Unia polsko-czecho słowacka i jej zasady ustrojowe jako model systemu bezpieczeństwa kolektywnego
The Polish-Czechoslovak Union and Its Political Principles as a Model of a Collective Security System

Summary/Abstract: The aggression of Hitler’s Germany and Soviet Russia made the politicians of Poland and Czechoslovakia aware of the need to create a collective security system that would effectively protect them from the attacks of their stronger states after the war. In the beginnings of October 1939, Czech and Slovak politicians started polling contacts with the Polish government in exile. However, due to the lack of a uniform political representation of the Czechoslovak state towards the Allies, the meetings could be limited to an exchange of views. Only the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Committee, led by Edvard Beneš, by Great Britain and France as the only representation of the Czechoslovak Republic created the opportunity for more concrete talks. As a result, the Political Committee of the Council of Ministers developed the Principles of the Constitutional Act of the Union of Poland and Czechoslovakia. In this document, proposals for the principles of the political system of the proposed union were presented, including those in the field of defence. Due to the fact that the project provided for the possibility of extending the proposed union to other Central European states, the presented regulations constituted a project of model solutions for the creation of a collective defence system in this region of the continent. The article is devoted to these issues.

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