And yet another fascinating episode of Revolutions Podcast: 10.91- The Battle of Warsaw: So close yet so far away.

(No episode last week, because Mike Duncan took last week off.)  

So as I mentioned 2 weeks ago, I had no idea about the Polish-Soviet War or any of this stuff, so this is all new information to me.  

When I first hear the word "Polish-Soviet War", I figured Poland must be the victim here.  (That's been Poland's fate for most of the 20th Century).  But it is interesting to hear that the newly resurgent Poland is at least equally as aggressive as the new Soviet Union.  (Of course, we all know that later on in the 20th Century Poland will be dominated by Germany and the USSR.  But I guess the situation was different in 1920.)

I do have to admit, however, that I always get a little bit bored when the narrative switches over to military history.  (I'm more interested in the social or ideological aspects.)  But at the end of the episode, Mike hinted that next week we'd be back to the ideological divisions within Russia.

Some other little tidbits that I found fascinating as well--the fact that the 2nd Communist International (Cominterm) at one point looked like it might be an alternative to the League of Nations.  And also the fact that the Cominterm was now for the first time beginning to look East rather than West.  

(Mike doesn't mention this, but from my own student days, I know that the Chinese Communist Party was created at this time at the direction of Cominterm representatives.  I wonder if this will get a mention in future episodes.)

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From the comments section: 

How does it feel to be writing this episode, when today, 101 years later, Polish weapons and volunteers are once again fighting side by side with Ukrainians in Lviv and Kiev? Once again, Russians misreading the locals and over-stretching their supply lines? Has so little changed in 101 years?

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Mike Duncan says on Twitter that there's only 10-12 episodes left to go.   I was initially sad to hear that, but then I thought about it, and maybe that's about right.  We're already into the end of 1920.  At the pace Mike Duncan is moving (he's never a man to get too caught up in the details), the Civil War is probably nearing the end.  But there are still a lot of things for him to talk about before then end, so looking forward to the next 10-12 weeks.

All signs pointing to the Russian Revolution series ending in June 2022. Got 10-12 episodes left depending on how it shakes out.

— Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) March 26, 2022