The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption on August 15 and the dual symbolism of that date has rendered a particular framing of memory of the 1920 victory. In the commemorative narrative fostered by the Church in distant Poland, the victory is portrayed as a divine miracle and evidence of God’s providence.

The Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920 was one of the most foreboding deadly threat facing the Western world. In its significance, the Polish decisive victory over the Red Army in 1920 remains on par with the Battle of Vienna in 1683 where the Western World under the command of the Polish King Jan III Sobieski decisively defeated the Ottomans marching on the Christian Europe.

The contrast between the project of Szukalski’s Polish Centaur and most sculptures commemorating, celebrating a person, an event or an idea is that in the very instance of encountering his captivating vision the viewer is awaken in a different world.

Andrzej Piotr Pityński was born on March 15, 1947 in Ulanów; Andrzej died on September 18, 2020 in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He was a graduate of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts.