The General Walter Jajko Kosciuszko Chair Military Lecture: The Last Stands: Poland in 1920 and 1939

About the lecture: Why do some men fight when there seems to be no chance of survival? There is a number of explanations. Preeminent military historian John Keagan believes that men fight for their fellow soldiers, starting at the very bottom: the squad or platoon. A leading cultural critic Michael Walsh holds that men fight to protect the home and hearth, in particular women and children. In other words, they fight for the survival of their bloodline.

There are also other issues at stake. Even if we are outmatched and outnumbered, we can still imagine ourselves shouting along with William “Braveheart” Wallace: “Freedom!”. Or at least we can argue that, even though the enemy are too many, we still should fight them to make a point. We don’t need to win. We just must fight them.

Further, there is honor, or, more precisely, death before dishonor. Next, we have the nation and the family to protect, which circles back to Walsh.

Poland’s national anthem spells all this in a stanza: “Poland has not perished yet so long as we live/what the alien power has taken from us/we shall recover with our saber.” That means that one’s country, Poland in this instance, remains alive so long as there are patriots who refuse to acknowledge their nation’s demise.

Keeping all that in mind, we shall reflect on just two Polish last stands in the 20^th century: the battle of Zadwórze (17 August 1920), during the Polish-Soviet War; and the battle of Wizna (7-10 September 1939) during the September Campaign of 1939.  The former last stand was against the Communists; and the latter against the Nazis.