2017/08/18 by Piotr S. Wandycz · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #French Historical and Cultural Studies #Polish Historical and Cultural Studies #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics
paper · doi:10.5406/polishreview.62.3.0003
openalex publication_date 2017/08/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract France emerged victorious from the First World war but had to face complex international problems of territorial, ideological, and military nature. The former Russian ally—a counterweight to a defeated but powerful Germany—was in the throes of a civil war, and the Bolsheviks were proclaiming a European revolution. The Red army advancing westward clashed with the nascent Polish state. To the Poles it was a conflict with both Communism and perennial Russian imperialism. The French army assisted Poland, viewed as a “place d’armes” against the Bolsheviks, and it contributed to some extent to Polish victory, but the Paris government was ambivalent as to contested territorial issues. To appreciate the nature of this Franco-Russian-Polish “triangle” it needs to be seen in a larger historical context in which the Poles were never an equal partner of the French.