The Large Cities in Interwar Bessarabia as Promotors of the Development of the Art of Metals

Author(s): Liliana Condraticova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The Bessarabian cities (Chișinău, Orhei, Bălți, Ismail, Soroca) were of special importance in the development of the art of precious and common metalworking, becoming centres for the promotion of art and the commercialization of metal objects. Of particular importance are those cities which, during the interwar period, created favourable conditions for the development of artistic metalwork crafts thanks to the founding and operation of jewellery salons-workshops. The city of Chișinău became an urban centre that could compete with the big cities in Romania with regards to the number of jewellers, engravers and watchmakers. In this article, we aim to highlight some aspects related to the functioning of church and laic jewellery workshops from the perspective of the activities of craftsmen and tradesmen in the cities of Bessarabia between the two world wars. For this purpose, we drew upon archives, contemporaneous periodicals, calendars of the city Chișinău, church newsletters, artists’ advertisements and various other sources that have been preserved to the present day.These source documents allow us to re-establish the picture of the evolution of precious and common metalworking techniques and styles in inter-war Bessarabia. The workshops in Chișinău and in Borisăuca monastery and the factory in Bălți, the activity of the craftsmen, the publication of the catalogue of the Archiepiscopate workshops in 1940, and various other concrete and beneficial measures were all part of a policy to support the church and ecclesiastical art which was adopted by the secular and religious authorities. The interwar Chișinău had a particular role in the development of metal art, becoming a real centre for the operation of workshops and the activity of jewellers and brass-smiths.

Comparison of the situation of Freistaat Danzig and Saarland under the auspices of the League of Nations

Author(s): Renáta Somogyi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

Administration and supervision of crisis zones is a frequently discussed topic these days. This study focuses on a specific segment of this issue rooted in the specificities of international transitory administration. By presenting and analysing the legal standing of Saarland and the situation of the Freistaat Danzig between the two World Wars, the reader may gain an insight into the first wing beats of the international community aimed at crisis management. The study looks in detail into legal legitimacy, the credibility of efficiency and control functions through the work of the two bodies temporarily appointed by the League of Nations. The presentation of the administration of Saarland, so important for Germany, could significantly contribute to deepening Hungarian-German economic and political relations, and to an accurate determination of the deficiencies of current crisis management.

YUGOSLAV PAVILIONS AT INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS IN ARTISTIC AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE 1918–1941

Author(s): Aleksandra Stamenković / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

Exploring the context of constructing the Yugoslav national pavilions at international exhibitions in the period between the Two World Wars implies the analysis of the used architectural styles, also certain political ideologies that find their expression in architecture (thus lending it a role of social engagement). The parallel flows of socio-political discourses and architecture also require resolving the following dilemma: was the architect selected based on his or her education, sensibility and experience for a particular project, or forced to conform to the demands of the political authorities. The heritage, status of the nation, the architect, furthermore numerous social, cultural and, above all, political factors influence the variations in the art programs showcased in the pavilions. One such factor – the ideal of cultural connection and political cooperation among the South Slavs, supported by King Alexander Karadjordjević – plays an important role in defining the program and stylistic characteristics of the pavilions because it suggests a specific artistic expression. Attempts to develop this ideal into the ideology of Yugoslavism, that in certain respects sought to establish itself as the national identity, marked the period between 1918 and 1941. Such attempts represented both a prerequisite and a directive in the representative programs of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Toksyna Polski

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2022

Afera na drożdżach

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish Issue: 112/2022

„Huszonnégy számológép a pokol kapujában”

Author(s): Ádám László Kiss / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2022

Éric Vuillard: Napirend. 21. Század Kiadó, Bp., 2020.

Kereskedelmi tárgyalások Magyarország és Csehszlovákia között 1922 őszén

Author(s): Pál Gyúrósi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2022

The aim of this study is to describe the trade negotiations between Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1922. The significance of the negotiations was that although there were sharp political differences between the two sides, their trade relations were very strong. Hungary’s main objective was political, while Czechoslovakia wanted to improve its trade position. Although the parties were able to agree on trade issues and signed the treaty, it could not enter into force because the broader agreement between Budapest and Prague was not reached. The two countries finally concluded a trade agreement in 1927. However, the lack of trade between the two countries did not affect the volume of trade, which remained significant throughout the 1920s.

Teleki Pál második kormányfősége és a csehszlovák ügy

Author(s): Dániel Miklós / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2022

The foreign political views of Pál Teleki in the course of his second term as prime minister, and the ways in which he put them into practice, have already been examined in a number of studies and monographs. Especially well known are his policies in relation to the Polish refugees, and his efforts to maintain armed neutrality. The present paper offers an insight into the extent to which Pál Teleki and his government were informed about the Czechoslovak emigration that was being organised under the direction of Edvard Beneš, and whose aim was the reformation of Czechoslovakia as it had existed before the Treaty of Munich. The author also touches briefly on the way that the Budapest leadership reacted to the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia after the disintegration of the Czechoslovak state.

The Rise of National Socialism in the Bavarian Highlands

Author(s): András Patrik Erdős / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The Rise of National Socialism in the Bavarian Highlands: A Microhistory of Murnau, 1919–1933. By Edith Raim. Routledge, 2022. 244 pp.

Afera „Pocisk” (1935–1936): preludium do afery Rana

Author(s): Robert Kuśnierz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

On 28 May 1936, a Polish military intelligence agent, Lieutenant Stefan Kasperski, working officially as a clerk of the Polish Consulate General in Kiev as Albert Ran, was arrested in Moscow. The case of Kasperski’s arrest and detention in Moscow prisons, and its repercussions on the activities of Polish military intelligence in the Soviet Union has already been quite well discussed. However, nothing was known until now about the “Projectile Affair”, i.e. establishing the cooperation by the Second Department of the General Staff of the Polish Army and its course with a key person in Kasperski’s affair, who was Hans Wieser, working in the Soviet Union German engineer, and a ballistics expert. It was only known that he was an agent of the Soviet counterintelligence and that he was arrested and shot in 1937. Nothing was known about the beginning of the Wieser’s cooperation and its course. This article discusses this issue in detail. The discovery of new archival sources makes it possible to present the complete picture of the events that led to the biggest failure of the Polish military intelligence in the USSR in the 1930s, which was the Ran affair.

Decent Citizens Serving Chauvinism. Social Portrait of Students Participating in the Blockade of the University of Warsaw in 1936

Author(s): Izabela Mrzygłód / Language(s): English Issue: 125/2022

November 1936 saw the blockade of the University of Warsaw, an occupational strike organised by far-right students demanding the introduction of the so-called ‘ghetto benches’ for Jewish students. This article draws a social portrait of the ordinary participants in the blockade and analyses their motivations. I argue that the socialisation of youth into exemplary citizens of a modern nation-state created a fertile ground for far-right organisations and their demands. Moreover, the largest student association, the Fraternal Aid Society, became a space for self-organisation into extreme nationalist politics. Its leaders tapped into the positive motivations of youth, i.e. the search for a sense of belonging and the desire of individuals to fit into the normative order of the community. My examination of the blockade offers a unique insight into the academic background of the far-right and its means of political mobilisation.

The Relations of the Antanas Smetona Regime with the Catholic Opposition, 1929–32

Author(s): Martinas Malužinas / Language(s): English Issue: 125/2022

The article’s main objective is to present the relationship between the Antanas Smetona regime and the Catholic opposition in 1929–32, and an evaluation of the repressive measures applied during this period. An analysis of various sources revealed that the actions of the right-wing nationalist government toward the Catholic opposition – which included the clergy, Catholic social organisations, and the Christian Democrats – were extremely harsh, significantly since the Catholic movement did not threaten the state sovereignty, public order, or political doctrine carried out by the Lithuanian president. The 1929–32 timeframe refers to the period of the greatest tension in the conflict between the Lithuanian government and the Catholic Church. The conflict between the Republic of Lithuania and the Vatican divided society, thus disrupting the existing positive diplomatic relations, which were reflected in the signing of the concordat in 1927.

Moszkva trójai falova? A MADOSZ a két háború közötti Erdélyben

Author(s): János Főcze / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 12/2022

Controlled by the communist movement of the country, the Union of Hungarian Workers of Romania (MADOSZ) was founded in 1934 in the Romanian Kingdom. Shortly after its creation it managed to spark a revolt in the Gyimes valley of the Eastern Carpathians. A national-revolutionary organization at its inception, MADOSZ became one of the few Romanian popular front organizations after 1936, only to be banned with all the political parties in 1938. In this paper, I’m addressing the core questions of the history of the organisation, focusing mainly on the double determination of the movement. Can MADOSZ be solely described as the Trojan horse of the interests of the Soviet Union? What other dimensions of its existence can be highlighted? How was the organisation embedded in the political system of the Romanian Kingdom and what were its views regarding the modernisation of Transylvanian society? How were the members of the movement perceived and addressed and how did their fate turn after 1945?

Szubjektív párhuzam a talpra állásról

Author(s): Artur Lakatos / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 12/2022

Szakály Sándor: TALPRA állás TRIANON után. Magyar Napló – Facultas Humán Gimnázium, Bp., 2021.

1934 Trakya Olaylarını Dönemin Basınından Çerçeveleme Yöntemi ile Yeniden Okumak

Author(s): Yusuf Gocuk / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 3/2022

This study is on the historical reading of the transfer of the 1934 Thrace events to the newspaper news of the period. As a result of the Turkification policies in the nation-state building process, the Settlement Law of 2510 was adopted on 14 June 1934 within the scope of the policy of transition to a monolingual society. The expected result from this Law is concentrated in two different regions; however, it was designed to ensure that the population, far from Turkish culture, migrated to the regions where the Turks were more numerous. In order to eliminate possible threats on the borderlines of Thrace and Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia regions, which were seen as a security vulnerability by the Turkish government in this period, strengthening works were started on the fragile population structure of these areas. As a result, revealing the motives and the involvement of the events that caused thousand of people to become victims in a very short time determines the purpose and importance of the study. In the research, the framing method was used in the context of cultural analysis. The way in which the issue was framed in the newspapers Akşam, Haber, Hakimiyeti Milliye and Milliyet of the period is worth examining not only with the selected and prominent ones, but also with the eliminated and left behind. It stands out that the facts are hidden with the claim that what happened in the field is exaggerated, and that the conflict from the historical memory extends to the Ottoman Empire.

Polscy górnicy w Estonii w latach 1937–1939

Author(s): Jerzy Grzybowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2022

The purpose of the publication is to present the fate of Polish miners in Estonia between 1937 and 1939. Until now, this topic has only been hinted at by some Polish historians while doing other research. This article is based on Polish and Estonian documents which are kept in the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw and the National Archives of Estonia in Tallinn, respectively. This allowed the Polish and Estonian viewpoints on the subject to be compared. Taking into account the state of research on the discussed topic, the article presents such issues as the genesis, course and consequences of the emigration of Polish miners to Estonia. The analysis of Polish and Estonian documents indicates that the main reason for labour migration from Poland to Estonia was material deprivation, which went hand in hand with access to the foreign labour market. Lack of work opportunities and poverty in Poland forced miners to seek work abroad. At the same time, economic changes in Estonia during the interwar period led to the emergence of new industries in the country, the most important of which was the fuel industry. Estonia needed foreign miners to work in shale mines. Poland was the only country that supplied Estonia with miners, as the budding Estonian oil industry was unable to meet the demands for skilled profession- als from Western Europe.

„Byłeś dla nas posągiem ze stali...” – Józef Piłsudski: żałoba i pamięć na łamach czasopisma „Płomyk” (1935–1936)

Author(s): Marcin Zaborski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 39/2022

The immortal leader of the nation, the kind commander, the liberator, Poland’s finest son, and finally, beloved grandfather. This is how, inter alia, the newspapers described Józef Piłsudski after his death. The press emphasised that he had fought steadfastly for the freedom of Poland, freed the country from the shackles of slavery and then defended its borders, protecting Poles from their enemy. How the magazines addressed to children and adolescents wrote about it in the middle of the 1930s? The author looks for an answer to this question by analysing the successive issues of the weekly “Płomyk” magazine. He checks what picture of mourning emerges from the articles published in the magazine. He studies how the memory of the Marshal was built, maintained and cared for. The author of the article analyses, inter alia, poems, stories, mentions and letters sent to the magazine and the staff’s responses to the received correspondence. In this way, he tries to reconstruct the emotions, to which the authors of the papers published in “Płomyk” are responding or trying to evoke.

Żydowskie drukarnie i punkty sprzedaży książek w Wadowicach

Author(s): Tomasz Ratajczak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 9/2005

Artykuł stanowi przyczynek do badań nad działalnością wadowickich warsztatów zecerskich, które, nie posiadając nowoczesnych maszyn drukarskich, wykonywały zlecenia oparte wyłącznie na ręczne pracy zecerskiej. Takie zakłady jak "Seinwel Kohane", "Splendide" czy firma "Sterlichta" nie były w stanie konkurować z dużymi wadowickimi drukarniami, przede wszystkim rodziny Foltinów.

KULTURA DWUDZIESTOLECIA

Author(s): Henryk Domański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2022

Príspevok k niektorým okolnostiam diela "Slovenský prevrat" od Karola Antona Medveckého

Author(s): Patrik Griger / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 4/2022

The work Slovak Coup, which maps the events associated with the end of the First World War in Slovak realities, is one of the key works of Karol Anton Medvecky, who was an important political, ecclesiastical and cultural figure in Slovak society in the first third of the twentieth century. As secretary of the Slovak National Council and a signatory of the Martin Declaration, he was an important participant in the groundbreaking events of 1918. In this paper, we discuss some selected aspects of the origin and significance of Mevecky’s work, such as the social background, the author’s aim, the reaction in the political battles of the interwar period and an assessment of its relevance for today’s historiography, which in our opinion provide the basic characteristics necessary to understand the Slovak Coup and its author from social as well as historiographical point of view. The work does not attempt to exhaust the examined issue, but does want to be the basis and stimulus for its deeper research.