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SHORT NOTES

Czechoslovak Republic on the Polish political sccnc. The parties which after the May coup cTetat (immediately after 1926 or in the followingyears) were opposed to the ruling camp, that is the National Democratic Party, Christian Democrats, Socialists and the peasant party, were in favour of co-operation and partnership between the two States. The Pilsudskiites and the conservatives were against a rapprochement with Czechoslovakia. The Sanacja (Sanation movement) and conservative newspapers presented Czechoslovakia as an unstable country, open to communist influence, a country hostile to all things Polish. The author reconstructs the views of the opposition and the ruling camp on the basis of documents kept in Czech and Slovak archives (especially in the Archives of the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and an analysis of the contents of the Polish press. (OL)

Radosław Paweł Żurawski vel Grajewski, Brytyjsko-czechosłowackie stosunki dyplomatyczne, październik 1938 — maj 1945 [British-Czechoslovak Diplomatic Relations from October 1938 to May 1945], Warszawa 2008, DiG, 651 pp., index of persons, annexes

The new book by Radosław Żurawski vel Grajewski deals with diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Czechoslovakia from the end of the inter-war period to the conclusion of World War II. It is divided into eleven chapters each of which consists of a short introduction with precisely set research questions, a recapitulation, and conclusions. The elear structure of the book facilitates orientation in this extensive text. The book opens with the events which accom-panied the Munich conference (1938) and the fali of the Czechoslovak Republic, that is a period in which Great Britain was gradually renouncing all efforts to exert a political influence on that country. Britain was interested in maintaining mutual relations for casual reasons: to make use of Czechoslovak intelligence and of the achievements of Czechoslovak engineers and workers employed in the armaments industry. Czechoslovakia regarded the United Kingdom as an ally ready to support its independence. Czechoslovakia sought to secure its interests also through an alliance with the Soviet Union. The author depicts Czechoslovakia’s efforts to set up a government in exile and have it recognized by Great Britain, to persuade the British to annul the provisions of the Munich dictate, and the British attempts to prevent the conclusion of a treaty between Czechoslovakia and the USSR. The author brings his refiections up to May 1945, when the Czechoslovak Government returned home and British diplomats re-turned to their post in Prague. He focuses on the political strategy of both sides, the evolution of their stance and the most important factors which influenced British-Czechoslovak relations. The main text is supplemented with short bi-ographies and maps which present: Czechoslovakia’s nationality structure, the situation after the fali of the Second Republic, the uprising in Slovakia (1944), and the front lines during the war operations in 1944 and 1945. The book is based on the research conducted by the author in Czech and British archives, especially in the National Archives in London. (OL)