The village of Poiana Micului in Bukovina does not enjoy a reputation in the Romanian space. Few people know that, since 1842, an ethnic community that is defined as being of Polish origin lives here. During the twentieth century its history was influenced by the policies pursued by Czechoslovakia (respectively Slovakia, for the years between 1939 and 1944) and by Poland. The rivalry between the two countries to achieve strategic supremacy in Central Europe, and especially the territorial dispute in the border region of Teschen (Czech: Těšín), spawned a competition for defining the Slovak‐Polish community in Bukovina. The reason of otherness of the Poles and Slovaks in relation to the Romanians was born from this rivalry. In turn, Romania treated the mentioned community with pragmatism according to its interest at the time, successively encouraging once the idea of Polish origin, and later the idea of Slovak origin of this ethnic group.
In the study we present and interpret the activities of the Romanian diplomat Nicolae Eric Lahovary, who served as an ambassador to the Slovak Republic from March 1940 to March 1941. Although he was ambassador until March 1941, we focus only at his perception of the internal and foreign policy of the Slovak Republic, as well as the form of mutual relations between Slovakia and Romania until September 1940. This perception is based mainly on his diplomatic reports that have been sent regularly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Romania.
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