The War with Poland

Order No.233

By the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the Republic to the Red Forces Fighting against White-Guard Poland, August 14, 1920, No.233, Moscow


Transcribed and HTML markup for the Trotsky Internet Archive by David Walters

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Heroes! You have inflicted a shattering blow on White Poland, which was attacking us. Nevertheless, the criminal and frivolous Polish Government does not want peace. Pilsudski and his agents know that nothing threatens the independence of Poland, to whom, we, Workers’ and Peasants’ Russia, have agreed to give frontiers wider than those indicated by the Entente. But Pilsudski fears the coming of the day when he will have to justify the war to the Polish people, and he is hoping for intervention by France and Britain. For this reason the Polish Government is evading peace negotiations. Not daring to admit this openly, it is playing hide-and-seek. Its delegates do not turn up on time, or, if they do, they come without plenary powers. The wireless station in Warsaw does not accept our answers, or else the Polish Government pretends that it has not seen them, even when we have receipts from the Warsaw wireless station.

We want peace now, just as we did on the first day of the war. But precisely because of this we must wean the government of Polish bankrupts away from playing hide-and-seek with us. Red forces, forward! Heroes, on to Warsaw!


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Last updated on: 26.12.2006