Czeskie stronnictwa polityczne wobec stosunków polsko-sowieckich w pierwszych latach dwudziestolecia międzywojennego

Abstract

Main impact on the interest shown in Polish-Soviet relations by Czech political circles in 1918-1920 was exerted by Polish strivings towards the annexation of territories to the east of the Bug. Similarly to the authorities in Prague, Czech politicians retained a negative attitude towards such aspirations, as evidenced conspicuously during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920. Polish military success was received with disbelief and irritation, a stance accompanied by fear of a Polish armed campaign against Czechoslovakia. Once the Bolsheviks initiated their offensive, the Czech side awaited the downfall of the Polish state. These were the opinions expressed by the Social Democrats, who disclosed pro-Soviet sympathies, as well as Czech socialists and even the National Democrats, hostile towards Soviet Russia. After the end of the Polish-Soviet war and the Riga peace treaty, Czech parties - analogously to the government in Prague - were skeptical about the possibility of Poland retaining her eastern border, and claimed that a Polish-Soviet conflict would inevitably break out in the near future. At the same time, emphasis was placed on the fact that the unsatisfactory state of Polish-Soviet relations ruled out their Polish-Czechoslovak counterpart, a factor underlined particularly vividly by members of an offshoot of the National Democrats connected with Karel Kramar, and by the Moscow-inspired communists. The attitude towards Poland's relations with her eastern neighbour was, to a considerable degree, influenced by the Russophile sympathies harboured by Czech society and industrialists interested in establishing economic contacts with the Soviet Union. Objective assessments of Polish-Soviet relations after 1921 were made only by the Social Democrats and members of peasant and agrarian parties. Nevertheless, their stand did not affect the policy of the authorities in Prague towards Poland and the Soviet Union.