Střetnutí u Sokolova a bitva u Lenina
The Battles of Sokolovo and of Lenino

The First Military Deployments of Czechoslovak and Polish Armed Forces in the Eastern Theatre during the Second World War

Summary/Abstract: Evidence-based and analytic comparison is the main approach in this study that focuses on the battles of Sokolovo (7 to 9 March 1943) and of Lenino (12 to 13 October 1943); these were the first military deployments of both Czechoslovak and Polish armed forces in the Soviet Union. On Czechoslovak side there was the 1st Independent (Field) Battalion of nearly 1,000 members, while Poles had the 1st Infantry Division of Tadeusz Kościuszko of some 13,000 men and women. Despite this difference, both battles were strikingly similar in number of aspects; both Czechoslovaks and Poles reached temporal and tactical success which, however, vanished soon; during their first deployment they were inflicted considerable losses of approximately one quarter of their original numbers, especially among officers; political and propagandist value of both battles overwhelmed their military signification; etc. All above mentioned means that the battles of Sokolovo and of Lenino were not only the part of national history of respective countries, but also (or even more) of process of Sovietization of both Czechoslovakia and Poland.

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