“There Will Be No Free Bohemia without Free Poland, No Free Poland without Free Bohemia”. Masaryk’s Vision of Independent States

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to examine, using the comparative perspective, how politicians and historians perceived the ideas applied in the process of formation of the states of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The situation in the period of 1918–20 seemed to be open to various opportunities for constituting and cooperation of independent countries, but not all these opportunities were acceptable at that time. Although some of them had a stabilising potential, the official narrative became the foundation for national historiography.

The traditional master narrative (roles of Masaryk, Dmowski, Piłsudski), interrupted by the caesura of the 1945/54–89 period, understandably affects the current understanding of a state and celebration of its anniversaries, which raises a need to find a paradigm of interpretation that deviates from the nation state. The author disputes the approach of historiography which considered military violence a defining element of the process of formation of a state. He regards choosing a perspective which explains the transfer of the traits of the founders to the states as social institutions (quasi-figures) to be beneficial. Using archival documents, he shows how Masaryk’s ideas of forming a New Europe were received in Poland and what image of the situation in Poland was presented to Masaryk. Criticism of the neighbouring state in the speeches of the members of the Sejm was instrumentalised with regard to the tensions in the home politics. That is why the author puts the dispute about the Seven-day War and the Polish-Ukrainian conflict into a broader perspective.