Places of the war
The Kingdom of Poland in the First World War
The Russian partition, swept by the front again and again in 1914–1915. Occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary from 1915, in 1918 the core of free Poland.
- Type:
- Region
- In 1914:
- Russia
- Today:
- Poland
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Updated:
- 31 October 2026
The Kingdom of Poland, known as Congress Poland, was in 1914 part of the Russian Empire and the most populous part of the Polish lands, which were divided between three partitions. Jutting far to the west between Prussia and Galicia, in the first year of the war it became one of the main battlefields on Polish soil. In the summer of 1915 the Russians withdrew from it, taking people and factories with them, and the country was occupied and divided by Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1916 the occupiers announced a new Kingdom here, and in the autumn of 1918 its lands became the core of an independent Poland.
The front in the Kingdom (1914)
On 1 August 1914 the border between the Kingdom and Germany became a front line. The Russians did not intend to defend the western part of the country and pulled out of the border towns, and the Germans entered Kalisz and Częstochowa. On 14 August Grand Duke Nicholas promised the Poles the unification of the Polish lands under the Tsar’s sceptre. In August Samsonov’s 2nd Army set out from the Kingdom against East Prussia, while in the south, in the Lublin region, the Russians clashed with the Austrians at Kraśnik and Komarów.
In the autumn the front swept twice across the middle of the country. In October the Germans stood a dozen or so kilometres from Warsaw, but in the Battle of Warsaw and Dęblin they had to fall back. In November they struck again and after the Battle of Łódź on 6 December they took that city, the second largest in the Kingdom. The front settled on the Bzura and the Rawka, a few dozen kilometres from Warsaw, and for seven months it hardly moved. It was here, at Bolimów, that the Germans first used chemical weapons on a large scale.
The Great Retreat (1915)
After the breakthrough at Gorlice in May 1915 it was the Kingdom’s turn. On 13 July the Central Powers struck from the north and the south, from the border of East Prussia and towards Lublin, which the Russians lost on 30 July. The Russian command decided to withdraw its armies behind the Vistula. On 5 August German troops entered Warsaw, abandoned by the Russians during the night. Russian rule, which had lasted since 1815, was over. On 20 August the fortress of Novogeorgievsk surrendered, and by the autumn the Russians had left the whole country.
The retreat was a catastrophe for the population. The Russian army practised scorched earth, carried off offices, the university and factory machinery, and drove out the population or pressed it to flee. In this wave of bezhenstvo between 2 and 3.5 million inhabitants of the Kingdom and the western provinces fled or were deported into Russia, among them about a million Poles. Many of them did not survive exile.
Under two occupations (1915–1918)
The victors divided the country into two governments-general. The German one, with Warsaw and Łódź, was taken over by General Hans von Beseler. It covered about 62,000 square kilometres with 6 million inhabitants. The Austro-Hungarian one, with its seat in Lublin from 1 October 1915, covered 48,000 square kilometres and about 3.5 million people. The Suwałki region came under the military administration of Ober Ost.
The occupiers treated the country as a source of food, raw materials and labour for a Germany cut off by the blockade. Cattle and grain were requisitioned, workers were sent to Germany, and bread was rationed. American food aid never materialised. At the same time the occupiers courted the Poles: in November 1915 a Polish University of Warsaw and Polytechnic were opened, and in 1916 Warsaw elected a city council.
A kingdom without a king (1916–1918)
On 5 November 1916 the manifesto of the two emperors was proclaimed in Warsaw and Lublin, announcing the creation from the Kingdom’s lands of an “independent state with a hereditary monarchy”. It had, however, no king, government or borders, and power stayed with the governors-general. Polish institutions emerged slowly: the Provisional Council of State, and from 27 October 1917 the Regency Council and a government, which took over the courts and schools but had no army.
In the autumn of 1918 the occupation collapsed. On 11 November the German garrison in Warsaw was being disarmed, and the Regency Council handed military authority to Józef Piłsudski. The lands of the former Kingdom became the core of the reborn state.
Sources
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Battles here and nearby
(23)- 23 August – 11 September 1914Battle of GaliciaFrom 23 August to 11 September 1914 Russia beat the main Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia and the Lublin region, took Lviv and drove them behind the San.
- 23–25 August 1914Battle of KraśnikAustria-Hungary's first victory of the war. On 23–25 August 1914 Dankl's army drove the Russians back from Kraśnik towards Lublin.
- 23–30 August 1914Battle of TannenbergGermany's greatest victory on the Eastern Front in 1914. Samsonov's Russian Second Army was encircled and destroyed in the south of East Prussia.
- 26 August – 2 September 1914Battle of KomarówVictory of Auffenberg's Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army over Plehve's Russian Fifth Army in the Zamość region, 26 August – 2 September 1914.
- 5–15 September 1914First Battle of the Masurian LakesThe second great battle in East Prussia in 1914. Hindenburg's German Eighth Army beat Rennenkampf's Russian First Army and drove it back over the border.
- 7–9 September 1914Battle of TarnawkaIn September 1914, south of Lublin, the Russians broke the front of Dankl's Austro-Hungarian First Army, which sealed the Austrian retreat behind the San.
- 28 September – 8 November 1914Battle of Warsaw and DęblinIn autumn 1914 the Germans and Austrians struck through the Kingdom of Poland at Warsaw and Dęblin. The Russians halted them on the Vistula and drove them west.
- 11 November – 6 December 1914Battle of ŁódźIn November 1914 the Germans struck the Russian flank from Thorn and almost encircled Łódź. Some were trapped at Brzeziny, but on 6 December they took the city.
- 15–28 November 1914Battle of KrakówIn November 1914 the Austro-Hungarian army sallied from Kraków fortress to hit the flank of the Russians marching on Silesia, then fell back to its forts.
- 30 November – 17 December 1914Battle of the BzuraFrom 30 November to 17 December 1914 the Germans, reinforced from the west, attacked between the Vistula and Łowicz and pushed the Russians behind the Bzura.
- 18 December 1914 – 17 July 1915Fighting on the Rawka and BzuraFrom December 1914 to July 1915 Germans and Russians fought in the trenches on the Rawka and Bzura. At Bolimów the Germans first used gas on a large scale.
- 22–25 December 1914Battle of ŁowczówekOn 22–25 December 1914 the Legions' First Brigade retook the hills above the Biała near Tarnów on the march and held them against the Russians for three days.
- 31 January – 6 February 1915Battle of BolimówAt the turn of January and February 1915 the Germans attacked at Bolimów, firing 18,000 tear-gas shells. The gas failed and the front did not break.
- 7–22 February 1915Winter Battle in MasuriaIn February 1915 two German armies routed the Russian Tenth Army in the snow and drove it out of East Prussia. XX Corps surrendered in the Augustów Forest.
- 16 February – 22 August 1915Defence of OsowiecFrom February to August 1915 the fortress on the Biebrza held off the Germans, even a gas attack on 6 August. The Russians left it on orders and blew it up.
- 22–27 February 1915First Battle of PrzasnyszIn February 1915 the Germans encircled and took Przasnysz, but three days later Russian Siberian corps retook the town and forced them to retreat to the border.
- 1–19 July 1915Second Battle of KraśnikOn 1–19 July 1915 the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army broke the Russian positions at Kraśnik, but Russian reserves stopped it a dozen or so kilometres further on.
- 13–26 July 1915Battle of the Narew and BiebrzaOn 13–26 July 1915 the Germans broke the front at Przasnysz, drove the Russians over the Narew and took Różan and Pułtusk, but did not trap Warsaw's defenders.
- 13–17 July 1915Second Battle of PrzasnyszIn July 1915 Gallwitz's army group broke the front of the Russian 1st Army at Przasnysz and in five days pushed it back to the Narew bridgeheads.
- 16–18 July 1915Battle of KrasnystawOn 16–18 July 1915 Mackensen's German Eleventh Army broke into the Russian Third Army's front on the Wieprz and took Krasnystaw, with about 15,000 prisoners.
- 9–20 August 1915Siege of NovogeorgievskOn 9–20 August 1915 Beseler's Germans took the fortress of Novogeorgievsk, now Modlin. By various accounts 80,000–90,000 Russians were captured.
- 27 December 1918 – 16 February 1919Greater Poland uprisingFrom 27 December 1918 to 16 February 1919 the Poles of the Prussian Province of Posen took up arms and within weeks seized most of Greater Poland.
- 13–25 August 1920Battle of WarsawFrom 13 to 25 August 1920 the Polish Army stopped the Red Army before Warsaw and, striking from the Wieprz, routed Tukhachevsky's armies.
In the chronicle
(12)1914
- 1 August 1914First fighting on the border of the Kingdom of Poland
- 14 August 1914Grand Duke Nicholas issues a proclamation to the Poles
- 29 August 1914Zeppelin Z V shot down near Mława
- 18 September 1914Hindenburg takes command in the east
- 30 November 1914Battle of the Bzura begins
- 17 December 1914End of the Battle of the Bzura