The Slovak Question in Foreign Policy Vision of the Second Rzeczpospolita Authorities (1938 – March 1939)

Abstract

The Polish authorities had a negative attitude towards the central government of the Czechoslovak Republic at that time. Therefore, the Polish reprezentatives were in active contact with the opposition Glinka Slovak People’s Party. They had a number of common ideological values such as Slavic reciprocity, Catholicism, Anti-Bolshevism, and positive assessment of authoritarianism. The Polish politics assured that Warsaw supports state-building plans of the Slovak leaders and solemnly welcomed their delegation to Poland in May 1938. Polish-Slovak relations were marked by contradictions during and shortly after the Munich crisis. The Slovaks suggested state association and submitted a declaration on the Polish-Slovak union. But they did not receive an answer, so they agreed with the Prague government about granting Slovakia autonomy. The Polish authorities expected more pronounced separatism from the Slovaks. Warsaw made territorial claims for Slovak lands in the area of Spis and Orava because Poles wanted to push indecisive oppositionists. The ultimate form of the demands and the forceful nature of Polish actions demonstrated the real content of Warsaw’s policy towards Slovakia. These events resulted to the improvement of Czech-Slovak relations within the framework of Post Munich Czechoslovakia and also led to the appeal of Slovak politicians to Germany. Both sides tried to improve the atmosphere of bilateral relations during the winter of 1938-1939. Meetings of delegations were organized for discuss different ways to intensify positive cooperation. An influence of Nazi Germany was increasing in the region at that time. So, the realization of the danger, posed by Germans, was the main factor to Polish-Slovak rapprochement. In early March, Berlin organized a campaign to put pressure on Slovak politicians and persuaded them to secession. They tried in vain to put forward a Polish counterweight. The declaration of independence of Slovakia according to the German scenario marked the strategic failure of Polish foreign policy, because the southern border of the state became a zone of potential danger