title: Fritz Haber

text: Haber's other son, Ludwig Fritz Haber (1921–2004), became an eminent British economist and wrote a history of chemical warfare in World War I, "The Poisonous Cloud" (1986).


title: Fritz Haber

text: His daughter Eva lived in Kenya for many years, returning to England in the 1950s. She died in 2015, leaving three children, five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.


title: Fritz Haber

text: Several members of Haber's extended family died in Nazi concentration camps, including his half-sister Frieda's daughter, Hilde Glücksmann, her husband, and their two children.


title: Fritz Haber

text: Haber left Dahlem in August 1933, staying briefly in Paris, Spain, and Switzerland. He was in extremely poor health during these travels. Haber specifically suffered attacks from angina. Repeated angina attacks can cause lasting damage which likely contributed to his death the next year.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In the meantime, some of the scientists who had been Haber's counterparts and competitors in England during World War I now helped him and others to leave Germany. Brigadier Harold Hartley, Sir William Jackson Pope and Frederick G. Donnan arranged for Haber to be officially invited to Cambridge, England. There, with his assistant Joseph Joshua Weiss, Haber lived and worked for a few months. Scientists such as Ernest Rutherford were less forgiving of Haber's involvement in poison gas warfare: Rutherford pointedly refused to shake hands with him.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In 1933, during Haber's brief sojourn in England, Chaim Weizmann offered him the directorship at the Sieff Research Institute (now the Weizmann Institute) in Rehovot, in Mandatory Palestine. He accepted, and left for the Middle East in January 1934, travelling with his half-sister, Else Haber Freyhahn. His ill health overpowered him and on 29 January 1934, at the age of 65, he died of heart failure, mid-journey, in a Basel hotel.


title: Fritz Haber

text: Following Haber's wishes, Haber and Clara's son Hermann arranged for Haber to be cremated and buried in Basel's Hörnli Cemetery on 29 September 1934, and for Clara's remains to be removed from Dahlem and re-interred with him on 27 January 1937 (see picture). Albert Einstein, his longtime friend, eulogied Haber in the following words; "Haber's life was the tragedy of the German Jew – the tragedy of the unrequited love".


title: Fritz Haber

text: Haber bequeathed his extensive private library to the Sieff Institute, where it was dedicated as the Fritz Haber Library on 29 January 1936. Hermann Haber helped to move the library and gave a speech at the dedication. It still exists as a private collection in the Weizmann Institute.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In 1981, the Minerva foundation of the Max Planck Society and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) established the Fritz Haber Research Center for Molecular Dynamics, based at the Institute of Chemistry of the Hebrew University. Its purpose is the promotion of Israeli-German scientific collaboration in the field of Molecular Dynamics. The Center's library is also called Fritz Haber Library, but it is not immediately clear if there is any connection to the 1936 homonymous library of the Sieff (now Weizmann) Institute.


title: Fritz Haber

text: The institute most closely associated with his work, the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Dahlem (a suburb of Berlin), was renamed Fritz Haber Institute in 1953 and is part of the Max Planck Society.


title: Fritz Haber

text: A fictional description of Haber's life, and in particular his longtime relationship with Albert Einstein, appears in Vern Thiessen's 2003 play "Einstein's Gift". Thiessen describes Haber as a tragic figure who strives unsuccessfully throughout his life to evade both his Jewish ancestry and the moral implications of his scientific contributions.


title: Fritz Haber

text: BBC Radio 4 "Afternoon Play" has broadcast two plays on the life of Fritz Haber. The description of the first reads: from the Diversity Website:


title: Fritz Haber

text: The second play was titled "The Greater Good" and was first broadcast on 23 October 2008. It was directed by Celia de Wolff and written by Justin Hopper, and starred Anton Lesser as Haber. It explored his work on chemical warfare during World War I and the strain it put on his wife Clara (Lesley Sharp), concluding with her suicide and its cover-up by the authorities. Other cast included Dan Starkey as Haber's research associate Otto Sackur, Stephen Critchlow as Colonel Peterson, Conor Tottenham as Haber's son Hermann, Malcolm Tierney as General Falkenhayn and Janice Acquah as Zinaide.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In 2008, a short film titled "Haber" depicted Fritz Haber's decision to embark on the gas warfare program and his relationship with his wife. The film was written and directed by Daniel Ragussis.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In January 2012, "Radiolab" aired a segment on Haber, including the invention of the Haber Process, the Second Battle of Ypres, his involvement with Zyklon A, and the death of his wife, Clara.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In December 2013, Haber was the subject of a BBC World Service radio programme: "Why has one of the world's most important scientists been forgotten?".


title: Fritz Haber

text: His and his wife's life, including their relationship with the Einsteins, and Haber's wife's suicide, are featured prominently in the novel "A Reunion of Ghosts" by Judith Claire Mitchell. The characters are named Lenz and Iris Alter.


title: Fritz Haber

text: Haber's life and relationship to Albert Einstein was portrayed in "Genius" which aired on National Geographic Channel from 25 April to 27 June 2017.


title: Fritz Haber

text: In September 2022, Swedish metal band Sabaton released a song titled "Father" which contemplates Haber's divided legacy between participation in the development and use of chemical warfare in World War I and significance of Haber-Bosch process on agriculture.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Chicago is a 2002 American musical black comedy crime film based on the 1975 stage musical of the same name which in turn originated in the 1926 play of the same name. It explores the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. "Chicago" centers on Roxie Hart (Zellweger) and Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones), two murderers who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Roxie, a housewife, and Velma, a vaudevillian, fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows. The film marks the directorial debut of Rob Marshall, who also choreographed the film, and was adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: "Chicago" was critically acclaimed, with particular praise given to the performances of the cast. The film went on to win six Academy Awards in 2003, including Best Picture, making it the first musical to win Best Picture since "Oliver!" in 1968. For her performance, Zeta-Jones won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the British Academy Film Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. Zellweger won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and Gere won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: In 1924, chorus girl Roxie Hart watches lead Velma Kelly perform ("Overture/All That Jazz") at The Onyx, a Chicago theater. Seeking stardom, Roxie begins an affair with furniture salesman Fred Casely, who claims to know the manager. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband Charlie and sister Veronica, after catching them in bed together.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: A month later, Casely admits that he lied in order to sleep with her. Enraged, Roxie shoots him dead. She convinces her gullible husband, Amos, to take the blame, telling him she killed a burglar in self-defense. As Amos confesses, Roxie fantasizes a musical number devoted to her husband ("Funny Honey"). However, when the detective brings up evidence of Roxie's affair with Casely, Amos recants; Roxie furiously admits the truth and is arrested. Ambitious District Attorney Martin Harrison announces he will seek the death penalty.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: At Cook County Jail, Roxie is sent to Murderess' Row, supervised by the corrupt Matron "Mama" Morton ("When You're Good to Mama"). Roxie meets her idol Velma, but her friendship is rudely rebuffed. She learns the backstories of the other women there, including Velma ("Cell Block Tango"). On Morton's advice, Roxie engages Velma's lawyer, the brilliant Billy Flynn ("All I Care About"). Flynn and Roxie manipulate the press, reinventing Roxie as an originally virtuous Southern woman corrupted by the fast life of the city; she claims that she had the affair with Casely because Amos was always working, but repented and left Casely for Amos, and Casely jealously attacked her ("We Both Reached for the Gun"). The press believe the story; praised by the public as a tragic heroine, Roxie becomes an overnight sensation ("Roxie"). Velma, unhappy at losing the public's attention, tries to convince Roxie to join her act, replacing the sister that she murdered ("I Can't Do It Alone"), but Roxie, now the more popular of the two rivals, snubs her just as Velma originally snubbed Roxie.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Meanwhile, wealthy heiress "Go-to-Hell" Kitty Baxter, is arrested for murdering her husband and his two mistresses, and the press and Flynn focus more on her. To Velma's surprise, Roxie quickly steals back the fame by claiming pregnancy. Amos is ignored by the press ("Mister Cellophane"), and Flynn, to create more sympathy for Roxie, convinces him that the child is Casely's, and that he should divorce Roxie in the middle of her predicament. Roxie over-confidently fires Flynn, believing she can now win on her own. However, when Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian woman on Murderess' Row (who happens to be the only inmate to protest and insist on her own innocence), becomes the first woman in Cook County history to be executed by hanging, Roxie realizes the gravity of the situation and rehires Flynn.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Roxie's trial begins, and Billy turns it into a media spectacle ("Razzle Dazzle") with the help of the sensationalist newspaper reporters and radio personality Mary Sunshine. Billy discredits witnesses, manipulates evidence and even stages a public reconciliation between Amos and Roxie when she claims the child is his. The trial seems to be going well for Roxie until Velma appears with Roxie's diary, reading incriminating entries in exchange for amnesty in her own case. Billy discredits the diary, implying that Harrison was the one who planted the evidence ("A Tap Dance"). Roxie is acquitted, but her fame is eclipsed moments later when another woman, who had also shot her own husband, shoots her lawyer just outside the courthouse. Flynn tells her to accept it, and admits that he tampered with her diary himself, in order to incriminate the DA and also free two clients simultaneously. Amos remains loyal and excited to be a father, but Roxie cruelly reveals that her pregnancy is false, and he finally leaves her.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Roxie does become a vaudeville performer but is very unsuccessful ("Nowadays"). The similarly-unsuccessful Velma reapproaches Roxie to suggest performing together as a double act consisting of two murderers. Roxie initially refuses, but later accepts when Velma points out that they can perform together despite their mutual resentment. The two stage a spectacular performance that earns them praise from the audience and the press ("Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag"). The film concludes with Roxie and Velma receiving a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience (which includes Flynn, Morton, the jurors, and other acquitted murderesses), and proclaiming that, "We couldn't have done it without you".


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: The film is based on the 1975 Broadway musical of the same name, which ran for 936 performances but was not well received by audiences, primarily due to its cynical tone. A film adaptation of "Chicago" was to have been the next project for Bob Fosse, who had directed and choreographed the original 1975 Broadway production and had won an Oscar for his direction of the film version of "Cabaret" (1972). Although he died before realizing his version, Fosse's distinctive jazz choreography style is evident throughout the 2002 film, and he is thanked in the credits. The minimalist 1996 revival of the musical proved far more successful, having played more than 10,162 performances (as of November 13, 2022), holding records for longest-running musical revival, longest-running American musical on Broadway and second longest-running show in Broadway history. Its runaway success sparked a greater appreciation of the 1975 original production and renewed stalled interest in a long-anticipated film, which incorporates the influences of both productions.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: The original production's musical numbers were staged as vaudeville acts; the film respects this but presents them as cutaway scenes in the mind of the Roxie character, while scenes in "real life" are filmed with a hard-edged grittiness. The musical itself was based on a 1926 Broadway play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist who had found her inspiration in two real-life Chicago trials she had covered for the press, about two real-life Jazz-era murderers Beulah Annan (Roxie Hart) and Belva Gaertner (Velma Kelly). The George Abbott-directed production, starring Francine Larrimore and Juliette Crosby, ran for 172 performances at the Music Box Theatre, and within a year was adapted to a film, in which Gaertner herself had a cameo. "Chicago" was produced by American companies Miramax Films and The Producers Circle in association with the German company Kallis Productions. "Roxie Hart", also known as "Chicago" or "Chicago Gal", is a 1942 American comedy film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and George Montgomery. The film is an adaptation of the 1926 play.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Principal photography took place in Toronto, Canada. The courthouse scene was shot in Osgoode Hall. Other scenes were shot at Queen's Park, the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery, Casa Loma, the Elgin Theatre, Union Station, the Canada Life Building, the Danforth Music Hall, and the Old City Hall.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Several songs from the musical's original score were cut from the film, primarily due to the musical numbers being figments of Roxie's imagination. "Tap Dance", "A Little Bit of Good", "I Can't Do It Alone" (reprise), "My Own Best Friend", "I Know a Girl", "Me and My Baby" and "When Velma Takes the Stand" were removed, and "Class", while filmed and recorded for the soundtrack album, is a deleted scene on the DVD, as well as present as part of an "extended version" from the film's 2005 broadcast premiere on NBC. An instrumental of "Me and My Baby" can be heard in its spot, where Roxie enjoys the renewed fame after claiming she's pregnant.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: "Chicago" was released on DVD in Region 1 (USA, Canada, and US territories) on August 19, 2003. It was released in Full Screen and Widescreen. In addition to this release, a two-disc "Razzle Dazzle" Edition was released over two years later on December 20, 2005, and later, on Blu-ray format, in January 2007 and, in an updated release, in May 2011. Miramax was the label responsible for the production of the DVDs and the discs themselves provide a feature-length audio commentary track with director Marshall and screenwriter Condon. There is also a deleted musical number called "Class", performed by Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: "Chicago" grossed $170,687,518 in the United States and Canada, as well $136,089,214 in other territories. Combined, the film grossed $306,776,732 worldwide, which was, at the time, the highest gross of any film never to reach #1 or #2 in the weekly box office charts in the North American markets (Canada and United States—where it peaked at #3). Worldwide, "Chicago" was the highest grossing live action musical with $306 million, a record that was then broken by "Mamma Mia!".


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, "Chicago" holds an 86% approval rating, based on 259 reviews, with an average rating of 8.00/10. The site's critics consensus states: "A rousing and energetic adaptation of the Broadway musical, "Chicago" succeeds on the level of pure spectacle, but provides a surprising level of depth and humor as well." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: The cast received widespread acclaim for their performances. Tim Robey, reviewer for "The Daily Telegraph", labeled "Chicago" as "The best screen musical for 30 years." He also stated that it has taken a "three-step tango for us to welcome back the movie musical as a form." Robey stated "This particular "Chicago" makes the most prolific use it possibly can out of one specific advantage the cinema has over the stage when it comes to song and dance: it's a sustained celebration of parallel montage." Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "Big, brassy fun". However, other reviews claimed that there were issues with the film being too streamlined, and minor complaints were made toward Marshall's directing influences.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: "Chicago", along with the 2001 musical "Moulin Rouge!" and the hip hop centered film "8 Mile" in 2002, is widely considered to be responsible for ushering a re-emergence of the musical film genre in the 21st century. Following the success of "Chicago", many movie musicals have been produced for theatrical release, with several adapted from stage productions for Broadway and London's West End, including "Phantom of the Opera", "The Producers", "Rent", "Dreamgirls", "Hairspray", "", "Mamma Mia!", "Nine", "Les Misérables", "Rock of Ages", "The Last Five Years", "Into the Woods", "Cats", "In the Heights", "Dear Evan Hansen", "tick, tick... BOOM!", "West Side Story" and more. The 2013 film "Sunshine on Leith" was also adapted from a stage production, originating with Scotland's Dundee Repertory Theatre.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Japanese rock band Buck-Tick named their 2010 album "Razzle Dazzle" after the film's song of the same name.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: The revived interest in musicals has also brought remakes or sequels to earlier films, including "Beauty and the Beast" in 2017 (a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1991 animated feature, itself adapted for 1994 Broadway), the 2018 films: "" (a sequel to 2008's "Mamma Mia!"), "A Star Is Born" (a fourth version of the film following earlier productions in 1937, 1954, and 1976) and "Mary Poppins Returns" (a sequel to 1964's "Mary Poppins"), and 2019 films: "Aladdin" (a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1992 animated feature, itself adapted for Broadway in 2011) and "The Lion King" (a photorealistic live-action adaptation of Disney's 1994 animated feature, itself adapted for Broadway in 1997). Notable original and biographical musical films have also been released to critical and commercial success since "Chicago"'s run, including "Walk the Line" (2005), "Once" (2006), "Enchanted" (2007), "La La Land" (2016), "Rocketman" (2019), and "Annette" (2021). Other original and biographical musical films released to commercial success with mixed critical reception, includes "Across the Universe" (2007), "The Greatest Showman" (2017), "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018), "Yesterday" (2019), "Aline" (2020), and more.


title: Chicago (2002 film)

text: Many of "Chicago"'s cast and crew have gone on to work in succeeding musicals, including director Marshall ("Nine", "Into the Woods", "Mary Poppins Returns", "The Little Mermaid"), writer Condon (writer/director for "Dreamgirls", director for "Beauty and the Beast", writer for "The Greatest Showman"), costume designer Atwood ("Sweeney Todd", "Nine", "Into the Woods"), and actresses Zeta-Jones ("Rock of Ages"), Latifah ("Hairspray"), and Baranski ("Mamma Mia!", "Into the Woods").


title: The Addams Family 2

text: The Addams Family 2 is a 2021 computer-animated supernatural black comedy road film directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, co-directed by Laura Brousseau and Kevin Pavlovic, written by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Ben Queen, and Susanna Fogel with a story by Hernandez and Samit, and based on the characters created by Charles Addams. It is the sequel to the 2019 film "The Addams Family" and stars the voices of Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Kroll, Javon Walton, Wallace Shawn, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, and Bill Hader. It tells the story of the Addams family as they go on a road trip.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: The film was theatrically released in the United States by United Artists Releasing on October 1, 2021, followed by an international release by Universal Pictures on October 8. It also became available for online rental on the same day in the United States and Canada. The film grossed over $120 million and received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized the humor and story.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: At a science fair, Wednesday Addams is set to present her experiment, where she uses her pet squid Socrates' DNA on Uncle Fester to show how humans can be improved (with the side effect of gradually transmutating Fester). However, she is dismayed when she sees her family arrive. Nonetheless, her work gets noticed by scientist Cyrus Strange. Back at the Addams' home, Gomez worries that the children are drifting apart from him and Morticia, so he decides to take them on a family vacation. Before the family, Fester, Thing and Lurch head on a road trip across the United States, Gomez and Morticia are approached by a lawyer named Mr. Mustela, who claims that Wednesday was switched at birth and may not actually be an Addams, but they ignore him. On the road, the Addams family is pursued by Mustela and his employer's henchman Pongo.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: The family is initially set on going to Salem, Massachusetts, but Fester, who is slowly mutating due to the experiment, ends up making a detour to Niagara Falls. The family later stops in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Gomez and Morticia bring up Mustela and his claims about Wednesday, so Fester mentions a story when he visited Wednesday the day she was born and juggled babies in the delivery room. This only worsens Gomez and Morticia's fears that Wednesday may not be their biological child, which Wednesday overhears.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Gomez brings everyone to Miami to get in touch with Cousin Itt, in hopes he can help with their current dilemma. Itt joins them on the trip as they pass through San Antonio and leaves the family early at the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, Wednesday traps Mustela in a rope trap on her own and learns he is working for Cyrus before "letting him go". Cyrus suggests to Wednesday that he is her true father and invites her to his home in Sausalito, California. Wednesday runs a DNA test using Gomez's hair, which seemingly proves that she is not his daughter. Wednesday leaves the family while they sleep, but Lurch catches up with her. The rest of the Addams learn where she is heading and follow suit.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: At his home, Cyrus shows Wednesday a formula he developed to make human–animal hybrids, similar to Wednesday's experiment. When the rest of the Addams family shows up, Wednesday is persuaded to stay with Cyrus. After Pugsley finds out that Cyrus' daughter Ophelia is a pig, Cyrus reveals he is using Wednesday, as her formula was better than his. He captures the family to test on them, but Wednesday refuses to do so. Cyrus tries to get Pongo to go after her, but it is revealed Lurch and Pongo knew each other before while in a mental asylum, and they decide to free the Addams. Cyrus comes into contact with his formula during the scuffle and turns into a hybrid monster. The now-completely insane doctor tries to kill the family, but is stopped by Fester, who has fully mutated into a squid monster. After the two fight, Cyrus falls off a cliff to his death. Fester is turned back to normal by Wednesday, using a necklace of her family's blood that Morticia gave her earlier.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Wednesday reunites with her family and they return home along with Pongo and Ophelia, the latter of whom falls in love with Pugsley. While Wednesday knew that Cyrus faked his DNA test results, Gomez reveals to Wednesday that he wears a toupée after losing his original hair in a napalm accident. He promises the family that next time, he will take them on a trip across the world.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: On October 15, 2019, following the 2019 film's successful opening weekend, it was announced that a sequel to the film was scheduled to be theatrically released on October 22, 2021, and that Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon would return to direct the film. Cinesite Studios was again a production partner on the film and provided CG animation and digital visual effects for the sequel. 2D animation from the credits was provided by Creative Capers Entertainment.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Most of the original actors returned, while in October 2020, Bill Hader and Javon Walton joined the cast, with Hader as a new character named Cyrus and Walton replacing Finn Wolfhard as the voice of Pugsley Addams. In July 2021, Wallace Shawn was revealed to have voiced a new character.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: In July 2021, Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna were announced to have composed the score for "The Addams Family 2", as with the first film. In September 2021, Maluma, Megan Thee Stallion, and Rock Mafia created a new song called "Crazy Family", while "My Family" gets a remix by Yoshi Flower. Dominic Lewis, composer of "Peter Rabbit", did a cover of "I Will Survive" for Lurch at the bar. Similar to the previous film's ending, an updated version of Vic Mizzy's theme from the original TV series plays in the ending, this time performed by Christina Aguilera, who provided the previous film's opening song.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: "The Addams Family 2" was theatrically released in the United States by United Artists Releasing and internationally by Universal Pictures on October 1, 2021. The film also became available for online rental on the same day.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: It was previously scheduled for release on October 22 and October 8. On January 21, 2021, it was moved up to October 1, 2021, allowing the James Bond film "No Time to Die" (another MGM title) to take over the October 8 slot. In June 2021, United Artists Releasing announced they did not plan on rescheduling "The Addams Family 2", in the wake of "" moving to the same weekend (which later moved to January 14, 2022). In August 2021, the film shifted its release for online rental to the same day as its theatrical bow in the United States and Canada, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 18, 2022 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: "The Addams Family 2" grossed $56.5million in the United States and Canada, and $63.5million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $120million.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: In the United States and Canada, "The Addams Family 2" was released alongside "" and "The Many Saints of Newark", and was projected to gross $15–17 million from 4,207 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $5.5 million on its first day, including $550,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $17.3 million, finishing second, behind "Let There Be Carnage". The film dropped 42% in its second weekend to $10 million, finishing third. It finished in fourth place during its third weekend at the box office, declining 30% to $7.1 million.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 28% based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Altogether ooky, and not in a good way." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 87% positive score, with 73% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" wrote about the film "It's in the nature of most animated sequels to struggle to recapture the full charm of the original hit. But in the case of ""The Addams Family 2"," Tiernan and Vernon have used the sequel as an opportunity for an upgrade. The script is by an entirely new team, and in some ineffable bats-in-the-belfry way the jokes now land with a more inspired and spontaneous creepy kookiness." Savannah Lee of Parent Previews criticized the film, writing "I didn't see the 2019 version of "The Addams Family" because it didn't look appealing and my son was too young to clamor for it. I read a quick plot synopsis to get myself caught up, but I probably didn't need to. This movie has little, if anything, to do with the previous installment, so you can just jump right in if you so choose." Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com gave a 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "An intrusive product placement billboard will trigger the irritation viewers may have with the odd cross-promotion in television commercials on behalf of both this movie and an insurance company. Of more concern, parents may get some tough questions due to the paternity issues raised by the film, including DNA tests. The issues of who a child 'belongs' to and what biology has to do with identity will be a concern for some families."


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Sandie Angulo Chen of Common Sense Media gave the film 3 stars out of 5 and wrote "Silly sequel focuses on family love; peril, some racy jokes." Meagan Navarro of "Bloody Disgusting" gave 2 bones out of 5 and wrote ""The Addams Family 2" might change its scenery, but it doesn't deviate from its approach. It's still a ridiculous, straightforward animated update to an enduring property. Grown-ups may disown this take on The Addams Family, but it was never meant for adults anyway. This focuses solely on tickling the funny bone of the youngest of audiences. In other words, it's not a great movie, but it likely succeeds in its goal as a manic comedy bit for children. That it steps further away from a grim aesthetic means it's a far more anemic gateway into the genre than before." Molly Freeman of "Screen Rant" called the film "[...] a shallow continuation that spends too much time on unconnected hijinks resulting in an uneven sequel with much less heart."


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Mychael and Jeff Danna won the award for Original Score — Animated Film at the 12th Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2021.


title: The Addams Family 2

text: Charlize Theron was nominated for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie at the 2022 Kids' Choice Awards for her role as Morticia Addams.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: National Lampoon's Vacation, sometimes referred to as simply Vacation, is a 1983 American road trip comedy film directed by Harold Ramis starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy and Frank McRae. It tells the story of a family that goes on a cross-country trip to an amusement park as hilarious hi-jinks occur along the way. The screenplay was written by John Hughes on the basis of his short story "Vacation '58," which appeared in "National Lampoon".


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: The film was a box-office hit, earning more than $60 million in the U.S. with an estimated budget of $15 million, and received positive reviews from critics.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: As a result of its success, five sequels have been produced: "European Vacation" (1985), "Christmas Vacation" (1989), "Vegas Vacation" (1997), "Christmas Vacation 2" (2003) and "Vacation" (2015). In 2000, readers of "Total Film" voted it the 46th greatest comedy film of all time.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Clark Griswold, wanting to spend more time with his wife Ellen and children Rusty and Audrey, decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from the Chicago suburbs to the southern California amusement park Walley World, billed as "America's Favorite Family Fun Park". Ellen wants to fly, but Clark insists on driving, so he can bond with his family. He has ordered a new car in preparation for the trip, but the dealer claims that it will not be ready for six weeks. Clark is forced to buy the 'Wagon Queen Family Truckster', an ugly, oversized station wagon, after the car he brought to trade in has been hauled away and crushed.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: During the family's travels, they experience numerous mishaps, such as being tagged by vandals in St. Louis, Missouri. Clark aggravates a bartender in Dodge City, Kansas and is tantalized on numerous occasions by a beautiful young woman driving a flashy red Ferrari 308 GTS.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: They stop in Coolidge, Kansas to visit Ellen's cousin Catherine and her husband Eddie, who foist cranky Aunt Edna and her mean dog Dinky on the Griswolds, asking them to drop her off at her son Norman's home in Phoenix.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: After stopping at a decrepit and dirty campground in South Fork, Colorado for the night, Clark forgets to untie Dinky's leash from the rear bumper before driving off the next morning, killing the dog. A motorcycle cop pulls the Griswolds over and angrily lectures Clark over animal cruelty, but accepts Clark's apology. Edna learns of her dog's death and becomes more irate with Clark. Exiting Colorado, Ellen loses her bag which had her credit cards, forcing Clark to cash a check for future spending.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: While Ellen and Clark argue during a drive between Utah and Arizona, they crash and become stranded in the desert near Monument Valley. Clark and Rusty have a bonding experience explaining why Clark wants to take this vacation. After setting off alone in the desert to look for help, Clark eventually reunites with his family, who have been rescued and taken to a local mechanic. The mechanic extorts Clark's remaining cash only to render the car barely operational. Frustrated, they stop at the Grand Canyon. When Clark is unable to convince a hotel clerk to cash a personal check because his credit card was reported stolen, he raids the cash register behind the clerk's back and leaves the check.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Leaving, they find that Aunt Edna has died in her sleep. They tie her corpse to the roof of the car, wrapped in a tarpaulin. When they reach Norman's home, they discover he is out of town so they leave Edna's body by the back door with a note. The family has a small memorial for her although Ellen is annoyed by Clark’s indifferent eulogy.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Overwhelmed by the mishaps they have encountered during the road trip, Ellen and the children want to go back home, but Clark has become obsessed with reaching Walley World and they continue on. After an argument with Ellen, Clark eventually meets the Ferrari-driving blonde beauty at a hotel bar and goes skinny-dipping with her in its pool, but they are discovered by the family before anything intimate happens. Ellen forgives Clark and they go skinny-dipping themselves.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Despite the family's misfortunes, they finally arrive at Walley World the next day only to discover the park closed for the next two weeks for repairs. Finally slipping into madness and realizing that all his efforts have been for nothing, Clark buys a realistic-looking BB gun and demands that park security guard Russ Lasky take them through Walley World. Ellen and the kids follow, attempting to placate Clark. Eventually, an LAPD SWAT team arrives and just as the family is about to be arrested, the park owner Roy Walley appears. Roy understands Clark's impassioned longing to achieve the perfect vacation, bringing back memories of his own family vacation headaches. He decides not to file criminal charges against the Griswolds and lets the family – along with the SWAT team – enjoy the park as his guests.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: During the credits, a photo montage is seen. The final photo shows that the Griswolds decided to fly back to Chicago.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Harold Ramis has an offscreen voice cameo as one of the police officers at Walley World and provides the voice of the recorded message from Marty the Moose.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: During the Chicago Blizzard of 1979, writer John Hughes began developing a short story entitled "Vacation '58" for an issue of the "National Lampoon." While the story ended up being bumped from the initial vacation-themed issue, it was eventually published in September 1979 and subsequently optioned by Warner Bros. "When I brought it to Hollywood, the first guy I brought it to was Jeff Katzenberg who was at Paramount," recalled producer Matty Simmons, who worked as a publisher at the "National Lampoon". "He said it would never make a movie, it was too episodic, too consequential. I said, 'Yeah, it's a road trip. It's supposed to be episodic. You go from town to town, place to place.' But he didn’t like it, so then my agent brought it to Warner Brothers, and I met with them. Most of them said the same thing, but there was one executive over there—a guy named Mark Canton—who really pulled for it and it got made."


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Upon Simmons' agreement with Warner Bros., Hughes was assigned the task of adapting his original story into a screenplay. Harold Ramis and Chevy Chase rewrote Hughes's first draft to place the story from the father's point of view rather than the son's.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Filming began on July 5, 1982, in Boone, Colorado, and lasted 55 days. Parts of the film were shot in Monument Valley, Utah; Flagstaff, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona; Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and Magic Mountain in California; Southern Colorado, and St. Louis, Missouri.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: In Hughes' original short story, the theme park was Disneyland. To avoid legal troubles, all of the names associated with Disneyland were altered to sound-alikes. For instance, the park became Walley World, itself a good-natured parody of the Anaheim location, and the mascot, Marty Moose, is reminiscent of Walt Disney's own Mickey Mouse. Similarly, Roy Walley's appearance bears similarities to that of Disney and his name is similar to that of his brother Roy Disney.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: In the film, the Walley World theme park is represented by Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Santa Anita Park's large parking lot and blue-tinged fascia served as the exterior of Walley World, while all park interior scenes were shot at Magic Mountain. The two roller coasters seen in the film are La Revolución, which can be recognized by the vertical loop, and Colossus (currently Twisted Colossus), the double-track wooden roller coaster.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: The movie's popularity gave rise to an ongoing cultural running gag of using the name "Wally World" (spelled as "Wally" without an "e") as a nickname for real-life retailer Walmart.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: The Wagon Queen Family Truckster station wagon was created specifically for the film. It is based on a 1983 Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon. The car was designed by George Barris, and it lampooned American cars of the late 1970s. The Truckster features a "metallic pea" green paint scheme, extensive imitation wood-paneling decals, eight headlights (the second pair was taken from another Crown Victoria/Country Squire and mounted upside-down above the stock pair), a grille area largely covered by bodywork with only two small openings close to the bumper, an oddly-placed fuel filler door and an airbag made from a trashcan liner.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: The musical score for "National Lampoon's Vacation" was composed by Ralph Burns, featuring original songs by Lindsey Buckingham. A soundtrack album was released in 1983 by Warner Bros. Records. While the album did not chart, Buckingham's single "Holiday Road" reached number 82 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: "National Lampoon's Vacation" was first released on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, and CED in late 1983. It was later released again on VHS in 1986, 1991, 1995 and 1999. It was first released on DVD in 1997. The DVD was presented in an open-matte full screen presentation. Its only feature was the film's theatrical trailer. A 20th anniversary DVD was released in 2003. It included an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Its bonus features included an audio commentary with director Harold Ramis, producer Matty Simmons, and stars Chevy Chase, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, and Randy Quaid. It also included an introduction with Chase, Simmons, and Quaid, a family truckster interactive featurette gallery, and the film's theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray was released in 2013. It included the same features from the 20th Anniversary DVD and included the A&E documentary: "Inside Story: National Lampoon's Vacation".


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: "National Lampoon's Vacation" opened theatrically in 1,175 venues on July 29, 1983, and earned $8,333,358 in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the domestic box office. The film grossed $61,399,552.


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: "National Lampoon's Vacation" received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% rating based on 44 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Blessed by a brilliantly befuddled star turn from Chevy Chase, "National Lampoon's Vacation" is one of the more consistent – and thoroughly quotable – screwball comedies of the 1980s." Metacritic reports a 55 out of 100 rating based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale; the company's founder, Ed Mintz, said in 2016, "I loved it ... I couldn't figure out for anything why people didn't love that more".


title: National Lampoon's Vacation

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" gave the film a positive review, saying, ""National Lampoon's Vacation", which is more controlled than other Lampoon movies have been, is careful not to stray too far from its target. The result is a confident humor and throwaway style that helps sustain the laughs – of which there are quite a few." Entertainment magazine "Variety" called the film "an enjoyable trip through familiar comedy landscapes" and praised "director Harold Ramis for populating the film with a host of well-known comedic performers in passing parts." Conversely, Richard Rayner of "Time Out" magazine said, "The visual gags come thick and fast, and are about as subtly signposted as the exit markers on a freeway. An exercise in the comedy of humiliation which is the stuff of shamefaced giggles."


title: Jarhead (film)

text: Jarhead is a 2005 American biographical war drama film based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir of the same name. The film was directed by Sam Mendes, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford with Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black, and Chris Cooper. "Jarhead" chronicles Swofford's life story and his military service in the Persian Gulf War.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: The film was released on November 4, 2005, by Universal Pictures. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing $97 million against a budget of $72 million. Despite the film's mixed response, it spawned a direct-to-video series with three subsequent films.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: In 1989, Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, whose father served in the earlier Vietnam War (1961-1975), attends United States Marine Corps recruit training before being stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. Claiming that he joined the military because he "got lost on the way to college", Swofford finds his time at Camp Pendleton difficult, and struggles to make friends. While Swofford feigns illness to avoid his responsibilities, a "lifer", Staff Sergeant Sykes, takes note of his potential and offers Swofford an opportunity to attend his Scout Sniper course.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: After gruelling training, the Scout Sniper course is left with eight candidates, among them Swofford, now a sniper, and Swofford's roommate Corporal Alan Troy who becomes his spotter. When Kuwait is invaded by Iraq, Swofford's unit is deployed to the Arabian Peninsula as a part of "Operation Desert Shield" in the Gulf War (1990–1991). Eager for combat, the Marines find themselves bored with remedial training, constant drills, and a routine monotony that feeds their boredom, and prompts them to talk about the unfaithful girlfriends and wives waiting for them at home. They even erect a bulletin board featuring photographs and brief notes telling what perfidies the women had committed (known in military slang as a "Jodie Wall").


title: Jarhead (film)

text: Swofford obtains unauthorized alcohol and organizes an impromptu Christmas party, arranging for Fergus to cover his watch so he can celebrate. Fergus accidentally sets fire to a tent while cooking some sausages and ignites a crate of flares, waking the whole camp and enraging Staff Sergeant Sykes, who demotes Swofford from lance corporal to private and puts him on "shit-burning" detail. The punishments, combined with the heat, the boredom, and Swofford's suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity, give Swofford a mental breakdown, to the point where he threatens Fergus with a rifle, then orders Fergus to shoot him instead.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: Later, Operation Desert Storm begins and the Marines are sent to the Saudi Arabian-Kuwait border. Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged when the unit returns home. Troy becomes distant from his friends. Knowing that Troy will not be allowed to reenlist, the Marines attack him with a red-hot USMC branding iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. The Marines march through the infamous "Highway of Death" (on the northbound road leading back to Iraq from capital Kuwait City), strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of a bombing campaign. The Marines later catch sight of distant burning Kuwaiti oil wells, ignited only moments before by retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish, Sykes orders the squad to move upwind.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: Near the end of the war, Swofford and Troy are finally given a sniping mission. Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, their battalion commander, orders them to kill at least one of two high-ranking Iraqi Republican Guard officers at a nearby airfield. At the last second before Swofford takes the shot, Major Lincoln interrupts them to call in an air strike. Troy desperately pleads to make a kill, but is denied and overruled as the airplanes destroy the Iraqi airfield, much to his and Swofford's disappointment. The war ends without Swofford ever firing his rifle. During a monologue, Swofford realizes that all of his training and effort to achieve the elite status as a marine sniper is meaningless in modern warfare.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: After returning home the Marines parade through a town in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend but discovers she has a new boyfriend. He is a Private now. Fowler is seen with a prostitute in a bar, now as a Corporal, Kruger in a corporate boardroom, Escobar as a supermarket employee, Cortez as a father of three children, and Sykes continuing his service as a first sergeant in the Iraq War. Later, Swofford learns of Troy's death during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends his funeral, reunites with some of his old friends and afterwards reminisces about the effects of the war.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 61% based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's consensus states: "This first-person account of the first Gulf War scores with its performances and cinematography but lacks an emotional thrust." Roger Ebert gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars, crediting it for its unique portrayal of Gulf War Marines who battled boredom and a sense of isolation rather than enemy combatants. "Entertainment Weekly" magazine gave the film a "B+" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote:


title: Jarhead (film)

text: In his review for the "Washington Post", Stephen Hunter praised Jake Gyllenhaal's performance: "What's so good about the movie is Gyllenhaal's refusal to show off; he doesn't seem jealous of the camera's attention when it goes to others and is content, for long stretches, to serve simply as a prism through which other young men can be observed". "Sight and Sound" magazine's Leslie Felperin wrote, "If nothing else, "Jarhead" provides some kind of reportage of a war whose consequences we haven't yet begun to understand, a war now elbowed into history by its still-raging sequel". "USA Today" gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What we're left with is solid if not exceptional, though it's good to see Mendes expanding as a filmmaker". "TIME" magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "But the best war movies—and this one, despite its being overlong and repetitive, is among them—hold that men fight (or in this case, are ready to fight) not for causes, but to survive and to help their comrades do the same".


title: Jarhead (film)

text: However, in his review for "The New York Times", A. O. Scott felt that the film was "full of intensity with almost no real visceral impact", and called it "a minor movie about a minor war, and a film that feels, at the moment, remarkably irrelevant". Kenneth Turan in his review for the "Los Angeles Times" wrote:


title: Jarhead (film)

text: In his review for the "Village Voice", J. Hoberman wrote, "A master of the monotone, Mendes prompts his performers to hit a note and sustain it. Although "Jarhead" is more visually accomplished and less empty than "American Beauty" or "Road to Perdition", it still feels oppressively hermetic".


title: Jarhead (film)

text: Nathaniel Fick, another author who is a Marine, gave the film a mixed review (and panned the book on which it is based) in "Slate". He wrote, ""Jarhead" also presents wild scenes that probably could happen in combat units, but strips them of the context that might explain how they're more than sheer lunacy". James Meek, who reported from the battlefields of Iraq, wrote in "The Guardian": "The key to a film about war is how it ends, and if the young man at the film's centre is lifted out of the battlefield uninjured and sane, if his family and home life before and after aren't prominent in the picture, the movie is diminished as a film which says something about war and becomes a simpler story of growing up, of jeopardy overcome".


title: Jarhead (film)

text: In a November 2005 "New York Times" article, David Carr noted that war veteran and writer Joel Turnipseed felt that parts of the film's plot had been taken from his 2002 book "Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir" without his consent. "Jarhead" screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. claimed that many similarities arise from the retelling of common Marine experiences.


title: Jarhead (film)

text: The film was followed by three direct-to-video sequels: "Jarhead 2: Field of Fire" (2014), "Jarhead 3: The Siege" (2016) and "Jarhead: Law of Return" (2019). Unlike the original, all three sequels are entirely fictional and have no connection to the original.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish–Soviet War (late autumn 1918 / 14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was primarily fought between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, on territories which were formerly held by the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 13 November 1918, after the collapse of the Central Powers and the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Vladimir Lenin's Russia annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (which it had signed with the Central Powers in March 1918) and started moving forces in the western direction to recover and secure the "Ober Ost" regions vacated by the German forces that the Russian state had lost under the treaty. Lenin saw the newly independent Poland (formed in October–November 1918) as the bridge which his Red Army would have to cross to assist other communist movements and to bring about more European revolutions. At the same time, leading Polish politicians of different orientations pursued the general expectation of restoring the country's pre-1772 borders. Motivated by that idea, Polish Chief of State Józef Piłsudski (in office from 14 November 1918) began moving troops east.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In 1919, while the Soviet Red Army was still preoccupied with the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the Polish Army took most of Lithuania and Belarus. By July 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine and had emerged victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War of November 1918 to July 1919. In the eastern part of Ukraine bordering on Russia, Symon Petliura tried to defend the Ukrainian People's Republic, but as the Bolsheviks gained the upper hand in the Russian Civil War, they advanced westward towards the disputed Ukrainian lands and made Petliura's forces retreat. Reduced to a small amount of territory in the west, Petliura was compelled to seek an alliance with Piłsudski, officially concluded in April 1920.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Piłsudski believed that the best way for Poland to secure favorable borders was by military action and that he could easily defeat the Red Army forces. His Kiev Offensive commenced in late April 1920 and resulted in the takeover of Kiev by the Polish and allied Ukrainian forces on 7 May. The Soviet armies in the area, which were weaker, had not been defeated, as they avoided major confrontations and withdrew.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Red Army responded to the Polish offensive with counterattacks: from 5 June on the southern Ukrainian front and from 4 July on the northern front. The Soviet operation pushed the Polish forces back westward all the way to Warsaw, the Polish capital, while the Directorate of Ukraine fled to Western Europe. Fears of Soviet troops arriving at the German borders increased the interest and involvement of the Western powers in the war. In mid-summer the fall of Warsaw seemed certain but in mid-August the tide had turned again after the Polish forces achieved an unexpected and decisive victory at the Battle of Warsaw (12 to 25 August 1920). In the wake of the eastward Polish advance that followed, the Soviets sued for peace, and the war ended with a ceasefire on 18 October 1920.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Peace of Riga, signed on 18 March 1921, divided the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. The war and the treaty negotiations determined the Soviet–Polish border for the rest of the interwar period. Poland's eastern border was established at about 200 km east of the Curzon Line (a 1920 British proposal for Poland's border, based on the version approved in 1919 by the Entente leaders as the limit of Poland's expansion in the eastern direction). Ukraine and Belarus became divided between Poland and Soviet Russia, which established the respective Soviet republics in its areas of the territory.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The peace negotiations – on the Polish side conducted chiefly by Piłsudski's opponents and against his will – ended with the official recognition of the two Soviet republics, which became parties to the treaty. This outcome and the new border agreed on precluded any possibility of the formation of the "Intermarium" Polish-led federation of states that Piłsudski had envisaged or of meeting his other eastern-policy goals. The Soviet Union, established in December 1922, later used the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Republic to claim their unification with parts of the "Kresy" territories where East Slavic people outnumbered ethnic Poles and had remained, after the Peace of Riga, on the Polish side of the border, lacking any form of autonomy.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The war is known by several names. "Polish–Soviet War" is the most common but other names include "Russo–Polish War" (or "Polish–Russian War") and "Polish–Bolshevik War". This last term (or just "Bolshevik War" ()) is most common in Polish sources. In some Polish sources it is also referred as the "War of 1920" ().


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: There is disagreement over the dates of the war. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" begins its "Russo-Polish War" article with the date range 1919–1920 but then states, "Although there had been hostilities between the two countries during 1919, the conflict began when the Polish head of state Józef Piłsudski formed an alliance with the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petlyura (21 April 1920) and their combined forces began to overrun Ukraine, occupying Kiev on 7 May." Some Western historians, including Norman Davies, consider mid-February 1919 the beginning of the war. However, military confrontations between forces that can be considered officially Polish and the Red Army took place already in late autumn 1918 and in January 1919. The city of Vilnius, for example, was taken by the Soviets on 5 January 1919.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The ending date is given as either 1920 or 1921; this confusion stems from the fact that while the ceasefire was put into force on 18 October 1920, the official treaty ending the war was signed on 18 March 1921. While the events of late 1918 and 1919 can be described as a border conflict and only in spring 1920 did both sides engage in an all-out war, the warfare that took place in late April 1920 was an escalation of the fighting that began a year and a half earlier.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The war's main territories of contention lie in what is now Ukraine and Belarus. Until the mid-13th century, they formed part of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. After a period of internal wars and the 1240 Mongol invasion, the lands became objects of expansion for the Kingdom of Poland and for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the first half of the 14th century, the Principality of Kiev and the land between the Dnieper, Pripyat, and Daugava (Western Dvina) rivers became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1352, Poland and Lithuania divided the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia between themselves. In 1569, in accordance with the terms of the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania, some of the Ukrainian lands passed to the Polish Crown. Between 1772 and 1795, many of the East Slavic territories became part of the Russian Empire in the course of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania. In 1795 (the Third Partition of Poland), Poland lost formal independence. After the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815, much of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was transferred to Russian control and became the autonomous Congress Poland (officially the Kingdom of Poland). After young Poles refused conscription to the Imperial Russian Army during the January Uprising of 1863, Tsar Alexander II stripped Congress Poland of its separate constitution, attempted to force general use of the Russian language and took away vast tracts of land from Poles. Congress Poland was incorporated more directly into imperial Russia by being divided into ten provinces, each with an appointed Russian military governor and all under complete control of the Russian Governor-General at Warsaw.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In the aftermath of World War I, the map of Central and Eastern Europe changed drastically. The German Empire's defeat rendered obsolete Berlin's plans for the creation of Eastern European German-dominated states ("Mitteleuropa"), which included another rendition of the Kingdom of Poland. The Russian Empire collapsed, which resulted in the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The Russian state lost territory due to the German offensive and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed by the emergent Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Several nations of the region saw a chance for independence and seized their opportunity to gain it. With the defeat of Germany in the Western Front and the withdrawal of the Imperial German Army in the Eastern Front, Soviet Russia disavowed the treaty and proceeded to recover many of the former territories of the Russian Empire. However, preoccupied with the civil war, it did not have the resources to react swiftly to the national rebellions.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In November 1918, Poland became a sovereign state. Among the several border wars fought by the Second Polish Republic was the successful Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919) against Germany. The historic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth included vast territories in the east. They had been incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1772–1795 and had remained its parts, as the Northwest Territory, until World War I. After the war they were contested by the Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Latvian interests.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In newly independent Poland, politics were strongly influenced by Józef Piłsudski. On 11 November 1918, Piłsudski was made head of Polish armed forces by the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland, a body installed by the Central Powers. Subsequently, he was recognized by many Polish politicians as temporary chief of state and exercised in practice extensive powers. Under the Small Constitution of 20 February 1919, he became chief of state. As such, he reported to the Legislative Sejm.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: With the collapse of the Russian and German occupying authorities, virtually all of Poland's neighbours began fighting over borders and other issues. The Finnish Civil War, the Estonian War of Independence, the Latvian War of Independence, and the Lithuanian Wars of Independence were all fought in the Baltic Sea region. Russia was overwhelmed by domestic struggles. In early March 1919, the Communist International was established in Moscow. The Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in March and the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April. Winston Churchill, in a conversation with Prime Minister David Lloyd George, commented sarcastically: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies begin." The Polish–Soviet War was the longest lasting of the international engagements.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The territory of what had become Poland had been a major battleground during World War I and the new country lacked political stability. It had won the hard-fought Polish–Ukrainian War against the West Ukrainian People's Republic by July 1919 but had already become embroiled in new conflicts with Germany (the 1919–1921 Silesian Uprisings) and the January 1919 border conflict with Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, Soviet Russia focused on thwarting the counterrevolution and the 1918–1925 intervention by the Allied powers. The first clashes between Polish and Soviet forces occurred in autumn and winter 1918/1919, but it took a year and a half for a full-scale war to develop.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Western powers considered any significant territorial expansion of Poland, at the expense of Russia or Germany, to be highly disruptive to the post-World War I order. Among other factors, the Western Allies did not want to give the disgruntled Germany and Russia a reason to conspire together. The rise of the unrecognized Bolshevik regime complicated this rationale.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, regulated Poland's western border. The Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920) had not made a definitive ruling in regard to Poland's eastern border but on 8 December 1919, the Allied Supreme War Council issued a provisional boundary (its later version would be known as the Curzon Line). It was an attempt to define the areas that had an "indisputably Polish ethnic majority". The permanent border was contingent on the Western powers' future negotiations with White Russia, presumed to prevail in the Russian Civil War. Piłsudski and his allies blamed Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski for this outcome and caused his dismissal. Paderewski, embittered, withdrew from politics.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The leader of Russia's new Bolshevik government, Vladimir Lenin, aimed to regain control of the territories abandoned by Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 (the treaty was annulled by Russia on 13 November 1918) and to set up Soviet governments in the emerging countries in the western parts of the former Russian Empire. The more ambitious goal was to also reach Germany, where he expected a socialist revolution to break out. He believed that Soviet Russia could not survive without the support of a socialist Germany. By the end of summer 1919, the Soviets had taken over most of eastern and central Ukraine (formerly parts of the Russian Empire) and driven the Directorate of Ukraine from Kiev. In February 1919, they set up the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (Litbel). The government there was very unpopular because of the terror it had imposed and the collection of food and goods for the army. Officially, the Soviet government denied charges of trying to invade Europe.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: As the Polish–Soviet War progressed, particularly while Poland's Kiev Offensive was being repelled in June 1920, Soviet policymakers, including Lenin, increasingly saw the war as the opportunity to spread the revolution westward. According to the historian Richard Pipes, the Soviets had prepared for their own strike against Galicia (the disputed eastern part of which had been acquired by Poland in the course of the Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918–1919) already before the Kiev Offensive.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: From late 1919, Lenin, encouraged by the Red Army's civil war victories over the White Russian anti-communist forces and their Western allies, began to envision the future of world revolution with greater optimism. The Bolsheviks proclaimed the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat and agitated for a worldwide communist community. They intended to link the revolution in Russia with a communist revolution in Germany they had hoped for and to assist other communist movements in Europe. To be able to provide direct physical support to revolutionaries in the West, the Red Army would have to cross the territory of Poland.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: According to the historian Andrzej Chwalba, however, the scenario was different in late 1919 and winter–spring 1920. The Soviets, facing decreasing revolutionary fervor in Europe and having to deal with Russia's own problems, attempted to make peace with its neighbors, including Poland.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: According to Aviel Roshwald, (Piłsudski) "hoped to incorporate most of the territories of the defunct Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into the future Polish state by structuring it as the Polish-led, multinational federation." Piłsudski had wanted to break up the Russian Empire and set up the "Intermarium" federation of nominally independent states: Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and other Central and East European countries that emerged from the crumbling empires after World War I. In Piłsudski's vision, Poland would replace a truncated and vastly reduced Russia as the great power of Eastern Europe. His plan excluded negotiations prior to military victory. He had hoped that the new Poland-led union would become a counterweight to any potential imperialist intentions of Russia or Germany. Piłsudski believed that there could be no independent Poland without a Ukraine free of Russian control, thus his main interest was in splitting Ukraine from Russia. He used military force to expand the Polish borders in Galicia and Volhynia and crush a Ukrainian attempt at self-determination in the disputed territories east of the Curzon Line, which contained a significant Polish minority. On 7 February 1919, Piłsudski spoke on the subject of Poland's future frontiers: "At the moment Poland is essentially without borders and all that we can gain in this regard in the west depends on the Entente – on the extent to which it may wish to squeeze Germany. In the east, it's a different matter; there are doors here that open and close and it depends on who forces them open and how far". Polish military forces had thus set out to expand far in the eastern direction. As Piłsudski imagined, "Closed within the boundaries of the 16th century, cut off from the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, deprived of land and mineral wealth of the South and South-east, Russia could easily move into the status of second-grade power. Poland, as the largest and strongest of the new states, could easily establish a sphere of influence stretching from Finland to the Caucasus".


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Piłsudski's concepts appeared progressive and democratic in comparison with the rival National Democracy's idea of direct incorporation and Polonization of the disputed eastern lands, but he used his "federation" idea instrumentally. As he wrote to his close associate Leon Wasilewski in April 1919, (for now) "I want to be neither an imperialist nor a federalist. ... Taking into account that, in this God's world, an empty talk of the brotherhood of people and nations as well as the American little doctrines seem to be winning, I gladly side with the federalists". According to Chwalba, the differences between Piłsudski's vision of Poland and that of his rival National Democratic leader Roman Dmowski were more rhetorical than real. Piłsudski had made many obfuscating statements, but never specifically stated his views regarding Poland's eastern borders or political arrangements he intended for the region.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: From late 1917, Polish revolutionary military units were formed in Russia. They were combined into the Western Rifle Division in October 1918. In summer 1918, a short-lived Polish communist government, led by Stefan Heltman, was created in Moscow. Both the military and civilian structures were meant to facilitate the eventual introduction of communism into Poland in the form of a Polish Soviet Republic.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Given the precarious situation resulting from the withdrawal of German forces from Belarus and Lithuania and the expected arrival of the Red Army there, Polish Self-Defence had been organized in autumn 1918 around major concentrations of Polish population, such as Minsk, Vilnius and Grodno. They were based on the Polish Military Organisation and were recognized as part of the Polish Armed Forces by the decree of Polish Chief of State Piłsudski, issued on 7 December 1918.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The German of "Ober Ost" declared on 15 November that its authority in Vilnius would be transferred to the Red Army.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In late autumn 1918, the Polish 4th Rifle Division fought the Red Army in Russia. The division operated under the authority of the Polish Army in France and General Józef Haller. Politically, the division fought under the Polish National Committee (KNP), recognized by the Allies as a temporary government of Poland. In January 1919, per Piłsudski's decision, the 4th Rifle Division became part of the Polish Army.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish Self-Defence forces were defeated by the Soviets at a number of locations. Minsk was taken by the Russian Western Army on 11 December 1918. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia was declared there on 31 December. After three days of heavy fighting with the Western Rifle Division, the Self-Defence units withdrew from Vilnius on 5 January 1919. Polish–Soviet skirmishes continued in January and February.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish armed forces were hurriedly formed to fight in several border wars. Two major formations manned the Russian front in February 1919: the northern, led by General Wacław Iwaszkiewicz-Rudoszański, and the southern, under General Antoni Listowski.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 18 October 1918, the Ukrainian National Council was formed in Eastern Galicia, still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it was led by Yevhen Petrushevych. The establishment of a Ukrainian state there was proclaimed in November 1918; it had become known as the West Ukrainian People's Republic and it claimed Lviv as its capital. Because of Russia-related political considerations, the Ukrainian attempts failed to generate support of the Entente powers.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Key buildings in Lviv were seized by the Ukrainians on 31 October 1918. On 1 November, Polish residents of the city counterattacked and the Polish–Ukrainian War began. Lviv was under Polish control from 22 November. To Polish politicians, the Polish claim to Lviv and eastern Galicia was indisputable; in April 1919, the Legislative Sejm unanimously declared that all of Galicia should be annexed by Poland. In April to June 1919, the Polish Blue Army of General Józef Haller arrived from France. It consisted of over 67,000 well-equipped and highly trained soldiers. The Blue Army helped drive the Ukrainian forces east past the Zbruch River and decisively contributed to the outcome of the war. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was defeated by mid-July and eastern Galicia had come under Polish administration. The destruction of the West Ukrainian Republic confirmed the belief held by many Ukrainians that Poland was the main enemy of their nation.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: From January 1919 fighting also took place in Volhynia, where the Poles faced the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic led by Symon Petliura. The Polish offensive resulted in a takeover of the western part of the province. The Polish–Ukrainian warfare there was discontinued from late May, and in early September an armistice was signed.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 21 November 1919, after contentious deliberations, the Allied Supreme War Council mandated Polish control over eastern Galicia for 25 years, with guarantees of autonomy for the Ukrainian population. The Conference of Ambassadors, which replaced the Supreme War Council, recognized the Polish claim to eastern Galicia in March 1923.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Jan Kowalewski, a polyglot and amateur cryptographer, broke the codes and ciphers of the army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and of General Anton Denikin's White Russian forces. In August 1919, he became chief of the Polish General Staff's cryptography section in Warsaw. By early September, he had gathered a group of mathematicians from the University of Warsaw and the University of Lviv (most notably the founders of the Polish School of Mathematics – Stanisław Leśniewski, Stefan Mazurkiewicz and Wacław Sierpiński), who succeeded in breaking the Soviet Russian ciphers as well. During the Polish–Soviet War, the Polish decryption of Red Army radio messages made it possible to use Polish military forces efficiently against Soviet Russian forces and to win many individual battles, most importantly the Battle of Warsaw.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 5 January 1919, the Red Army took Vilnius, which led to the establishment of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (Litbel) on 28 February. On 10 February, Soviet Russia's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin wrote to Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski, proposing resolution of matters of disagreement and establishment of relations between the two states. It was one of the series of notes exchanged by the two governments in 1918 and 1919.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In February, Polish troops marched east to face the Soviets; the new Polish parliament declared the need to liberate "the northeast provinces of Poland with their capital in Wilno". After the German World War I troops had been evacuated from the region, the Battle of Bereza Kartuska, a Polish–Soviet skirmish, took place. It occurred during a local Polish offensive action of 13–16 February, led by General Antoni Listowski, near Byaroza, Belarus. The event has been presented as the beginning of the war of liberation by the Polish side, or of Polish aggression by the Russian side. By late February, the Soviet westward offensive had come to a halt. As the low-level warfare continued, the Polish units crossed the Neman River, took Pinsk on 5 March and reached the outskirts of Lida; on 4 March, Piłsudski ordered further movement to the east stopped. The Soviet leadership had become preoccupied with the issue of providing military assistance to the Hungarian Soviet Republic and with the Siberian offensive of the White Army, led by Alexander Kolchak.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Fighting the Polish–Ukrainian War, by July 1919 Polish armies eliminated the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Secretly preparing an assault on Soviet-held Vilnius, in early April Piłsudski was able to shift some of the forces used in Ukraine to the northern front. The idea was to create a "fait accompli" and to prevent the Western powers from granting the territories claimed by Poland to White movement's Russia (the Whites were expected to prevail in the Russian Civil War).


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: A new Polish offensive started on 16 April. Five thousand soldiers, led by Piłsudski, headed for Vilnius. Advancing to the east, the Polish forces took Lida on 17 April, Novogrudok on 18 April, Baranavichy on 19 April and Grodno on 28 April. Piłsudski's group entered Vilnius on 19 April and captured the city after two days of fighting. The Polish action drove the Litbel government from its proclaimed capital.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Upon the taking of Vilnius, in pursuit of his federation objectives, Piłsudski issued a "Proclamation to the inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania" on 22 April. It was sharply criticized by his rival National Democrats, who demanded direct incorporation of the former Grand Duchy lands by Poland and signaled their opposition to Piłsudski's territorial and political concepts. Piłsudski had thus proceeded to restore the historic territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by military means, leaving the necessary political determinations for later.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 25 April, Lenin ordered the Western Front commander to reclaim Vilnius as soon as possible. The Red Army formations that attacked the Polish forces were defeated by Edward Rydz-Śmigły's units between 30 April and 7 May. While the Poles extended their holdings further, the Red Army, unable to accomplish its objectives and facing intensified combat with the White forces elsewhere, withdrew from its positions.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish "Lithuanian–Belarusian Front" was established on 15 May and placed under command of General Stanisław Szeptycki.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In a statute passed on 15 May, Polish Sejm called for the inclusion of the eastern borderline nations in the Polish state as autonomous entities. It was intended to make a positive impression on the participants of the Paris Peace Conference. At the conference, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ignacy Paderewski declared Poland's support for self-determination of the eastern nations, in line with Woodrow Wilson's doctrine and in an effort to secure Western support for Poland's policies in regard to Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish offensive was discontinued around the line of German trenches and fortifications from World War I, because of high likelihood of Poland's war with Germany over territorial and other issues. Half of Poland's military strength had been concentrated on the German front by mid-June. The offensive in the east was resumed at the end of June, following the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty, signed and ratified by Germany, preserved the "status quo" in western Poland.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On the southern front in Volhynia, in May and in July the Polish forces confronted the Red Army, which was in process of pushing Petliura's Ukrainian units out of the contested territories. The rural Orthodox population there was hostile to the Polish authorities and actively supported the Bolsheviks. Also in Podolia and near the eastern reaches of Galicia, the Polish armies kept slowly advancing to the east until December. They crossed the Zbruch River and displaced Soviet forces from a number of localities.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish forces took Minsk on 8 August. The Berezina River was reached on 18 August. On 28 August, tanks were deployed for the first time and the town of Babruysk was captured. By 2 September, Polish units reached the Daugava River. Barysaw was taken on 10 September and parts of Polotsk on 21 September. By mid-September, the Poles secured the region along the Daugava from the Dysna River to Daugavpils. The frontline had also extended south, cutting through Polesia and Volhynia; along the Zbruch River it reached the Romanian border. A Red Army assault between the Daugava and Berezina Rivers was repelled in October and the front had become relatively inactive with sporadic encounters only, as the line designated by Piłsudski to be the goal of the Polish operation in the north was reached.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In autumn 1919, the Sejm voted to incorporate into Poland the conquered territories up to the Daugava and Berezina Rivers, including Minsk.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The Polish successes in summer 1919 resulted from the fact that the Soviets prioritized the warfare with the White forces, which was more crucial for them. The successes created an illusion of Polish military prowess and Soviet weakness. As Piłsudski put it, "I am not worried about the strength of Russia; if I wanted to, I could go now, say to Moscow, and no one would be able to resist my power ...". The offensive was restrained in late summer by Piłsudski, because he did not want to improve the strategic situation of the advancing Whites.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In early summer 1919, the White movement had gained the initiative and its forces, commanded by Anton Denikin and known as the Volunteer Army, marched on Moscow. Piłsuski refused to join the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War because he considered the Whites more threatening to Poland than the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski's adversarial relationship with tsarist Russia went back to the earlier stages of his career. He engaged in warfare with Soviet Russia from the beginning of his tenure as Polish commander-in-chief. Based on this experience, he underestimated the strength of the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski also thought he could get a better deal for Poland from the Bolsheviks than from the Whites, who represented, in his opinion, the old Russian imperial policies, hostile to strong Poland and Ukraine independent from Russia, Piłsudski's main objectives. The Bolsheviks had proclaimed the partitions of Poland to be invalid and declared their support for self-determination of the Polish nation. Piłsudski thus speculated that Poland would be better off with the internationalist Bolsheviks, who were also alienated from the Western powers, than with the restored Russian Empire, its traditional nationalism, and its partnership with Western politics. By his refusal to join the attack on Lenin's struggling government, he ignored strong pressure from the Triple Entente leaders and possibly saved the Bolshevik government in summer to fall 1919, although a full-scale attack by the Poles to support Denikin would not have been possible. Mikhail Tukhachevsky later commented on the likely disastrous consequences for the Bolsheviks if the Polish government undertook military cooperation with Denikin at the time of his advance on Moscow. In a book he later published, Denikin pointed at Poland as the savior of the Bolshevik power.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Denikin twice appealed to Piłsudski for help, in summer and in autumn 1919. According to Denikin, "The defeat of the south of Russia will make Poland face the power that will become a calamity for the Polish culture and will threaten the existence of the Polish state". According to Piłsudski, "The lesser evil is to facilitate a White Russia's defeat by Red Russia. ... With any Russia, we fight for Poland. Let all that filthy West talk all they want; we're not going to be dragged into and used for the fight against the Russian revolution. Quite to the contrary, in the name of permanent Polish interests, we want to make it easier for the revolutionary army to act against the counter-revolutionary army." On 12 December, the Red Army pushed Denikin out of Kiev.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The self-perceived interests of Poland and White Russia were irreconcilable. Piłsudski wanted to break up Russia and create a powerful Poland. Denikin, Alexander Kolchak and Nikolai Yudenich wanted territorial integrity for the "one, great and indivisible Russia". Piłsudski held the Bolshevik military forces in low regard and thought of Red Russia as easy to defeat. The victorious in the civil war communists were going to be pushed far to the east and deprived of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic lands, and the southern Caucasus; they would no longer constitute a threat to Poland.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: From the beginning of the conflict, many peace initiatives had been declared by the Polish and Russian sides, but they were intended as cover or stalling for time, as each side concentrated on military preparations and moves. One series of Polish-Soviet negotiations commenced in Białowieża after the termination of the summer 1919 military activities; they were moved in early November 1919 to Mikashevichy. Piłsudski's associate met there with Lenin's emissary Julian Marchlewski. Buoyed by their armies' successes in the Russian Civil War, the Soviet government rejected the tough Polish armistice conditions in December. Piłsudski broke off the Mikashevichy talks two days after the Soviet takeover of Kiev, but major military operations had not been resumed. Early in the talks, Boerner informed Marchlewski that Poland had no intention of renewing its offensive; it allowed the Soviets to move forty-three thousand troops from the Polish front to fight Denikin.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The only exception to the Polish policy of front stabilization since autumn 1919 was the winter attack on Daugavpils. Edward Rydz-Śmigły's previous attempts to capture the city in summer and early autumn had been unsuccessful. A secret political and military pact regarding a common attack on Daugavpils was signed between representatives of Poland and the Latvian Provisional Government on 30 December. On 3 January 1920, Polish and Latvian forces (30,000 Poles and 10,000 Latvians) commenced a joint operation against the surprised enemy. The Bolshevik 15th Army withdrew and had not been pursued; the fighting terminated on 25 January. The taking of Daugavpils was accomplished primarily by the 3rd Legions Infantry Division under Rydz-Śmigły. Afterwards, the town and its vicinity were handed over to the Latvians. The outcome of the campaign disrupted communications between Lithuanian and Russian forces. A Polish garrison was stationed in Daugavpils until July 1920. Simultaneously, the Latvian authorities pursued peace negotiations with the Soviets, which resulted in the signing of a preliminary armistice. Piłsudski and the Polish diplomacy were not notified and had not been aware of this development.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The fighting in 1919 resulted in the formation of a very long frontline, which, according to the historian Eugeniusz Duraczyński, favored Poland at this stage.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In late 1919 and early 1920, Piłsudski undertook his gargantuan task of breaking up Russia and creating the "Intermarium" bloc of countries. Given the refusal of Lithuania and other eastern Baltic region countries to participate in the project, he set his sights on Ukraine.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: In late autumn 1919, to many Polish politicians it appeared that Poland had achieved strategically desirable borders in the east and therefore fighting the Bolsheviks should be terminated and peace negotiations should commence. The pursuit of peace dominated also popular sentiments and anti-war demonstrations had taken place.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The leadership of Soviet Russia confronted at that time a number of pressing internal and external problems. In order to effectively address the difficulties, they wanted to stop the warfare and offer peace to their neighbors, hoping to be able to come out of the international isolation they had been subjected to. Courted by the Soviets, the potential allies of Poland (Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, or the South Caucasus states) were unwilling to join a Polish-led anti-Soviet alliance. Faced with the diminishing revolutionary fervor in Europe, the Soviets were inclined to delay their hallmark project, a Soviet republic of Europe, to some indefinite future.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The peace offers sent to Warsaw by Russia's Foreign Secretary Georgy Chicherin and other Russian governing institutions between late December 1919 and early February 1920 had not been responded to. The Soviets proposed a favorable for Poland troop demarcation line consistent with the current military frontiers, leaving permanent border determinations for later.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: While the Soviet overtures generated considerable interests on the parts on the socialist, agrarian and nationalist political camps, the attempts of the Polish Sejm to prevent further warfare turned futile. Józef Piłsudski, who ruled over the military and to a considerable degree over the weak civilian government, prevented any movement toward peace. By late February, he directed the Polish representatives to engage in pretended negotiations with the Soviets. Piłsudski and his collaborators stressed what they saw as the increasing with time Polish military advantage over the Red Army and their belief that the state of war had created highly favorable conditions for Poland's economic development.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 4 March 1920, General Władysław Sikorski initiated a new offensive in Polesia; the Polish forces had driven a wedge between Soviet forces to the north (Belarus) and south (Ukraine). The Soviet counter-offensive in Polesia and Volhynia was pushed back.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Polish–Russian peace negotiations in March 1920 produced no results. Piłsudski was not interested in a negotiated solution to the conflict. Preparations for a large-scale resumption of hostilities were being finalized and the newly declared (over the protest of a majority of parliamentary deputies) marshal and his circle expected the planned new offensive to lead to the fulfillment of Piłsudski's federalist ideas.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: On 7 April, Chicherin accused Poland of rejecting the Soviet peace offer and notified the Allies of the negative developments, urging them to prevent the forthcoming Polish aggression. The Polish diplomacy claimed the necessity to counteract the immediate threat of a Soviet assault in Belarus, but the Western opinion, to whom the Soviet arguments seemed reasonable, rejected the Polish narrative. The Soviet forces on the Belarusian front were weak at the time and the Bolsheviks had no plans for an offensive action.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Having resolved Poland's armed conflicts with the emerging Ukrainian states to Poland's satisfaction, Piłsudski was able to work on a Polish–Ukrainian alliance against Russia. On 2 December 1919, Andriy Livytskyi and other Ukrainian diplomats declared their readiness to give up the Ukrainian claims to eastern Galicia and western Volhynia, in return for Poland's recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). The Treaty of Warsaw, Piłsudski's agreement with Hetman Symon Petliura, the exiled Ukrainian nationalist leader, and two other members of the Directorate of Ukraine, was signed on 21 April 1920. It appeared to be Piłsudski's major success, potentially signifying the beginning of a successful implementation of his long-held designs. Petliura, who formally represented the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which had "de facto" been defeated by the Bolsheviks, fled with some Ukrainian troops to Poland, where he found political asylum. His control extended only to a sliver of land near the Polish-controlled areas. Petliura had therefore little choice but to accept the Polish offer of alliance, largely on Polish terms, as determined by the outcome of the recent warfare between the two nations.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: By concluding an agreement with Piłsudski, Petliura accepted the Polish territorial gains in western Ukraine and the future Polish–Ukrainian border along the Zbruch River. In exchange for renouncing the Ukrainian territorial claims, he was promised independence for Ukraine and Polish military assistance in reinstating his government in Kiev. Given the powerful opposition against Piłsudski's eastern policy in war-tired Poland, the negotiations with Petliura were conducted in secrecy and the text of the 21 April agreement remained secret. Poland recognized in it Ukraine's right to parts of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (before 1772) east of the Zbruch. A military convention was added on 24 April; it placed Ukrainian units under Polish command. By 1 May, a Polish–Ukrainian trade agreement was negotiated. It had not been signed, to prevent its far-ranging provisions anticipating exploitation of Ukraine by Poland from being revealed and from causing catastrophic damage to Petliura's political reputation.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: For Piłsudski, the alliance gave his campaign for the "Intermarium" federation an actual starting point and potentially the most important federation partner, satisfied his demands regarding parts of Polish eastern border relevant to the proposed Ukrainian state and laid a foundation for a Polish-dominated Ukrainian state between Russia and Poland. According to Richard K. Debo, while Petliura could not contribute real strength to the Polish offensive, for Piłsudski the alliance provided some camouflage for the "naked aggression involved". For Petliura, it was the final chance to preserve the Ukrainian statehood and at least a theoretical independence of the Ukrainian heartlands, despite his acceptance of the loss of West Ukrainian lands to Poland.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The British and the French did not recognize the UPR and blocked its admission to the League of Nations in autumn 1920. The treaty with the Ukrainian republic did not generate any international support for Poland. It caused new tensions and conflicts, especially within the Ukrainian movements that aimed for the country's independence.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: Regarding the deal they had concluded, both leaders encountered strong opposition in their respective countries. Piłsudski faced stiff opposition from Roman Dmowski's National Democrats, who opposed Ukrainian independence. To protest the alliance and the upcoming war over Ukraine, Stanisław Grabski resigned the chairmanship of the foreign affairs committee in Polish parliament, where the National Democrats were a dominant force (their approval would be needed to finalize any future political settlement). Petliura was criticized by many Ukrainian politicians for entering a pact with the Poles and for abandoning western Ukraine (after the destruction of the West Ukrainian People's Republic, western Ukraine was – from their point of view – occupied by Poland).


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: During their occupation of the territory meant for the UPR, Polish officials engaged in forced requisitions, some of which were intended for troop supply, but also in extensive looting of Ukraine and its people. It ranged from activities approved and promoted at the highest level, such as the widespread theft of trains loaded with goods, to plunder perpetrated by Polish soldiers in Ukrainian countryside and cities. In his 29 April and 1 May letters to General Kazimierz Sosnkowski and Prime Minister Leopold Skulski, Piłsudski emphasized that the railroad booty had been enormous, but he could not divulge further because the appropriations took place in violation of Poland's treaty with Ukraine.


title: Polish–Soviet War

text: The alliance with Petliura gave Poland 15,000 allied Ukrainian troops at the beginning of the Kiev campaign, which increased to 35,000 by recruitment and from Soviet deserters during the war. According to Chwalba, 60,000 Polish soldiers and 4,000 Ukrainians took part in the original offensive; there were only 22,488 Ukrainian soldiers on the Polish food ration list as of 1 September 1920.