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Operation Wilno
Part of Polish-Soviet War
Polish army enters Wilno, 1919
Date early 1919 Location near Wilno Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Second Polish Republic	Bolshevist Russia
Commanders and leaders
Józef Piłsudski Władysław Belina-Prażmowski Edward Rydz-Śmigły	Unknown
Strength
9 cavalry squadrons 3 infantry battalions artillery support local population	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

Operation Wilno refers to the Polish military offensive and temporary occupation of Vilnius (Wilno) from a contigent of the Red Army in April 1919.

Prelude

The Soviets, while at that time publicly supporting the case of Polish independence, supported communist agitators working against the government of the Second Polish Republic, and considered the eastern borders of any Polish state to be similar to those of the Congress Kingdom; Poles inspired by the memories of the greatness of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth saw their saw their borders lying much further east, and their leader, Józef Piłsudski, saw the opportunity in exploiting the turmoil and disarray in the territories of the Russian Empire shaken by the 1917 Revolution and the ongoing Civil War for the military expansion.

In the first weeks of 1919, following the retreat of the German troops of Ober-Ost under Max Hoffmann, the city of Wilno found itself in a power vacuum; it promptly became the place of struggle between various factions and underwent two revolutions. On January 1 a group of Polish officers led by generals Władysław Wejtko and Mokrzycki took control of the city, establishing a 'Samoobrona' (Self-Defence) temporary government. Their aim was to defeat another faction active within the city, the communist 'Workers' Council', which was plotting to seize the city. 'Samoobrona' rule did not last long. On January 5 the Polish forces were forced to retreat when the Russian Western Army marched in from Smolensk to support the local communists as part of their westward offensive. It became part of the Lithuanian SSR and soon the capital of the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed in the city on 27 February, 1919. Lit-Byel became the eighth government to control the city in two years. The short period during which the Lithuanian SSR and Lit-Byel were in control of the city was very eventful, as the new communist government turned Wilno into a social experiment, testing various solutions on the city's inhabitants. Józef Piłsudski, a native of Wilno, decided that regaining control over the city - whose population was mostly composed of Poles and Jews, with some Belarusians and about 2% Lithuanians - should become one of the priorities of the reborn Polish state.

The battle

Piłsudski arrived at the front near Lida on 15 April, bringing reinforcements from Warsaw. His plan calling for exploitation of the gap in Soviet lines between Wilno and Lida, and advance towards Wilno using the road and railway. Amidsts diversionary attacks, diverting Russian attention from the main Polish thrust towards Wilno, Polish forces attacked on dawn of 16 April.

The forces moving on Wilno included the cavalry group of Colonel Władysław Belina-Prażmowski (nine squadrons supported by a light battery of horse artillery, ~800 soldiers), and infantry under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły (three battalions of the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division with two batteries of heavy artillery, ~2,500 soldiers).

The diversionary attacks went well, with Soviet forces acting under the impression that Poles had other targets than Wilno. Despite the attacks being planned as diversionary, they succeeded themselves, with generał Józef Adam Lasocki taking Lida in two days, and generał Stefan Mokrzycki taking Nowogrodek in three and Baranowicze in four days.

On 18 April Col. Belina decided to use the element of surprise and move into Wilno without waiting for the slower infantry units. On 19 April the cavalry charged into the suburbs, spread panic among the confused garrison, seized the train and sent it down the line to collect infantry. By the evening of 19 April half of Wilno was in Polish control. With support of the city's predominantly Polish population, by 21 April the city was in Polish hands. Piłsudski himself reached Wilno that day.

Aftermath

When Piłsudski entered the city, a victory parade was held in his honor. The Polish citizens of the city on the whole were delighted; their politicians envisaged a separate Lithuanian state closely allied with Poland; the Jewish population, the only other sizeable community in Wilno, also welcomed the Polish government. Representatives from the city immediately were sent to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, and the University of Wilno; closed after the November Uprising in 1832, was reopened.

Acting according to his vision of Polish-led "Międzymorze" federation of East-Central European states, Piłsduski on April 22 issued a bi-lingual statement in Polish and Lithuanian, of his political intentions, the 'Proclamation to the inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania; promising elections take place on the basis of secret, universal, and direct voting, without distinction between sexes and to create an opportunity for settling your nationality problems and religious affairs in a manner that you yourself will determine, without any kind of force or pressure from Poland.

The Polish victory angered the Soviets; dozens of people connected with Lit-Byel were arrested, some were executed (Davies cites a death toll of 65 under Polish rule, and 2,000 under the 1920 brief Soviet reoccupation ; the former leaders of Lit-Byel began accusing one another of being responsible for the loss of their capital. Lenin considered the city vital to his plans, and ordered its immediate recapture. This set the stage for the further escalation of the Polish conflicts with Soviet Russia and with Lithuania.

Despite the city population consisting mostly of Poles, the Lithuanian government in Kaunas, which viewed the town as the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, saw the Polish incursion as a simple occupation. Relations between the Polish and Lithuanian governments, which were not be able to reach a compromise on Wilno, continued to worsen, destroying Piłsudski's plan for 'Międzymorze' and leading to open hostilities during the Polish-Lithuanian War. In the following year the Soviets re-occupied Wilno, followed by the Poles establishing the Republic of Central Lithuania.

See also

• 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division
• Lucjan Żeligowski
• Central Lithuania
• other battles of Wilno
• Wilno Voivodship

Notes

1. For controversies about the naming and dating of this conflict, refer to the section devoted to this subject in the Polish-Soviet War article.
2. Davies, p.30
3. Speaking of Poland's future frontiers, Piłsudski said: "All that we can gain in the west depends on the Entente—on the extent to which it may wish to squeeze Germany," while in the east "there are doors that open and close, and it depends on who forces them open and how far."
   MacMillan, Margaret, Paris 1919 : Six Months That Changed the World, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, ISBN 0-375-76052-0, p.212"
4. Davies, p.25
5. Davies, p.25-26
6. Davies, p.48
7. Davies, p.48-49
8. ^ THE REBIRTH OF POLAND. University of Kansas, lecture notes by professor Anna M. Cienciala, 2004. Last accessed on 2 June 2006.
9. Jews of Wilno had their own complex identity, and labels of Polish Jews, Lithuanian Jews or Russian Jews are all applicable only in part. See also: Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0195083199, Google Print, p.8 and Mark Abley, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2003, ISBN 061823649X, Google Print, p.205
10. Davies, pp.48, 53-54
11. ^ Davies, p.49
12. Davies, p.50
13. ^ Davies, p.53-54
14. Davies, p.51
15. Davies, p.240
16. Davies, p.51-53
17. Davies, p.57

References

• Davies, Norman (2003) . "White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20". Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-0694-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
• Adam Przybylski, 1928, Poland in the Fight for its Borders, April – July 1919 - this chapter contains an account of the battle, mostly identical with the one presented by Davies

• Conflicts in 1919
• 1919 in Poland
• Battles of the Polish-Soviet War
• History of Lithuania
• History of Vilnius