After the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, the first major city reached by the Red Army was Vilnius. The short-lived defense of the city is told in the film “The Fatal Order. Vilnius 1939”, (“Fatalny rozkaz. Wilno 1939”) which was shown on Polish Television and TV Belsat (in Belarusian), and can currently be viewed (in Polish) on the Internet.
Polish soldiers in Vilnius. Photo from the movie
The first units of the Red Army reached Vilnius (Wilno in Polish) on the afternoon of September 18. The first clash took place on the eastern section, on Połocka Street. There, a cannon platoon resisted the Soviet reconnaissance unit. At about 5:10 p.m., Bolshevik tanks drove through the section defended by soldiers of Lieutenant Colonel Stanisław Szyłejko and entered the city. Szyłejko asked the defense command what to do.
The commander of the defense of Vilnius, Colonel Jarosław Okulicz-Kozaryn, contacted General Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński, stationed in Grodno. He ordered: “in the event of a Soviet attack on Vilnius, I order a withdrawal to Lithuania”. Okulicz replied that “I would like to mark with defense only a certain protest against the occupation by force of what is ours, so that it is not said that we are surrendering completely without a fight”. The general replied: “thank you for the beautiful intention to demonstrate defense… however, I submit this decision for consideration, in view of the real threat of destruction of the city and its inhabitants”.
Colonel Jarosław Okulicz-Kozaryn. Photo from the movie
Decision of Okulicz caused sharp protests from Polish officers in Vilnius. Most of the Polish troops fought with Soviets. Uncoordinated fighting lasted practically the entire evening and night hours of September 18-19. Eventually, Polish units began to withdraw to the northern side of Vilnius. Some of the units defending the city crossed the Lithuanian border. Others were still fighting on the Lithuanian-Polish border, reaching Lithuania later or being captured by the Soviets. Some of the defenders of the city returned to their family homes, but there were also those who reached Grodno by rail, taking part in its defense.
Polish soldiers at the Lithuanian border. Photo from the movie
The initiator of the creation of the film about the defense of Vilnius in September 1939 was Walenty Wojniłło, head of Wilnoteka, a Polish news portal in Vilnius. He proposed cooperation with the Warsaw Joachim Lelewel Foundation, which had already created a film about the defense of Grodno (southwest of Vilnius, now in Belarus).
Some time passed between the idea and its implementation, because it was necessary to write a script and obtain money. The script was worked on by Janusz Petelski, the future director, and Piotr Kościński, the head of the Joachim Lelewel Foundation and the future producer. The co-producer of the film was Polish Television TVP.
It is obvious that some of the filming had to take place in Vilnius. The Vilnius Historical Reconstruction Club Garnizon Nowa Wilejka helped a lot. At the historic and important for Poles old city gate Ostra Brama (Aušros Vartai in Lithuanian), the photos were taken at dawn, so that there wouldn’t be too many passers-by in contemporary clothing. At the Rossa (Rasų in Lithuanian) cemetery, an accident almost happened – a city bus driver was so focused on a group of reenactors in Polish uniforms that he almost ran into a wall… It was not easy to carry “sandbags” (actually – with sawdust…) to the Three Crosses Hill, where an “anti-aircraft position” was created for the film, with two machine guns placed on it. Furthermore, Jodiszki near Vilnius recreated “a village on the Lithuanian side of the border”, where interned Polish soldiers were sent. However, they had to cross the border first – a border crossing was built on a nearby dirt road. In Poland, scenes for the film were shot in several towns near Warsaw. In turn, the historians were recorded in both Warsaw and Vilnius. And then there was the premiere in Warsaw and Vilnius. And the television premiere, first on TVP Historia, and then, in the Belarusian version, on Belsat.
P.K.
Link to the film 9in Polish): https://vod.tvp.pl/filmy-dokumentalne,163/fatalny-rozkaz-wilno-1939,1594785