31 August marks the 102nd anniversary of the Battle of Komarów, the largest cavalry battle of the 20th century, in which Polish cavalry crushed Semyon Budyonny’s 1st Horse Army on 31 August 1920. It was one of the key battles in the Polish-Bolshevik war, compared by historians to the Battle of Warsaw, referred to as the ‘Miracle on the Vistula’.
On 30 August 1920, the Polish army repulsed an attack by Bolshevik cavalry on the outskirts of Zamość. The Soviet 1st Cavalry Army, formed from Cossacks and commanded by Semyon Budyonny, had caused a great deal of fear until then, mainly due to the ruthless manner of conducting warfare, which was ubiquitously accompanied by murders, rapes and robberies committed against the civilian population.
On 31 August 1920, there was a decisive clash between 1,500 Polish cavalrymen, commanded by Colonel Juliusz Rómmel, and Budyonny’s four times more numerous and better-armed troops. In the fields near Komarów, near Zamość, the Polish cavalrymen did not fear the outnumbered enemy army, attempting to surround the invaders. The day-long battle was characterised by extraordinary ferocity. The Bolsheviks made several attempts to get out of the trap, resembling, in the words of historian Daniel Koreś, ‘a pack of wolves scurrying around a shrinking territory, simultaneously trying in several places to find a gap in the lines of the encircling battue’.
The key moment in the battle proved to be the charge of the Polish 8th Uhlan Regiment, after which the Soviets were defeated and chaotically retreated eastwards. Unfortunately, the heavy losses suffered by the Polish cavalry, amounting to several hundred dead and wounded soldiers, prevented the pursuit and the final crushing of the enemy. The wounded Budyonny retreated from the battlefield with about 3,000 Cossacks. The might of the Soviet 1st Horse Army was never restored again. Less than a month after the battle, it was disbanded due to the losses and widespread demoralisation.
The mastery of the Polish cavalry was immortalised on a 20-metre-high monument to the Glory of Cavalry and Horse Artillery, located on the historic battlefield in Wolica Śniatycka near Komarów, which was ceremonially unveiled on the 102nd anniversary of the victorious battle.