In connection with the centenary of the battle of Warsaw fought during the Polish-Bolshevik war on 13–25 August 1920 on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Institute of National Remembrance has launched an information campaign on this historical event. It includes the opening of an exhibition, publishing popular articles by IPN’s scholars, numerous educational projects, also for younger audience in the form of animated films, as well as traditional and social media campaigns.

Taking into consideration the significance of the battle, which not only decided about Poland’s independence but also halted the spread of communism to Central and Western Europe, we wanted to enrich this year’s celebration by giving it a more international dimension. As part of this, we asked Roger Moorhouse, a renowned academic and author, to address the subject from a broader perspective.

The film makes a point that the battle, which had stopped the Soviet export of the revolution “westward, most notably to Germany” for “a generation after 1920”, “fully deserves its place in history, and fully deserves to be commemorated and remembered”. If this fact has not been commonly acknowledged, it is perhaps because the battle “does not really fit into the Western narrative, which concentrates very strongly on the two world wars. And more than that, it took place in Eastern Europe, which is of course Western Europe’s traditional blind spot”.