Great Power Policies towards Central Europe, 1914–1945 Aliaksandr Piahanau To cite this version: Aliaksandr Piahanau. Great Power Policies towards Central Europe, 1914–1945. E-International Relations, 2019, 1910814458. hal-02065018 HAL Id: hal-02065018 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02065018 Submitted on 25 Mar 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 EDITED BY ALIAKSANDR PIAHANAU Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe 1914–1945 This e-book is provided without charge via free download by E-International Relations (www.E-IR.info). It is not permitted to be sold in electronic format under any circumstances. If you enjoy our free e-books, please consider leaving a small donation to allow us to continue investing in open access publications: http://www.e-ir.info/about/donate/ iii Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe 1914–1945 EDITED BY ALIAKSANDR PIAHANAU iv E-International Relations www.E-IR.info Bristol, England 2019 ISBN 978-1-910814-45-1 This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. 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Production: William Kakenmaster Cover Image: Andrey_Kuzmin / Keport via Depositphotos A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. v E-IR Edited Collections Series Editors: Stephen McGlinchey, Marianna Karakoulaki and Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska Books Editor: Cameran Clayton Copy-editing: Corey McCabe and Farah Saleem Editorial assistance: Jakob R. Avgustin, Hayden Paulsen, Christian Marks, Fernanda de Castro Brandão Martins and Alex Tanchev. E-IR’s Edited Collections are open access scholarly books presented in a format that preferences brevity and accessibility while retaining academic conventions. Each book is available in print and digital versions, and is published under a Creative Commons license. As E-International Relations is committed to open access in the fullest sense, free electronic versions of all of our books, including this one, are available on our website. Find out more at: http://www.e-ir.info/publications About the E-International Relations website E-International Relations (www.E-IR.info) is the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics, reaching over 3.5 million readers each year. E-IR’s daily publications feature expert articles, blogs, reviews and interviews – as well as student learning resources. The website is run by a registered non-profit organisation based in Bristol, UK and staffed with an all-volunteer team of students and scholars. vi Acknowledgments The preparation of this book has greatly benefited from the help of many individuals and organisations. The idea of making this volume was born and tested at two special panels dedicated to the ‘great power policies towards Central Europe,’ which were part of the 4th and 5th International Congresses of the Belarusian Studies in Kaunas, Lithuania in October 2014 and October 2015. I wish to thank the Congress Organising Committee and the paper contributors, who supported the project from the beginning. However, this collection would have never been achieved without assistance of Dr. Raisa Barash, Dr. Andras Becker and Silvana Vulcan, who helped with the translation of some papers into English, and also of Linda Ouma and Nicolas Vahdias, who pointed out some language shortcomings. Last, but not least, I feel indebted to the E-International Relations team whose assistance was crucial in finalising this book. vii Abstract This book provides an overview of the various forms and trajectories of Great Power policy towards Central Europe between 1914 and 1945. This involves the analyses of diplomatic, military, economic and cultural perspectives of Germany, Russia, Britain, and the USA towards Hungary, Poland, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The contributions of established, as well as emerging, historians from different parts of Europe enriches the English language scholarship on the history of the international relations of the region. The volume is designed to be accessible and informative to both historians and wider audiences. --- Aliaksandr Piahanau received his PhD from Toulouse University, France. viii Contributors Sorin Arhire is a Lecturer at the ‘1 Decembrie 1918’ University of Alba Iulia, Romania. Ivan Basenko is a PhD Candidate at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. Agne Cepinskyte holds a PhD in International Relations from King’s College London, UK. Oleg Ken (1960–2007) was a Professor at Herzen University and European University, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Tamás Magyarics is a Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and a Hungarian diplomat. Halina Parafianowicz is a Professor at the Institute of History and Political Science of the Białystok University, Poland. Alexander Rupasov is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of History in Saint-Petersburg of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Ignác Romsics is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He teaches at the Esterházy Károly University, Eger, Hungary. Artem Zorin is an Associate Professor in Vyatka State University, Russia. ix Contents INTRODUCTION Aliaksandr Piahanau 1 PART ONE - GEOPOLITICS AND SECURITY 1. HUNGARY’S PLACE IN GERMAN SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN POLICY, 1919–1944 Ignác Romsics 7 2. MOSCOW AND THE BALTIC STATES: EXPERIENCE OF RELATIONSHIPS, 1917–1939 Oleg Ken and Alexander Rupasov 43 PART TWO - ECONOMY AND DIPLOMACY 3. BALANCING IN CENTRAL EUROPE: GREAT BRITAIN AND HUNGARY IN THE 1920S Tamás Magyarics 77 4. BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS ROMANIA, 1936–41 Sorin Arhire 91 5. AMERICAN POLICY TOWARDS CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1918–1945 Artem Zorin 107 PART THREE - PROPAGANDA AND PERCEPTIONS 6. THE GREAT WAR AND THE POLISH QUESTION IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA: A CASE STUDY OF ITS REFLECTIONS IN KIEV’S PRESS, 1914–1917 Ivan Basenko 129 7. THE BALTIC DREAM OF A ‘HANDICAPPED’ GREAT POWER: THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC’S POLICIES TOWARDS THE BALTIC-GERMANS Agne Cepinskyte 153 8. HERBERT C. HOOVER AND POLAND, 1929–1933: BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY Halina Parafianowicz 176 NOTE ON INDEXING 199 x 1 Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe 1914–1945 Introduction ALIAKSANDR PIAHANAU In the first half of the 20th century Central Europe repeatedly set the stage for Great Power rivalry and conflict, as well as political, economic and cultural exchange. With a touch of irony, contemporary Hungarian writer Lajos Grendel described the region as a mere sum of small landlocked countries that could be occupied by foreign armies from any direction and whose inhabitants and governments faced multiple foreign interferences during their lifespans. Indeed, during the Great War, the interwar period and World War 2, the area situated between Germany and Russia became the target of covert or direct expansion. The context of Great Power meddling in Central Europe in the period 1914– 45 offers numerous perspectives. The multiple and often conflicting regional viewpoints about national identity, frontier and territory had not only underpinned regional interstate antagonisms, but at the same time provided a platform for Great Power interference. This collection of studies provides an overview of the various forms and trajectories of Great Power policies towards Central Europe between 1914 and 1945. This involves the analyses of perspectives, such as the diplomatic, military, economic or cultural policy of Weimar and Nazi Germany, tsarist and Bolshevik Russia, Great Britain, and the US on Central European countries, like Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The contributions of established as well as emerging historians from different parts of Europe are aimed at enriching the English language scholarship on the history of international relations. The volume is divided into three parts and, in total, contains eight papers. The first part, entitled ‘Geopolitics and Security,’ illustrates how two European Introduction 2 continental powers – Germany and Russia, whose frontiers set the limits of Central Europe, programmed their regional agenda and tried to implement it. Their ultimate objective was the expansion of influence in the region. The Great War brought military defeat, political and economic weakness, international humiliation and isolation for both powers. Despite the fact that they