Władze czechosłowackie a mniejszość słowacka w Polsce (1947—1956)
The Czechoslovak authorities and the Slovak minority in Poland (1947—1956)

Summary/Abstract: Yet another Polish-Czechoslovak borderline conflict, finished when signing a bilateral agreement on friendship and mutual support on 10 March 1947, meant the obligation to realize the so called protocol-attachment to this agreement by both countries. Its content obliged the Polish party to accept the existence of the Slovak minority in North Spis and Upper Orava, and provide it the conditions of the cultural development. It was mainly the consulate of the Czechoslovak Republic in Katowice with Matej Andráš, an active consul who was in charge of this agreement starting from autumn 1947. The actions of the Czechoslovak authorities clearly aimed at making Slovaks in Poland independent of the influences of local organs in the borderline until 1950. In so doing, the issue of the Polish minority in the Czechoslovakia was used in the form of a diplomatic blackmail incomparable in many respects. Thus, Slovak schools and cultural organizations, as well as the Slovak junior high school in Jabłonka in 1951 were founded in the Polish part of Spis and Orava. Because of a growing Stalinization the attention the Czechoslovak authorities paid to Slovaks in Poland was declining. Both countries avoided a discussion on minority issues, which suited above all the authorities in Prague being unwilling to discuss Poles’ concerns in the Zaolzie area.

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