodeship in 1793, as an important centre of trade, commerce, and culture, Grodno remained one of the places where the Sejms were held. Also, the Old and New Castles were often visited by the Commonwealth monarchs including famous Stephen Báthory of Poland who made a royal residence here, in 1793 the last Sejm in the history of the Commonwealth occurred at Grodno. Two years afterwards, in 1795, Russia obtained the city in the Third Partition of Poland and it was in the New Castle on November 25 of that year that the last Polish king and Lithuanian grand duke Stanisław August Poniatowski abdicated. In the Russian Empire, the city continued to serve its role as a seat of Grodno Governorate since 1801, the industrial activities, started in the late 18th century by Antoni Tyzenhaus, continued to develop. Count Aleksander Bisping was arrested and imprisoned here during the January Uprising before his exile to Ufa, after the outbreak of World War I, Grodno was occupied by Germany and ceded by Bolshevist Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. After the war the German government permitted a state to be set up there
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Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
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Republic of Central Lithuania
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The Republic of Central Lithuania or Middle Lithuania, or Central Lithuania, was a short-lived political entity, which did not gain international recognition. After a variety of delays, an election took place on January 8,1922. The republic was regarded by some as a Poland-dependent puppet state, in 1931 an international court in The Hague issued the statement that the Polish seizure of the city had been a violation of international law, but without any political aftermath. The Republic of Central Lithuania was characterized as a puppet state, following the partitions of Poland, most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire. The Imperial government increasingly pursued a policy of Russification of the acquired lands. The discrimination against local inhabitants included restrictions and outright bans on the usage of the Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and these measures, however, had limited effects on the Polonisation effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilnius educational district. A similar effort was pursued during the 19th century Lithuanian National Revival, the ethnic composition of the area has long been disputed, since censuses from that time and place are often considered unreliable. Poles —58. 0% Lithuanians —18. 5% Jews —14. 7% Belarusians —6. 4% Russians —1. 2% Other —1. 2% Both censuses had encountered difficulties in the attempt to categorise their subjects. Ethnographers in the 1890s were often confronted with those who described themselves as both Lithuanians and Poles, according to a German census analyst, Objectively determining conditions of nationality comes up against the greatest difficulties. In the aftermath of the First World War, both Poland and Lithuania regained independence, the conflict between them soon arose as both Lithuania and Poland claimed Vilnius region. Demographically, Vilnius was divided evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a smaller fraction of the total population. The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their claim to the city had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city. Two early 20th-century censuses indicated that Lithuanian speakers were a minority in the region, Lithuanian authorities, however, argued that the majority of inhabitants living there, even if they did not speak Lithuanian and considered themselves Poles, were Polonized Lithuanians. Further complicating the situation, there were two Polish factions with different views on creation of the modern state in Poland. One party, led by Roman Dmowski, saw modern Poland as a state, another, led by Józef Piłsudski. Both parties were determined to take the Poles of Vilnius into the new state, the inclusion of territories predominant with non-Poles would have weakened support for Dmowski. At the end of World War I, the area of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided between the Republic of Poland, the Belarusian National Republic, and the Republic of Lithuania. Following the start of the Polish-Soviet War, during the two years, the control of Vilnius and its environs changed frequently
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Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
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Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
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East Prussia
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East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and from 1878–1945. East Prussia was the part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast. East Prussia enclosed the bulk of the lands of the Baltic Old Prussians. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights, the indigenous Balts who survived the conquest were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the state of the Teutonic Knights. After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1525, with the Prussian Homage, the province became the Duchy of Prussia. The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, because the duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire, the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves King of Prussia beginning in 1701. Between 1829 and 1878, the Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. Following Nazi Germanys defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalins insistence between the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of Poland, the capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German population of the province was evacuated during the war or expelled shortly thereafter in the expulsion of Germans after World War II. An estimated 300,000 died either in war time bombings raids or in the battles to defend the province. Upon the invitation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia, the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in the 13th century, local Old-Prussian and Polish toponyms were gradually Germanised. Its defeat was formalised in the Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years War, together with Warmia it formed the province of Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia remained under the Knights, but as a fief of Poland,1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights were not verified. The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism, Albert established himself as the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage. Walter von Cronberg, the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, in 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Alberts son, the feeble-minded Albert Frederick. The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III, when Maximilian died, Alberts line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia
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Bug River
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The Bug River is a major European river which flows through three countries with a total length of 830 kilometres. The name Bug probably came from the old Germanic word baug-s which meant something winding, genual, slavs adopted the word Baug from the Goths who previously lived in large numbers near the river. Traditionally the Bug River was also considered the ethnographical border between the Orthodox and Catholic Polish peoples. The Bug was the line between German Wehrmacht and Russian Red Army forces following the 1939 invasion of Poland in the Second World War. Bug River is a tributary of the Narew river. It joins the Narew river at Serock, a few kilometers upstream of the artificial Zegrze Lake and it is connected with the Dnieper River via the Mukhavets River, a right-bank tributary, by the Dnieper-Bug Canal. On the Bug River, a few kilometers from the Vysokaye in Kamenets District of the Brest Region, is the westernmost point of Belarus. The total basin area of Bug River is 39,400 square kilometres of which half,19,300 square kilometres or, 50%, is in Poland. Little over a quarter,11,400 square kilometres or 26%, is in Belarus, the climate of the Bug basin is temperate. The basin experiences annual high-water levels during spring flooding due to thawing snow, occasional summer floods often occur in the headlands, where mountains influence favorable flash-flood conditions. In Autumn the water level increases are inconsiderable, in years they do not happen at all. During the winter the river can have temporary ice-outs that sometimes provoke ice jams, the resultant water levels are changeable due to the instability of ice cover. Significant floods during the last 60 years in Belarus were registered in 1958,1962,1967,1971 and 1974, the largest spring flood was observed in 1979, when the maximum water discharge was 19. A similar spring flood occurred in 1999, when the spring run-off in March–May exceeded the annual value by almost half again. The last time the Bug flooded in Poland and Ukraine was in 2010, southern Bug Bug Landscape Park Rivers of Poland Rivers of Ukraine Geography of Poland Geography of Ukraine Bug in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland
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Polish 1st Legions Infantry Regiment
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First Legions Infantry Regiment of Józef Piłsudski was an infantry regiment of the Polish Army in 1914-1939. Named after Józef Piłsudski, in the Second Polish Republic it was stationed in the city of Wilno, First Legions Infantry Regiment was the oldest of all regiments of the Polish Army in the interbellum period. Its traditions dated to the First Cadre Company, which on August 6,1914 marched from Austrian Galicia into Russian-controlled Congress Poland, the regiment was formed in November 1918 in Jabłonna and Radzymin near Warsaw. A few months later it joined fighting against the Red Army, in the area of Wilno, in winter of 1919/1920 it took part in the Battle of Daugavpils, and in spring 1920, it participated in the Polish Kiev Offensive. After a Soviet counteroffensive, the regiment, together with other Polish units had to retreat, in August 1920, after the Battle of Warsaw, the regiment freed Drohiczyn and then Białystok, beating the Red Army in the Battle of Białystok. It then fought in the Battle of Lida, ending its participation in the war in mid-October 1920, on December 3,1920, Marshall Józef Piłsudski decorated the flag of the regiment with Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. In the interwar period, the regiment was stationed in city of Wilno. Its holiday was celebrated on August 6, the anniversary of the First Cadre Company march to Congress Poland. In 1930, Polish Ministry of Military Affairs included the regiment into the Second Category, in comparison to other regiments, First Legions Infantry Regiment was stronger by app.500 soldiers. The flag of the regiment was handed to it by Józef Piłsudski and it was purchased by Polish residents of the town of Meriden, Connecticut. In the night of September 4/5,1939, the regiment marched towards Różan, on September 5–6 it defended Polish positions near Pułtusk, and then retreated towards the Bug river. On September 8 it clashed with the enemy near Wyszków, since there was the danger of encirclement, it had to retreat towards Biała Podlaska. On September 11, after the Germans had captured Kałuszyn, 1st Legions Infantry Division was surrounded by the Germans, after two days of bloody fighting, some Polish units managed to break through. On September 13–14 the regiment fought at Stoczek, then it advanced towards Trzciniec, during this advance, the regiment suffered such heavy losses that it ceased to exist as a separate unit. Elements of the managed to reach the area of Chełm. -20 IX1939 Colonel Jan Kasztelowicz 20 -23 IX19391939 Infantry Regiment Księga chwały piechoty, bronisława Prugara Ketlinga, Departament Piechoty MSWojsk, Warszawa 1937-1939
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5th Legions' Infantry Regiment
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5th Legions Infantry Regiment of Józef Piłsudski was an infantry regiment of the Polish Army in 1918–1939. Garrisoned in the city of Wilno, it was part of the 1st Legions Infantry Division, on November 10,1918, first battalion of the regiment, under Major Julian Stachiewicz, left Kraków for Przemyśl, to be immediately involved in heavy fighting against the Ukrainians. By November 12, Przemyśl was completely in Polish hands, so battalions were sent to Lwów. By November 22, the enemy was pushed out of the city, on April 17,1919, the 5th Legions Infantry Regiment captured the rail junction of Lida, and continued fighting near Wilno until late summer. By September 1919, it reached the line of the Daugava, on January 3,1920, the regiment crossed the frozen Daugava, to encircle Soviet garrison of Daugavpils. In April 1920, the regiment left Daugavpils, and was transported southwards, on April 26,1920, it captured Zytomierz, and on May 8 entered Kiev, to remain there until June 10. During the Polish retreat westwards, the regiment clashed several times with the Red Army, by late August 1920, it recaptured Parczew, Biała Podlaska, Białystok, and Sejny. On October 14,1920, the day of the Polish–Soviet armistice, losses of the 5th Legions Infantry Regiment during the war were heavy,29 officers and 308 soldiers KIA, and 1039 WIA. In recognition of its bravery, the regiment was awarded Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari, in March 1921, the regiment was sent to the Polish–Lithuanian border, where it remained until July. Between July 1921 and October 1922, it stayed in former Russian barracks at Lida, the regiment kept its Polish Legions traditions, with special cult of Józef Piłsudski, whose birthday was celebrated by the soldiers and officers. In 1937, the regiment was named after Pilsudski, and it celebrated its holiday on July 4, since the 5th Legions Infantry Regiment of Józef Piłsudski was regarded as an elite unit, it case of war it was mobilized in the first wave. Due to this fact it had a surplus of app.400 soldiers, the recruits came mostly from central and western provinces of the Second Polish Republic. During the May Coup of 1926, a 220-strong detachment of the regiment took part in fighting on the streets of Warsaw. Partial mobilization of the Polish Army was announced to them, in early August, eighteen regimental gunners took part in top secret testing of the antitank gun Wz.35 anti-tank rifle. Summer exercises were cancelled, and a number of reservists were called into service, on August 15, the Armed Forces Day, after a field service on Marshal Pilsudski Square in Wilno, a military parade took place, with President Ignacy Moscicki. On August 24, alarm mobilization was announced by Colonel Kazimierz Babinski, the regiment completed the mobilization on August 26, and on the next day in the evening, it marched in silence before of Pilsudskis tomb at Rossa Cemetery. Soon afterwards, the regiment was loaded on a train, and in the night of August 27/28, together with whole 1st Legions Division, the concentration area was located between the Bug and the Narew, in the forests of Puszcza Biala. The First Legions Division, together with the 5th Regiment, belonged to Operational Group Wyszków, the task of the Wyszków Group was either to attack the wing of the advancing Wehrmacht, or defend the line of the Narew river
