Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)

II. HÁROM SZÓLAMBAN A LENGYEL ÉS MAGYAR MŰVÉSZETRŐL, MŰVÉSZETTÖRTÉNETRŐL ÉS TÖRTÉNELEMRŐL - Szymon Brzeziński: A „kultúra közös alapjáért". Politika és kultúra a magyar-lengyel kapcsolatokban (1918-1939)

Historical relations and similarities between both cultures were enumerated, the Hungarians underlined the threat from the East and the necessity of common defence of the Western culture. In occasional speeches, the historical analogies reached the times of the Piasts and the Arpads, through the Angevins, the Jagiellons, the prominent role of the "bulwark" and brotherhood from the years 1848 -1 849, to the cultural and religious relations (as in the law historian Ferenc Eckhart's assessment).

3 From the Polish side, philosopher Marian Zdziechowski was a constant advocate of the idea of a spiritual kinship and a special mission of Poland and Hungary, and from the Hungarian side -Adorján Divéky

4

, historian and the first director of the Hungarian Institute in Warsaw, who lived in Poland. In opinions from the interwar period concerning relations between Poland and Hungary, a special role was attributed to culture, seen as a reflection of the "common fate". According to Hóman, "the only solid foundation for a brotherhood of nations is a constant and unceasing exchange of spiritual (cultural) values and safeguarding the common basis of culture."

5 A state cultural policy was meant to compensate for the divergences in other spheres. References to the past were an important element of the intellectual climate of PolishHungarian cultural relations. The 400th anniversary of king Stephen Báthory's birth, celebrated in 1933, gave an impulse to many initiatives in this field. The king who won victory over Moscow was more suitable for symbolizing the postulated close cultural ties than any other historical figure. Besides Báthory, King John III Sobieski was a personage mentioned as the liberator of Hungary from the Turkish rule. The achievements of both monarchs were presented at an exhibition of souvenirs and archives organized in Budapest, which was one of a number of Polish-Hungarian exhibition events of the period.

6 Scientific and editorial undertakings, in the scope of which both scientific and popularizing works were published, constituted a positive harvest of the Báthory anniversary. The book Poland and Hungary

7 (1936) was a kind of a representative crowning of these enterprises. As was explained in the preface, the aim of the publication was getting to know each other better and putting an end to the "traditional sentimentalism" that was not followed by a need of a real cooperation. As we can see, one was aware of the prevalent phraseology of friendship from which not much resulted. However, this did not change the fact that the book itself was full of such empty slogans. In this publication, presenting the social, political, economic and cultural life of the two countries, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, philosopher and aesthetician, voiced his opinion about the newest Polish art. In his judgement, there were two groups of artists: "there are outstanding artists, as Stryjeńska in painting, Szczepkowski in sculpture, Skoczylas in graphic art, who stick to Polish subject matters and look for characteristically Polish forms. Others, however, equally talented, create works of art in which it is irrelevant to what degree the pieces are Polish, but in which it is important that they are beautiful: among these artists there are Wittig and Dunikowski in sculpture, Pankiewicz and Weiss in painting, and a host of young artists (...). They constitute our artistic present day."

8 In Wacław Felczak's opinion, "in no other period of history was there written so much about friendship between Poland and Hungary as in the period between the wars."

9 It is true that one willingly reached for the "metaphysical" arguments, and looked for their support in history and national character. Behind the bombastic language there was an awareness that on the level of political interests both countries did not "walk together, hand in hand". The actual effect of the initiatives of that period was broadening the cultural relations, especially scientific. In the same time, it was mainly the elites that were engaged in these relations. Efforts were made to give the cultural relations an ideological dimension, rooted in the interpretation of a rich history of mutual relations. The official dimension of the cultural policy reflected Hungary's tactical plans, and showed the independence of the country's politics.

10 Poland was on dangerous ground concerning conflicts in Central and Southern Europe, which was accompanied by a growing role of Germany. Political cooperation between Poland and Hungary encountered numerous obstacles. In opposition to rather grandiloquent declarations of the interwar period, the Second World War, during which