Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany signed a Four‐Power Pact, proposed by Mussolini, which would have allowed a gradual revision of the 1919 Peace Treaties. Worried about the effects this could have on their territorial claims, the countries of the Small Entente and Poland mobilised against this Pact. Although it was eventually not ratified, the negotiations around this Four‐Power Pact permanently damaged the Franco‐Polish relations.
Henri de Jouvenal, the French ambassador present at these negotiations, had accepted the idea of transferring the “Polish corridor” to Germany. Taking this as a signal that Poland could no longer rely on France’s protection, the Polish government sought to establish ties with Germany instead. This diplomatic turning point was concretised in the bilateral pact of non‐aggression, signed by representatives of Poland and the Third Reich on 26 January 1934.
Imagine for a moment that you are looking me in the eye, then answer me this:
Do you remember witnessing anybody in your country discussing this history?
Partially. Discussions about “allies betrayed us like the Czechoslovakia” do happen sometimes, but the pacts with Germany are never mentioned, the conclusion is inevitably “USSR bad”.
Poland is always the smol pebble of history with no agency of its own. At least after it stopped being stupid oligarchy ruling half of the region. Polish historiography is simply stinky, even during PRL it was like a minefied, hit and miss.
If i had to summarise polish historiography since 1918 in single sentence, it would be this.
Romanticism literature which introduced this absolutely toxic martyrdom syndrome was a civilisational catastrophe for polish culture.
Imagine for a moment that you are looking me in the eye, then answer me this:
Do you remember witnessing anybody in your country discussing this history?
Partially. Discussions about “allies betrayed us like the Czechoslovakia” do happen sometimes, but the pacts with Germany are never mentioned, the conclusion is inevitably “USSR bad”.
Poland is always the smol pebble of history with no agency of its own. At least after it stopped being stupid oligarchy ruling half of the region. Polish historiography is simply stinky, even during PRL it was like a minefied, hit and miss.