{"product_id":"warsaw-1920-lenins-failed-conquest-of-europe","title":"Warsaw 1920: Lenins Failed Conquest of Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe dramatic and little-known story of how  in the summer of 1920  Lenin came within a hairs breadth of shattering the painstakingly constructed Versailles peace settlement and spreading Bolshevism to western Europe. In 1920 the new Soviet state was a mess  following a brutal civil war  and the best way of ensuring its survival appeared to be to export the revolution to Germany  itself economically ruined by defeat in World War I and racked by internal political dissension. Between Russia and Germany lay Poland  a nation that had only just recovered its independence after more than a century of foreign oppression. But it was economically and militarily weak and its misguided offensive to liberate the Ukraine in the spring of 1920 laid it open to attack. Egged on by Trotsky  Lenin launched a massive westward advance under the flamboyant Marshal Tukhachevsky. All that Great Britain and France had fought for over four years now seemed at risk. By the middle of August the Russians were only a few kilometres from Warsaw  and Berlin was less than a weeks march away. Then occurred the Miracle of the Vistula: the Polish army led by Jozef Pilsudski regrouped and achieved one of the most decisive victories in military history. As a result  the Versailles peace settlement survived  and Lenin was forced to settle for Communism in one country. The battle for Warsaw bought Europe nearly two decades of peace  and communism remained a mainly Russian phenomenon  subsuming many of the autocratic and Byzantine characteristics of Russias tsarist tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966811336757,"sku":"ByrdShop_0007225520","price":39.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780007225521.jpg?v=1770581623","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/warsaw-1920-lenins-failed-conquest-of-europe","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}