Issue: 1/2023
Pages: 125-150
Language: English
Author: Henryk WALCZAK
Abstract:
After the end of World War I, the international situation of both Poland and Romania showed many similarities. Their borders were shaped in disputes and conflicts with neighbours and in negotiations with the Entente powers. The fact that Bessarabia, Transylvania and Southern Dobrogea had come under the power of Bucharest antagonized its relations with Russia, Hungary and Bulgaria. In turn, Poland, while demarcating its borders, struggled with Soviet Russia, Germany, West Ukraine People’s Republic, Dnieper Ukraine (Ukrainian People’s Republic) and Czechoslovakia.
Antagonisms with neighbours meant that authoritative spheres in Warsaw began to recognize the need to establish a mutual border with Romania as well as close political and military cooperation. Poland intended to gain connection with Western European countries via Romania. In this troubled context, Count Aleksander Skrzyński, one of the greatest diplomats and politicians of the Second Polish Republic, was sent as envoy to Bucharest, where his mission lasted between 1919 and 1922, this article aiming at illustrating some of the episodes that marked his activity.
Keywords: Little Entente, Polish-Romanian alliance, Aleksander Skrzyński, diplomatic history