How to honour the 100th anniversary of Poland’s victory in the Battle of Warsaw?

In August next year Poland will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its victory in the Battle of Warsaw, also known as the Miracle on the Vistula. In the summer of 1920, the Polish Army halted the Bolshevik invasion on the outskirts of Warsaw. The battle has been recognised as one of the twenty most important battles in history, stopping as it did the spread of communism to Europe. One hundred years after this historic victory, it is still unknown whether and when a monument will be erected to commemorate what is one of the most important events in Polish history.

One of the avid supporters of building a monument commemorating the 1920 Warsaw Battle, is the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

”I am all for building a Triumphal Arch as soon as possible. I personally contributed to the foundation which collects money for that goal. I think that the Triumphal Arch would be a proper form of commemoration. Unfortunately, there is a necessity to cooperate with the Warsaw city hall, and therefore please ask the Mayor of Warsaw why there is no monument commemorating such an important historical event. The Warsaw local government is not cooperating, I’m afraid”– says Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland.

The city officials stated that they will not cut off the idea of a commemoration of the great victory of the Polish army in 1920.

”I hope that there is a misunderstanding here, and Mr. Prime Minister a bit too quickly formed his opinion. We will be investigating the history of that project and as far as we know at present, the only problems were with consultations with the city historical relics conservation office. I talked about those matters with the deputy Prime Minister Mr. Gliński, and I think that there is a problem with the communication”– says Michał Olszewski, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw.

The initiative of the commemoration of the 1920 victorious Warsaw battle is not new. It was started in 2014 by Jan Pietrzak and his foundation „Patriotic Society”. His numerous attempts to communicate with the City of Warsaw on the project were left without an answer. His foundation was lobbying for the construction of a Triumphal Arch, visible from every part of the city.

”I think it should be a monument, which would be immediately noticeable on the Warsaw skyline from any point of the city. This is a commemoration of a battle which decided the fate of the World, the Western civilisation, the battle that stopped the Bolsheviks from taking over the Western Europe”– says Maciej Rosalak, publicist.

Against the project is the Polish United Left. The politicians argue that the money that might be used for the monument, would be better spent on social matters.