CZECHOSLOVAK-YUGOSLAV RELATIONS IN THE FIRST YEAR OF KING ALEXANDER’S DICTATORSHIP

Author(s): Jana Škerlová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This study examines bilateral political and diplomatic relations between Czechoslovakia and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from October 1929 Yugoslavia) during the year 1929 when the royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia was proclaimed. The author also focuses on the Czechoslovak attitude toward the Yugoslav dictatorship during its first year. The study is based on archival sources from the Czech and Yugoslav archives (especially diplomatic reports and correspondence) as well as literature and the press from 1929. Despite the fact that the democracy in the Kingdom of SCS was obviously curbed, Czechoslovak political leaders headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edvard Beneš supported Royal Dictatorship in the Kingdom of SCS. In particular, Beneš wanted to prevent weakening of the Little Entente and also Czechoslovakia’s position as its leader. This stance helped the regime in Yugoslavia to strengthen and to establish on internal and international political scene.

The Legacy of the Treaty of Lausanne in the Light of Greek-Turkish Relations in the Twentieth Century: Greek Perceptions of the Treaty of Lausanne

Author(s): Spyridon Sfetas / Language(s): English Issue: 46/2015

The Treaty of Lausanne and the compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey became the basis both for the reorientation of their foreign policies and for the establishment of close relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries. But the Cyprus question and the Aegean conflict affected bilateral relations. It had a negative impact on the Treaty of Lausanne.

Polskie władze państwowe wobec obrządku wschodniosłowiańskiego w okresie międzywojennym

Author(s): Mieczysław Ryba / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2015

Mieczysław Ryba’s article is concerned with the Polish State authorities’ attitude towards the Eastern Slavonic rite in the period between the two World Wars. After the Bolshevik Revolution the Orthodox Church in Russia suffered relentless persecutions. The Holy See wanted to restore the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church and Rome. Hence the neo-Slavonic rite was strongly propagated as a form of a new religious union, similar to Orthodoxy and being united with the Pope. Poland that had a considerable Orthodox population was an experimental area for introducing the new rite. The Polish authorities opposed this action as they thought that it might trigger off the rise of a new nationalism among the Ruthenian population. All this was connected with Poles’ bitter experiences with the Greek-Catholic Church that was the basis for the especially strong development of anti-Polish Ukrainian nationalism in Eastern Lesser Poland.

Az 1939-es Hitler-Sztálin paktum

Author(s): Dietmar Müller,Stefan Troebst / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 98/2015

Éléments personnels . intentions étatiques. Changements de la migration hongroise et de la politique de migration de la Hongrie dans les années 1920

Author(s): Balázs Pálvölgyi / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2013

World War I completely changed Hungary.s migration situation. While in the pre-war times the country had been a net migration country, after 1918 it became an immigration and an emigration country at the same time. In the aftermaths of the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the losing of vast territories brought about a huge mass of refugees arriving in the country; thus, the 1920s were hallmarked by the large scale influx of refugees from the former domains of the country, constituting an immense burden on the state and a problem practically impossible to resolve with the successor states. Within the League of Nations. system, a new legal framework was elaborated in relation to the refugees.

La dimensión „vertical” para eludir el Tratado de Versalles: el papel de las expediciones meteorológicas marítimas de los alemanes por el Atlántico Sur (1924-1927) en el establecimieno de las líneas aéreas según el itinerario Alemania-América del Sur

Author(s): Ferenc Fischer / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 2/2013

From the middle of the 1920’s, a massive rivalry started to develop between Germany and France to establish the European-South American intercontinental air route. The „Transozeanprojekt” became one of the largest undertakings of the Weimar Republic. The most significant task was executed by the research vessel called Meteor that conducted systematic meteorological surveys between April of 1925 and June of 1927 to reveal the so called „Luftozean", the climate circumstances of the South Atlantic. This enabled the development of a safe foundation for the air mail service between Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. While the hang-glider (217 units) program examined the lower layers of the atmosphere, the pilot-balloons (814 units) that were used to gain meteorological data analyzed the higher layers of the atmosphere. The 14,000 km long air route, the „vertical dimension” proved to be the best „civilian” solution for the German aircraft industry to circumvent the military restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. After the test flights and meteorological research conducted between 1924 and 1934, the Luft Hansa air mail flight began to operate – with a 5 day long flight – between Berlin and Buenos Aires from February of 1934. Despite being defeated in WWI, Germany surpassed its French rival.

Apreciación de los espacios aéreos de América del Norte y del Sur, desde el punto de vista de la geopolítica británica (1919–1939)

Author(s): Máté Deák / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 2/2013

The British Empire has never interested in to conquer the northern and southern American airspace until the 1930’s, however the british company Handly Page already had a plan in 1919 to operate airmail service between Great Britain and South America. The plans were rejected because of the lack of financial background. The principal project was the developement of an air route system from London to India and further to Australia. Also the British government tried to reach South Africa using the west-coast of the African continent across the colonial Gambia. British Gambia was the only african possibility to connect an air route to Brasil and Argentina. Finally the government decided to build the South African air route from London to Cape Town across Khairo. The other solution was to cooperate with the US and operate the air mail system using the North Atlantic air routes from London to New York and then to the Bermudas. Further plans were to reach the airspace of South America from the Bermudas. However these attempts were failed.

International Relations of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39

Sovereignty dispute between Germany and Norway in the „Polar Desert”

Author(s): József Krisztián Szalánczi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

At the end of 1938, with two flying-boats on her board, German catapult ship Schwabenland – a former freighter, which was converted and used as a floating airbase – left the docks of Hamburg to execute her secret task in the Southern Ocean: the aerial surveying and mapping of the Antarctic mainland area between the longitudes 12˚W and 20˚E. Officially, the expedition – which was organized by the German government – was a scientific journey; but in the background, Nazi Germany prepared to claim for herself a South Polar district. However, the abovementioned territory was not absolutely derelict, because Norwegian explorers visited these coasts of Antarctica several times previously. Norway also vindicated sovereignty rights over the region, thus the international conflict was unavoidable between the two countries.

A francia külpolitika változása 1934-1936 között

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Enyedi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2014

Germany’s rearmament posed a major threat to France since Hitler had come to power in 1933 and left the Rearmament Conference, therefore the question of security became the main issue in France’s foreign policy. The appointment of Louis Barthou to Foreign Minister in 1934 basically changed French diplomacy by attempting to develop the system of alliances as well as to accept a convention on arms limitation involving Germany. However French plans did not always meet with the concepts of British foreign policy. Pierre Laval, Barthou’s successor on the post, carried on negotiations with Italy and the Soviet-Union which led to the Franco-Soviet pact in 1935 besides he was still determined to approach Germany and resume arm limitation talks. As a result of the failure of the efforts made in order to prevent rearmament, Hitler announced German conscription which was followed by the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936.

„Őszre hazajönnek mind!”

Hadifogolykérdés és a magyar társadalom a Pesti Hírlap hasábjain, 1920–1923

Author(s): Eszter Kaba / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2014

The peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia's separate peace), which ended World War I, did not automatically bring about the possibility for the hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war taken by Russia to return to their home country. Prisoners of war held in the territories east of the Ural, in Turkestan and Siberia, often had to wait years to see their motherland again. A couple of factors, including the Russian-Hungarian diplomatic relations, the general conditions in Soviet Russia and the limited financial means of the Hungarian government, stood in the way of their return. At the beginning of the 1920s, the prisoner of war question was a topic Hungarian society was concerned with on a daily basis, which was mirrored in the columns of one the most popular dailies at the time, the Pesti Hírlap. The newspaper echoed the official views of the government on this topic, but it also encouraged direct social involvement: its articles emphasized that opening diplomatic negotiations and finding the financial means required for bringing the captives home were both essential to the successful settlement of the prisoner of war problem. The articles published in the newspaper used graphic descriptions to illustrate the fate of those languishing in Russian captivity, which resulted in the launch of a then unprecedented fundraising campaign to which almost all social groups contributed. Thanks to the money collected and the settlement of the diplomatic relations, it became possible to bring the prisoners of war home, and the newspaper did not fail to report on how they were welcomed, either. But from the flower-adorned railway stations and passionate words of welcome, the one-time prisoners of war were taken to disarmament camps, and subsequently even to detention camps in some cases, where the ex-soldiers were also accompanied by the correspondent of the daily.

Az amerikai kormányzati körök és a magyar revízió kérdése a két világháború között

Author(s): Éva Mathey / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2014

The dismemberment of historic Hungary by the Trianon Peace Treaty was an overarching national tragedy for the Hungarian nation. Trianon became a common denominator for Hungarians during the period between the wars, and it provided the Horthy regime with a powerful unifying force, and the revision of Hungary’s frontiers was considered to be inevitable. Consequently, revisionist propaganda assumed great importance. Since it could not be directly part of the official political discourse, propaganda found new semi-official and popular channels. Hungarian revisionist policies and propaganda were primarily directed toward European powers such as France, Great Britain, and, from the second half of the 1930s, Italy and Germany. At the same time, the study of archival as well as secondary sources has revealed that Hungarians during the interwar period (especially in the 1920s) had high expectations toward the United States of America as a potential supporter of the revision of the Treaty of Trianon. Nothwithstanding the fact that the United States pursued the policy of political non-entanglement relative to the affairs of Europe after World War I, and completely withdrew from the Paris peace project and did not become a member of the League of Nations, Hungarians cherished the hope that the United States would support Hungary’s search to revise the terms of the Trianon Peace Treaty. Based on the documents of the American State Department, including the official as well as the personal papers and/or the memoirs of American officials in charge of Hungarian affairs between the wars, and the views of Senator William Edgar Borah of Idaho on the revision of the Treaty of Trianon, the present essay offers to analyze the official American position toward Hungary and the revision of the Treaty of Trianon, and sets out to answer the question whether such expectations were well-grounded or rather amounted to wishful thinking.

„Kisül ily módon, hogy Magyarországon mégsem nyárson sütik a szocialistákat”

Author(s): Zsombor Bódy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2014

Válságjelenségek, válságtapasztalatok kolozsvári vállalkozók körében az 1920–1930-as évek fordulóján

Author(s): Beáta Kulcsár / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2014

The paper aims to give an insight into the crisis situation and crisis experiences of Transylvanian entrepreneurs, mostly merchants, who went bankrupt at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. In this period, insolvent entrepreneurs trying to avoid bankruptcy could enter into a forced composition with creditors (concordat preventiv) to agree upon the terms of payment with their creditors. The paper examines the documents of 17 compositions with creditors and draws novel conclusions. The insolvency of entrepreneurs was only partly related to the spreading global economic crisis. As the country's economic and financial situation had already been characterized by difficulties and crisis phenomena even before the outbreak of the global economic crisis, the conditions for undisturbed industrial and commercial activity were not available. Local conditions impeding prosperity fundamentally determined the situation and the deteriorating business prospects of the entrepreneurs examined. The crisis history of the Ţesătoria Ardelenă SA textile factory, presented in detail, reveals that the management considered the financial environment alarming as early as in 1926-1927. Of the companies running into debt, those that were bigger had more leeway for crisis management, but the deteriorating financial situation of their partners and customers inevitably had an impact on their business prospects, too. On the other hand, smaller businesses were unable to cope with the drop of prices, which had already started before 1929, the high taxes, the credit shortage and the decrease in purchasing power. It becomes clear from the documents that there was a difference between industries and manufacturing units (retail and wholesale) in terms of when and how deeply the crisis hit. The material kept in the dossiers analyzed provides information mainly about the local textile trade, while it also casts light on the fact that the majority of indebted entrepreneurs were not expecting a deepening, long-lasting crisis.

Hrana na bojiščih 1. svetovne vojne

izkušnje slovenskih vojakov

Author(s): Rok Stergar / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 2/2015

The sustenance of soldiers on the battlefield had always been very important and a great challenge for the supply and support branch of the military, at the same time. Inadequate food not only left soldiers physically weak but also dispirited. The supply of food for Austro-Hungarian soldiers in World War I failed to keep up with the demand, so they were often hungry, especially during the last three years of the war. An analysis of diaries, memoires, and letters of Slovene soldiers enables an insight in their experiences and also identifies different factors that affected them.

Odnos vojske Kraljevine SHS/Jugoslavije do Slovencev

Author(s): Marko Zajc / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1/2015

The attitude of the Army towards Slovenians in the time of the Kingdom of SHS or Yugoslavia is a topic involving several methodological as well as other research problems that historians have to address. The title is multi-layered. This may not be obvious at the first sight, but it is nevertheless of fundamental importance for the researcher. Several questions emerge: are we referring to the attitude of the Army towards Slovenians as a nation or the Slovenian culture; or its attitude towards individuals - Slovenian soldiers and officers or Slovenian civilians; or maybe its attitude towards the Slovenian territory? It is also important »who«, on the side of the Army, has an attitude towards Slovenians: the supreme command, general, officers, soldiers, etc. What is the professional attitude of the Army members and what is their private or even intimate attitude? Naturally, the Army’s attitude towards Slovenians is closely connected with the Slovenian attitude towards the Army, and it is impossible to draw a precise line between them. The contribution focuses on the issue of the Slovenian territory in the military plans; on the question of the attitude of the Army of the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia to Slovenian soldiers and officers; on the significance of Slovenia/Slovenians in the ideological constructs of the Army; and on the life of officers in the Slovenian part of the country.

ORJUNA in PAČ na poti v Trbovlje

k zgodovini fizičnega nasilja v političnem boju

Author(s): Marko Zajc / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 2/2014

The primary purpose of the article is to bring the attention to the dual nature of physical violence in the political struggle: it has general as well as particular characteristics. Physical violence always causes material damage and casualties, and it always results in irreversible damage: the consequences of physical violence can never be completely eliminated. On the other hand physical violence always takes place in historical contexts: it has its causes and effects, perpetrators and structure. The author analyses the ambivalence of the physical violence taking place during the political conflict between the Organisation of Yugoslav Nationalists (hereinafter Orjuna) with the communists in the 1920s. What is the difference between the discourses of violence in Orjuna and the Glas svobode publications? Both newspapers justified the violence of their adherents for defence purposes. Although both the supporters of Orjuna as well as communists argued in favour of violence for defensive purposes, they interpreted the concept of defence differently. Orjuna was an organisation for the »defence« of the Yugoslav nation. They used the concept of defence very broadly, as their »enemies« threatened the Yugoslav nation by their very existence. True defence may also involve offence. However, the discourse of violence in the communist newsletter had a completely different character. There the concept of »defence« was interpreted concretely, as defence from the »capitalist hordes« which kept attacking the workers and their organisations there and then. For the communists physical violence merely represented one of the methods of the proletarian struggle that had to be resorted to in accordance with the »true« interests of the working class. The paradoxical difference between the general characteristics of violence (violence is always the same: it brings destruction) and particular characteristics of violence (violence is always different) is »hidden« in every individual violent act (or events). The general and particular characteristics of violent acts cannot be separated.

Ideja o krvnem bratstvu južnoslovanskih narodov pri Antonu Novačanu

Author(s): Mateja Ratej / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1/2014

In her contribution the author examines the idea of the blood brotherhood of South Slavic nations, which was the basic integration element and criterion of their unification in the context of the official (unitarian) ideology of the first Yugoslav state. On the example of the political activities of Anton Novačan and his Agrarian or Republican Party, which built on the idea of blood brotherhood, the author shows how soon after the establishment of the state the attempt to implement this idea into the Yugoslav political reality was destined to fail.

Volitve v ljubljansko in mariborsko oblastno skupščino leta 1927 in njihove posebnosti glede na parlamentarne volitve v Sloveniji

Author(s): Marjan Stiplovšek / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1/2014

With regard to the appointed authorities of the largest administrative units, the St. Vitus’ Day Constitution provided for the elections to the Administrative Unit Assemblies as the highest self-government bodies in these units. Despite the fact that the centralist political forces had limited competences, they managed to prevent the elections and the commencement of the operations of Administrative Unit Assemblies until 1927. The electoral law relevant for the Administrative Unit Assemblies was similar as in case of the National Assembly. However, the differences with regard to electoral districts and number of Assembly Members were significant. 106 Assembly Members were elected for the Ljubljana and Maribor Administrative Unit Assemblies in 30 Slovenians electoral districts and cities; while 26 Members of the National Assembly from Slovenia were elected in three electoral units. Slovenian People’s Party achieved an absolute victory in both Administrative Unit Assemblies. However, independently or through electoral blocs seven other political parties received mandates in these Assemblies, which contributed to the improved picture of the contemporary political life in the individual regions of Slovenia. The Administrative Unit Assembly elections indicated the changing power of certain parties since the parliamentary elections of 1925 and foresaw the results of the National Assembly election results in September 1927 in Slovenia.

Keresztesharc a nyilaskereszt ellen. Bangha Béla nyilasellenes publicisztikája, 1936–1940

Author(s): László Bernát Veszprémy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2016