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.Sections of the PPS-Left hived off to join the latter in the interwar Communist Party of Poland(KPP).The PPS itself had moderate electoral support, as a wholly parlia-mentary and trade unionist socialist party, but it also remained patrioticallyopposed to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) as well as to/ /Pilsudski s dictatorship.Its most notable leaders were Mieczyslaw/Niedzalkowski, Ignacy Daszyński, Tomasz Arciszewski, and ZygmuntZaremba (1895 1967).After World War II, a radicalized wing led by Józef Cyrankiewiczcollaborated with the Polish Workers Party (PPR) and eventuallyamalgamated with it in 1948 in the Polish United Workers Party(PZPR).An independent PPS remained in exile, animated by Adam and/Lydia Ciolkosz, which was reborn in the underground opposition tocommunism.After its demise, a large number of competing socialistgroups emerged, all claiming title to the PPS label.The main groupsunited together for a while under the leadership of a grand old oppositionintellectual gentleman called Jan-Józef Lipski, but they largely re-mained quarrelsome ideological and sectarian factions opposed to boththe successor-Communist Social-democracy of the Polish Republic(SdRP) and Labor Solidarity.The main PPS faction fell under the influ-ence of the lively left-winger, Piotr Ikonowicz, from the mid-1990s on-ward. 03-129 K-P 6/24/03 2:27 PM Page 145POLISH-SWEDISH WARS " 145POLISH-SOVIET WAR.Hostilities between the newly independentPoland and Bolshevik Russia broke out in November 1918 and contin-ued almost uninterrupted on the Lithuanian and Belarusan fronts.Byearly 1920 Polish troops had advanced up to the Berezina and DvinaRivers.Polish historians claim that Soviet preparations for a massive of-fensive toward Germany through Poland were countered by Józef/Pilsudski s offensive into Ukraine, starting on 25 April 1920.Despitethe occupation of Kiev by 7 May, the support of Semeon Petlura s forceswas insufficient to prevent the Bolshevik counteroffensive led by Gen-eral (later Marshal) Mikhail Tukhatchevsky from pushing the Poles backtoward the Vistula and Lwów extremely rapidly.The commander in/chief, Pilsudski, and his chief of staff, General Lucjan %7łeligowski, re-grouped their forces.Supported by such outstanding generals as/ /Wladyslaw Sikorski and Józef Haller, they counterattacked an exposedSoviet flank in mid-August from the outskirts of Warsaw.It was claimed later that the plan for the overwhelming victory, the so-called Miracle on the Vistula, or the eighteenth decisive battle of theworld, as it was dubbed by Lord D Abernon, had been worked out onthe advice of the French General Maxime Weygand.But there is littlespecific evidence to support this argument, which was largely political/propaganda by Pilsudski s domestic and external enemies.Further Pol-ish successes followed the battle of Warsaw on the eastern borderlands,/culminating in Edward Rydz-Zmigly s victory on the River Niemen inNovember.The December armistice was followed by the Treaty of Rigain March 1921.The latter confirmed Poland s possession of substantialwestern sections of Belarus and Ukraine for the interwar period until theSoviet occupation of September 1939.POLISH-SWEDISH WARS.The origins of these wars, which started to-ward the end of the 16th century and ended at the beginning of the 18thcentury, was a conflict over the Inflanty as well as Vasa dynastic ambi-tions concerning both Poland and Sweden.King Stefan Batory had strengthened Poland s position in the Inflantyby gaining victory in three campaigns against the Muscovite state of Ivanthe Terrible.After his sudden and childless death, his successor, electedas king, was Zygmunt III, the son of Sweden s ruler Jan III Waza and//Katarzyna (Catherine), of the Jagiellonian family.Zygmunt III came tobe disliked by the Poles for his weakness toward the Jesuits and themagnates, his pro-Habsburg policy, and his unceasing efforts to regainthe Swedish throne, even at the price of war.After his father s death, he 03-129 K-P 6/24/03 2:27 PM Page 146146 " POLISH-SWEDISH WARSinherited the Swedish throne and had himself crowned in 1592, remain-ing King until 1598.The idea of a joint king with Poland was, however,unpopular in Sweden.When Zygmunt recognized northern Estonia asPolish territory, a revolt burst out against him, and Swedish troops in-vaded the Inflanty.The war lasted from 1600 to 1629 and, at first, wentwell for the Commonwealth.The victory of Hetman Jan Karol Chod-kiewicz at Kircholm in 1605 forced a Swedish retreat; the latter, how-ever, retained part of the Inflanty.Zygmunt s turbulent and catastrophically incompetent rule, which in-volved simultaneous wars with Sweden, Muscovy, and the Turks, pro-voked conflicts within Poland.A section of the magnates and gentry,discontented with his foreign policy, revolted in the great rokosz of/1606 1608, led by Crown Marshal Mikolaj Zebrzydowski (1553 1620).The rebellion was suppressed and a successful military campaign tem-/ /porarily gained Zygmunt the throne of Muscovy for his son, Wladyslaw.In order to counter a Swedish alliance with Brandenburg, Zygmuntsigned a treaty with the latter s elector.Ducal Prussia thus passed underHohenzollern rule, thereby effectively undoing the Prussian Homage of1525.The war with Sweden continued, while Zygmunt got involved inadditional conflicts with the Turks, which resulted in a defeat at Cecorain 1620, but was redressed the following year by the victory at Chocim.Despite victories at Oliwa, Czarne, and Puck, Poland lost ground in thefinal stage of its war with Sweden after 1626.Sweden, buoyed up byGustavus Adolphus s great successes in the early stage of the ThirtyYears War, retained part of the Inflanty, occupied the castles and fortifi-cations along the Baltic seacoast, and collected the customs dues fromGdańsk.Peace was finally achieved in 1629 through the Treaty of StaryTarg (Altmark); it was extended for another 26 years by the Treaty of Sz-tumska Wieś (Stumsdorff) of 1635.The Swedes agreed to return the Pol-ish fleet, which they had captured, and to withdraw from all the territory/ /they had occupied, except Inflanty.On Poland s side, Wladyslaw IV(Zygmunt s son and successor) promised to renounce all claims to theSwedish throne.In 1655 the Swedes, led by King Charles X Gustavus, broke the truceand invaded Poland with the aim of occupying the Baltic coastline.Poland at that time was ruled by Jan Kazimierz (reigned 1648 1668),who had married Marie-Louise of the French line of Gonzaga, the widow/ /of his deceased brother, Wladyslaw IV.Weakened by the withdrawal ofdiscontented gentry and by the betrayal of magnates such as the Radzi-/ /will family, who effectively handed over Lithuania, the Royal Army 03-129 K-P 6/24/03 2:27 PM Page 147POLISH-SWEDISH WARS " 147was forced to surrender very rapidly.Jan Kazimierz sought refuge inSilesia, and the Swedes occupied the rest of the country.This period isknown in Polish history as the Potop, or Deluge, of 1655 1660, as theSwedes occupied the whole of the country from north to south, includ-ing Kraków.The country descended into chaos and the disorder of pillage and rape.As both town and countryside were destroyed the armed resistance thatthis provoked came from both the gentry and town dwellers.The feelingsof hatred were envenomed by the difference in religion between theCatholic Poles and their Protestant invaders.The armed resistance andsuccessful defense of the Jasna Góra monastery near Częstochowa,which housed the Black Madonna, became a symbolic act that mobi-lized the nation.A widespread partisan movement developed among thepopulation
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