The original broadcast, which aired on January 22, 2001, is reproduced below as a transcript. Those with access to a RealMedia Player may click the link below and hear the broadcast, delivered in Joe's own inimitable style.
Special thanks to Joe Adamov and the Voice of Russia.
(159kb)
The Voice of Russia
Joe Adamov: Well, you as a Polish patriot, are no doubt proud of this incident. About ten years ago the newspaper, Red Star, our army paper wrote, “This is what we call the civil war.” This is after the Revolution and the forces of the Western Front, under Tukhachevsky, who later became a Marshal, approached Warsaw on August the 15th and there was a counter-offensive of the Polish forces which was both unexpected and swift. This counter-offensive was called the “Wonder of the Visla,” and gave the Polish army faith in their defense capacity and in their moral strength. On the anniversary of the “Wonder of the Visla,” a decoration was instituted.
But you know, the past should not influence Polish-Russian relations. We should also remember our joint fight against Nazism. These pages you cannot pull out of history. Russia, Soviet Ukraine and Poland signed a truce, and then a peace agreement. Lenin called the main reason for the defeat overestimation of the forces of the Red Army and also, don’t forget, Bob, the Red Army at that time consisted mostly of peasants, 80% of whom were illiterate. Lenin also said we did not get in touch, we did not reach the industrial workers of Poland at that time. Tukhachevsky said it was not politics that suffered a defeat, but strategy.
Most of the historical reviews are permeated with subjectiveness and are permeated with one-sidedness. I think the Poles and the Russians should get together and work out a truthful account of the period.
