The 1920 Battle of Warsaw is an engagement that is often overshadowed by the preceding 4 years of World War One. However, the miraculous Polish victory on the battlements of Warsaw was, in fact, a watershed moment in European history. If Poland lost to the Bolshevik Russians, it's highly likely that the Communist revolution would've spread further west and enveloped the battle-worn nations of Germany, Hungary and Romania, and severely alter the course of history as we know it today. Would there be a Nazi Germany in the communist sphere? Would the Cold War have begun 25 years earlier? Would Poland even exist as an independent nation 100 years later?

The '1920. Miracle on The Vistula' exhibition at the National Museum features posters from the time of the Polish-Bolshevik War, illustrative of its horror and created by eminent Polish artists: Edmund Bartłomiejczyk, Zygmunt Kamiński, Felicjan Szczęsny Kowarski, Zdzisław Gedliczka, Józef Mehoffer, Józef Ryszkiewicz, Kamil Mackiewicz and Karol Homolacs. These are cleverly-juxtaposed with Soviet propaganda posters by excellent Russian artists, such as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Dmitry Moor. 

In addition, life on the frontlines are portrayed through the drawings and prints of Wiktor Gutowski, who fought in the conflict, and his artistic vision of the Battle of Warsaw, as well as paintings by Jerzy Kossak and Jerzy Jełowiecki. The exhibition is also complemented with period documents, decorations and badges awarded for fighting in the Polish-Bolshevik War, original uniforms and equipment of Polish soldiers from that era, and weapons.