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The International Situation and Territorial Shape of the Republic of Poland in 1919 from the Perspective of Spanish Diplomacy
Jan Ciechanowski
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3542-1991
Wydział „Artes Liberales”, Uniwersytet Warszawski
Remembrance and Justice, Vol. 38 No. 2 (2021), pages: 113-124
Publication date: 2021-12-30
https://doi.org/10.48261/pis213807
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Abstract
This article presents the issue of the international position and territorial shape of the Republic of Poland from the point of view of Spanish diplomacy in 1919. It is based primarily on the documentation of the Madrid Ministry of State. In the timespan discussed, the Ministry, which was responsible for foreign affairs, perceived these issues by acknowledging the fact of the rebirth of Poland’s statehood. In a situation of considerable confusion, little importance was attached to the territorial shape of the new republic, probably on the assumption that the matter was reserved for the decisions of the victorious powers in the war. However, general remarks on this subject can be found in the reports of the first head of the Spanish post in Warsaw after the renewal of diplomatic relations, the chargé d’affaires en pied, Fernando Gómez-Contreras y Ruiz de Granja. He was an enthusiast of Polish independence, and in his reports to Madrid he emphasised the enormous effort to rebuild the Polish state, and – with some exaggeration – its unjust treatment by the Allies, despite its contribution to the global struggle against Germany. He also noted the threat to the existence of the reborn Republic and the various flashpoints in relations between Poland and its neighbours. In the reports preserved in the Ministry of State’s files, he did not enter into discussions about the borders of the Republic, although the possibility that he did raise this issue, as some of the correspondence did not survive, cannot be excluded. Importantly, little happened in the period from September/October 1919 as regards border battles, especially in connection with the stabilisation of the Polish-Soviet front. Nonetheless, the Spaniard commented on the increasing burden of Polish spending on the war in the East against Bolshevism in a situation where the West was demobilising at the time. In his view, Poland’s role as a barrier to Bolshevik Russia remained in the interests of the whole world. The diplomat assured Madrid that the superpowers needed a ‘free Poland’, and that it would not hold on its own. The interest of the Spanish diplomacy in the Polish borders grew strongly in 1920 in connection to the intensification of the Polish-Bolshevik War and the imminent threat to the existence of the Polish state.
References
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madryt
Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warszawa
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores. Extracto de las Hojas de Servicio del Personal de la Carrera Diplomática. Hasta el 31 de Diciembre de 1966, Madrid 1967.
Lutosławski W., Jeden łatwy żywot, Warszawa 1933.
Ciechanowski J.S., Hiszpania wobec odrodzenia Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (1918–1919) [w:] Polska przywrócona – z perspektywy zagranicy 1918–1921. (W stulecie Traktatu Wersalskiego), red. P. Kołakowski, T. Katafiasz, Słupsk, w przygotowaniu do druku.
Gdańsk and East Prussia, Paris, May 1919.
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