Scholarly record

POLISH-SLOVAK POLITICAL DISPUTES IN 1938/1939 AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE COMMON BORDER

Karol Janas

Abstract

At the beginning of 1938 the Slovak-Polish relations were stabilised. Although Poland considered Czechoslovakia in the long term as an artificial state unit to be broken up over time, it sought to maintain relations with Slovak political representation. This attitude was supported by a fact that in the most powerful Slovak political party - Hlinka's Slovak People's Party operated strong Polonophil wing. This wing wished to establish good relations with Polish political representation. After Austria's anschluss, within Polish political environment appeared views that the next victim of German aggression would be Czechoslovakia. Therefore, Polish government policy was interested in participating in the disintegration of Czechoslovakia and Poland intensified interest in future political developments in Slovakia. Polish diplomacy therefore supported Slovak autonomous efforts. However, mutual political relations damaged Poland's attempt to gain a small territory of Slovakia in the North of Kysuce, Orava and SpiВљ Region. After the weakening of Czechoslovakia by the Munich Agreement, Poland succeeded in this territorial effort. However, it meant definitive damage to Slovak-Polish relations and the Polonophil wing in Slovak politics disappeared. Additionally, border adjustments brought many conflicts to the Slovak-Polish border area, which did not disappear even after establishing of the Slovak State in March 1939. Slovakia was still trying to re-examine the borders and succeeded in this attempt after joining Germany in aggression against Poland in September 1939.

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