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SHORT NOTES

Rafał Habielski and Jerzy Jaruzelski (eds.), Zamiary, przestrogi, nadzieje. Wybór publicystyki. 'Bunt Młodych’, 'Polityka’ 1931-1939 [Intentions, Warnings, Hopes: Selected Articles on Public Affairs — Bunt Młodych, Polityka 1931-1939), Lublin 2008, UMCS, 529 pp., index of persons

The book recalls the achievements of the pre-war group of publicists rallied round Jerzy Giedroyc, a journalist and politician who after the war founded Kultura, the most important pcriodical of the Polish emigration. The initiators of the volumc emphasize that many things concerning the programme of the group and its work have not yet been fully researched. The articles published in the periodicals Bunt Młodych and Polityka dealt with foreign affairs and the internal questions of the Second Republic, especially the nationality problems, the politi-cal system of the State and political disputes with the National Democratic Party and the Sanacja (Sanation movement). The articles published in Bunt Młodych and Polityka were written, among others, by: Ksawery Pruszyński, Mieczysław Pruszyński, Stanisław Mackiewicz, Henryk Rolicki, Adolf Maria Bocheński, Piotr Dunin-Borkowski, Stanisław Loś, Stefan Kisielewski and Ferdynand Goetel.

The articles are arranged chronologically and are divided into eight parts. The first six parts present texts which appearcd in Bunt Młodych in 1932-7. The last two parts contain articles published in Polityka in 1938 and 1939. The book is supplemented with a calendar of the most important events connected with Giedroyc’s circle. [OL)

Sebastian Pilarski, Polskie ugrupowania polityczne wobec Czechosłowacji 1938-1939 [The Attitude of Polish Political Groupings to Czechoslovakia, 1938-1939], Warszawa 2008, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Neriton, 342 pp., index of persons, sum. in English

Polish-Czechoslovak rclations were straincd from the beginning of the inler-war period. The first tensions were connectcd with the demarcation of frontiers and with the territories claimcd by both countries: Silesia, Spisz (Spis, Zips) and the Orava region. As a result of the post-World-War-I peace provisions and the division of some territories between Poland and Czechoslovakia, a Polish minority was left on the Czech and Slovak side while a Slovak minority remained in Poland. The controversial territories and the status of the minorities were a source of constant conflicts. Poland’s aspirations to play a leading political role in East-Central Europę, the rivalry over the position of France’s key ally, and Czcchoslovak-Sovict co-operation madę agreement impossible. The situation was madę even morę difficult by Poland’s support for the Slovak autonomous movement and Czech support for the Ukrainians’aspirations to independence.

The author cxamincs the dcvelopment of relations between Poland and Czecho-slovakia throughout the entire inter-war period but he concentrates on the last two years before the outbreak of World War II, that is, on the crisis and fali of the Czechoslovak State. Pilarski shows the polarization of attitudes to the