The influence of this decisive battle on history was fully appreciated by Tukhachevski, who lost it, and by Lord D’Abernon, who watched it. Yet, strange to say, its importance was little grasped by western Europe, and since has remained little noticed. Soon after his defeat Tukhachevski wrote :

”In all European countries Capitalism was staggering ; the workers were lifting their head and rushing to arms. There is not the slightest doubt that, had we been victorious on the Vistula, the revolution would have set light to the entire continent of Europe. { Etc. }. ¹

Later, in an article published in the Gazeta Polska of August 17, 1930, Lord D’Abernon set down his judgment as follows :

”The history of contemporary civilization knows no event of greater importance than the Battle of Warsaw, 1920, and none of which the significance is less appreciated. The danger menacing Europe at that moment was parried, and the whole episode forgotten Had the battle been a Bolshevik victory, it would have been a turning point in European history, for there is no doubt at all that the whole of Central Europe would at that moment have been opened to the influence of Communist propaganda and a Soviet invasion, which it could with difficulty have resisted. . . .