The Polish 4th Rifle Division (, ) was a Polish military unit, forming, together with the
Polish 5th Rifle Division of the
Blue Army, the only part of the
Polish military which took part in the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
. Under the command of
General
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry.
In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Lucjan Żeligowski, it operated as an ally of the
White movement
The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...
from autumn 1918 to August 1919 in southern
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
.
History and operations

The 4th Rifle Division could trace its origins to the
Polish 2nd Corps in Russia. The 2nd Corps was formed from various Polish units, but primarily the
2nd Brigade of the
Polish Legions in World War I
The Polish Legions () was a name of the Polish military force (the first active Polish army in generations) established in August 1914 in Galicia (Central Europe), Galicia soon after World War I erupted between the opposing alliances of the Trip ...
, which rebelled against the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...
and decided to join the newly-forming
Polish army
The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
and help secure the territories inhabited by the Poles in the
Kresy
Eastern Borderlands (), often simply Borderlands (, ) was a historical region of the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. The term was coined during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with ...
region. The
Polish 5th Rifle Division found itself fighting in the northern territories of the former
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
; the 4th, in its southern regions.
The ever-changing and chaotic currents of the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, coupled with the weak
chain of command
A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group.
Military chain of command
In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...
of the newly reborn Polish Army, meant that the local commanders had much autonomy; thus the 2nd Corps found it most useful to ally itself with the forces of the
White movement
The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...
, even though Polish
commander-in-chief Józef Piłsudski
Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...
declined to support the Whites with any other units after he had established firm control over the Polish forces in 1919. Nonetheless this meant that the soldiers of the 2nd Corps were fighting the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
and their
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
even before the
Polish-Soviet War began in 1919.
After the
Battle of Kaniów
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
on 11 May 1918, in which the forces of the 2nd Brigade broke through the
front and created the 2nd Corps, the Polish commanders entered the alliance with one of the White generals,
Mikhail Alekseev, and his
Volunteer Army
The Volunteer Army (; ), abbreviated to (), also known as the Southern White Army was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920. The Volunteer Army fought against Bolsheviks and the Makhnovists on the ...
in the northern
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
near the
Kuban River
The Kuban is a river in Russia that flows through the Western Caucasus and drains into the Sea of Azov. The Kuban runs mostly through Krasnodar Krai for , but also in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea. ...
. By September 1918 the Polish forces in the region, called the 'Polish Unit of the Volunteer Army', numbered over 700 people under the command of Col.
Franciszek Zieliński, and were engaged in several battles with the Bolsheviks.
In October 1918 General
Lucjan Żeligowski assumed command of the Polish forces in the east from General Haller. At the same time, General Alekseev died, and General
Anton Ivanovich Denikin assumed the command of the White forces in the region. The local Polish forces were reorganized into the Polish 4th Rifle Division, subordinated to the
2nd Corps of the
Blue Army of General
Józef Haller
Józef Haller (''de Hallenburg''; 13 August 1873 – 4 June 1960) was a Polish lieutenant general and legionary in the Polish Legions during the First World War. He was a harcmistrz (the highest Scouting instructor rank in Poland), the p ...
. By the end of January 1919 the division numbered over 2800 men, including many from the now-disbanded
Polish 1st Corps in Russia.
At that time Piłsudski ordered the Polish units in the far East to move close to the core Polish territory. Denikin, who received this order through
French General
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and French Academy of Sciences, Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander ...
, ordered Żeligowski to move to
Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
, a major port west of
Crimea
Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
. Żeligowski reorganized and strengthened the units in the area, and in December 1918 he found himself facing the
Ukrainian forces of
Symon Petlura. Reinforced by French and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
troops, it helped to secure Odessa as part of the
Allied Southern Russia Intervention and took part in the fights near
Tiraspol
Tiraspol (, ; also /; , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Transnistria, a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the third-largest city. The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of cul ...
. In March 1919 the unit numbered about 3000 men, including a sizeable
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...
contingent.
By the end of March the division, and the Allied forces, were no longer fighting the Ukrainians, but the Bolsheviks. Żeligowski was able to influence the placement of his unit, and until May the division successfully screened the retreat of Allied troops from Odessa towards the Romanian lines in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
. Near the end of May the division was relieved and finally transported to Poland. It was the only major Polish military formation that took part in the Russian Civil War and managed to return to Poland as a functioning unit.
The division then took part in the last phase of the ongoing
Polish-Ukrainian War, starting from the area near
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...
and
Stanyslaviv. This time it was not fighting Petliura (who was soon to become a Polish ally), but one of the other Ukrainian factions, the
West Ukrainian National Republic. From 11 to 13 July the division fought its first (and victorious) battle near a town with a sizeable Polish population in the area,
Jazłowiec.
On 19 July 1919 the division was reformed into the
Polish 10th Infantry Division and took part in the major conflict of that time, the
Polish-Soviet War.
References
Nie tylko korpusy... Inne polskie formacje zbrojne w Rosji 1918-1920
*{{in lang, pl}
Polskie formacje wojskowe podczas I wojny światowej(a short paragraph confirming the most important facts)
See also
*
4th Infantry Division (Poland)
*
Polish Armed Forces in the East (1914–20)
04
Military units and formations established in 1918
Polish divisions of World War I
Military units and formations disestablished in 1919
Poland in the Russian Civil War
1918 establishments in Poland