Shqipëria dhe Lufta e Popullit Turk për Pavarësi 1920-1923

Author(s): Hasan Bello / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 44/2014

This article aims to address the Albanian-Turkish relations in the years 1920-1923. In this period the basic characteristic for both countries was striving for the creation and consolidation of the national state. Another aspect was the fact that some representatives of the Turkish nationalist movement did attempt to create a cordon states against Greece, which was the main enemy of Turkey. In this context, they tried to extend their influence in Albania. This raised concerns of Athens, which accused the signatories of the Albanian state collusion with Turkish nationalists. From the research conducted so far the existence of this secret deal turns us not be officially confirmed. But nevertheless be acknowledged that, as a result of anti-politics that followed Greece in this period premise for an Albanian-Turkish existed.

Politika e Jashtme dhe e Brendshme e Ahmet Zogut në Përpjekjet për Konsolidimin e Shtetit dhe të Pushtetit 1925-1930

Author(s): Jorina Verli / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 45/2015

The fact that Albania was a strategic priority of Italian politics in the first decades of the 20th century is not a mystery. In the Conference of the Ambassadors in London (1913), the Great Powers recognized that Albania was a priority for Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both of which intended to exercise special tutorial roles over the newly created state. Later, through the Secret Treaty of London (April 26th, 1915), the Antanta powers con-firmed that they recognized and agreed with Italy’s special interests in Albania. Vlora’s War in 1920 stopped the Italian expansion permitted by the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920). However, Italy continued to treat the involvement of Albania in the sphere of her power as a main goal. Particularly from 1925, they succeeded in avoiding Yugo-slavia and orienting Ahmet Zog towards a net of political and economic connections with Italy. Nonetheless, the new foreign policy stance of Ahmet Zog during the period of 1925-1928 – and even afterwards – was not merely an expression of Italian stub-bornness to influence and penetrate Albania, but also an expression of the special in-terests the president, then Albania’s monarch, had in consolidating both the state and his personal power. Different agreements on economic and political developments, be-longing to the years 1925-1930, are proof that not only did Italy aim to cross Otranto and impose itself as an outstanding power in the Balkans, but that the Albania of those nascent years indeed chose Italy as its primary strategic partner. Taking advantage of Great Britain’s politics in the region, A. Zog in this period suc-ceeded in restraining the extreme goals of Italy and achieving real results in the strug-gle for political consolidation and building the foundations of Albania’s economic re-habilitation. The economic results achieved from 1925-1930, a series of reforms in the legislative and agricultural field, prosperous politics towards the religious communities, establishment of order, etc., are all indicators that A. Zog was successful as first states-man of his country.

Mariborske poti Leona Novaka - Feliksa

Author(s): Mateja Ratej / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1/2015

In her contribution the author focuses on the political activity of the composer and communist Leon Novak from Maribor in the 1930s and during the first months of the German occupation. In the spring of 1941, after the occupation authorities had been established in Maribor, he became one of the organisers of the Partisan resistance. In the autumn of 1941 Gestapo arrested him and he was shot after being severely tortured. In the Party documents his role was labelled as treacherous, which is why Novak was completely overlooked by the post-war historiography. In her contribution the author focuses especially on Novak’s activities in the Association of Young Intellectuals (1935-1936), his role in the organisation of the large textile strike in Maribor (1936), his political activities related to the National Assembly elections (1938), and his underground activities in the months following the occupation of Maribor until his death. The contribution is based on the preserved archive sources, memorial literature and oral sources.

Metamorphosis Transsylvaniae (II.). Márki Sándor naplója az impériumváltásról

Author(s): Ádám Erdész / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 11/2018

A. C. Cuza – politicianul antisemit

Author(s): Horia Bozdoghină / Language(s): Romany Issue: 9/2017

A. C. Cuza was the main anti-Semitic politician in interwar Romanian life. He began his political career as a socialist at the end of XIXth century. Soon he become a nationalist-anti-Semitic. He founded in 1923 National Christian Defense League, the first anti-Semitic party in Romania with swastika as political symbol. The party’s program demanded the expulsion of the Jews from Romania. Along his political activity, Cuza collaborated with various Romanian intellectuals, followers of anti-Semitism. A. C. Cuza has denied the idea that the Jews can represent an ethnical or religious minority in Romania.

Diplomația românească și problema recunoașterii unirii Basarabiei de către Statele Unite (1930-1933)

Author(s): Mihai Țurcanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 10/2018

The issue of Bessarabia was, from a political standpoint, the most important topic in the Romanian-American relations of the interwar period. This was due to the fact that the United States were the only country with which Romania had diplomatic relations, but which refused to recognize Romaniaʼs sovereignty in Bessarabia. This aim of this research is to dissect and explain the offensive of the Romanian diplomacy, coordinated by Carol Davila between 1930-1933, with the goal to alter this attitude and obtain the American recognition of the union of Bessarabia. We tried to reconstruct the way in which the activity of this diplomat, which can be divided into two stages according to the concrete results obtained in 1930-1931 and 1932-1933 respectively, managed to gradually defeat the American resistance and achieve what the Romanian historiography appreciates as being the de facto recognition by the US of the union of Bessarabia with Romania. Towards the end of this study we make an attempt to analyze the results obtained by the Romanian diplomacy in the aforementioned period of time and to explain the essence of the historiographic debate related to the question whether the US has recognized or not in 1933 the union of Bessarabia with Romania.

Legion Młodych w latach 1935-1938. Ku upadkowi

Author(s): Marek Sioma / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 03/2018

In the late 1920s in the environment of the academic youth of the Warsaw and Lvov universities emerged concepts of creating an organization that would in principle propagate the ideas of Józef Piłsudski. On 13 February 1930 the Legion of the Young – ‘Work for the State’ Academic Association was established in Warsaw. In the next four years the organization developed, gained new members and enjoyed the support of the Piłsudski camp, including the Marshall himself. In the understanding of the circles then in power it was to realize statutory goals, but already after two years the activists of the Legion came to the conclusion that it should ultimately become a mass youth organization exceeding the academic environment. Their purpose was to win over the working class and peasant youth. After an unsuccessful attempt to subordinate the Legion to the Nonpartisan Bloc of Cooperation with the Government in September 1934 and due to various circumstances (internal divisions among others), mentors grouped in seniors clubs revoked their patronage in April 1935. This was the critical moment that set off a slow process of the ‘agony’ of the Legion – an organization created out of the young people’s fascination with the person of Piłsudski. Even though the organization was not liquidated, it did not regain its former significance and status. It ended its existence in December 1938 becoming part of the Polish Youth Legion. The aim of the article is to show the causes and circumstances that led to the collapse of the most powerful youth organization of the Piłsudski camp in the first half of the 1930s.

Az Erdélyi Fiatalok és a Bánffyak

Author(s): Miklós Csapody / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 04/2019

The movement and journal called Erdélyi Fiatalok (Transylvanian Youth, operated between 1930 and 1940) was founded by a new generation of Transylvanian Hungarians, members of a national minority who proposed a scope of public service after World War I. Above village research work, they aimed to secure intellectual reinforcement as well as to raise Hungarian villages. Numerous members of the aristocratic Bánffy family played an important role in Hungarian culture, economics and politics, like baron Ferenc Bánffy, a landowner peer, count Miklós Bánffy, a culture organizer and novelist, or baron Dániel Bánffy, who was also interested in agriculture. There was one leader of the movement, who got in connection with all of these aristocrats, between 1931 and 1944. He was Imre Mikó, a lawyer, who published his work called Az erdélyi falu és a nemzetiségi kérdés (The Transylvanian village and nationality issues) with Ferenc Bánffy’s support, in 1932. Between 1939 and 1940, Mikó became confidant of Miklós Bánffy, president of the Hungarian People’s Community in Romania, while later, as a secretary general of the Transylvanian Party, Mikó co-worked with the minister of agriculture, Dániel Bánffy in the Hungarian Parliament. This study is a demonstration of these culturehistorical relations.

Československé vojenské zpravodajství po mnichovských událostech roku 1938. Pátrací středisko pro Podkarpatskou Rus

Author(s): Milan Vyhlídal / Language(s): Czech Issue: 34/2019

Prepared primarily on the basis of documents from the Military History Archive and the Security Services Archive in Prague, the study focuses on the restructuring of the Czechoslovak military intelligence service during the Second Republic as the curtailed Czechoslovakia was forced to respond to changes in geopolitical situation. Intelligence activities aimed at Nazi Germany were officially prohibited and intelligence activity moved to the east, in the direction of Poland and Hungary. Headquartered in Carpathian Ruthenia’s Svalyava, the Intelligence Centre for Carpathian Ruthenia became a new element in the intelligence service restructuring, tasked with both offensive and defensive intelligence activity targeting Poland and Hungary while monitoring the internal political situation in Carpathian Ruthenia. The Centre was taken from the usual structures and was fully subject to the 2nd (Intelligence) Department of the Head Staff in Prague. Sr. Capt. Jan Krček chaired the Intelligence Centre throughout its existence (December 1938 – March 1939). In addition to him, Sr. Capt. Jindřich Krátký, Sr. Capt. Oldřich Vomáčka, Capt. in retirement Stanislav Vondřich and First Lt. Štěpán Kareš were also stationed in Svalyava. Rating the group’s activity comprehensively is rather difficult due to a lack of sources. It is however certain that its work suffered from a lack of time where it could not fully develop its intelligence activity. It is important to note that many members of the Svalyava intelligence centre joined anti-Nazi resistance movement after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.

Krakov, 30. dubna 1939. Zahraniční vojenská skupina československá v Polsku

Author(s): Jiří Plachý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2019

While the Czech resistance began to spontaneously take shape up from the first days of the occupation of the remaining parts of the Czech lands on 15 March 1939, the situation outside the country was far more complex. On the same day, Edvard Benes made a speech in Pilsner Park, Chicago at a great rally of the Czech expatriate community and announced the struggle to restore the Czechoslovak state; however, the road to fulfil this proclamation was a long one.

Od řešení nezaměstnanosti k internaci. Vznik kárných pracovních táborů v Protektorátu Čechy a Morava

Author(s): Stanislav Kokoška / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2019

For those who accept the alternative truth, the circumstances under which the punitive labour camps in Lety was established are quite clear, based on the novel Black Silence by Paul Polansky published in 1999. It would probably not have attracted any attention had it not been popularised by Tereza Spencer in one of her articles four years later. The story she wants to tell begins on 6 December 1939. A windstorm hit the Schwarzenberg demesne and seriously damaged the forests. Count Schwarzenberg asked his lawyer to contact the Ministry of the Interior to ask for manpower to remove the trees that had been felled by the wind.

Vážení pánové! Jak je vám známo, doba je přechodná…Vystoupení předsedy vlády gen. Syrového před Stálým výborem po mnichovské konferenci

Author(s): Petr Dvořáček,Olga Šmejkalová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2019

Shortly after Austria’s annexation into Nazi Germany in March 1938, the Sudeten Germans, headed by Konrad Henlein, voiced their national demands to the Czechoslovak government. The agenda of the so-called Karlovy Vary Programme subsequently became a topic not only in domestic politics, but also for foreign relations.

Tragické březnové dny roku 1939 v Chustu

Author(s): Jiří Plachý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2019

This article describes the first days in Chum and the consequnces after the Munich conference.

Husovy protektorátní oslavy v roce 1939

Author(s): Martin Jindra / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2019

After 15 March 1939, the Czech people were overwhelmed by hopelessness and disappointment from the loss of national independence and state sovereignty. However, the nation quickly recovered from the trauma of the occupation. The anti-German mood that spread among the Czechs soon escalated into open manifestations. One of the most remarkable ones took place in May 1939 when the remains of the poet K. H. Macha were moved to the national cemetery in Vysehrad, Prague. The capital was then literally flooded with flags in the national colours. These open mass gatherings in which the Czech citizens showed their national unity can certainly include the pilgrimages and fairs which were mostly organised by the church, but which were so widespread they became nationwide festivities. Only a couple of days after the end of the temporary military administration of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which took on the civilian form of an occupation regime, 60 000 people made a pilgrimage to Rip mountain, and the spring and summer 1939 ended with the St. Lawrence pilgrimage and fair in Domazlice.

The covert connections of an asymmetrical alliance. Czechoslovak-French cooperation in military intelligence in the years 1932–1938

Author(s): Karel Straka / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2019

The foundation of Czechoslovakia’s security architecture was formed by an alliance with France from the beginning of its existence. This alliance predetermined the direction, nature and objectives of the construction of the Czechoslovak armed forces. The purpose of the alliance was to preserve the Versailles system. The presented study explores the intelligence cooperation between the armies of both countries. It reconstructs its course, dealing with the main features, trends and significant influences that shaped or constrained it. From 1919, the French military intelligence had a major influence on the formation of the intelligence apparatus of the Czechoslovak armed forces in organizational and methodical terms. Before the beginning of the 1930s, however, a distinct and conceptually independent Czechoslovak intelligence developed. In the critical years of 1932–1938, it was a valuable and beneficial partner of the French military intelligence. However, the remarkably productive cooperation was dependent on the overall nature of the Czechoslovak-French relations. Their crisis first severely limited it in the course of 1938 and, subsequently, completely destroyed it as a result of the Munich Agreement.

Tentatives de rapprochement franco-allemand la question franco-allemande à la Nouvelle Revue de Hongrie (juin 1932 – décembre 1934)

Author(s): Henri De Montety / Language(s): French Issue: 2/2018

Frustrée par les frontières imposées lors du traités de paix de 1920, la Hongrie a tenté, entre les deux guerres, d’agir sur les esprits afin d’obtenir la modification pacifique de l’ordre des relations internationales. La Nouvelle Revue de Hongrie, rédigée de manière indépendante, mais de concert avec le ministère des Affaires étrangères hongrois, entrait dans le cadre de cette diplomatie non officielle en s’adressant aux élites francophones du monde entier. Tout en présentant la culture hongroise, elle abordait des sujets de l’actualité internationale, de manière parfois complexe et ambitieuse. Une dizaine d’articles de la revue, publiés entre 1932 et 1934, montrent l’ambition (sans doute démesurée) de contribuer à la réconciliation franco-allemande.

Miklós Horthy in Poland. Official visit, image of charismatic leader and his leader cult. The Hungarian interpretation

Author(s): Dávid Turbucz / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

After the First World War, the leader cult was a widespread phenomenon in Europe. These cults manifested themselves around the figure of political and military leaders, such as Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, Hindenburg, Metaxas, Mannerheim, Pilsudski, Horthy and so on. After giving a short overview of the evaluation of the Horthy cult, this paper will focus on the official visit of the Hungarian Regent, Miklós Horthy (1920–1944) in Poland, in February 1938. This case study makes an attempt to demonstrate some aspects of the image of a charismatic leader. The aim of this paper is to show how the Hungarian News Agency and the selected Hungarian dailies used statements from the Polish press to justify the position of the Regent as national leader with extraordinary qualities. This paper will also endeavour to show how these statements may have contributed to the preservation of the charismatic image of Horthy. His extraordinary qualities were emphasized, such as his imagined deeds, his indispensability, his mission and the “fact” that he was chosen, as well as being a “saviour”. Horthy and Pilsudski were compared to each other to bolster the larger-than-life image of Miklós Horthy. His charismatic image was composed of these above-mentioned elements.

Immediate Post-World War I Hungary through the eyes of an American

Author(s): Zoltán Peterecz / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The one hundredth anniversary of the end of World War I and the subsequent peace negotiations will inevitably become a historical focal point. Accordingly, this article will deal with American involvement in Europe, but especially in Hungarian affairs with regards to the private realm rather than the official spectrum. American participation always bordered official yet unofficial conduct, which is even truer for the successor countries in Central Europe. A few Americans visited Hungary during the Peace Conference in various capacities. Although their official work has been to a large degree uncovered by historians, their private work still remains elusive. Hence, the diary of such an American officer will shed light on various interesting angles of American thinking of the era and the relationship between American representatives and various Hungarians of the day. The article will introduce Charles Moorfield Storey’s journal, a significant part of which was written while he was in Hungary in the first few weeks of 1919. Storey was a member of the famous Coolidge Mission, whose headquarters was in Vienna. From here Americans set out to visit and gather information on the various countries in their purview, Hungary among them. Based upon the diary entries, one can learn about daily work of the Americans at the Paris Peace Conference, the Coolidge Mission, and Storey’s experience in Hungary shortly after the conclusion of the war.

The Rutha affair and the trial against the Werner Weiss group in autumn 1937

Author(s): Jiří Plachý / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2019

The study deals with the case of Heinrich Rutha (1897–1937), one of the highest-ranking politicians of the Sudeten German Party (SdP), sometimes referred to as its Foreign Minister, Konrad Henlein’s personal friend and one of the main promoters of philosopher Othmar Spann’s ideas in the Czech lands. Rutha worked in the Sudeten German youth movement, where he tried to create his own educational concept. In 1926, he established, more precisely made independent, the Sudetendeutsche Jugendschaft youth organization and was at the birth of an organization that became known under the abbreviated designation Kameradschaftsbund. Its aim, in the spirit of Spann’s theories, was to create an elite layer of leaders who would take over the leadership of Sudeten German society. He was also involved in the sports organization Deutscher Turnverein (DTV). However, he resigned from the prestigious position of the head of the Ještěd-Jizera Division of the DTV in October 1935 as his homosexual orientation was revealed. Two years later, as a result of the denunciation of “old Nazis” (i.e. former members and supporters of the dissolved DNSAP), his homosexuality was also reported to the Czechoslovak police. At the beginning of October 1937, Rutha was arrested for homosexual intercourse, which was criminal at that time. Having been convicted by several of his former partners, he committed suicide on 5 November 1937. Twelve young men were eventually brought to court, seven of whom were found guilty and sentenced to one to eight months’ suspended sentences.

The end of “divine providence.” Ukrainian nationalism in Subcarpathian Rus in the context of the Czechoslovak crisis of 1938

Author(s): David Svoboda / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2019

The nationality policy of the First Czechoslovak Republic governments applied in the colourful conflict region of Carpathian Ruthenia was ambiguous and volatile until the late 1930s. The Prague governments did not manage to obtain sufficiently loyal sympathizers that would defend the interests of the state in this most eastern part of the country at times critical for it. In the end, it was the Ukrainephiles, whose power upsurge marked the history of the region in the post-Munich months, that became the most promising force. Avhustyn Voloshyn, Prime Minister of the autonomous governments, promised to preserve the bearable civilized conditions in the region, but at the same time a radical irredentist stream with a base in eastern Galicia, Poland, which considered Voloshyn’s regime to be a tolerated makeshift, started to emerge. This led to a certain “double government”, presented externally by prudent and cultivated Voloshyn, with the feverish efforts of the Ukrainian Nationalists Organization in the background. All this happened at a time when the Ukrainian question was in the banner headlines of the world press as a crucial ace in Hitler’s fight for Eastern Europe. At the same time, the Czecho-Slovak authorities joined forces with the radical armed Ukrainians concentrated in the Carpathian Sich to reverse the Polish-Hungarian sabotage operations, although their mutual relationship was characterized by a significant lack of trust. For the population of the adjacent Ukrainian areas in Poland, however, the Munich solution to the Czechoslovak crisis in 1938 was a welcome signal of fundamental changes in Central-Eastern Europe, from which also the long-suffering oppressed Ukrainians could benefit.