The problem of chances of survival of the Austria-Hungarian monarchy had been a topic of thousands of books and articles in many languages and it is difficult to study all of them. The question whether or not the Habsburg monarchy was doomed to dissolute because of nationality tensions still remains inspiring. Researchers still take up new and detailed topics. Basing on their output it is possible to reassess the problem on more general level. The factors of economic development, administrative structure of the dual state, external enemy, bureaucracy, army and dynasty will be taken into consideration. They will show to what extent the cohesion of Austria-Hungary was maintained before 1914. Collapse

In the nineteenth century on Polish lands we are dealing with rapid civilizational, economic and social changes. State divisions are gradually disappearing. New structures are formed. These changes also apply to national issues. We can say that in the nineteenth century the concept of nation changed: from a political nation of the nobility to a nation of ethnic Polish origin, where language and religion played a significant role. The Polish peasant population, Polish bourgeoisie, and workers to a large extent integrated with the Polish nation, joined the Polish landed gentry and intelligentsia. A nation was emerging, encompassing all social strata. On the other hand, the non-Polish-speaking Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Jewish communities began to define their nationality not as Polish, but more and more often as Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Jewish to a lesser extent, or Belarusian. These processes will intensify in the interwar period, when we will be dealing with an independent Polish state implementing its nationality policy. Collapse

The purpose of this article is to present the processes of assimilation of ethnic and linguistic groups (Polish – Warmians and Mazurians, Lithuanian – Lithuanians of Prussia) living in East Prussia in the second half of the 19th century. It should be noted that among the Mazurian, Warmian and Lithuanian populations in East Prussia, at no stage of the development of the above-mentioned groups were there any prerequisites for the formation of their own nation or assimilation into the Polish or Lithuanian nations. After 1870, the ethnic feeling of the non-German population in Prussia became an anachronism dating back to an earlier, pre-national stage of development. The process of assimilation, supported by a number of factors and carried out quite consistently, though not absolutely, towards non-German groups, created a Prussian-German identity among them. They became an example of ethnic groups forming their identity against a linguistic and cultural background. Collapse

The text discusses the impact of modernization processes in the formation of the modern Ukrainian nation. The selected period corresponds to the emergence of the first Ukrainian political organizations and is ending at the beginning of the Ukrainian state-building. As a social structure, the Ukrainians went through the process of inventing a name, defining the border of their ethnic territory, codifying the language and developing organizational life and forming political elites. It was not enough to gain independence at the end of World War I, because its achievement also depends on other factors. The analysis shows that the process of modernization in the case of Ukrainians belongs to the Central and Eastern Europe model. Collapse

Modernization is a very difficult concept to define objectively. Since the 19th century, it has been understood primarily as the development of industry and technology, which involves urbanization and improvement of the material conditions of life. This slogan took on a political meaning. It has undoubtedly become a permanent part of everyday culture as a positive feature of ongoing - and more often planned - changes. The article is an attempt to capture modernization in Russian policy in the Kingdom of Poland. The author concludes, firstly, that Russian policy was imperial in nature, secondly, that the society of the Kingdom perceived the empire as backward and, somewhat against the pressure of Russification, created its own paths of modernization, which undoubtedly showed the vitality and effectiveness of Polish culture, and ultimately thwarted Russian plans of denationalization. Collapse

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie procesów modernizacyjnych zachodzących w zakresie organizacji nadzoru celnego i granicznego na zachodniej granicy Imperium Rosyjskiego ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem terenu Królestwa Polskiego. Na podstawie źródeł i opracowań udało się zidentyfikować czynniki, które zadecydowały o pojawieniu się działań modernizacyjnych w tych strukturach. Ponadto udało się ustalić etapy wprowadzania innowacji. Przeprowadzone zmiany znacząco zmodernizowały struktury cywilnej administracji celnej oraz struktury straży granicznej działające na terenie Królestwa Polskiego na przełomie XIX i XX w. Collapse

On June 4th, 1920, in Trianon, Hungary signed the peace treaty, due to which it lost 2/3 of its lands and 1/3 of its population. This meant the disintegration of the Kingdom of Hungary, whose strong position was sought-after by the Hungarian political elite in 1867-1920. The author of the article analyses the three stages of this project implementation, including the attempts to create a unified Hungarian nation, modernization of Zalitavia and the struggle to maintain the borders after the end of the World War I. The facts known from numerous studies were confronted with the opinions of the most important critics of the ruling elites of that time, journalists of the periodical „Huszadik Század”. Collapse

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Swiss political parties were formed. Basic press organs also crystallized, which became the official nationwide titles of particular trends. Regardless of internal discrepancies, most of these bodies pursued a fairly consistent propaganda policy regarding the future of multicultural lands after the end of the First World War. One of the issues that fit into this theme was the issue of the Polish-Ruthenian-Lithuanian borderland. The entire Helvetic public opinion was of the opinion that it was necessary to create a federal state in Central Europe, which was to be an antidote to emerging nationalist movements. The promotion of such a solution was related to the desire to disseminate in Europe its own, Swiss constitutional solutions, which had proven to function efficiently for half a century. In the conditions of the borderland of Central Europe, such a vision turned out to be unrealistic. Revealing nationalist tendencies and ineffective attempts to find a compromise solution between the representatives of the emigration of nations in question present in Switzerland led to the collapse of the idea of promoting the Slavic federation in the Helvetic press in autun 1918. Collapse

: Before 1914, the idea of Czech-Slovak unity did not play an important role in Czech political life. This changed radically during World War I, and most Czech politicians began to postulate that an independent Czech state should also include the area of northern Hungary where Slovaks lived. This programme had primarily a geopolitical basis, but it was influenced by ideas of Czech-Slovak cultural and linguistic proximity that had already emerged in the 19th century. After Czechoslovakia's proclamation of independence on 28 October 1918, the unity of the two titular nations was recognised by the majority of Czechs elites and a certain part of Slovak elites as a kind of state ideology, which was conventionally called Czechoslovakism. This was reflected in the Czechoslovak Constitution of 29 February 1920 and other legal acts. At least until the autumn of 1918, however, a scenario in which the Slovak lands would not become part of the Czech state was also possible. This fact would certainly have had manifold consequences for the internal and international situation of such a state, but it did not rule out its normal functioning. Collapse

The goal of the article is to undertake a cause and effect analysis of political events and to present the effects of the Treaty of Trianon as factors significantly influencing Hungarian efforts to preserve the integrity of the Holy Crown. Stefan. The analysis of the achievements of historiography leads to the conclusion that finding a way to connect the “lost lands” with the Kingdom was supposed to be an antidote to political, social and economic problems resulting from territorial losses. Opportunities to implement the idea of Greater Hungary until the mid-1930s were seen in federal plans integrating state organisms located along the Danube. It is not possible to implement the plans drawn up, e.g. by Oszkár Jászi, Elmér Hantos, Gusztáv Gratz and Miklós Makáy, as well as the deepening economic difficulties, were to cause that even at the ideological level the Hungarians were to abandon all attempts at a federation. Hopes of crossing out Trianon would find their outlet in alliances with countries striving to revise the treaties concluded after the First World War. The relationship with the Third Reich allowed for a short-term recovery of fragments of Slovakia, Transylvania and Transcarpathian Ruthenia and gave hope for a return to the pre-1914 borders. However, these acquisitions proved to be unsustainable. The conclusion of peace in Paris in 1947 closed the way for the restitution of Greater Hungary. Although nowadays both the concepts of the Danube federation and the postulates of territorial changes have only the value of a historical argument, they do not mean the abandonment of the idea of Nagy-Magyarország. This concept has now only changed its formula in the direction of connecting Hungarians living in neighboring countries with the Motherland. Collapse

The research objective of this article is to address the question of whether, and if so, to what extent, the system of protection of national and religious minorities created after World War I under the League of Nations, covering only some of its member states, was an instrument of modernization of the states obliged to this protection? Modernization in the legal sense – in relation to legal solution the guarantee the rights of minorities and in the political sense – did it serve the peaceful coexistence of various national and religious groups within these countries and prevented the separatist tendencies manifested by some of the minorities? Have legal solutions been reflected in political practice? The article refers to the analysis of scientific literature and the analysis of the so called Little Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and the legal and comparative study of other legal acts. The territorial scope of the research covers: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary. The temporal range covers the years 1918-1939. The obtained research result does not allow to give an unambiguously affirmative answer to the question whether the post – Versailles system of protection of national and religious minorities contributed to the legal and political modernization in the described countries.
Collapse

The aim of the article is to draw attention to the process of establishing modern police force authorities responsible for ensuring security and public order in the countries of Central Europe (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Free City of Danzig) in the inter-war period. The course of modernizing the law enforcement authorities was analysed on the basis of archival sources and academic studies on the history of police force and gendarmerie in the above-mentioned countries. The collected material made it possible to learn about the mechanisms which had led to the establishment of effective forces responsible for ensuring homeland security after the Great War ended. Collapse

The subject of Borderlands situated further away and close by is presented not by accident. In the Polish historical narrative, we usually remember only about the Eastern Borderlands. Created by Henryk Sienkiewicz’s “Trilog”, known from the pages of Polish history, being a place of birth to Polish poets, they are inevitably memorable and integral part of Poland’s national tradition. This notion is so strong that the word ‘Borderlands’ is associated only with the formed eastern territories of Poland. We do not use this terminology for other areas. We think only of the eastern borderlands which were gradually lost between the 17th and 20th century. This article also mentions this fact. Nevertheless, the article presents a slightly different perspective, i.e. it tries to present the Borderlands that were distant because they were unknown or known very little, the Borderlands which did not manage to enter the Polish narratives and Polish historical memory for good. They entered Poland for a very short time and disappeared for it very quickly. Nowadays they are abroad and they are practically unknown. The distant, unknown former Polish western Borderlands was Trans-Olza (Zaolzie). The Silesian residents living there in the 19th century shaped mostly Polish national identity, i.e. at the time when the then modern European nations were establishing. Undoubtedly, this was influenced by a strong economic development of the territory of Cieszyn Silesia. On the one hand, it was a blessing, but on the other hand, it turned out to be its curse, causing the rivalry over this land between the Poles and Czechs. The conflict over this territory, where the ethnic issues played no significant role for the powers considering this matter. Moreover, it inscribed into different types of territorial conflicts that Europe experienced after the First World War. For the borders established by the victorious allied forces as part of the Versailles treaty were not entirely fair in any place, which, in turn, is an obvious matter because it is never possible to set borders that would fully satisfy all the parties of the conflict. This was also the case of the Polish-Czech conflict over Cieszyn Silesia. The rivalry did not cease with the borders being established by the allied forces in July 1920, and both countries were still interested in the population living there. The population faced assimilative activities as the so-called ‘Polonized Moravians’ by the Czechoslovakian Republic. On the other hand, this population became a causation for Poland when reclaiming this area in autumn 1938. In the second part of the article presents the realities of life in Trans-Olza in the second half of the 1930s, which were witnessed by Paweł Hulka-Laskowski. He collected material for his monumental work on Trans-Olza Silesia. This work is practically unknown today, but it is an equivalent of the results of Melchior Wańkowicz’s travels around East Prussia in the book Na tropach Smętka. Who has ever heard in Poland of the work by Paweł Hulka-Laskowski Śląsk za Olzą Similarly, who has the knowledge of the long-forgotten Western Borderlands? This article introduces readers to this subject matter.
Collapse