Josef Piłsudski and the Romanian-Polish Alliance in the Spirit of Locarno's Europe, 1926-1931
Josef Piłsudski and the Romanian-Polish Alliance in the Spirit of Locarno's Europe, 1926-1931

Summary/Abstract: When we talk about the second half of the 1920s in European political and diplomatic relations, we are most often refer to a period of stability, euphoria and justified hopes towards an authentic reconciliation between the losers and the victors of the Great War, who seemed willing, after almost a decade of crises and embarrassment, to set aside the revenge and enthusiastically adopt the optimistic and benevolent spirit of a new Europe. The years 1926-1931 were named, even by Marshal Josef Piłsudski as “five years of peace”. It was indeed a period of peace, dominated by initiatives aimed at preserving genuine, lasting peace in Europe and the elimination of war as a solution to disputes between states. In this context, our approach may raise questions about the goals we are proposing. What justification may have the analysis of the alliance between Romania and Poland at a time when there was not much to happen, and in which anyway Europe was absorbed in finding ideal formulas for peace preservation, in the spirit the old continent seemed to have won at Locarno? In fact we tried to identify the apparently simple route of the Romanian-Polish Alliance in the context of the second half of the 1920s. The influence of the Locarno agreements in shaping a new Romanian-Polish treaty in 1926 is unequivocal, but we also clearly identify after 1926 the tensions and quests of both sides towards the preservation of one's own security, on the one hand, and towards regional alliances. From this perspective, we emphasize that the Polish suspicions, first but not only, towards the profound consequences of the Locarno moment have proved to be well founded. There have indeed been five years of peace in which the germs of war were planted, deep and firm, setting milestones that will lead Europe to the outbreak of the second world conflagration.

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