Global InformationIntermarium information
Intermarium (Polish: Międzymorze, Polish pronunciation: [mʲɛnd͡zɨˈmɔʐɛ]) was a post-World War I geopolitical plan conceived by Józef Piłsudski to unite former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lands within a single polity. The plan went through several iterations, some of which anticipated the inclusion of neighbouring states. The proposed multinational polity would have incorporated territories lying between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas, hence the name Intermarium (Latin for "Between-Seas").
Prospectively a federation[1][2][3][4][5] of Central and Eastern European countries, the post-World War I Intermarium plan pursued by Piłsudski sought to recruit to the proposed federation the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), Finland,[6] Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.[7][8] The Polish name Międzymorze (from między, "between"; and morze, "sea"), meaning "Between-Seas", was rendered into Latin as Intermarium.[9]
The proposed federation was meant to emulate the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, that, from the end of the 16th century to the end of the 18th, had united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Intermarium complemented Piłsudski's other geopolitical vision, Prometheism, whose goal was the dismemberment of the Russian Empire and that Empire's divestment of its territorial acquisitions.[10][11][12][13]
Intermarium was perceived by some Lithuanians as a threat to their newly established independence, and by some Ukrainians as a threat to their aspirations for independence,[14][15][16] and while France backed the proposal, it was opposed by the Soviet Union and by most other Western powers.[17][18][19] Within two decades of the failure of Piłsudski's grand scheme, all the countries that he had viewed as candidates for membership in the Intermarium federation had fallen to the Soviet Union or to Nazi Germany, except for Finland (which suffered some territorial losses in the 1939–40 Winter War with the Soviet Union).
- ^ Aviel Roshwald, "Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires: Central Europe, the Middle East and Russia, 1914–1923", Routledge (UK), 2001, ISBN 0-415-17893-2, p. 37
- ^ Richard K Debo, Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921, McGill-Queen's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7735-0828-7, p. 59.
- ^ James H. Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-7658-0471-9, p. 432
- ^ Andrzej Paczkowski, The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom, Penn State Press, 2003, ISBN 0-271-02308-2, p. 10
- ^ David Parker, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, ISBN 0-393-02025-8, p.194
- ^ Mark Hewitson, Matthew D'Auria Europe in Crisis: Intellectuals and the European Idea, 1917–1957, 2012, p. 191 "... of the other national movements that had found themselves included in Piłsudski's project, especially the Lithuanians. ... The somewhat nostalgic image of 'Intermarium', the land of cultural and historical diversity destroyed by the wave of ..."
- ^ Miloslav Rechcígl, Studies in Czechoslovak history, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, 1976, Volume 1, p. 282. "This new policy, which was labeled the Intermarium, or Third Europe Project, called for the establishment of ..."
- ^ Fritz Taubert, "The myth of Munich 1938", 2002 page 351 "... range détente with Germany and in the chance of creating a Polish-led 'Third Europe' or 'Intermarium' as illusory."
- ^ Tomasz Piesakowski, Akcja niepodległościowa na terenie międzynarodowym, 1945–1990, 1999, p. 149: "... przyjmując łacińskie określenie 'Intermarium' (Międzymorze). Podkreślano, że 'Intermarium' to nie tylko pojęcie obszaru geopolitycznego zamieszkanego przez 16 narodów, ale idea wspólnoty wszystkich wolnych narodów tego obszaru."
- ^
- "Józef Pilsudski, Polish revolutionary and statesman, the first chief of state (1918–22) of the newly independent Poland established in November 1918." ("Józef Pilsudski", Encyclopædia Britannica)
- "Released in November 1918, [Piłsudski] returned to Warsaw, assumed command of the Polish armies, and proclaimed an independent Polish republic, which he headed." ("Piłsudski, Joseph", Columbia Encyclopedia)
- ^
- Timothy Snyder, Covert Polish missions across the Soviet Ukrainian border, 1928–1933 (p.55, p.56, p.57, p.58, p.59, in Cofini, Silvia Salvatici, Rubbettino, 2005).
- Timothy Snyder, Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10670-X, (p.41, p.42, p.43)
- ^ "Pilsudski hoped to build not merely a Polish nation state but a greater federation of peoples under the aegis of Poland which would replace Russia as the great power of Eastern Europe. Lithuania, Belorussia and Ukraine were all to be included. His plan called for a truncated and vastly reduced Russia, a plan which excluded negotiations prior to military victory." Richard K Debo, Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1992, p. 59, McGill-Queen's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7735-0828-7.
- ^ "Pilsudski's program for a federation of independent states centered on Poland; in opposing the imperial power of both Russia and Germany it was in many ways a throwback to the romantic Mazzinian nationalism of Young Poland in the early nineteenth century." James H. Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men, p. 432, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-7658-0471-9
- ^ Oleksa Pidlutsky, "Figures of the 20th century. Józef Piłsudski: the Chief who Created a State for Himself", Zerkalo Nedeli [Mirror Weekly], 3–9 February 2001, available online in Russian Archived 2005-11-26 at the Wayback Machine and in Ukrainian Archived 2005-11-07 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Derhwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Roman Szporluk, Imperiia ta natsii, Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2001, ISBN 966-7888-05-3, section II (in Ukrainian)
- ^ "Intermarium Alliance – Will the idea become reality?". www.unian.info. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
- ^ "Between Imperial Temptation And Anti-Imperial Function In Eastern European Politics: Poland From The Eighteenth To Twenty-First Century". Andrzej Nowak. Accessed September 14, 2007.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
EidintasZalyswas invoked but never defined (see the help page).