Due to Poland's partitions and dissolution in the late eighteenth
century, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers enlisted in distinct
units in the armies of many countries--primarily those of the Russian
and Austro-Hungarian empires, but also those of the German Reich and the
French Republic.
All these forces were uniformed and equipped by the parent armies,
though often with explicitly Polish features. The collapse of Tsarist
Russia in 1917 and of the Central Powers in 1918 allowed these diverse
forces to unite in a recreated Polish Army under the newborn Second
Polish Republic in November 1918. With full color illustrations of their
unique and colorful uniforms as well as contemporary photographs, this
is the fascinating story of the Poles who fought on both sides in the
trenches in World War I and then united to fight for their freedom in
the Russian Civil War.