| Controversies Of The Polish-soviet War |
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Controversies of the Polish-Soviet War , fought in 1919–20, concern mostly the behaviour of the military forces and crimes they allegedly committed. Both sides raised charges of many violations of the laws of war mostly to sway the governments and public opinion in Entente countries whose help in the war was crucial for both sides. PRISONERS OF WAR One of the most controversial issues that surfaced in the 1990s, was the . ATROCITIES The Polish side claimed that during the Soviet retreat from , with 600 patients and Red Cross nuns inside. Some first hand accounts from participants may support the claim that such behavior was found on both sides. The rights of prisoners of war were often diseregarded; for example in January 1918 in were similarly cruel. He was a Don Cossack Ukrainian and Bolshevik officer who also switched to the Polish side along with his band and allegedly was a bloody marauder of villages and towns in Ukraine, Belarus, and was responsible for several Anti-Jewish Pogroms .Isaac Babel, ''1920 Diary'', Yale, 2002, ISBN 0-300-09313-6 Pogroms The accusations of the . Ignacy Daszyński , leader of the Polish Socialist Party , called all soldiers that commit acts of violence against the Jewish population "hooligans in uniform". However, Minister of War General Józef Leśniewski , in his written reply to the speaker of Parliament, defended anti-Jewish violence by Polish units in Lida, referring to Jews as a Communist-minded community and stating that the Polish Army had the right to kill their adversaries. The reports of these incidents caused the United States to send a commission lead by '' was inapplicable to the conditions existing within a war zone, particularly as Poles also died at the hand of Jews, significant portion of which supported the Soviets and formed militias to fight their Polish equivalents and regular army. 3 PROPERTY DESTRUCTION Similar to the Polish side, the Soviet government raised complaints on every occasion in diplomatic notes addressed to the Entente . One note stated that during the Soviet advance the retreating Poles, disappointed by their military misfortunes, engaged in "vengeful vandalism", as in Borisov where the Poles, following their retreat, shelled the city with artillery from another bank of the Berezina River "killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands without shelter." Another joint diplomatic note issued by Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia to the Entente blamed the Poles for heavily damaging Kiev including its civilian and art objects, such as St. Volodymyr's Cathedral , a charge the Poles denied, admitting only to the Kiev Bridges destruction, 4 claimed necessary to slow the Red Army (the bridges survived multiple hostilities and conflicts prior to Polish occupation of Kiev). That particular note seems to be based on Leon Trotsky 's telegraph, and Trotsky himself admitted parts of it were false. Postal Telegram No. 2886-a, footnote 1 . Last accessed on 30 May 2006 Around the same time, on 7 June - two days after breaking Polish frontline - Budionny's 1st Army destroyed the bridges in Zhytomyr , wrecked the train station and burned various buildings;Davies, ''White Eagle...'', Polish edition, p.123-124 Budionny's troops would both spread terror and wreck infrastructure, to delay Polish army and disrupt it logistics, over the coming month in West Ukraine and East Poland.Richard Watt, 1979. Bitter Glory: Poland and its fate 1918-1939. New York: Simon & Shuster. ISBN 0-671-22625-8 NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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