Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe. Adam Zamoyski

in Russia, notwithstanding that they mostly welcomed the Red Army. Polish officers and those identified as volunteers were usually hanged or shot on capture, often after being tortured and having various parts of their body such as nose, ears, tongue and genitalia cut off.

      While the Polish high command struggled to inculcate the principles of the Geneva Conventions in their men, their writ did not run very far in the field. And their behaviour deteriorated markedly as the contest grew more bitter and more critical. Captured commissars were often hanged, soldiers suspected of having committed atrocities shot, and, following the recapture of territory briefly occupied by the Red Army, those deemed to have collaborated, which usually included the Jewish population, roughly dealt with.