Open AccessRozszyfrowana wojna. Biuro szyfrów Oddziału II naczelnego dowództwa Wojska Polskiego a losy Bitwy Warszawskiej 1920 roku
Author(s) -
Adam Ostanek
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
przegląd wschodnioeuropejski
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2450-0828
pISSN - 2081-1128
DOI - 10.31648/pw.6860
Subject(s) - victory , battle , law , political science , decisive victory , spanish civil war , history , ancient history , politics
The subject of the research is the impact of the work of the Cipher Bureau of the Second Division of the Supreme Command of the Polish Army on the result of the Polish-Russian war of 1919-1920, with particular emphasis on the Battle of Warsaw. Breaking the codes used by the Red Army to encrypt secret messages undoubtedly contributed to the Polish victory in the war. Although this fact was generally known to researchers, the discovery of the well-preserved and almost complete translations of the Russian ciphertexts preserved in the Central Military Archives showed the scale of the impact of reading Russian correspondence on the fate of the war. The analysis of selected ciphertexts directly related to the Battle of Warsaw proves that they became an important element of the victory at that time, providing the Polish side with information on the location, plans, numbers and the mood of the Red Army. This enabled Poles to make the right decisions at the operational level.