0:04 For those of you who are stumped: Far left: Polish soldier in Napoleon's polish legion. The Poles fought for Napoleon in the hopes of establishing a French puppet state in Poland for them. Center left: Lech Walesa, an anti-communist activist who defeated the Polish communist party in an election in 1991, thus ending Poland's communist era. Center: A Polish soldier in the Polish-Soviet war which you are about to (or just have) learn(ed) about. Far right: Polish resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of the country.
"Anti-communist"... Let's just leave him under "activist" until everything about his "anti-communism" is solved and thoroughly proven :) Because so far it looks grim.
PiS is not right wing... It never was. It's more akin to a conservative socialism. Most truly right wing parties are some fringe Liberal right wing parties. Libertarians if you may. Mind you not all, but they're still fringe parties. But PiS is not truly right wing. But yes, it does try to create dictatorship. Or so it seems...
@@smiglo112 Nha PiS is right wing, just look at the privatization they push. Yes they're also definitly conservative, but those are two separate dimensions to analyse politics
fun fact: the polish cavalry destroyed the soviet communication equipment, and they had only one radio wave operating, which was known for the polish... so they played catholic music on it, effectively destroying the red army s ability to communicate
Polish Communist i think this title really belongs to Khosrau Anushirawan, the shah of the Persian-Sassanid Empire. In one of his campaigns he knocked down the Roman city of Antioch, captured its citizens and took them to Iran where he settled them down in an 1:1 rebuild city named "Khosraus better Antioch"(no joke!). He also had a holiday trip at the mediterranean sea in other captured Roman cities, sending letters to the roman emperor Justinian on how they could enjoy this trip together and so on.
I'm polish and about ten years ago I was in a taxi with an old almost retired driver. We started talking about history and he told me that his father thought in the battle of warsaw in 1920 and ended up being awarded the highest polish military order (Virtuti militari). He told me that when he was a kid during the second World war their apartment got one day raided by a group of SS soldiers, who while searching the apartment ended up finding the order, after which the German oficer asked who it belonged to, when the taxi drivers father told him it was his, and how he got it. The SS oficcer then ordered his men to put everything back in order, and politely left.
That’s kinda an odd story. Either the SS leader was extremely chivalrous and respectful of military bravery (which sounds more like something an officer of the Wehrmacht would do), or he was not a typical member of the SS (SS men were particularly infamous for partaking in ethnic cleansing and were known for their hatred of “inferior Races” of which the Polish, being Slavic, would fall into.)
One famous American volunteer was Marian C Cooper. He was a pilot in WWI and he volunteered for the Polish air force during the Polish War. I believe he got captured at one point but survived. He later returned to the United States and became a filmmaker making one of the biggest films of the 1930s King Kong.
Marian C Cooper was also awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (presented by Piłsudski), highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war.
_WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVE_ *Ahem* Let me quote a passage... _Then, on the morning of September 12th, 1683, almost a week after he should have stormed the walls, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa turned to his right flank and noticed something he wasn't really expecting_ _King Jan Sobieski of Poland. And 76,000 Polish, German, Saxon, Bavarian, and Imperial troops riding hard behind him_
The Hungarians tried to send cavalry to support the Poles, but were not allowed passage by the Czechs. So unfortunately in this war they never arrived.
If only the Polish King didn't try to force Catholicism over the Orthdox Russians. Things could have been quite different as Poland during that time was more modern, powerful, and western than Russia during that time.
@@Wiktorino1984 Such a missed opportunity too. It would have united all of the Slavic people and even most of Eastern Europe if Poland and Russia ever united. Even today, these 2 are still the most powerful Slavic nations but after what happened for the past centuries, that will never happen and eastern europe will only remain more divided.
it would’ve been nice if they added the Greek Front, and the Battle of Tannenburg, another cool one would be the Serbian - Austrian Empire front. Also including the Bulgarians.
Apparently this was uploaded on Poland's Independence Day, let's pretend that was intentional. Anyways, Corrections, corrections, corrections. -Throwing Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into 'Slavic' was not very smart. Yes I know they're Baltic (and Finno-Urgic), but I was not thinking, I was drawing, and it was zen thank you very much. -'Soviet Satellite' is a more apt term than 'Soviet Republic'. -I pronounced Warsaw the English way, which is the wrong way, but the easy to understand for English-speakers way
"I have a hunch that's not the way you say Lwow" If you're talking about 08:36 (was there any other time you said Lwów?) It is actually how you pronounce Lwów, or if it's not then you're so close that a native Pole can't hear a difference.
Lwów pronounciaton was spot on. In other news: I noticed recently on that a lot of ANZ youtubers have taken interest in Eastern European, Baltic and Balkan history. Is there a reason for it, or is just a hot topic right now around those parts?
Paweł Andonis Gawralidis Dobrzański herbu Leliwa. And you you profile picture is very similar to the illyrian coat of arms on the croatian coat of arms
I’ve trained with polish soldiers, they’re the most patriotic, funny, disciplined and squared away soldiers I’ve ever met. The polish love Americans more than Americans love Americans.
Władisław Raginis well I just find it interesting, especially the Spanish Civil War, because the results of it are visible even today f.ex what's happening in Catalonia. Plus it's really not that easy, cause I'm totally against communism and I'm a catholic but at the same time hate fascism. So what side am I on? I'll never know. That's what makes me seeing it interesting. This story isn't black and white (like polish-bolshevik war I guess it is clear that communists were the bad side).
Władisław Raginis well communists wanted to occupy the whole Europe, hmm world actually, so If Polish Army wouldn't stop them, things could go wrong, really. As I said before I'm just intrested in that I don't support any side at all.
Władisław Raginis I agree with the part that we can't agree haha. But it's fine. I definitely don't think communism can bring anything good to a world, but that's just My personal opinion. You meant they would be better then nazis? I don't really think so, they're equally evil to me. Btw. You're Spanish, right?
I love Poland so much, it's culture, it's history and its people. I do hope that once this pandemic has abated , to go visit the spectacularly beautiful country again. From an admiring South African.
I seem to recall that the Poles had some French Renault tanks which were very useful. I think one was found in Afghanistan -it has been captured by the Soviets and given to the Amir. It is back in Poland now.
Yup it's true the tank was found by a Polish soldiers during ISAF mission in Afghanistan. Fun fact is that during Polish-Soviet war, Poland with approximately 120 FT-17's had the 4th largest armoured forces in the World.
Actually - from what I read - they weren't. They were breaking constantly and couldn't keep up with the advancing cavalry at that time, because they were too slow. Most of the polish high command seeing that disregarded them as not fit for mobile warfare (that would be required given the nature of the eastern border, they were thinking about tanks in context of breaking trenches that wouldn't be able to be built on such a big border). That lead to largely ignoring armor (not completely though) during the military build-up in favor of new polish rifles, cavalry and air force. ...'39 and Germans proved them wrong.
Poland's got a great story but let's be honest they weren't innocent here. They make jokes about Germany wanting to dominate it but during the commonwealth for almost 200 years I think their army went undefeated when they deployed their winged hussars. They invaded the Germanic Teutonic Order not because as catholic Slavs they could relate to the pagan Wends who used to live there but because they saw an opportunity to conquer. Germany itself had to suffer domination by Hapsburg Spain, the French, Swedish, and many other nations for hundreds of years before they were finally united.
@@masoodvoon8999 As far as I know from what I have read and heard, Teutonic Order took the land that was in hands of Poland and Lithuania, despite being only "Invited" to help with some inner wars, which then leaded to formation of Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth and booting Teutonic Order. No, it wasint that one was bad and other not, both made they share of bad things and good things but as said, main reason was to take they lands back while Teutonic Order wanted to create they own lil nation.
@@masoodvoon8999 It's nice that you show interest, but you're mixing some stuff. The Wends was a name used for Slavs living within Holy Roman Empire or otherwise close to German settlement areas. "Wends" would be to the north of Czech, north-west of Silesia, west of Poland. Closest Wends would be in Duchy of Pomerania and in Brandenburg. None of them has any relation with this story, but it's worth noting that a few centuries back Poland briefly controlled some "Wendish" territory - that would be western parts of later Duchy of Pomerania. Now, first let's start with that before Teutons arrived at the scene, Poland established it's control of Pomerelia (aka Gdańsk Pomerania), as it was a strategic access point to Baltic at mouth of Vistula River, with long history of trade, focusing on amber in late Antic and early Medieval, then huge lucrative grain trade from Commonwealth in later history. In rural areas there were West Slavic tribes that would become part of Polish nation, the Kashubians. (Just like all Polish nation was initially a lot of different tribes that quickly lost separate identities. Kashubians are Polish, but like Polish-Silesian and Gorals they retain very distinct dialect and sub-identity.). Worth comparing, Kashubians consider themselves Polish, while fe. in pre-ww2 Eastern Prussia there lived (already for centuries) Masurenvolk, that is people who migrated to Prussia from Masovia. Those were Polish-speaking people who identified as part of German nation. This is where a region overlapping with former eastern parts of Eastern Prussia is called Mazury. No coincidence there, that you have Mazury next to Mazowsze (Masovia). East of Pomerelia you actually had Baltic Tribes, including the Old Prussians (or Prussians proper, from whom the newly formed Germanic Prussians took the name), who were also conquered by Teutonic Order. In the city of Gdańsk inhabitants were Polish speaking, the city was founded around late X c. by Polish king and mostly controlled by Polish king or some prince during the time when Poland was split into Princedoms. Directly governed by a steward dynasty with some ambition of independence and significant regional autonomy. So basically the Duke of Masovia had an agreement with the Order that was initially supposed to go on a crusade elsewhere and establish their Crusader Kingdom likely in the Middle East. Instead they were to join Masovians in fighting the pagan Balts, some of the last pagans of Europe. In 1308 Gdańsk's Duchy found itself in a war with Brandenburgs, Teutons were called for help by steward but backstabbed him, took over the city and slaughtered unknown number of inhabitants - but probably all Polish speaking townsfolk. From then on Gdańsk was predominantly German speaking. So as you can see Poland already had reasons and rationale to reconquer this territory. It was founded by Poland, strategically important for Polish trade and to be honest not even most Poles know this, but Gdańsk was probably the key objective always. Poland could not exist without controlling it, and Prussia could not play a major role without abusing Poland by controlling Gdańsk and earning shitton of money without doing any proper work. It was a matter of life and death, at least for the idea of independent and strong kingdom in Kraków, not some random landgrab. That said it has also to be added that Prussian Nobility hated their theocratic overlords to the bone and organised against them and called for help from Poland. So to all other reasons you can add one more, as at the time nobility were "the people" in politics, Poland was answering a call from "the people" in addition to all other rationale. (Burghers of important towns like Gdańsk mattered too, and in this case they too sided with Poland, Gdańsk was later a royal town that would be for or against specific kings or pretendents, but always for the kingdom which made great business with them; the peasants had better and worse times, but nobody asked THEM which kingdom they would prefer to belong to.) So yeah, sure we can talk a lot about Polish history. For example the foggy subject of position of serf in Poland - foggy because we don' really know, it's not greatly documented, it varied and we should think of what was possible economically too when passing judgement. But that's surely an area where you can find most bad history (just watch out falling prey to easy narratives, there were regions and/or periods as well as specific sub-categories of peasant class that fared much better than others). In Polish-German relations, although the view is a bit anachronistic, but you can mostly see the German natural push to the east. It's all a matter of intensive vs extensive province development. Germans had higher technology and social organization, but in periods of stagnation of progress they would reach maximum population density and the surplus people would seek lands that they could settle in and reorganize, improve. Those lands were to the east. They first overrun the Wends you talked about, then started to push on Poland.
@@kptparker the thing is if we look at the nations as collectives, without looking into details and internal workings, then Poland did nothing wrong most of history. The problem with Poland was the same (but probably worse than) as in the rest of Europe. The majority of population had no political rights. They sure had some protection by law, but that varied strongly by time/region and specific position (there were different categories of peasants, de iure and otherwise). Poland is accused of having especially bad relationship between nobility and their serfs, but that's not really something that is or can be established beyond doubt - not documented good enough, so it depends on waht somebody wants to believe. Still, probably on average peasants had it worse than in the west of the continent. I still believe the worst was in Russia, and some historians would have you believe Polish territorial gains in the east were fuelled by eastern nobles wanting to have the same leverage over their subjects as in Poland, but that seems ridiculous. Much more likely, they wanted to have the same freedom from their sovereigns, because the peasants were probably treated the worse the more east you go. But yeah, that said if you remove the peasants and townsfolk from considerations, there really is hardly a bad thing to say about Poland's history.
Little known fact about the Polish counteroffensive - it was one of the first use of jamming enemy (Soviet) radio communication by Polish radio operators :)
It seems that way, but if we look at the whole milenium of Polish history, then I think we are kind of in the European norm. For about 200 years from the middle of 15th to the middle of 17th cent. majority of Poland was among the most peaceful places in Europe.
Vietnam has Poland beat simply for beating the Mongols in three separate wars. Not to mention fighting and beating ancient China,the Mongolian empire,France and America...lol
fourpanelfury That is obviously not how Warsaw (Warszawa) got her name, but it is indeed a fiting accidental pun. Even for Polish standards Warsaw saw a lot of bloodshed.
@@thedude4795 During this time period, it wasn't uncommon for ł to be pronounced as a dark l, and the 'w' pronunciation was considered to be 'uncultured'. If you watch Polish films from the first half of the 20th century, you'll hear the dark l sound.
sinthoras Finland didn't win? considering that the red army was larger than the whole population of Finland at the time and was lacking in both arms and equipment it is incredible that the Soviets did not overrun all of the country and suffered very heavy casualties that only lead to a lose of only 11℅ percent of the country while keeping the rest free. It also convinced Hitler to invade Russia because he saw the poor performance of the red army and thought it would be an easy win. The Russian only "won" because of their sheer numbers but if you look at tactical and combat performance and morale and fighting skill, it definitely goes to Finland.
The last (most recent) cavalry charge that I can remember hearing about was by U.S. Green Berets at the start of the Afghanistan War. They teamed up with local tribal chieftains, loaded onto horses and stormed a Taliban camp down a hill. Pretty awesome story actually
Egyptian history isn't all that bad actually. From Old kingdom there was essentially no external successful invasions. The first intermediate period was one largely of instability but not external strive. Middle Kingdom was largely the same, although there were few issues with people trying to invade, these were largely minor affairs. It wasn't until New Kingdom where more issues happened, and then it was mostly Egypt that started it. While it did ended with Greeks taking over rule, it is important to note that this was largely bloodless for general population. So for first roughly 3,000 years of Egyptian history your average farmer lived and died without ever knowing external enemy. Very rarely was there armies on Egyptian soil. Similarly while Egypt changed hands between Greek and Roman rule with the Battle of Actium (well Greek Ptolemy dynasty was over before hand but nominally they ruled the kingdom still), it was again mostly bloodless. Egyptians had little interest in fighting foreign invasions who simply changed the ruler but not much of anything else. Roman ruled Egypt till 7th century where Islamic invaders took over. Now from that point on, Egypt did go from the most prosperous land in the ancient world, to depths of poverty , but again major wars and invasions were rare. So for roughly 5,000 years it was very rare for your normal person to ever see anybody with swords coming towards them, which is pretty damn amazing. This of course has to do with Egypt having some of the most enviable boarders in the world. To the West you have desert, to the South you have cataracts, desert, and rather difficult (to put it mildly) terrain, to the North you have a Sea and few good harbors, and to the East you have easily defensible stretch of land that has desert right past it. So overall, while average egyptian lived under autocratic rule for, well, always really, from perspective of war? Not bad. Not even too many Civil Wars overall.
As much as i like the Poles i disagree. Up to the 17th century the Poles were a European power that constantly interferred in the affairs of its neighbours having countless offensive wars. I dont blame them, all great powers do that. Its only after the partitioning that they started to suffer.
Reply History has a fascinating video on the Battle of Warsaw called "Poland is not yet lost". Recommend everyone go and watch that too. This video alone is absolutely brilliant, Polish history is seriously unexplored by the mainstream, and so I'm thankful independents as skilled as you two have taken up the cause. Much love from Britain!
I kinda don't get the ending part about relations with other countries. There was no chance for good relantionship between Poland and USSR, Germany since both those countries had imperialistic goals, with Poland being as one of their targets. And apart from that, II Polish Republic had good if not even very good reliations with Hungary, Romania and Latvia. Problems with Czechoslovakia and Lithuania were not at all connected to treaty of Riga but rather due to land disputes (which in both cases were mostly populated by Poles anyway). Furthermore, it was Czechoslovakia which was INTENTIONALLY sabotaging any weapon transport from Hungary or Romania to Poland during this war, after THEY seized polish speaking land. If you want to blame someone to blame for lack of eastern europe cooperation, you can start with bohemians.
Same. The Romanians had even been on-board with the Intermarium Federation. Hungarians have always been friends of the Poles. The 'ticking-timebomb' was by design. The Poles refused to assist the whites for this reason, they knew a communist Russia would be weaker and would buy them time. Lithuania had been embittered before the war's end due to complicated politics, Etc.
1.Ukrainians should help themself at beginning. There was a dictum - " The Ukrainian state is around 15 kilometers of Petluras train" There wasnt great movement of ukrainians nation to independent. Just local and sponsored by communists. 2. Polish capabilitys during peace negotation are overestimated. In fact polish state was exausted. 3. Only thing we could do better, was gave some authonomy for west ukraina, instead incorporate that
Weirdly Czechoslovakia didn't wanted to arm Poland, which was already trying to bully us. Silesia was maybe mostly Polish, but you can't just take anything you wanted by force. There was a interim agreement about Cieszyn, but Poland violated it by organizing a parliamentary elections, conscripting locals into army and moving military untits into the area. That's not cool. Polish speaking area? Most people there didn't give a damn about Poland, they were Silesians, not Polish. There was a plebiscite in preparation, but Poland was scared of it and the voice of local people. Then both governments agreed to arbitration, but again, Poland sabotaged it. No, it wasn't Czech fault, it was Polish bullying that damaged our relations, same as Polish relations with all other Polish neighbours. Nazis used the same tactics, man - "we think Germans live there, so it is our land from now".
Actually the USSR only wanted a buffer zone between them and Germany. They proposed the French, the British and the Poles a coalition to invade Germany by 1938, but they refused and Poland got fucked the later year.
That great war channel is everywhere these days. I didn't see that coming tbh. Still loving your videos as always. I was watching Catherine the great from Extra history... and they talked about the split of Poland between Prussia, Austria and Russia. Its like everything happened because of the 1700s. Polish winged hussars and Uhlans! Best cavalry in the world, does it again.
Dang man! Your pronounciation of Piłsudski's surname is almost perfect! Being polish myself, i kinda shrugged off the plumber joke at the beginning, but i was honestly impressed with the commitment at "Piłsudski". Most of TH-cam historians will just say "sorry"! Apologise for the mispronounciation of german or other sounding names and just go on with it, say the name in whatever way is easiest for them. I know it couldn't have taken like 2 minutes to learn how to pronounce that name, it took much more to just be able to read it out aloud right in the middle of a sentence, and i appreciate the effort. :)
One important data is that in this war Charles de Gaulle was appointed as Instructor for Poland's infantry and later on won Poland's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.
Huge shout-out for French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who at the news of the fact that Germany intends to suppress the Greater Poland Uprising, sent a diplomatic note to Germany informing that Greater Poland is part of the Western Front. Which meant that the resumption of hostilities in Greater Poland by Germany would result in resumption of hostilities on the entire Western Front. The Germans immediately abandoned the plans to recapture Greater Poland. And of course for hungarians who sent everything they could to Poland. From rifles and ammo. to filed kitchens. P.S. The claim that Poles and Ukrainians hate each other and that is why the alliance was temporary is a over simplification. Poland intended to create an independent Ukrainian state under the leadership of Stanisław Petlura. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian people did not have enough "independence desire" and did not respond to these attempts, which was why the Soviets did not have major problems to stop the process before it began.
Kłócę się z jakimś baranem pod innym filmikiem, który powiedział, że bez Francji byśmy nie wygrali bo nam dali uzbrojenie i nas wsparli tak, że im zawdzieczamy zwyciestwo. Odpowiedziałem mu że wkład Francji oceniam na 10%
Why do you point to a Foot Grenadier of the French Old Guard and refer to that as Russia right at the beginning at 0:07? That's one of the most iconic French uniform of the Napoleonic war.
ltflak He does not refer to it as russia. There are three charactes shown, each one connected with Polish struggle for independence from russia. One is Lech Wałęsa, one is a Polish soldier from the period od the soviet Polish war, and the napoleonic era soldier od there because lots of Polish people fought for Napoleon hoping to establish a free Polish nation after they are done beating Austria, russia and prussia, which were the countries that's partitioned Poland.
Well, I have no idea, I just wanted to point out, that he did not refer to that Grenadier as Russia. No idea why he did not choose to use a Polish soldier of the era, for example a member Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard.
Maybe precisesly because French uniforms are more iconic? How else do you represent Napoleonic Wars to a wider, international audience if not by those very French uniforms?
And Poland saved Europe from a disaster ones again, it is a shame Poland has to take the lead in saving it yet again and our Western European governments just keep bashing them for their bravery. Love and respect to my Polish brothers, you deserve a great country, you earned it. From a Dutch nationalist.
Poland really should belong to the Polish. They've been through enough already without having to accept mass migration from Islamic countries that hate us. Multiculturalism is awful and a failed ideology.
Awesome video about a war I was never very familiar with, really explains why Russia wanted a piece of Poland selling with Germany at the beginning of WW2. Love the use of the In the Name of the Tsar music from BF1, really fits the mood!
It's pretty good video, it does good in teaching polish history to non-polish people. But, there is one thing that is wrong, Pilsudski didn't do much during Polish-Soviet war. The author of victory in Battle of Warsaw (or Miracle on Vistula) during Polish-Bolshevik war, was General Tadeusz Rozwadowski. Before this war Pilsudski withdrawn from public life, and from leading the army. Pilsudski did created polish legions that regained independence of Poland, that played a huge role in history of Poland. But foreign historians often forget about Rozwadowski (in English alphabet it's spelled Rosvadovski, in polish alphabet W=V), and mistake victories of Roswadowski as victories of Pilsudski.
Could you do a video on the independence wars (in 1918) of Estonia,Latvia or Lithuania (preferably Estonia) or do a video on the Saint George's Night uprising (Jüriöö ülestõus) an event where Estonians tried to get rid of Danish and German rulers
I LOVED the into to this one xD I mean, what a great way to reflect the harsh history of a nation through just a few words xD Brilliant! Gonna watch the rest now but after that intro it can't be bad :D
Columbo, Easy to criticize when one know the future, right? Negotiations have been going on for a long time. But the Whites wanted return to Russian Empire with very small Polish autonomy. It was unacceptable for Poles. No one could know that so delusional ideology of the Bolshevik would be able to build another empire.
You neatly gloss over the Poland/West Ukrainian People's Republic [non-communist] (Lvov) conquest war, and the attempt to conquer the eastern (yes there were 2 after WWI) also, BEFORE the alliance with the remaining remnants of Ukrainian People's Republic (eastern) for Kiev to defeat the Soviets became such a disaster that Warsaw was imperilled. You also neatly skip over the minor war with Lithuania over Vilnius at the end of the Polish/Soviet war. It was all kinda one fight. But the stuff you did not gloss over was good.
It wasn't even a war at all with Lithuania, it was just a trick of Piłsudzki, who wanted his hometown Wilno to be within Poland's borders. I don't think that anyone even died, during a polish troops march on Lithuania there were few skirmishes but most of them ended with disarment of lithuanian's troops and setting them free. Piłsudzki secretly ordered his trusted general Żeligowski to make an insurrection of his army that was occupying the town at the time so that it won't be like Poland annexed a chunk of lithuania's ground. Afterwards Żeligowski "surrendered" but Poland took Wilno as a part of the peace treaty with Lithuania.
@@damianwyrebiak8143 and funny thing, if we count ethnical and regional Lithuanian nobles of the past we will more likely get to the conclusion that all of the proudest history of Duchy of Lithuania should be a heritage of modern Belarus, while modern Lithuania is a decendant of common people of the region of Samogitia/Žemaitija. On the terms of the culture most of it was pretty much polish until the artificial developments of 20th century that happened with a lot of help by Russians to oppose polish-lithuanian commonwealth heritage as well as Germans to produce a counterpart for slavic cultures of these lands (as it worked for them with Latvians and Estonians).
He kinda glossed over the fact that the one that actually got fucked over was the Western Ukrainian Republic, not the Ukrainian Republic. Petlura just sold off the Western Ukrainians to Pilsudski for military assistance. Something for which the Western Ukrainian commanding stuff was obviously mad as hell. Petlura was generally quite shitty leader and politic. Bad decisions inability to control his Cossacks, that started to kill the Jews in Western Ukraine. And many of the Jews supported the Western Ukrainian Republic and fought in its ranks. Needless to say, the leadership of the Western Ukraine was super pissed off. But his execution of Bolbochan - an extremely precious asset of the Ukrainian Republic's army back then, was his shittiest move. And the reason for that execution was quite simple, actually. Petlura and some of the leaders of the Ukrainian Republic feared that colonel Bolbochan was becoming too influential and powerful, due to his successes and popularity in among the soldiers and thus, had him executed. But before that, they offered him an exile under pretense of going to Italy and training Ukrainian volunteers there. He declined, because he thought that he was where he was needed most - at front, and was executed by a firing squad.
5:35 Thank you very much dear sir for using true Belarusian flag instead of the flag of current president Edit: 10:48 goddammit you even played theme from Witcher 3 on background
Pretty awesome how the Polish - the nation with the famed Winged Hussars - won the final cavalry battle in history. Seems fitting.
They also led the largest cavalry charge of world history in 1683, using 20,000 winged hussars to rout the Turkish besiegers of Vienna!
Noah Kidd it gives me goose bumps when i think about it
@@noahkidd3359 20000 allied cavalry + 3000 hussars
@LoRaX wot? Ottomans and Pilsudski?! That's a different timeline lad, you probably meant Jan III Sobieski
iirc the last successful cavalry charge in history was by the Italians against the Soviets in 1941 or 42
0:04 For those of you who are stumped:
Far left: Polish soldier in Napoleon's polish legion. The Poles fought for Napoleon in the hopes of establishing a French puppet state in Poland for them.
Center left: Lech Walesa, an anti-communist activist who defeated the Polish communist party in an election in 1991, thus ending Poland's communist era.
Center: A Polish soldier in the Polish-Soviet war which you are about to (or just have) learn(ed) about.
Far right: Polish resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of the country.
"Anti-communist"... Let's just leave him under "activist" until everything about his "anti-communism" is solved and thoroughly proven :) Because so far it looks grim.
Yousef Atta Poland, went from left wing dictatorship to the right trying to create a dictatorship
PiS is not right wing... It never was. It's more akin to a conservative socialism. Most truly right wing parties are some fringe Liberal right wing parties. Libertarians if you may. Mind you not all, but they're still fringe parties.
But PiS is not truly right wing.
But yes, it does try to create dictatorship. Or so it seems...
Far left: it's a french grenadier. Polish legion uniforms were different
@@smiglo112
Nha PiS is right wing, just look at the privatization they push.
Yes they're also definitly conservative, but those are two separate dimensions to analyse politics
fun fact: the polish cavalry destroyed the soviet communication equipment, and they had only one radio wave operating, which was known for the polish... so they played catholic music on it, effectively destroying the red army s ability to communicate
Attila Katona-Bugner Lol
Poles: The first trolls in history
Polish Communist
i think this title really belongs to Khosrau Anushirawan, the shah of the Persian-Sassanid Empire.
In one of his campaigns he knocked down the Roman city of Antioch, captured its citizens and took them to Iran where he settled them down in an 1:1 rebuild city named "Khosraus better Antioch"(no joke!).
He also had a holiday trip at the mediterranean sea in other captured Roman cities, sending letters to the roman emperor Justinian on how they could enjoy this trip together and so on.
Sander169 ha nice! When you think aboot it, psychological warfare is just a more elaborate form of trolling :p
Columbo Bumbo that would be an equally effective and probably even more infuriating method of messing with communications
I'm polish and about ten years ago I was in a taxi with an old almost retired driver. We started talking about history and he told me that his father thought in the battle of warsaw in 1920 and ended up being awarded the highest polish military order (Virtuti militari). He told me that when he was a kid during the second World war their apartment got one day raided by a group of SS soldiers, who while searching the apartment ended up finding the order, after which the German oficer asked who it belonged to, when the taxi drivers father told him it was his, and how he got it. The SS oficcer then ordered his men to put everything back in order, and politely left.
Dude, that’s an incredible story. I would’ve loved the chance to ask that guy some questions myself
That’s kinda an odd story. Either the SS leader was extremely chivalrous and respectful of military bravery (which sounds more like something an officer of the Wehrmacht would do), or he was not a typical member of the SS (SS men were particularly infamous for partaking in ethnic cleansing and were known for their hatred of “inferior Races” of which the Polish, being Slavic, would fall into.)
so nazi symphathies..... good to know why is poland like this today👍
Nice story
@@jimservu Maybe he hated the communists due to ideology.
One famous American volunteer was Marian C Cooper. He was a pilot in WWI and he volunteered for the Polish air force during the Polish War. I believe he got captured at one point but survived. He later returned to the United States and became a filmmaker making one of the biggest films of the 1930s King Kong.
Marian C Cooper was also awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari (presented by Piłsudski), highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war.
Giga Chad moment💪🗿🇺🇸
@@nyanlinnkyawthwin4099fax
That Witcher 3 soundrack in the backround... kurwa yes.
Awesome isn't it!!
I noticed that too
And battlefield 1 at 2:57
caught that immediately too
he even made reference to playing witcher 3 at 11:11
WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVE
COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE!
(It's 240 years late though)
_WHEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVE_
*Ahem* Let me quote a passage...
_Then, on the morning of September 12th, 1683, almost a week after he should have stormed the walls, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa turned to his right flank and noticed something he wasn't really expecting_
_King Jan Sobieski of Poland. And 76,000 Polish, German, Saxon, Bavarian, and Imperial troops riding hard behind him_
*Polen potężny!*
Richardsen my birthday, nice
The Hungarians tried to send cavalry to support the Poles, but were not allowed passage by the Czechs.
So unfortunately in this war they never arrived.
>In the 17th century it almost annexed Russia
I mean it kind of did, the Polish king became Czar of Russia for a few years
If only the Polish King didn't try to force Catholicism over the Orthdox Russians. Things could have been quite different as Poland during that time was more modern, powerful, and western than Russia during that time.
And then Russia took Poland for 150 years
@@kirillassasin the problem is that NOT ONLY RUSSIA :) they've been taken from 3 sides so
Yes but this king was stupid and dont want make peace with east christians.
@@Wiktorino1984 Such a missed opportunity too. It would have united all of the Slavic people and even most of Eastern Europe if Poland and Russia ever united. Even today, these 2 are still the most powerful Slavic nations but after what happened for the past centuries, that will never happen and eastern europe will only remain more divided.
Russia: we have a well organised and a big army.
Poland:we finally have a country, some horses and God's help
Levente Princz and guess who had the last laugh
Soller yep
Now our economy is booming but in Russia some places people have no food to eat there politics was always shity
Rick K that’s hot
@Michal Blaszczak I don't think many Russians are models Christians, seeing as they are orthodox
An expansion for BF 1 featuring polish - soviet war would be amazing. Imagine Battle for Warsaw in operations mode!
it would’ve been nice if they added the Greek Front, and the Battle of Tannenburg, another cool one would be the Serbian - Austrian Empire front. Also including the Bulgarians.
Apparently this was uploaded on Poland's Independence Day, let's pretend that was intentional.
Anyways, Corrections, corrections, corrections.
-Throwing Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into 'Slavic' was not very smart. Yes I know they're Baltic (and Finno-Urgic), but I was not thinking, I was drawing, and it was zen thank you very much.
-'Soviet Satellite' is a more apt term than 'Soviet Republic'.
-I pronounced Warsaw the English way, which is the wrong way, but the easy to understand for English-speakers way
Bardzo bardzo dobrze.
"I have a hunch that's not the way you say Lwow"
If you're talking about 08:36 (was there any other time you said Lwów?) It is actually how you pronounce Lwów, or if it's not then you're so close that a native Pole can't hear a difference.
Lwów pronounciaton was spot on.
In other news: I noticed recently on that a lot of ANZ youtubers have taken interest in Eastern European, Baltic and Balkan history. Is there a reason for it, or is just a hot topic right now around those parts?
Estonia isn't Baltic (Balto-Slavic) either, linguistically. They speak a Finno-Ugric language.
Feature History Jacobite Uprisings
It nice to hear Poles get there independence. Greetings from Croatia to our slavic friends
Nikola Bačić
Today is polish independance day
Paweł Andonis Gawralidis Dobrzański herbu Leliwa. Oh yeah I all most forgoten, Happy Independence Day Poland!🇵🇱
Nikola Bačić Thanks and since the music from witcher is playing... good luck on the path!
Paweł Andonis Gawralidis Dobrzański herbu Leliwa. dziękuję przyjacielu
Paweł Andonis Gawralidis Dobrzański herbu Leliwa. And you you profile picture is very similar to the illyrian coat of arms on the croatian coat of arms
You did release this video on Polish independence day aswell! Wonderful work lads. ^^
I’ve trained with polish soldiers, they’re the most patriotic, funny, disciplined and squared away soldiers I’ve ever met. The polish love Americans more than Americans love Americans.
you have to have a good sense of humor when you know the plight of every family from the country
@hi there sometimes nationalism good for them.
"The polish love Americans more than Americans love Americans."
hahaha, thats awesome, Thanks
*US Army killed tens of millions of people*.
@Demiclea *cough* native Americans, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Hawaiians, Koreans, Japanese, Serbians, Somalis, Iraqis, Panamas, Chileans, Afghans *cough*
"Hey Lenin"
"Damn it what do you want Trotsky"
"Told you so"
"Oh ffs thats it I'm gonna give leadership to Stalin"
Released perfectly on the Polish Independence Day. Nice.
Simply amazing ❤Thanks for remembering about us in this special, really important Day! Greets from Poland!
Władisław Raginis I love Spain and I'm very interested in Spanish history. Kisses!
Władisław Raginis well I just find it interesting, especially the Spanish Civil War, because the results of it are visible even today f.ex what's happening in Catalonia. Plus it's really not that easy, cause I'm totally against communism and I'm a catholic but at the same time hate fascism. So what side am I on? I'll never know. That's what makes me seeing it interesting. This story isn't black and white (like polish-bolshevik war I guess it is clear that communists were the bad side).
Władisław Raginis well communists wanted to occupy the whole Europe, hmm world actually, so If Polish Army wouldn't stop them, things could go wrong, really.
As I said before I'm just intrested in that I don't support any side at all.
Władisław Raginis I agree with the part that we can't agree haha. But it's fine. I definitely don't think communism can bring anything good to a world, but that's just My personal opinion. You meant they would be better then nazis? I don't really think so, they're equally evil to me. Btw. You're Spanish, right?
+Julia Książek the name looks Slavic
Did not see Indie Nidel coming. Great episode man!
Just like Indie did not see it coming... literally ;)
Tons of small government victories
Happy 100th year anniversary of the miracle of the Vistula everyone!
I love Poland so much, it's culture, it's history and its people. I do hope that once this pandemic has abated , to go visit the spectacularly beautiful country again. From an admiring South African.
I seem to recall that the Poles had some French Renault tanks which were very useful. I think one was found in Afghanistan -it has been captured by the Soviets and given to the Amir. It is back in Poland now.
Yup it's true the tank was found by a Polish soldiers during ISAF mission in Afghanistan. Fun fact is that during Polish-Soviet war, Poland with approximately 120 FT-17's had the 4th largest armoured forces in the World.
Actually - from what I read - they weren't. They were breaking constantly and couldn't keep up with the advancing cavalry at that time, because they were too slow. Most of the polish high command seeing that disregarded them as not fit for mobile warfare (that would be required given the nature of the eastern border, they were thinking about tanks in context of breaking trenches that wouldn't be able to be built on such a big border). That lead to largely ignoring armor (not completely though) during the military build-up in favor of new polish rifles, cavalry and air force.
...'39 and Germans proved them wrong.
thats like 2 decades later. tanks were still new during that time (in 1920)
well, during '39 we did have better tanks than the Germans.
Holy shit man, So nice of you to post a video about this on Polish independence day.
i hear that witcher 3 music
gtpower3 and battlefield 1 music
gtpower3 The witcher os based off slavic myths
Go read the Witcher books
because its that good and suits everything)
Witcher 3 is based on books made by a Polish writter called "Andrzej Sapkowski". Also game was made by a polish studio.
Polands fought Literally CENTURIES for its fully independence, wow respect from Canada 👍😘🇨🇦
I offer respect as well my fellow countryman.
Poland's got a great story but let's be honest they weren't innocent here. They make jokes about Germany wanting to dominate it but during the commonwealth for almost 200 years I think their army went undefeated when they deployed their winged hussars. They invaded the Germanic Teutonic Order not because as catholic Slavs they could relate to the pagan Wends who used to live there but because they saw an opportunity to conquer. Germany itself had to suffer domination by Hapsburg Spain, the French, Swedish, and many other nations for hundreds of years before they were finally united.
@@masoodvoon8999 As far as I know from what I have read and heard, Teutonic Order took the land that was in hands of Poland and Lithuania, despite being only "Invited" to help with some inner wars, which then leaded to formation of Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth and booting Teutonic Order. No, it wasint that one was bad and other not, both made they share of bad things and good things but as said, main reason was to take they lands back while Teutonic Order wanted to create they own lil nation.
@@masoodvoon8999
It's nice that you show interest, but you're mixing some stuff.
The Wends was a name used for Slavs living within Holy Roman Empire or otherwise close to German settlement areas. "Wends" would be to the north of Czech, north-west of Silesia, west of Poland. Closest Wends would be in Duchy of Pomerania and in Brandenburg. None of them has any relation with this story, but it's worth noting that a few centuries back Poland briefly controlled some "Wendish" territory - that would be western parts of later Duchy of Pomerania.
Now, first let's start with that before Teutons arrived at the scene, Poland established it's control of Pomerelia (aka Gdańsk Pomerania), as it was a strategic access point to Baltic at mouth of Vistula River, with long history of trade, focusing on amber in late Antic and early Medieval, then huge lucrative grain trade from Commonwealth in later history. In rural areas there were West Slavic tribes that would become part of Polish nation, the Kashubians. (Just like all Polish nation was initially a lot of different tribes that quickly lost separate identities. Kashubians are Polish, but like Polish-Silesian and Gorals they retain very distinct dialect and sub-identity.).
Worth comparing, Kashubians consider themselves Polish, while fe. in pre-ww2 Eastern Prussia there lived (already for centuries) Masurenvolk, that is people who migrated to Prussia from Masovia. Those were Polish-speaking people who identified as part of German nation. This is where a region overlapping with former eastern parts of Eastern Prussia is called Mazury. No coincidence there, that you have Mazury next to Mazowsze (Masovia).
East of Pomerelia you actually had Baltic Tribes, including the Old Prussians (or Prussians proper, from whom the newly formed Germanic Prussians took the name), who were also conquered by Teutonic Order.
In the city of Gdańsk inhabitants were Polish speaking, the city was founded around late X c. by Polish king and mostly controlled by Polish king or some prince during the time when Poland was split into Princedoms. Directly governed by a steward dynasty with some ambition of independence and significant regional autonomy.
So basically the Duke of Masovia had an agreement with the Order that was initially supposed to go on a crusade elsewhere and establish their Crusader Kingdom likely in the Middle East. Instead they were to join Masovians in fighting the pagan Balts, some of the last pagans of Europe.
In 1308 Gdańsk's Duchy found itself in a war with Brandenburgs, Teutons were called for help by steward but backstabbed him, took over the city and slaughtered unknown number of inhabitants - but probably all Polish speaking townsfolk. From then on Gdańsk was predominantly German speaking.
So as you can see Poland already had reasons and rationale to reconquer this territory. It was founded by Poland, strategically important for Polish trade and to be honest not even most Poles know this, but Gdańsk was probably the key objective always. Poland could not exist without controlling it, and Prussia could not play a major role without abusing Poland by controlling Gdańsk and earning shitton of money without doing any proper work. It was a matter of life and death, at least for the idea of independent and strong kingdom in Kraków, not some random landgrab.
That said it has also to be added that Prussian Nobility hated their theocratic overlords to the bone and organised against them and called for help from Poland. So to all other reasons you can add one more, as at the time nobility were "the people" in politics, Poland was answering a call from "the people" in addition to all other rationale. (Burghers of important towns like Gdańsk mattered too, and in this case they too sided with Poland, Gdańsk was later a royal town that would be for or against specific kings or pretendents, but always for the kingdom which made great business with them; the peasants had better and worse times, but nobody asked THEM which kingdom they would prefer to belong to.)
So yeah, sure we can talk a lot about Polish history. For example the foggy subject of position of serf in Poland - foggy because we don' really know, it's not greatly documented, it varied and we should think of what was possible economically too when passing judgement. But that's surely an area where you can find most bad history (just watch out falling prey to easy narratives, there were regions and/or periods as well as specific sub-categories of peasant class that fared much better than others). In Polish-German relations, although the view is a bit anachronistic, but you can mostly see the German natural push to the east. It's all a matter of intensive vs extensive province development. Germans had higher technology and social organization, but in periods of stagnation of progress they would reach maximum population density and the surplus people would seek lands that they could settle in and reorganize, improve. Those lands were to the east. They first overrun the Wends you talked about, then started to push on Poland.
@@kptparker the thing is if we look at the nations as collectives, without looking into details and internal workings, then Poland did nothing wrong most of history. The problem with Poland was the same (but probably worse than) as in the rest of Europe. The majority of population had no political rights. They sure had some protection by law, but that varied strongly by time/region and specific position (there were different categories of peasants, de iure and otherwise). Poland is accused of having especially bad relationship between nobility and their serfs, but that's not really something that is or can be established beyond doubt - not documented good enough, so it depends on waht somebody wants to believe. Still, probably on average peasants had it worse than in the west of the continent. I still believe the worst was in Russia, and some historians would have you believe Polish territorial gains in the east were fuelled by eastern nobles wanting to have the same leverage over their subjects as in Poland, but that seems ridiculous. Much more likely, they wanted to have the same freedom from their sovereigns, because the peasants were probably treated the worse the more east you go.
But yeah, that said if you remove the peasants and townsfolk from considerations, there really is hardly a bad thing to say about Poland's history.
I'm from Poland. Thank you for presenting the history of my country. Poland is very interesting country.
Polish history by non-polish channel ? NANI !??
LOCZEK yeah i know this is so awsome
As an American myself, I think Poland has some of the most interesting history I've ever seen. I'm glad such a good channel is covering some of it.
Ryan Casey if so check out "Poland first to fight" by Historia bez Cenzury on yt
Will do, thank you for the recommendation.
Or "Poland is not yet lost."
3 hours ago I googled this conflict. One hour later this showed up.
One of the most important yet overlooked wars of the 20th Century. I'm glad there's a quality video finally covering the topic.
Polish music? WITCHEEEEEER!
Love the vid as always
Tak trzymaj :3
Little known fact about the Polish counteroffensive - it was one of the first use of jamming enemy (Soviet) radio communication by Polish radio operators :)
I like your artstyle seems very noir or card gamey
Seth Leoric yeah it's really neat, if you like I would recommend the game "This is the police" he even said the art style that game inspired him.
Poland history revolves around war. I know many other nations do too but I feel Poland is even more.
That's what you call a bad neighborhood.
Mahmoud Elsayed ever heard of the Mongols?
It seems that way, but if we look at the whole milenium of Polish history, then I think we are kind of in the European norm.
For about 200 years from the middle of 15th to the middle of 17th cent. majority of Poland was among the most peaceful places in Europe.
Vietnam has Poland beat simply for beating the Mongols in three separate wars. Not to mention fighting and beating ancient China,the Mongolian empire,France and America...lol
fourpanelfury That is obviously not how Warsaw (Warszawa) got her name, but it is indeed a fiting accidental pun. Even for Polish standards Warsaw saw a lot of bloodshed.
In Soviet Russia the Poles defeat you!
Polish Wolf Thank you my Polish brother,greetings from Serbia!
In Germany, you defeat the Poles.
In Soviet Russia, the Poles defeat you!
LOL! Thats a good one!
PolishBehemoth Thank you!
nie no pewnie pokonanie Rosji (bo czerwoni w praktyce wtedy już mieli cały carski sprzęt) 2 lata po niepodległości to nic takiego :|
no army may enter that land
that is protected by
polish hand
kekistainy nationalist Unless you be 40:1
Unless it is 1939 or that 3times poland was slies like a pie.
Except Germany and Soviet Russia
@ulaniec Poland fall before USSR entered it. No war was declared to USSR by Poland or any country.
except basically every army ever. Poland has allays sucked at everything. The history of Poland is a history of failure.
2:36 He said "Piłsudski" almost like a native polish
Almost, but the weird L-letter is pronounced "w"
so [Piw-sood-ski]
great comment though
@@thedude4795 During this time period, it wasn't uncommon for ł to be pronounced as a dark l, and the 'w' pronunciation was considered to be 'uncultured'. If you watch Polish films from the first half of the 20th century, you'll hear the dark l sound.
Please do the Winter War, it was the greatest David vs Goliath story in history and I believe it deserves some attention.
Justin Tiamson Only that David won, Finnland Not
sinthoras Finland didn't win? considering that the red army was larger than the whole population of Finland at the time and was lacking in both arms and equipment it is incredible that the Soviets did not overrun all of the country and suffered very heavy casualties that only lead to a lose of only 11℅ percent of the country while keeping the rest free. It also convinced Hitler to invade Russia because he saw the poor performance of the red army and thought it would be an easy win. The Russian only "won" because of their sheer numbers but if you look at tactical and combat performance and morale and fighting skill, it definitely goes to Finland.
Except that David (Finland) lost.
Justin Tiamson it's the biggest proof of how important logistics and organization are 2
Hello no wtf
*laughs in Kurwa*
Uczcie cudzoziemców ładniejszych słów! Niestety k..wa jest najbardziej znanym "polskim" słowem. Świadczy to o poziomie kulturalnym całego narodu.
Sheeeeit
*GHEZEEEEHEEHEHHEH*
Nie pierdol, Grażyna i wylecz się z kompleksów. Z Fińskiego wszyscy znają tylko "Perkele!" i jakoś Fini nie mają przez to złej opinii.
Arcralf i think you started a fight
Poles man. They kick ass.
The last (most recent) cavalry charge that I can remember hearing about was by U.S. Green Berets at the start of the Afghanistan War. They teamed up with local tribal chieftains, loaded onto horses and stormed a Taliban camp down a hill. Pretty awesome story actually
That's a cavalry charge though, not a cavalry battle
...speaks about slavic people. shows estonian flag in the basket... :-)
The Christ of Nations is a well earned name for a nation that had to endure so much suffering.
Which is why Poland has the tallest statue of Jesus in the world.
Oh, you mean the Aragorn statue? I thought it was the tallest one in Europe. *Poland stronk feelings intensifies*
As a Pole, lemme say that it is a slightly drooling, bigoted, backwards Christ. Oh, and the statue is really goddamn gaudy.
Egyptian history isn't all that bad actually. From Old kingdom there was essentially no external successful invasions. The first intermediate period was one largely of instability but not external strive. Middle Kingdom was largely the same, although there were few issues with people trying to invade, these were largely minor affairs. It wasn't until New Kingdom where more issues happened, and then it was mostly Egypt that started it. While it did ended with Greeks taking over rule, it is important to note that this was largely bloodless for general population.
So for first roughly 3,000 years of Egyptian history your average farmer lived and died without ever knowing external enemy. Very rarely was there armies on Egyptian soil.
Similarly while Egypt changed hands between Greek and Roman rule with the Battle of Actium (well Greek Ptolemy dynasty was over before hand but nominally they ruled the kingdom still), it was again mostly bloodless. Egyptians had little interest in fighting foreign invasions who simply changed the ruler but not much of anything else.
Roman ruled Egypt till 7th century where Islamic invaders took over.
Now from that point on, Egypt did go from the most prosperous land in the ancient world, to depths of poverty , but again major wars and invasions were rare.
So for roughly 5,000 years it was very rare for your normal person to ever see anybody with swords coming towards them, which is pretty damn amazing.
This of course has to do with Egypt having some of the most enviable boarders in the world. To the West you have desert, to the South you have cataracts, desert, and rather difficult (to put it mildly) terrain, to the North you have a Sea and few good harbors, and to the East you have easily defensible stretch of land that has desert right past it.
So overall, while average egyptian lived under autocratic rule for, well, always really, from perspective of war? Not bad. Not even too many Civil Wars overall.
As much as i like the Poles i disagree. Up to the 17th century the Poles were a European power that constantly interferred in the affairs of its neighbours having countless offensive wars. I dont blame them, all great powers do that. Its only after the partitioning that they started to suffer.
Reply History has a fascinating video on the Battle of Warsaw called "Poland is not yet lost". Recommend everyone go and watch that too.
This video alone is absolutely brilliant, Polish history is seriously unexplored by the mainstream, and so I'm thankful independents as skilled as you two have taken up the cause.
Much love from Britain!
I love how in an episode about polish history theres music from the witcher 3, which was developed by a polish studio, playing in the background
Joao Loehrer The Witcher was not only developed by a polish studio. It’s also based on books written by a Polish man!
@@PrimalAspid96 well, more folklore than religion, but yes.
@@JaJebie69 I'm not disapproving with you m8
Thanks for an excellent video of this oft forgotten but important piece of Western history. Good job to you too, Poland.
Crack-Downs and Middle Fingers
Do reading from valuable sources... You're talking nonsense
Soviets started that War - Jose learn the truth. Poland is always innocent.
Poland can into freedom
DAT ONE KANCOLLE FAN but can it into space?
Anime can into cancer
says the guy with a cat picture as avatar.....
POLSKA!
And into space
American pilot Merian C Cooper, who would later direct the 1933 classic, King Kong, fought in this war.
I kinda don't get the ending part about relations with other countries. There was no chance for good relantionship between Poland and USSR, Germany since both those countries had imperialistic goals, with Poland being as one of their targets. And apart from that, II Polish Republic had good if not even very good reliations with Hungary, Romania and Latvia.
Problems with Czechoslovakia and Lithuania were not at all connected to treaty of Riga but rather due to land disputes (which in both cases were mostly populated by Poles anyway). Furthermore, it was Czechoslovakia which was INTENTIONALLY sabotaging any weapon transport from Hungary or Romania to Poland during this war, after THEY seized polish speaking land. If you want to blame someone to blame for lack of eastern europe cooperation, you can start with bohemians.
kursk1111111111 damn Bohemians and their pornos!
Same.
The Romanians had even been on-board with the Intermarium Federation.
Hungarians have always been friends of the Poles.
The 'ticking-timebomb' was by design. The Poles refused to assist the whites for this reason, they knew a communist Russia would be weaker and would buy them time.
Lithuania had been embittered before the war's end due to complicated politics,
Etc.
1.Ukrainians should help themself at beginning. There was a dictum - " The Ukrainian state is around 15 kilometers of Petluras train" There wasnt great movement of ukrainians nation to independent. Just local and sponsored by communists.
2. Polish capabilitys during peace negotation are overestimated. In fact polish state was exausted.
3. Only thing we could do better, was gave some authonomy for west ukraina, instead incorporate that
Weirdly Czechoslovakia didn't wanted to arm Poland, which was already trying to bully us. Silesia was maybe mostly Polish, but you can't just take anything you wanted by force. There was a interim agreement about Cieszyn, but Poland violated it by organizing a parliamentary elections, conscripting locals into army and moving military untits into the area. That's not cool. Polish speaking area? Most people there didn't give a damn about Poland, they were Silesians, not Polish. There was a plebiscite in preparation, but Poland was scared of it and the voice of local people. Then both governments agreed to arbitration, but again, Poland sabotaged it. No, it wasn't Czech fault, it was Polish bullying that damaged our relations, same as Polish relations with all other Polish neighbours. Nazis used the same tactics, man - "we think Germans live there, so it is our land from now".
Actually the USSR only wanted a buffer zone between them and Germany. They proposed the French, the British and the Poles a coalition to invade Germany by 1938, but they refused and Poland got fucked the later year.
That great war channel is everywhere these days. I didn't see that coming tbh. Still loving your videos as always. I was watching Catherine the great from Extra history... and they talked about the split of Poland between Prussia, Austria and Russia. Its like everything happened because of the 1700s.
Polish winged hussars and Uhlans! Best cavalry in the world, does it again.
the collaboration i didn't even know I needed holy shit
I love the lowkey Witcher 3 music in the back, well played Feature History, well played
( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º)
Project ❎ Kai ❎ TV Polish history and Polish game = best combo
“Song of the Sword Dancer” is the name of that track, just Incase you wanted to know.
"Today we're going to talk about when Poland won its independent from Russia"
Poland: Do you have the slightes idea how little that narrows it down?
"A whole slavic salad of conflict.." I had to pause it, so i could stop laughing so hard, before continuing on lol.
So cool to see big youtubers working together
Dang man! Your pronounciation of Piłsudski's surname is almost perfect! Being polish myself, i kinda shrugged off the plumber joke at the beginning, but i was honestly impressed with the commitment at "Piłsudski". Most of TH-cam historians will just say "sorry"! Apologise for the mispronounciation of german or other sounding names and just go on with it, say the name in whatever way is easiest for them. I know it couldn't have taken like 2 minutes to learn how to pronounce that name, it took much more to just be able to read it out aloud right in the middle of a sentence, and i appreciate the effort. :)
do Rhodesian Bush War
Matt Dynes Literally nothing happened in that war
Except the slotting of many floppies.
Matt Dynes
^
This
I refuse.
I think Angolan war would be much interesting
"The Miracle of Vistula"
could you maybe do rorkes drift?
He doesn't seem to do videos on individual battles from what I can see. Perhaps he might do one on the Anglo-Zulu war in general.
Exactly. Just one battle is a bit too little.
Splendid idea.
ZULUS ATTACK
FIGHT BACK TO BACK
That was a very brief shortcut ..... but not that bad !!!! Congratuliarions :o))
Came here from the channel "The Great War". Did not regret it. Consider me a new subscriber, good Sir.
This is Poland. First to fight for their rights
Much respect to Poland from Hungary !
11:00 We should remember that Poland never was a soviet republic, Poland was a sovereign state with strong soviet influance.
If they stepped out of line they would be smacked to non existence.
How can you be sovereign and influenced by some country at the same time?
They were a satellite state that had no say on internal matters, they were basically a soviet republic under the guise of a sovereign state.
this was a truly awesome video.
One important data is that in this war Charles de Gaulle was appointed as Instructor for Poland's infantry and later on won Poland's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.
Huge shout-out for French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, who at the news of the fact that Germany intends to suppress the Greater Poland Uprising, sent a diplomatic note to Germany informing that Greater Poland is part of the Western Front. Which meant that the resumption of hostilities in Greater Poland by Germany would result in resumption of hostilities on the entire Western Front. The Germans immediately abandoned the plans to recapture Greater Poland.
And of course for hungarians who sent everything they could to Poland. From rifles and ammo. to filed kitchens.
P.S. The claim that Poles and Ukrainians hate each other and that is why the alliance was temporary is a over simplification. Poland intended to create an independent Ukrainian state under the leadership of Stanisław Petlura. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian people did not have enough "independence desire" and did not respond to these attempts, which was why the Soviets did not have major problems to stop the process before it began.
Kłócę się z jakimś baranem pod innym filmikiem, który powiedział, że bez Francji byśmy nie wygrali bo nam dali uzbrojenie i nas wsparli tak, że im zawdzieczamy zwyciestwo. Odpowiedziałem mu że wkład Francji oceniam na 10%
Kocham Polskę! I love Poland 😍 I happy because I from Poland. Nice to hear it
"Slavic salad" has some Baltic spices.
I freakin love that you used The Witcher 3 music to reinforce your video! Continue your good Work!
Cool video and piece of history. Thanks bro.
Greetings from Finland! We too know how to bloody the Russian Bear nose. We admire the Poles for their tenacity and willpower. Brothers in arms!
pls do a video on Gaddafis Libya
Seconded.
I agree 100%
This needs to happen.
Why do you point to a Foot Grenadier of the French Old Guard and refer to that as Russia right at the beginning at 0:07? That's one of the most iconic French uniform of the Napoleonic war.
ltflak He does not refer to it as russia. There are three charactes shown, each one connected with Polish struggle for independence from russia. One is Lech Wałęsa, one is a Polish soldier from the period od the soviet Polish war, and the napoleonic era soldier od there because lots of Polish people fought for Napoleon hoping to establish a free Polish nation after they are done beating Austria, russia and prussia, which were the countries that's partitioned Poland.
Then why didn't they use a Polish Uniform? Elements of the Czapka lived on in later Polish uniforms.
Well, I have no idea, I just wanted to point out, that he did not refer to that Grenadier as Russia. No idea why he did not choose to use a Polish soldier of the era, for example a member Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard.
Maybe precisesly because French uniforms are more iconic? How else do you represent Napoleonic Wars to a wider, international audience if not by those very French uniforms?
Those Polish Lancers were pretty iconic though.
Is that BF1 In the name of the Tsar soundtrack in the background?
I just want to say that you are the best history youtuber
And Poland saved Europe from a disaster ones again, it is a shame Poland has to take the lead in saving it yet again and our Western European governments just keep bashing them for their bravery. Love and respect to my Polish brothers, you deserve a great country, you earned it.
From a Dutch nationalist.
DEUS VULT I know they're just jokes but I'm tired of everyone calling me a plumber,retarded polack etc...
>Unironically having a Deus Vult username
oof
Poland trying to take some lands is saving Europe. Ok
Poland really should belong to the Polish. They've been through enough already without having to accept mass migration from Islamic countries that hate us. Multiculturalism is awful and a failed ideology.
Man, if history hasn’t shown anything, it’s Russia can’t let an ex go.
Most countries never let an ex go
You should do the estonian war of inpendendence next
Awesome video about a war I was never very familiar with, really explains why Russia wanted a piece of Poland selling with Germany at the beginning of WW2. Love the use of the In the Name of the Tsar music from BF1, really fits the mood!
What I especially love is the Witcher 3 soundtrack in the background at the beginning. :D
All Slavic salad of conflict - shows three non-Slavic countries...
The Baltic are slavic. Look up balto slavs. Type it into google
@@Aqua.man045 Estonia is surely not slavic.
Bogdan Balto slavic.
@@Aqua.man045 Estonia is related to Finland, not Russia or any slavic group
Bogdan once again I said Balto Slavic
8:00 The Poles were able to read the Soviet orders thanks to breaking of the Soviet ciphers.
YEEEES TAK DŁUGO CZEKALĘM NA TO!!!
Sorry its just that I'm a polish-australian
Plus there is indy oooooooooh yeah
I like your sarcasm and irony.. I like your sense of humor. Good Job! 👍
Loving the use of the Witcher III music! Great video! Thanks.
It's pretty good video, it does good in teaching polish history to non-polish people. But, there is one thing that is wrong, Pilsudski didn't do much during Polish-Soviet war.
The author of victory in Battle of Warsaw (or Miracle on Vistula) during Polish-Bolshevik war, was General Tadeusz Rozwadowski. Before this war Pilsudski withdrawn from public life, and from leading the army.
Pilsudski did created polish legions that regained independence of Poland, that played a huge role in history of Poland. But foreign historians often forget about Rozwadowski (in English alphabet it's spelled Rosvadovski, in polish alphabet W=V), and mistake victories of Roswadowski as victories of Pilsudski.
This is not fully true.
Could you do a video on the independence wars (in 1918) of Estonia,Latvia or Lithuania (preferably Estonia) or do a video on the Saint George's Night uprising (Jüriöö ülestõus) an event where Estonians tried to get rid of Danish and German rulers
Poland is awesome, it's the home of CD Projekt Red
Geralt of Rivia
Fuk yu
Geralt of Rivia and GOG
I LOVED the into to this one xD I mean, what a great way to reflect the harsh history of a nation through just a few words xD Brilliant!
Gonna watch the rest now but after that intro it can't be bad :D
thanks man for a really good knowledge presented here, and Witcher 3 at the end make my day, Regards from Poland.
Can you talk about Finland's independence? From Russia
Not Piłsudski but gen Tadeusz Rozwadowski saved Warsaw and stop red shit attack.
Piłsudski only tooks credits for this.
Yes, Rozwadowski was the architect of the winning battle plan. But Piłsudski had the authority that made the plan feasible for the Polish army.
Columbo, Easy to criticize when one know the future, right?
Negotiations have been going on for a long time. But the Whites wanted return to Russian Empire with very small Polish autonomy. It was unacceptable for Poles. No one could know that so delusional ideology of the Bolshevik would be able to build another empire.
You neatly gloss over the Poland/West Ukrainian People's Republic [non-communist] (Lvov) conquest war, and the attempt to conquer the eastern (yes there were 2 after WWI) also, BEFORE the alliance with the remaining remnants of Ukrainian People's Republic (eastern) for Kiev to defeat the Soviets became such a disaster that Warsaw was imperilled.
You also neatly skip over the minor war with Lithuania over Vilnius at the end of the Polish/Soviet war. It was all kinda one fight.
But the stuff you did not gloss over was good.
It wasn't even a war at all with Lithuania, it was just a trick of Piłsudzki, who wanted his hometown Wilno to be within Poland's borders. I don't think that anyone even died, during a polish troops march on Lithuania there were few skirmishes but most of them ended with disarment of lithuanian's troops and setting them free. Piłsudzki secretly ordered his trusted general Żeligowski to make an insurrection of his army that was occupying the town at the time so that it won't be like Poland annexed a chunk of lithuania's ground. Afterwards Żeligowski "surrendered" but Poland took Wilno as a part of the peace treaty with Lithuania.
tommy14
About Vilnus, it was not a war. More of a dispute.
Historically it was lithuanian.
Ethnically it was polish.
@@damianwyrebiak8143 and funny thing, if we count ethnical and regional Lithuanian nobles of the past we will more likely get to the conclusion that all of the proudest history of Duchy of Lithuania should be a heritage of modern Belarus, while modern Lithuania is a decendant of common people of the region of Samogitia/Žemaitija. On the terms of the culture most of it was pretty much polish until the artificial developments of 20th century that happened with a lot of help by Russians to oppose polish-lithuanian commonwealth heritage as well as Germans to produce a counterpart for slavic cultures of these lands (as it worked for them with Latvians and Estonians).
He kinda glossed over the fact that the one that actually got fucked over was the Western Ukrainian Republic, not the Ukrainian Republic. Petlura just sold off the Western Ukrainians to Pilsudski for military assistance. Something for which the Western Ukrainian commanding stuff was obviously mad as hell. Petlura was generally quite shitty leader and politic. Bad decisions inability to control his Cossacks, that started to kill the Jews in Western Ukraine. And many of the Jews supported the Western Ukrainian Republic and fought in its ranks. Needless to say, the leadership of the Western Ukraine was super pissed off.
But his execution of Bolbochan - an extremely precious asset of the Ukrainian Republic's army back then, was his shittiest move. And the reason for that execution was quite simple, actually. Petlura and some of the leaders of the Ukrainian Republic feared that colonel Bolbochan was becoming too influential and powerful, due to his successes and popularity in among the soldiers and thus, had him executed. But before that, they offered him an exile under pretense of going to Italy and training Ukrainian volunteers there. He declined, because he thought that he was where he was needed most - at front, and was executed by a firing squad.
Nice video, btw music from witcher ;D
Greetings from Poland :)
Excellent video. Very informative.
pls do the first indochina war/veitnam war 1946-1975 preferably 1 video if too much do 2 pls
yes someone has finaly requested it
lol me too
5:35 Thank you very much dear sir for using true Belarusian flag instead of the flag of current president
Edit: 10:48 goddammit you even played theme from Witcher 3 on background
Don't toss the Estonians into your Slavic Salad. They really don't appreciate it.
Well, he did so with Latvia and Lithuania too. Surprising amount of people think that "Baltic States" are slavic.
well, they are full with slavs
Lietuva does not like to be confused with Russia, I am offended.
Only Latvia and Estonia is full with Slavs (1/4 of their population).
Rubashow Yep, as do Latvians, Lithuanans and Hungarians.
Great video!
Quito-Ecuador
2020
What a beauty THX much loves from Poland :)