Polish foreign policy on the eve of the 4th division: between nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (1938–1939)

Abstract

After the World War I, Poland was restored and within European countries belonged to medium-sized states in terms of its area, but also human and economic potential. Although at the beginning of the 1920s, the Second Polish Republic was able to gain large areas of Western Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania from Russia and also acquired part of the disputed territories with Germany, its geopolitical position was very vulnerable. Initially defeated or the bypassed superpowers of Germany and the Soviet Union gradually gained in importance and military power in European politics, until in the second half of the 1930s they became dominant in dealing with the foreign political affairs of Central and Eastern Europe. Surrounded by these revisionist neighbours, Polish foreign policy tried to maintain a balance towards both and maneuvered from neutrality to friendship with these great powers (mainly towards Berlin). At the same time, it tried to act as a regional power, with the ambition of concentrating smaller friendly states on itself, but without success. On the contrary, by the gradual loosening of the alliance with France or even the hostile policy towards Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1938, Poland became largely isolated. Finally, in 1939, it was no longer able to prevent the agreement of Berlin and Moscow on its new division between the neighbouring powers.

Keywords

• inter-war poland
• nazi germany
• soviet union
• international relations
• territorial revisionism
• great power’s zones of influence