page_title: Warsaw Uprising
section_title: Soviet stance
hierarchical_section_title: Warsaw Uprising / Lack of outside support / Soviet stance
caption_attribution_description: English: A Polish insurgent from the "Pięść" Battalion of the Armia Krajowa, led by Stanisław Jankowski "Agaton", on a rooftop overlooking the Ewangelicki cemetery in the Wola district of Warsaw on 2nd August 1944. Polski: Posterunek powstańców z kompanii porucznika Stanisława Jankowskiego "Agatona" z batalionu "Pięść" dnia 2 sierpnia 1944 roku na dachu domu grabarza przy cmentarzu Ewangelickim na Woli.
context_page_description: The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II attack by the Polish resistance Home Army. The resistance wanted to free Warsaw from Nazi Germany.
  The attack happened at the same time as the Soviet Union's Red Army got close to the east of the city and the German forces retreated. However, the Soviets stopped moving forward. This allowed the Germans to destroy the city and defeat the Polish resistance.
  The resistance fought for 63 days with little help from other Allied armies. The Uprising was the largest attack done by any European resistance movement of World War II.
  The uprising began on 1 August 1944. It was part of a big plan, Operation Tempest, which started when the Soviet Army got near Warsaw. The goals of the Polish resistance were to push the German troops out of the city. They also wanted to free Warsaw before the Soviets arrived. This would help the Polish Underground State to take control of the city.
  At the start of the battle, the Polish resistance got control over most of central Warsaw. The Soviets did not move into the city to help the resistance troops.
  By 14 September, Polish forces under Soviet command captured the east bank of the Vistula river.
context_section_description: The role of the Red Army during the Warsaw Uprising is controversial and historians still disagree about its role.
  The Uprising started when the Red Army arrived near the city. The Poles in Warsaw were expecting the Soviets to capture the city in a few days.
  This approach of starting an insurgent uprising against the Germans a few days before the arrival of Allied forces was done successfully in a number of European capitals, such as Paris and Prague.
  However, despite the easy capture of the area south-east of Warsaw, the Soviets did not help the insurgents. Instead, the Soviets waited as the Germans killed the soldiers from the anti-communist Polish Home Army.
  At that time, the city edges were defended by the weak German 73rd Infantry Division. The weak German defence forces were not attacked by the Soviets. This allowed the German forces to send more troops to fight against uprising in the city itself.
  The Red Army was fighting battles to the south of Warsaw, to capture bridges over the Vistula river. The Red Army was fighting battles to the north of the city, to capture bridges over the river Narew. The best German armoured divisions were fighting in those sectors.
  The Soviet 47th Army did not move into Praga (Warsaw's suburbs) on the right bank of the Vistula, until 11 September (when the uprising was over). In three days the Soviets quickly captured the suburb. The weak German 73rd Division was quickly defeated.
  By mid-September a series of German attacks had reduced the territory held by the Poles to one narrow stretch of the riverbank, in the district of Czerniaków. The Poles were hoping Soviet forces would help them.
  Though Berling's communist 1st Polish Army did cross the river, they did not get much support from the Soviets and the main Soviet force did not follow them.
  One of the reasons given for the failure of the uprising was that the Soviet Red Army did not help the Resistance. On 1 August, the day of Uprising, the Soviet advance stopped. Soon afterwards the Soviet tanks stopped receiving any oil.
  Soviets knew of the planned Uprising from their agents in Warsaw. They also knew because Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk told them of the Polish Home Army uprising plans. The Red Army's lack of support for the Polish resistance was a decision Stalin made so that the Soviets would be able to control Poland after the war.
  If the Polish Home Army had won, the Polish government in London would have been able to return to Poland.
  Also the destruction of the main Polish resistance forces by the Germans helped the Soviet Union, since it significantly weakened any potential Polish opposition to the Soviet occupation.
  Stopping the advance and then capturing Warsaw in January 1945 enabled the Soviets to say they "freed" Warsaw.
  The fact that Soviet tanks were nearby Wołomin 15 kilometers to the east of Warsaw helped convince the Home Army leaders to launch the uprising. However, as a result of the battle of Radzymin in late July, these tanks from the Soviet 2nd Tank Army were pushed out of Wołomin and back about 10 km.
  On 9 August, Stalin told Premier Mikołajczyk that the Soviets had originally planned to be in Warsaw by 6 August. He said an attack by four Panzer divisions had stopped them from getting to the city. By 10 August, the Germans had surrounded and badly damaged the Soviet 2nd Tank Army at Wołomin.
  When Stalin and Churchill met in October 1944, Stalin told Churchill that the lack of Soviet support was due to Soviet losses in the Vistula area.
  Germans thought that the Soviets were trying to help the insurgents. The Germans thought it was their defence of Warsaw that prevented the Soviet advance. The Germans did not think that the Soviets did not want to advance.
  The Germans published propaganda which said that both the British and Soviets did not help the Poles.
  The Soviet units which reached the edges of Warsaw in the final days of July 1944 had advanced from the 1st Belorussian Front in Western Ukraine.
  The Soviets defeated many German troops.
  The Germans were trying to send new troops to hold the l
caption: Insurgent soldiers from Battalion "Pięść" led by Stanisław Jankowski "Agaton" on 2 August 1944 on a roof of a house at Evangelic Cemetery in Wola, Warsaw.
exif: {}