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Polish Radio issues CD album to mark Battle of Warsaw centenary

07.08.2020 08:00
Public broadcaster Polish Radio has issued a two-CD album to mark the centenary of the Battle of Warsaw, in which Polish troops defeated the Soviet Red Army. 
Image:
Image: Polish Radio

Entitled “1920. A Battle that Saved Europe”, the album contains testimonies of commanders and soldiers who fought in the 1919-21 Polish-Soviet war, recordings of Polish military songs, as well as a rich selection of photos, posters, and press articles dating from the 1920s.

There are also fragments of a speech delivered in 1965, on the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, by General Władysław Anders, who took part in the Polish-Soviet war and who during World War II formed and led the 2nd Polish Corps, as well as of an address in 2007 by Polish President Lech Kaczyński.

The album also features extensive excerpts from a homily delivered by Pope John Paul II in Warsaw on 13 June 1999. In it, he said: “The memory of the Battle of Warsaw, fought near here in August 1920, is still fresh in our hearts. It was a great victory by the Polish Army, a victory so great that it could not be explained in purely natural terms and was therefore called ‘the Miracle on the Vistula’. […] We think today of all those who […] gave their lives in defence of our homeland and its endangered freedom”.

The recordings come from the archives of Polish Radio and Radio Free Europe.

The album is being launched on Friday and is available online at sklep.polskieradio.pl

Historians agree that the Battle of Warsaw saved Poland’s newly regained independence and prevented the Bolshevik revolution from spreading into western Europe.

It was fought from August 12 to 25, 1920 as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital. Polish forces led by Marshal Józef Piłsudski counterattacked, forcing the Soviets to withdraw.

The Battle of Warsaw has been listed among the most important battles that have decided the fate of the world. 

(mk/pk)