Page 32 - The Chief Culprit

First Attempts to Unleash a Second World War y 9

On July 23, 1920, directly from the Comintern congress, Lenin telegraphed Stalin at
the Polish front: “Situation in Comintern is outstanding. Zinoviev, Bukharin, and I think
that it would be proper to encourage a revolution in Italy. My personal opinion is that, to
do so, Hungary has to be sovietized, possibly along with Czechoslovakia and Rumania.” In
5
a conversation with the French delegates to the congress, Lenin was even blunter: “Yes, the
Soviet troops are in Warsaw. Soon, Germany will be ours. We will conquer Hungary again;
the Balkans will rise against capitalism. Italy will tremble. Bourgeois Europe is cracking at the
seams in the storm.” 6
e Red Army stepped onto Polish territory and immediately in the first occupied city
7
declared the creation of the PSSR—the Polish Soviet Socialist Republic. Felix Dzerzhinski,
the head of the Soviet secret police and an ethnic Pole, led the PSSR. By the end of the second
congress of the Comintern, Warsaw was half surrounded by the units of the Red Army. Prior
to the Polish counterattack, the Red Army crossed the Vistula River in the vicinity of the
town of Wlocławek—360 kilometers, or ten marching days, from Berlin.
8
ere was no common border between Soviet Russia and Germany. In order to spark
the fires of revolution, it was necessary to tear down the dividing barrier—Poland. On
September 22, 1920, Lenin spoke to the Ninth Conference of the Russian Communist Party
and bluntly described the logic guiding the Bolsheviks in their drive: “ e defensive war
against capitalism is over, we have won. . . . We are now going to try to attack them, to help
the sovietization of Poland. . . . We have set ourselves a task: to seize Warsaw. . . . It turned
out that not just the fate of Warsaw is being decided, but the fate of the whole Versailles
Treaty.” 9
To the Communists’ misfortune, Tukhachevski, who did not understand strategy, was
in command of Soviet troops. Tukhachevski’s armies were crushed near Warsaw and fled in
disgrace. In the critical moment, Tukhachevski lacked strategic reserves, and this decided the
outcome of the grandiose battle. is time, Europe was fortunate. e Soviet Communists
had to postpone the revolution in Europe until 1923.