AUSTRIA-HUNGARY'S SEARCH FOR POLITICAL ALLIES IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, 1914-1918

• Authors: Gaul J.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

As Austria­Hungary and Russia went to war in 1914, Vienna could not but start looking round for political allies in the Kingdom of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. Obviously, the ideal partner of the arch­conservative Habsburg monarchy would be a pro-Austrian party representing the propertied classes. The trouble was that eligible politicians of the centre­right lacked significant popular support, a matter of vital importance in the age of mass political movements and universal suffrage. Meanwhile, the national democrats (ND) and the socialists, two parties with political clout, were singularly ill­fitted for an alliance with Austria­Hungary. The right-wing HD could hardly have been expected to give up their traditional orientation on Russia and the Entente, while their reputation for radical extremism made talks with the Socialists unpalatable for Vienna. Yet the local Austrian representatives, Andrian in Warsaw and Hoenning in Lublin were more flexible. Especially Hoenning was keen on building bridges to political forces that had more than token support in the Kingdom of Poland. He urged the authorities in Vienna to establish contacts with left-wing nationalists and cultivate good relations with Józef Pilsudski. However, the secret mission of Police Superintendent Charwat to Warsaw in July 1917 ran into difficulties and eventually failed because of the German authorities were not prepared to ease their repressive regime in the occupied territories. Had the agreement reached at those meetings been finalized, Austria would have gained a strategic partner in Warsaw. However, there was another major obstacle. The Polish negotiators made their co­operation with Austria dependent on Vienna abandoning its alliance with Germany, an unlikely development even though the Habsburg Empire was too exhausted to hold on for much longer. While the Germans remained intransigent, no compromise with the radical Polish independence movement was possible.

Keywords

EN

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SEARCH FOR POLISH ALLIES (1914-1918)

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Księgarnia Akademicka
• Journal: Studia Historyczne
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 2(194)
• Pages: 153-171
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Gaul J.

• J. Gaul, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA02885872