Polish-Soviet War: Difference between revisions
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=== The Polish-Soviet War contains tropes such as: ===
* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: What the Soviet Russians said about Poles. Conversely, Poles didn't support [[Enemy Mine|remaining Russian tsarist loyalists]] because the latter [[What an Idiot!|were overt]] that they were planning to recreate [[
* [[Badass Moustache]]: Semyon Budionny, who came to prominence during the war, sported an extremely flamboyant version of those.
* [[Bling of War]]: Soviet propaganda tried to make out that practically every Polish officer had blood bluer then sapphire and probably personally flogged oppressed serfs when he was bored. In fact that was considerably exagerrated(to say the least). Their get up however fit the role pretty good and was in the spirit of [[Siege of Vienna|Jon Sobieski]] if less flamboyant.
* [[Born in the Wrong Century]]: Semyon Budionny, who was described as being closer in spirit to a leader of a Cossack warband than modern military commander. Optionally de Viart, but he fit in well.
* [[The Cavalry]]: The "miracle of the Vistula", which as it happens was done with actual cavalry.
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* [[Church Militant]]: The Polish Catholic Church. Poles were very devout Catholics as well as being very [[Patriotic Fervor|nationalistic]] and sometimes you get the impression that it is really ''Poland'' that is a [[Church Militant]].
** Slightly averted as [[wikipedia:Jozef Pilsudski|Pilsudski]], the [[wikipedia:Naczelnik Panstwa|head of state/dictator/commander-in-chief]] at this time, was Protestant (he converted from Catholicism in 1899). He proposed an federation of independent states on the Soviet border - unfortunately it didn't succeed. While it is true that he had opposition and Poland was Catholic, it is less black and white.
*[[Cool Train]]: Armored trains were the shock arm.
* [[Crazy Awesome]]: Adrian Carton de Viart, a Belgian officer of the British Army who came to Poland as a military advisor and stayed for random saber combats with the Cossacks, big game hunting and wars with half of the neighbors.
* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: Battle of Warsaw. As a state-level example of [[Heroic Resolve]], it was dubbed "The Miracle of the Vistula". Ironically, it was also intended as an [[Embarrassing Nickname]] for the Polish victory by Piłsudski's enemies.
** Also of note: [[wikipedia:Battle of Komarów|Battle of Komarów]], "the last great cavalry battle of the world", and the fact that Polish radio
** To the other side, this could be the battle of Kiev, where the Russians swiftly defeated the invading Polish army.
* [[Dirty Communists]]: What Poles said about Russians.
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* [[Glorious Leader]]: Piłsudski was a less nasty version of this then some.
* [[The Horde]]: How the Red Army was depicted by the Poles. Aside from obvious propaganda, Budionny's Horse Army ''had'' at least ''some'' features of a Cossack host.
* [[I Like Swords]]: And Russians and Poles liked sabres. [[National Weapon|Of course they did.]] In this case it was Justified as modern small arms like everything were in short supply.
**The Poles actually still went in for the lance as well.
* [[Improvised Weapon]] : As [[Schizo-Tech|odd as it sounds]], scythes and pitchforks were often used en masse as makeshift polearms against Russian cavalry (mainly by the countryside militias).
**Actually both armies were improvised armies using weapons left over from WWI and recently raised(the Red Army)within the last few years, or clumped together from a crazy quilt of detachments(the Poles). Some however did at least have real weapons.
* [[Modern Major-General]]: Stalin's interference seriously undermined the Soviet war effort and presaged his later bungling against [[Nazi Germany]] in [[World War II]], which nearly led to the USSR's destruction.
* [[My Country, Right or Wrong]]: The Bolshevik leadership hoped that Polish workers and peasants would rebel against the ruling class and turn to their side in the war. However, Polish propaganda successfully invoked this trope, managing to quell class struggle and unite the country's society under the banner of nationalism.
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