Emlékek egy letűnt korszakból. Egy futballista emlékezései 1926-ból
Original publication: Nemzeti Sport, 1926
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Original publication: Nemzeti Sport, 1926
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Zwischen den zwei Weltkriegen beschäftigten sich die Leiter der reformierten Kirche in Siebenbürgen mit dem Problem der Diasporagemeinden. Der Verwaltungsrat der reformierten Kirche in Siebenbürgen hat an die Gemeinden sieben Rundbriefe mit dem Thema Diaspora-mission geschickt Mit diesen Schriften hat der Verwaltungsrat die regelmässige Arbeit in Diasporagebieten vorgeschrieben. In den meisten Gemeinden wurden diese Briefe ernst genommen, und viele Gemeindepfarrer begannen auch Gemeinden in der Diaspora zu betreuen.Die Studenten der theologischen Fakultät haben auch an dieser Mission teilgenommen.
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Bischof Viktor Glondys notierte in seinem Tagebuch, Dr. Helmut Wolff, der Präsident des Deutsch-sächsischen Volksrates, habe ihm am Samstag, dem 21. Dezember 1935, gesagt, „Fabritius wolle mit den Kirchen ein Konkordat abschließen“. Ulrich A. Wien erwähnt Dr. Friedrich Ipsen mit der gleichen Einschätzung des Vertrages vom 14. Januar 19363. Ich habe in der Biographie über meinen Vater eine vorausgegangene Vereinbarung als „Kleinsächsisches Konkordat“ bezeichnet, ohne dass mir die Stelle im Tagebuch von Bischof Glondys damals gegenwärtig gewesen wäre.
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In this paper author deals with history of Zenica steel factory from its foundation in 1892, to the beginning of World War II in Yugoslavia in 1941. During this period factory grew to become one of the biggest factories in Bosnia and Herzegovina which at the midst of World War 2 employed several thousands of workers. During this time, Zenica Steelwork factory influenced all aspects of life in Zenica; economy, demography, education, etc, which is also described in this paper. During last year of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, factory was greatly expanded, in efforts of Yugoslavia to strenghten its weak metal industr, so Zenica becomes on of centres of metal production. Foundation of first schools and efforts in education in Zenica are closely related to Mine and Steel Factory in Zenica, so author especially paid attention to this aspect.
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In his Simon Wiesenthal Lecture, the British historian Robert Knight attempted to trace the fates of his grandparents in their political, human, and familial contexts, and to discern the roots of their thoughts and actions. Heinrich Scheuer remained not only connected but deeply loyal to the state of Austria in all its incarnations through the first half of the twentieth century. Alice Scheuer was dedicated to Austrian modernity and its avant-garde. Their Jewish backgrounds were hardly relevant, identity – as the historian was able to deduce from the available documentation – was not a question to them, or if it did, it did so only in the background, not noticeably or even discernibly. It was only of importance to the others: The conflicts already reached a climax under the Dollfuß dictatorship. Following the ‘Anschluß’, their two children – Georg and Rose – manage to escape. The parents remained, were deported to Maly Trostenets, and murdered. It would take a long time for the children to come to terms with their parents’ past, which left many unanswered questions, resonating even among their descendants.
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The 3rd course of Estonian naval officers started at the Estonian Military School of Joint Military Education Facilities on 7 July 1925 and graduated on 29 April 1928. With 20 graduates (2 cadets did not graduate), it became the single largest cohort of Estonian Navy officers. Students of the 3rd course could enjoy a more systematic and academic approach to their education than their predecessors and by 1940, when the Estonian Navy was abolished, they had achieved prominent positions in the Navy. This crew also produced the most outspoken writers in military journals amongst Estonian Navy officers for the time. From 1 February 1926 until 5 February 1927, the cadets of the 3rd course kept a diary, which is now retained at the Estonian Maritime Museum. The diary was a collective work: a different person made entries each week and the name of the author was added at the end of the week. As some of the names (and some annexes mentioned in the text) are missing or substituted with the note “unknown”, the version available in the museum seems to be a copy of an original diary or diaries. It can be deducted that the diary was not meant for publication or for outsiders to read, as some of the entries could have caused a lot of trouble for the writers. However, some extracts with names omitted were published in 1933 in the journal “Merendus”, where the graduates of the 3rd course were active members, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of their graduation. Most of the diary entries relate jolly or annoying episodes of cadets’ everyday life at the Military School in Tondi and during the practice in the Fleet. Therefore it gives an interesting and amusing insight into Estonian Navy cadets’ life during one year.
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Petty officers were an important link between officers and soldiers/sailors in the Estonian Navy. Petty officers were divided into line petty officers (riviallohvitserid) and specialist petty officers (erialaallohvitserid). Line and specialist petty officers’ tasks differed significantly. Line petty officers were lower level military leaders and disciplinarians for soldiers under their command. They were also trainers for recruits. Specialist petty officers, who were the majority in the Navy, were first of all specialists in a specific area. They handled and maintained different mechanisms. Only higher-ranking petty officers and warrant officers (the rank of warrant officer (instruktor) was available only in the Navy, but not in other branches) also held the function of leader and pedagogue: they were in charge of the petty officers and sailors in their unit and were responsible for their additional specialist training. The training of line and specialist petty officers was as different as their tasks. Line petty officers were trained to be leaders and trainers. Major attention was paid to weapons and infantry tactics training. The training of specialist petty officers focused on their specialist knowledge and skills. To maintain the proper level of administrative and line skills, regular refresher courses were introduced in the Navy. The courses were conducted in the wintertime, when the overall training pace was lower. Although the armed forces of Estonia is based on conscription, petty officers in the Navy were usually professional soldiers, not conscripts. This was due to the fact that specialist petty officers were expected to have service experience, which was hard for conscripts to gain during their mandatory service time. Even if a conscript completed petty officer training and was appointed to the position of petty officer, he was seldom promoted to the rank of petty officer. Professional soldiers had more rights than conscripts, fixed by special law, and representative organizations (üleajateenijate kogud). They formed a conscious and unified fraternity, where the status of professional soldier was more important than that of soldiers or the rank of petty officer.
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In 1938 the Soviet Union started to methodically demand that Finland extend the Nonaggression Pact between the two countries so that it would have been possible to establish Soviet military bases in the Finnish territory on a fully legal basis. The Soviets justified it with a need to ensure national security. In fact, the Soviet Union wished to recover Finland as a whole, it having been part of the former Russian Empire, but in order not to come across as an aggressor, at first it was necessary to use diplomatic means. Pursuant to a secret protocol of the Nonaggression Pact concluded between the Soviet Union and Germany on 23 October 1939, Finland was part of the Soviet sphere of interest. The Soviet Union began to resolve the so-called Finnish issue on 12 October 1939, when it issued an ultimatum to Finland demanding that Finland shift the state border further away from Leningrad (the boundary ran at 32 km from the city). It also demanded that the Hanko Peninsula be rented out for a Soviet naval base for 30 years, as well as a few islands in the Gulf of Finland. In order to achieve what was desired, pressure was applied: the Soviet Air Force began to systematically violate Finnish airspace. On 12 October 1939 negotiations between the Soviet Union and Finland began in Moscow. The lead negotiator on behalf of Finland was Juho Kusti Paasikivi; the Soviet Union was represented by Joseph Stalin and the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov. Since the Finns declined to conclude a pact with the Soviet Union in the style of the Baltic States, Moscow began to resolve the so-called Finnish issue in a military manner. The Soviet Union began acts of war against Finland on 30 November 1939, and the war that was to be historically called the Winter War had an indirect impact also on Estonia. Preparations for occupying Finland had already been started well before negotiations took place in Moscow in October-November 1939. In March 1939 the Commander of the Leningrad Military District, Komandarm 2nd rank Kirill Meretskov, received an order from the People’s Commissar for Defence of the Soviet Union, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, to evaluate the readiness of the troops of the District for a military conflict with Finland. By 19 April, the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District had prepared a report concerning offensive plans against Finland and Estonia using a northwestern front to be created on the basis of the District. On 7 September 1939 the Red Army started mobilisation and its troops began to concentrate in the Karelian Isthmus. The main force of the planned Finnish offensive was formed by the troops of the Leningrad Military District. According to the offensive plan, four armies (425,640 soldiers), 24 divisions, 2,289 tanks, 2,446 aircraft and 2,876 cannons and mortars were sent against Finland. The most powerful unit of the Soviet military grouping, the 7th Army, operated in the Karelian Isthmus, while north of Ladoga the 8th, 9th and 14th Armies were preparing for invasion. Preparations for attacking Finland were also made by the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet: the order to prepare a military action plan to occupy Finland was received on 3 November 1939. The Soviet Union used its air and naval bases in Estonia to attack Finland. The bases in Estonia provided the Soviet Union with a great advantage in the war against Finland as the distances for attacking Finnish cities were rendered considerably shorter. Since Paldiski was remarkably closer to Finland than the Kotly or Koporye airfields in Leningrad Oblast, the range of aircraft based in Estonia was also significantly greater. The aircraft of the 10th Air Force Brigade, located in Estonia, were used in combat against Finland as of the first day of the war. It was very convenient to attack the city and port of Turku from there. Turku and other ports in Southeast Finland were of utmost importance to Finland, as they provided a connection with the West, through which necessary goods, including weapons and ammunition, were obtained. The vicinity of the bases located in Estonia to the war theatre facilitated an easier return to their airfields for aircraft damaged in Finland. Several aircraft returning from Finland performed emergency landings outside their bases. Incidents where Soviet airmen bombed the Estonian coast, probably mistaking it for Finland, were frequent. In addition to the air force, the Soviet Union also used vessels, mainly submarines, of the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet located in Estonia, in operations against Finland. As a result of the treaty concluded between the Soviet Union and Finland, the Soviet Union gained possession of the Hanko Peninsula amongst other territories. The most direct way to supply Hanko was an airfield located near Paldiski. Paldiski became an interim base when introducing Soviet soldiers to the Hanko Peninsula. By using the Soviet-based troops located in Estonia in the war against Finland, the Soviet Union severely violated international law.
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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the forefront, between the problems that Romania faces, was the necessity of reunion to the Romanian state of all Romanian territories. All the actions initiated during this period were subordinated to this important historical decision. Our analysis shows the multitude of historical events between the Danube and the Black Sea.
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The period of 1917-1920 in Central and Eastern Europe was characterized by the revolution-ary collapse of the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungary against the background of the final stage of the First World War, the emergence of Bolshevism as a new challenge to the world order, and the monarchist counter-revolution as a response to Bolshevism. It should be noted that the disintegration of the Russian and the Austro- Hungarian Empires (in both cases it was a dynastic statehood) was an organic process according to the principle of na-tional self-determination. However, at the same time, Bolshevism suddenly appeared as a new his-torical phenomenon and was trying to replace nation-state by the establishment of Soviet Power, i.e. the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat. After the downfall of the monarchies in Central and Eastern Europe, successful Bolsheviks’ coups took place in Russia (7 November 1917), Finland (27 January 1918), and Hungary ( 21 March 1919). The enlargement of Bolshevism in Central and East-ern Europe was stopped by the domestic counter-revolution under effective international support (in Finland and Hungary), but in Russia, the Bolsheviks managed to retain Soviet power.
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U prilici smo da koristimo nekoliko dokumenata iz korespodencije pojedinih trgovaca iz poznate gračaničke trgovačke familije Rešidbegovića. Ovi dokumenti su se nedavno pojavili na jednoj internet stranici. Trgovine Rešidbegovića iz Gračanice su prema ovim dokumentima imale živu poslovnu korespodenciju i jake ekonomske veze sa nekim trgovcima iz Tuzle. Iz ovih dokumenata se može vidjeti više detalja o trgovini u Gračanici i Tuzli tokom treće decenije 20. stoljeća. Također se može vidjeti koja je roba bila čest predmet trgovačkih odnosa u ovim gradovima.
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The Red Army Armed Forces were formed in 1918 to achieve the revolutionary aims of the Russian Communist Party. Among other things, the Red Army became the tool of the Communist Party to destroy the class-based society in the country. This was the reason for forming the Red Army based on social classes. Unlike regular armed forces, the Red Army preferred to recruit the proletariat – peasants and working class people. As a general rule, the enemies of the proletariat – noblemen and the bourgeoisie were allowed to serve in the Red Army as specialists in a certain field. Due to the fact that Russia remained a multinational country after the revolution in 1917, the question arose as to how representatives of other ethnic groups living in Russia were involved in military service and what their role was. The disposition of the Bolsheviks toward the formation of national military units within the Russian tsarist army was negative. However, they got into a difficult situation as the civil war escalated in the spring of 1918. This required the formation of solid military units to be used to suppress numerous riots and fight against the counter-revolutionary minded White Guard units. The Latvian Red Rifl emen units should be highlighted for their exceptional loyalty to the Red Army and high effi ciency in combat. Estonian Rifl emen units were also relatively effi cient in combat. The Russian Civil War spread throughout the whole territory of the country, involving nations from Ukraine to the Far-East, from the Caucasus to Northern Russia. In Ukraine, the situation became relatively difficult, as there were several parties fighting against one another. However, the Bolsheviks succeeded in gaining Ukrainian communists known as borotbists as their allies, and, as a result, got the local people on their side. At first the Ukrainian national units within the Red Army were formed based on Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine – Tshernigov, Harkov and Donbas, the biggest of them being the Red Cossacks Corps. Among the peoples of the North-Caucasus, the Bolsheviks achieved success by effectively exploiting the traditional controversies among these peoples, and alternately supporting diff erent small ethnic groups. As a result, several irregular units were formed in the region, which kept fi ghting in their home region. Although it was Stalin’s plan to form a mountain division to be sent to the Polish front, ultimately no sizable units were formed in the region. The formation of the Transcaucasian national military units from 1920–22 was based on the reorganization of existing military units. The activity of the national military units of the Bashkirs, Tatars, Udmurts and Tsuvashs within the Red Army turned out to be relatively successful in the years 1919–1920. By successfully exploiting the infl exible ethnic policy of the Russian Whites, the Bolsheviks managed to get the armed formations of Bashkiria and Tatar pursuing ethnic autonomy on their side. Their high motivation made them highly effi cient in the battlefi eld. The combat activity of the Volga-Tatar division against their Muslim coreligionists in Turkestan should be highlighted. However, the Bolsheviks completely failed with recruiting and winning the local people in Turkestan. The reasons for that included not only the Bolsheviks’ ignorance of ethnic tradition, but also the fact that in the Russian Empire the Turkestan people were freed from military service, and therefore had no experience with it. Mobilization in the Red Army in 1920 provoked the resistance of locals, and therefore the formation of national military units was diffi cult and the bulk of the units were formed of Russians. In conclusion, the Bolsheviks managed to form several dozen national military units within the Red Army by successfully exploiting the disorganization of ethnic minorities and the short-sightedness of the Russian ethnic minority policy. These units demonstrated relatively high efficiency in the fronts of the Civil War.
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Raymond Williams (1921 – 1988), one of the founders of Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, is known not only in Britain but in many other countries as an effective intellectual and social critic. His extensive studies focus on subtitles as social conflicts, ecology, and communication. This study is based upon the short text he wrote on advertisement, he defines as a striking means in his study titled “Advertising: The Magic System in Problems in Materialism and Culture”. This study aims to discuss the point of view of the author, who regards advertisement as the official art of capitalistic societies in his mentioned text, in the light of the experiences of USSR by taking into account the political, economic and cultural developments in the 20th century. In this regard, the concept of advertisement viewed as a complementary confined to capitalistic societies and economic relations cannot live in non-capitalistc societies and economic relations according to historical deterministic standpoint. Such an approach makes the possible existence of advertisement in non-capitalistic societies and economic relations, even if with different purposes and forms, open to discussion needed to be analysed. This study, focusing on this issue,can be seen as an academic attempt with the aim of making contribution to the field, as it makes use of relevant literature and concrete data. In the study, in addition to the theoretical discussion of the issue, case study analysis is also carried out through selected examples. Thus, the public information and propaganda issues will be discussed through the experiences of USSR, which constructed and defined its existence outside the capitalistc production and distribution web, lasting politically for a long period in the 20th century. In order to limit the approximately one century period of experience and thus deepen the study, the three production domains defined as early period public information between 1917-1925 of the USSR are included into the study; “representation in cinema, information posters, and ceramic objects used with the aim of propaganda”.
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The study aims to analyse some fundamental directions related to the emergence and evolution of the student dormitories pertaining to the University of Iași during the interwar period. The objectives refer to the reactions of the central institutions to the need to create living conditions for the wave of students coming to the city starting with 1918, the evolution of the meaning of student dormitory and the identification of places where spaces designed to encourage young people to study in Iași. The problem of building several student dormitories came against the background of the crisis incurred by the University even from the phase immediately following the union of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania. The plans for student dormitories were permanently dependent on the resources that could be provided by the government authorities. For these reasons, the Ministry of Public Instruction became a determining factor in order to remedy the disorders caused by the sudden increase in the number of students enrolled at the oldest Romanian university. However, the financial support came with delays that blocked the activity of the institution. The 1930s brought more changes in the efforts to create living conditions for the students, although not everyone was able to find a place. The option of renting other buildings has been replaced by investments in the University possessions. The existence of student dormitories went through three major phases in the period between the two World Wars. After the University’s attempts to alleviate the crises generated by the increasing waves of students, stage followed aimed to obtain necessary properties to prepare rooms that guarantee the life of young people in Iași. The effects of the economic crisis were visible both in the difficulty of managing the student dormitories and in the impos-sibility of ensuring a place for a large number of students through the construc-tion of new buildings.
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The southern periphery area appeared in the city government’s development plans in the late 19th century, and was envisioned as an industrial and recreative area that would include a port on the river Sava. Its value as a residential area was foreseen only in the Main Regulatory Plan of 1930/31, which was approved in 1940. The lack of a regulatory basis for this area was the consequence of the unregulated flow of the Sava, whose annual flooding remained a threat, and also of the railway to the north, which cut the area off from the Lower Town and city centre. This so-called ‘Railway Question’ burdened the city government for decades after the erection of the Main Railway Station building in 1892, though it was somewhat ameliorated by the construction of an underpass on Miramarska Road in 1913. The separation of the southern periphery from the city due to the railway and the unregulated Sava prevented the development of the city in the north-south direction, so it developed longitudinally. The regulation of the Sava began in 1899, and by 1918 the river was consolidated into a single riverbed, its branches were cut off, and it was set into a characteristic bend with a centreline perpendicular to the medieval city core. However, the threat of flooding continued until the 1930s, when the Trnje embankment was completed, providing at least some protection for the southern border of the southern periphery.An urban population boom, characteristic of cities across the globe after World War I, took place in Zagreb. Most of the growth was due to people moving in from Zagreb’s rural surroundings and northern Croatia. One of the first problems that were detected was the lack of housing, especially that which would be affordable to the newly arrived immigrants. Although many of them found employment in the city or the factories that had by then developed on its periphery, their limited and modest incomes soon drove them out of the city centre and towards the periphery. There they built houses and had space for gardens and domestic animals, mostly on rented lots. The most pronounced characteristic of the population of the southern periphery was illegal construction; between 5,000 and 6,000 such buildings were erected in the interwar period. This phenomenon naturally led the new citizens into conflict with the city government.Even though Marxist historiography accused the ‘bourgeois government’ of deliberately ignoring the population of the periphery, this seems to be an exaggerated interpretation, though these citizens were often treated as ‘little people’. Various city governments, especially in the 1930s, had a pronounced social dimension, especially in regard to basic social benefits, but also in the construction of a limited number of dwellings for the poorer strata of the population. It seems more accurate to say that the city authorities ignored the southern periphery area. The city government lacked the funds to properly deal with the less-than-ideal area that was literally cut off from the city due to the railway and also exposed to flooding, which reinforced the mutual feeling of isolation.In this entire period, the population of the southern periphery was addressed as ‘little people’ and they never reached the level of ‘citizens’, marking this area a sort of ‘non-city’. In this sense, it is no wonder that, after the flood of 1923, only around 75 Zagreb citizens donated (mostly useless) clothing and footwear to victims from the periphery. Their relationship was problematic and full of mutual accusations. However, these ‘non-citizens’ and ‘little people’ actually forced the city government to begin addressing the southern periphery. Positive changes can be detected from the 1930s, during the mandate of Ivo Krbek. Following the mass immigration after World War I and until 1928, the inhabitants of the southern periphery reached a critical mass, i.e. they had sufficient numbers to allow them to remain in this area. The ideal plan of the city government was to buy houses from illegal builders or to offer them land in the regulated parts of the city, and thus free up this space for some future urban development. However, the chronic lack of funds and lots as well as the inadequate utility infrastructure hindered these efforts and widened the gap between ‘city’ and ‘periphery’.
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The paper endeavours to outline biographical fragments and fathom the character of Josip Vragović (1886–1965), a long-time employee and director of the Zagreb police in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Independent State of Croatia. The paper also shows the structure of the interwar Zagreb police and Vragović’s closest associates. Particular emphasis is put on Vragović’s professional activity in the period of turbulent social and political conditions in 1918, 1941, and 1945, and some light is shed on his private life (as much as possible through available archival sources).
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Using archival data, press articles, and historiographical and memoir literature, this paper reconstructs biographical details from the life of Edo Marković, agronomist, civil servant, member of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, Rotary Club activist, and general manager of the state monopoly company for the purchase and export of agricultural produce. The life philosophy of Edo Marković, which could be described in brief as opposition to inertia and authority, led him from his early childhood into temptations, which he overcame by following his intuition. They included identity dilemmas, education, political experimentation, and a principled determination to ‘serve the homeland, not the government’. Thanks to the organisational skills he displayed during World War I, his later banking career, the international reputation he enjoyed in the highest Freemason and Rotary circles, the crown of which was his position in the League of Nations, he acted more like an expert than a politician. Even though he was a member of several political organisations, he continued to adhere to the ideology of his old company, grown from the Croatian-Serbian Coalition. His Rotary enthusiasm outweighed the dashed hopes about the future of the Yugoslav state, and contributed to a sort of internal escapism and turn towards international activism. The affinity of Marković’s children for left-wing ideas, despite their material status, was certainly fostered by the opinions of their father, who afforded them a comprehensive education, thus allowing them to independently form their views on how the Russian Revolution went astray, the consequences of the Nazi rise to power, and the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. The close links of Edo Marković with Czechoslovakia were the consequence of inter-Rotary cooperation, his loyalty to the concept of the Little Entente, and his promotion of the controversial Yugoslav-Czechoslovak ‘grain arrangements’, for which he was often criticised. The high social standing of Edo Markocić was not immanent to the agrarian topics that he was preoccupied with from his student days until his death. However, his radical idea about the emancipation of national agriculture from foreign markets through the industrialisation of passive areas and the exploitation of their natural resources exposed him to accusations of ‘agrarian defeatism’ and treason. Apart from complaints about his staff policy, extravagance, and compulsive hoarding of war reserves, the sources used do not point towards any financial malfeasance on his part, which his predecessors at the head of the Privileged Export Society (PRIZAD) were notorious for. Indeed, due to his Jewish ancestry, Marković was subjected to additional attacks in the press, which, generalising his affiliation to the stratum of ‘Austro-Hungarian banking masters’, futilely attempted to discredit him regarding the purchase and export of grain and opium. Unlike his conflict with national interest groups, which was the consequence of his compliance with American demands for a more restrictive opium policy, Marković’s ‘lack of tact’, based on his political and ethical beliefs, made him an unreliable partner of the Yugoslav military command on the eve of the new war and a hinderance in the German ‘supplementary economic area’. If the official version of his murder is to be believed, Edo Marković died because he had raised his daughters in the spirit of liberalism, which eventually led to their active support of the Communists, and provoked the police raid in which he was killed. On the other hand, Marković, as a Freemason, Rotarian, ‘Christianised Jew’, anglophile, and opponent of economic cooperation with the Third Reich, was a perfect target for Nazi Germany, whose intelligence service had successfully infiltrated Yugoslavia. In both cases, Edo Marković became a victim of that which had preoccupied him from his earliest days, but which he had simultaneously avoided – politics.
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The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Yugoslavia was not a major subject of the operational activities (main operational objective) of the Polish military intelligence. Nonetheless, due to the implemented and planned strategic projects related to national defence, assignments were made to collect data, primarily on the military potential of the country, its politics towards neighbouring states, and the possibility of selling Polish arms to it. There is no doubt that the leadership of Poland and the intelligence officers were interested in the secret expansion of the Yugoslav army and its political and military relations with Czechoslovakia and Romania within the frame of its obligations as part of the Little Entente. The analysed documents show that the Polish army saw Yugoslavia as a state with complicated internal relations that seeks to preserve the Versailles order and has numerous scholarly and cultural ties with Poland. On the other hand, they detected Yugoslavia’s sympathy for Russia, Czechoslovakia, and Germany as well as its numerous White Guard diaspora, which was seen as an element infiltrated there by the Bolsheviks, and this certainly also influenced the decision that the Kingdom of Yugoslavia should be included in the intelligence activities of the Management of Intelligence and Reconnaissance Intelligence (P2) in order to evaluate its politics and military capabilities.
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Władysław E. Sikorski was born on May 20, 1881 in Tuszów Narodowe near Mielec. He graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic. Until 1918 he was active in the Independence Movement, he was a co-founder of the Polish Legions and the Supreme National Committee. In 1915 he fell into conflict with Józef Piłsudski as to the ways of rebuilding Polish statehood alongside Austro-Hungary and recruitment to the Polish Legions. From October 12, 1918 he served in the Polish Army. During the Polish-Bolshevik war (1919/1920) in the Warsaw battle in August 1920 he successfully commanded the 5th Army. Immediately after the murder of President Narutowicz on December 16, 1922 he was appointed the President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland and Minister of the Interior. In this difficult and dangerous for Poland time, contrary to appearances, it was not the function of Prime Minister but the post of Minister of the Interior that gave Gen. Władysław Sikorski real power and the possibility of direct influence on the internal situation in the country, and especially on its internal security. Gen. Sikorski made personnel changes in the structure of the Ministry, removing the people responsible, as politicians and civil servants, for the December 1922 incidents. He implemented the administrative policy of the Ministry, whose main purpose was to maintain peace and public safety by fighting the political fractions and parties that directly and openly aimed at overthrowing the current political and social order. Much attention was paid by the Minister of the Interior to the affairs of national minorities, especially the Ukrainian and Belarusian ones, as well as to the socio-political situation in the Eastern Borderlands. He prepared a comprehensive policy of the State towards national minorities, the basis of which was the concept of political (state) assimilation. The Cabinet of Gen. W. Sikorski was dismsissed on May 26, 1923, but did not resign until May 28, 1923. In the years 1923–1943 General W. Sikorski served, among others, as the Minister of Military Affairs (1924/1925) and after the defeat of September 1939, in exile (in France and England), he was the Prime Minister of the National Defense and Supreme Commander. He died in a plane crash in Gibraltar on July 4, 1943.
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