To commemorate Battle Day, when it defeated the Soviet Union in 1920, Warsaw showed off its military might. Security and defense have been a central theme since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and they also dominate the election campaign.
(DW) August 15 is a highly symbolic date for Poland: it was there that in 1920, in a last-ditch effort, soldiers and volunteers managed to stop the Red Army offensive at the gates of Warsaw – the decisive turning point in the war with the Soviet Union.
In the previous months, Soviet troops under General Mikhail Tukhachevsky had achieved several military victories and were on the verge of taking the capital of the Polish Republic re-established at the end of the First World War.
The submission of Poland was only one step in the plans of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky: the Soviet leaders intended to pass “over the corpse of Poland” to reach Berlin, from where they would launch a world revolution. Celebrated in national history books as “the miracle of the Vistula River”, this Polish victory thwarted their plans.
Battle Day has been commemorated since the collapse of the communist bloc 30 years ago: in 1992 the Polish parliament declared August 15 an Armed Forces holiday. Since 2007, military parades have been held every year, with a single interruption due to the covid-19 pandemic. But the 2023 parade is expected to surpass all previous ones.
“We prepare for war, but we want peace”
Along the Vistula, past Warsaw’s Royal Palace, 2,000 soldiers marched on Tuesday afternoon, flanked by 200 military vehicles, including US Abrams and South Korean K2 battle tanks. Black-Hawk helicopters and F-16 fighter jets provided airspace security. Allied soldiers from the United States and some European nations also participated.
“It is the biggest parade since the [democratic] turn of 1989,” Poland’s Defense Ministry proudly announced. The event aims to demonstrate the strength and progress of the armed forces. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the government has been modernizing its army at high speed. As recently as 2023, the equivalent of €31.5 billion will be invested in armaments. In addition to the USA as a traditional partner, the national-populist government is relying mainly on cooperation with South Korea.
The partnership with Germany, which has been so important to Warsaw since the democratic turn, has been suspended: the leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, considers Berlin a danger rather than an ally. An attempted tank swap in 2022, in which Poland would give Ukraine its old Soviet-made tanks in exchange for modern German Leopards, ended in serious disappointment for both sides.
Years ago, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak already clearly formulated Poland’s goal: to have the strongest army in Europe. He recently announced that the country has 175,000 armed soldiers. Of these, observers estimate, 125,000 would be career military personnel, the rest would be members of the territorial defense and other volunteer formations.
“The Polish army needs to be expanded to 300,000 soldiers. We need to buy very large quantities of armaments,” Kaczynski said on Monday, and evoked the wisdom of the ancient Romans: “We prepare for war, but we want peace.”
Ruling party co-opts armed forces?
The defense policy is not only aimed at making Poland safer, but also at supporting the ruling party in the October 15 parliamentary elections. “The military parade is to mobilize patriotic sentiments and thus help PiS in the election campaign,” Andrzej Zybertowicz, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, openly admitted during a televised debate last Sunday.
Starting on August 11, “military picnics” were held across the country: in 70 locations soldiers met the population and tourists to present their most modern weapons up close. On-site recruiting stations tried to awaken a taste for a military career in young people. Later in the day, the state television channel broadcast images of enthusiastic children enjoying themselves in uniform and helmets.
Also present, however, were PiS politicians, displaying closeness to the soldiers and officers. And undeniably campaigning – even though the Polish constitution prescribes the military to be neutral in political matters. On the commercial channel TVN, retired general Boguslaw Pacek criticized the “co-optation of the army by parties”.
PiS uses security and defense policy in its campaign, sometimes more, sometimes less declared. Its central accusation is that the opposition has mismanaged the armed forces financially. In fact, from 2007 to 2015, under the center-liberal Civic Platform (PO) government of Donald Tusk, several barracks were closed and the defense budget was radically cut.
However, the PiS politicians overlook the fact that at that time Polish soldiers were active in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a number of weapons projects were launched, including the purchase of the Patriot air defense system.
