This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Making the worst of a bad situation: How the interpersonal conflict between Foreign Minister Jozef Beck and Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly affected Poland’s perception of the German threat in the run-up to the Second World War Kostus, Anna Maria Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. 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Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 Making the worst of a bad situation: How the interpersonal conflict between Foreign Minister Jozef Beck and Marshal Edward Rydz- Smigly affected Poland’s perception of the German threat in the run-up to the Second World War Anna Kostus PhD Thesis Department of War Studies King´s College London February 2015 1 Abstract The institutional conflict examined in this thesis can be traced back to the successful military coup of 1926, which elevated Marshal Jozef Pilsudski to dictatorship. Given the Marshal's interest in military and foreign policy matters, he was actively involved in the formation of both, ensuring their coherence. Unfortunately, following Pilsudski's death in 1935, the 'Sanacja' regime plunged into internal conflict. Rydz-Smigly, who succeeded Pilsudski as the General Inspector of the Armed Forces, soon became involved in the domestic power struggle. Named the Second Person in the state in 1936 and promoted to Marshal, Rydz-Smigly sought greater involvement in foreign policy. This interference met with resistance from the Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck. The troubled relationship between both men embodied the civil-military conflict in 1930s Poland and is the main subject of this doctorate. This thesis examines the extent in which it affected Polish military preparedness in 1939 by delaying the process of defensive planning. It also subject considers the impact that the tension between the Foreign Ministry and the General Staff had on the flow of strategically important information. Save for Roman Wapinski, whose work focuses on the dynamic between Polish foreign and domestic policy, the historiography to date has failed to address the importance of this institutional and personal rivalry and tended to focus on either diplomatic (e.g. Piotr Wandycz, Anna Cienciala, Marek Kornat, Stanislaw Zerko, Michal Zacharias) or military (e.g. Marian Zgorniak, Marian Leczyk, Mieczyslaw Cieplewicz, Leszek Gadek, Piotr Stawecki) history. This dissertation looks at both 2 and contrasts the diplomats and military men’s different attitudes to Germany. It argues that this dissonance in approach impaired the Polish military and civilian authorities' ability to accurately assess the German threat and, consequently, affected Poland's defence in September 1939. 3 Table of contents List of abbreviations used throughout this thesis 5 Glossary of persons 6 Introduction 10 Chapter One: May 1926 48 Chapter Two: A Biographical Study of the Foreign and Defence Policy 59 Decision-Making elite in 1930s Poland Chapter Three: Cracks in the system: May 1935 – 1936 106 Chapter Four: 1937 – too damn quiet? 140 Chapter Five: 1938 – the year of the Jackal 171 Chapter Six: 1939 – The race to war 202 Chapter Seven: The Epilogue 245 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 250 Appendix 1 266 Bibliography 268 4 List of abbreviations used throughout this thesis Archives: TNA – The National Archives AAN – Archiwum Akt Nowych [The Modern Document Archive] PISM – Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum JPIoA – Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America JPI-London – Jozef Pilsudski Institute - London Political Parties: OZN – Oboz Zjednoczenia Narodowego [Camp for National Unity] BBWR – Bezpartyjny Blok Wspolpracy z Rzadem [Non-Party Bloc for Cooperation with the Government] PSL – Polskie Stonnictwo Ludowe [Polish People's Party] – the Peasant's party Other: GISZ – Glowny Inspectorat Sil Zbrojnych [The General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces] 5 Glossary of persons Arciszewski, Miroslaw – Polish Ambassador in Romania (1932 – 1938), Second Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (1938 – 1939). Barthou, Louis – French Minister for Foreign Affairs (1934). Beck, Jozef – Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1932 – 1939). Beck, Jadwiga – Jozef Beck’s wife. Biddle, Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. – US Ambassador in Poland (1937 – 1944). Benes, Eduard – Czechoslovak President (1935 – 1938). Bonnet, Georges – French Minister for Foreign Affairs (1938 – 1939). Bullitt, William C. – US Ambassador in the Soviet Union (1933 – 1936), US Ambassador in France (1936 – 1940). Burhadt – Bukacki, Stanislaw – general in the Polish Army, Jadwiga Beck’s first husband. Chamberlain, Neville – British Prime Minister (1937 – 1940). Chiczewski, Feliks – diplomat, Polish Consul General in Leipzig ( Chlapowski, Alfred – Polish Ambassador in France (1924 – 1936). Chodacki, Marian – diplomat, Commissioner General of the Republic of Poland in the Free City of Gdansk (1936 – 1939). Churchill, Winston – British Member of Parliament. Ciano, Galeazzo – Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1936 – 1943). Daladier, Edouard – French Defense Minister (1936 – 1940), Prime Minister (1933 – 1934, 1938 – 1940). Delbos, Yvon – French Minister for Foreign Affairs (1936 – 1938). Dlugoszowski – Wieniawa, Boleslaw – general in the Polish Army, Polish 6 Ambassador in Italy (1938 – 1940). Eden, Anthony – British Minister for Foreign Affairs (1936 – 1938). Frankowski, Feliks – Polish diplomat, Counsellor in the Polish Embassy in France. Fyda, Wojciech – colonel, Polish Military Attache in France. Gamelin, Maurice – general in the French Army, Commander in Chief and Chief of General Staff. Goering, Hermann – Marshal of the German Third Reich. Halifax, Edward – British Minister for Foreign Affairs (1938 – 1940). Hitler, Adolf – Chancellor of the German Third Reich (1933 – 1945). Hlond, August – Polish cardinal. Kasprzycki, Tadeusz – general in the Polish Army, Polish Minister for Military Affairs (1935 – 1939). Kennard, Howard – British Ambassador to Poland (1935 – 1941). Koc, Adam – leader of the Camp of National Unity (1937 – 1938). Kwiatkowski, Eugeniusz – Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister (1935 – 1939). Lipski, Jozef – Polish Ambasador in Germany (1933 – 1939). Lubienski, Michal – diplomat, Minister Beck’s Chef de Cabinet. Lukasiewicz, Juliusz – Polish Ambassador in the Soviet Union (1933 – 1936), Polish Ambassador in France (1936 – 1939). Mackiewicz, Stanislaw (Cat) – journalist, Editor in Chief of Slowo. Moltke, Hans Adolf von – German Amabassador to Poland (1931 – 1939). Molotov, Vyacheslav – Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs (1939 – 1949). Morawski, Kajetan – Polish Deputy Finance Minister (1936 – 1939). 7 Moscicki, Ignacy – Polish President (1926 – 1939). Mussolini, Benito – Italian leader (1922 – 1943). Neurath, Constantin von – German Minister for Foreign Affairs (1932 – 1938). Noel, Leon – French Ambassador in Poland (1935 – 1939). Paul-Boncour, Joseph – French Minister for Foreign Affairs (1933 – 1938). Pelczynski, Taduesz – colonel, Head of the Second Department of Polish General Staff (1929 – 1939). Papee, Kazimierz – Polish Legate in Czechoslovakia (1936 – 1939). Pilsudski, Jozef – Marshal of Poland Potocki, Jerzy – Polish Ambassador in the United States of America (1936 – 1940). Potocki, Jozef – diplomat, Director of the Political Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Raczysnki, Edward – Polish Ambassador in the United Kingdom (1934 – 1945). Raczynski, Roger – Polish Ambassador in Romania (1938 – 1940). Ribbentrop, Joachim von – German Minister for Foreign Affairs (1938 – 1939). Romer, Taduesz – Polish Legate in Portugal (1935 – 1937), Polish Ambassador in Japan (1937 – 1941). Rydz – Smigly, Edward – Marshal of Poland, General Inspector for the Armed Forces and Commander in Chief (1935 – 1939). Simon, John – British Minister for Foreign Affairs (1931 – 1935). Skladkowski – Slawoj, Felicjan – Polish Prime Minister (1936 – 1939). Slavic, Juraj – Czechoslovak Legate in Poland (1935 – 1939). Smolenski, Jozef – colonel, Head of the Second Department of the General Staff (1939). 8 Sosnowski, Kazimierz – general in the Polish Army, Chief of the General Staff (1935 – 1939). Strang, William – British diplomat, Head of the Central Department (1937 – 1939). Szymanski, Antoni – colonel, Polish Military Attache in Germany. Szembek, Jan – Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (1932 – 1939). Titulescu, Nicolae – Romanian Minister for Foreign