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 - Tokai Gábor: Lengyelország és Magyarország művészeti kapcsolatai a két világháború között

ARTISTIC RELATIONS OF POLAND AND HUNGARY IN THE INTERWAR YEARS Historical background In the 1920s, the relations between Poland and Hungary were determined by their respective places in the new European layout. The leaders of Hungary surrounded by enemy states looked upon the traditionally Hungarian-friendly Polish people as their natural ally. In 1919 the first commercial delegation was sent by Hungary to Poland, and in July 1920 it was the only country to offer military aid to the desperate Poles in a critical situation in the Polish-Soviet war. In this war, Czechoslovakia did not only deny the Hungarian troops passage through its territory but also occupied Teschen Silesia inhabited by Poles. In response to this, the Polish government (together with the Hungarian) supported the Slovakian separatist movement, but they did not back up Hungary's revisionist politics. Although the Hungarian tragedy of the Trianon Peace Treaty probably generated the deepest sympathies in the Poles in Europe who had suffered similar traumas, the Hungarian ambitions were aimed at the system of peace pacts that guaranteed the frontiers of renascent Poland. With the consolidation of the new European setup the Slovakian issue was removed from the agenda and the political relations between the two states were interrupted.

2 The rapprochement between the two countries was precipitated by Poland's changed foreign policies after Hitler's rise to power. To counterbalance the German might, the conception advocated by foreign minister Józef Beck aimed at creating a Central European federation of states with Polish leadership (Czechoslovakia being a serious rival) along the Warsaw-Rome axis, in which Hungary was also to have had a considerable role. At about the same time Gyula Gömbös' cabinet (1932-36) proclaimed Polish friendship within their programme.

3 The first official step was prime minister Gyula Gömbös' and foreign minister Kálmán Kánya's visit to Warsaw in 1934, returned by Polish premier Koscialkowski in 1936. Upon the impact of the international political events, tentative moves gave way to political collaboration in 1938 - in opposition to Czechoslovakia. In March, the Anschluss gave rise to the possibility of Slovakia asserting its right to self-rule

4

, while during the Munich negotiations in September a chance of redrawing the borders on an ethnic basis was considered. It was practically the outcome of the concerted Polish-Hungarian efforts that Polish-populated Teschen Silesia returned to Poland and the southern part of pre-Trianon Upper Hungary was reannexed to Hungary. When Czechoslovakia was overrun by the Germans, and the Hungarians occupied Transcarpathia, a common border formed between the two countries. Sympathy with the Poles so far reconcilable with Hungary's pro-German politics confronted the Hungarian government with a serious challenge when in April 1939 Germany denounced the nonaggression pact concluded with Poland. Political commonsense would have dictated that Hungary should slacken its contacts with Poland, but the official rhetoric of Hungarian-Polish friendship (reflecting the true sentiments of Hungarian society) forced the country's leadership into irrational political behavior. In the next months the Hungarian government demonstrated their cordiality to Poland and this position did not change after the outbreak of the world war, either. Hungary denied its allies access to its railway lines for manoeuvres against Poland, admitted the Polish refugees after the collapse of the Polish army and practically provided for them until the end of the war. Artistic relations The background to the artistic relations was provided by the official cultural relations mostly adjusted to the political climate. In 1930, minister of culture count Kuno Klebelsberg visited Poland, too, during his European tour, to lecture on the history of Hungarian-Polish intellectual relations.