The Soviet-Polish peace treaty of 1921, also known as the "Riga peace," ended the war of 1919-1920 and may be considered the most important Eastern European treaty of the interwar period. This deeply ...researched book offers the first post-Soviet account of how Bolshevik Russia and Poland came to sign the treaty-a pact that established the central part of the Soviet western border and provided Eastern Europe with a measure of stability that lasted until 1939.
Jerzy Borzecki draws on a wealth of untapped materials in Russian and Polish archives to recreate the negotiations and behind-the-scenes maneuvers leading to and surrounding the treaty. He examines the significance of the agreement not only to its signatories but also to Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Latvia. The Riga peace represented an authentic compromise between Poland and Bolshevik Russia, Borzecki shows, and he offers new interpretations of other crucial aspects of the negotiations as well.
Asia After Versailles addresses an important but neglected watershed for Asian nations - the response to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The Conference marked the end of a conflict which, ...although intrinsically European, had globalized the world on many levels, politically as well as economically, culturally and socially. It also stood at the beginning of a new order that saw the power centre shift towards the US and Asia. Asian countries and people played a significant but so far largely neglected role in this momentous development. Bringing together an international range of experts in the history of China, Japan, India and the Ottoman Empire/Turkey, this pioneering volume demonstrates the importance of Asia in the multifaceted global transformations that revolved around the Paris Peace Conference and its aftermath.
Traditional historical analysis focuses almost exclusively on US and European responses to the Paris Peace Conference and the interwar order and often fails to take into account non-western, particularly Asian voices - this is the first book to demonstrate the far-reaching Asian dimensions of the impact of Versailles in an unprecedented way making this an invaluable and interdisciplinary resource for academics and researchers in the fields of politics, international relations, area studies and history.
At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the international community came together to find a collective way forward in the aftermath of the First World War. The conference is often judged a failure, as ...the resulting Treaty of Versailles did not bring long-term peace with Germany. By following the activities of a key British delegate, the wartime Minister of Blockade Lord Robert Cecil, this book examines the struggles and identifies some under-acknowledged successes of the conference, as delegates from around the world grappled with the economic, political, and humanitarian catastrophes overwhelming Europe in 1919.
Abstract
The article is an analysis of: 1) the Kiev operation from late April and early May 1920, 2) Tukhachevsky’s first offensive in May 1920, 3) Tukhachevsky’s second offensive launched in July ...1920. All the three operations were attempts at undertaking strategic and operational initiative during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. The first offensive pertained to the Polish army, in the subsequent two cases it was the Soviet Western Front. Tukhachevsky’s second offensive resulted in the battle of the Bug in late July and early August 1920. By discussing each of the operations, the author presents the fighting potential of the armies involved, the tactical and operational goals, the course of the fighting, the turning points, both parties’ planning mistakes and the consequences of the operations.
This work investigates the 'Janus face' of international relations, refracted through the prism of the duality of Jan Christian Smuts, as it manifested in his contribution to the League of Nations ...and his struggle against the emerging peace treaty. A predominant characteristic of international relations is its requirement to face two different ways at the same time - its Janus face. States profess their adherence to lofty ideals for humanity alongside the pursuit of their own immediate self-interest. This phenomenon in the behaviour of states has been referred to as the distance between vision and reality, and the gap between rhetoric and reality. International relations is, and is likely to remain, suspended between these two extremes: on the one hand, the pursuit of utopian ideals for the world, and, on the other, a defence of narrow self-interest, often prompted by the dictates of the realpolitik of the moment. How, then, are the values that underlie the founding of the first cornerstone of the current international order -- the League of Nations -- to be understood? An under-explored case study in understanding the complex framework of international relations is that of the visionary and controversial South African, Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950). On the one hand, Smuts was one of the principal authors of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and the person directly responsible for the recognition of human rights as a founding value of the Charter of the United Nations. On the other, the Premier of racially segregated South Africa.
This collection addresses the impact of the end of the First
World War and challenges the positive vision of a new world order
that emerged from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.
1919-1920 is een mijlpaal in de sociale geschiedenis van de steenkoolsector. Nieuwe arbeidsverhoudingen moeten een einde maken aan de toenemende spanningen die zich vanaf het laatste kwart van de ...negentiende eeuw opbouwen. In een sterk gewijzigd, zelfs revolutionair, klimaat beslissen de sociale partners het roer om te gooien. Loonindexering en sociaal overleg vormen voortaan de pijlers voor de pacificatie van de mijnsector. De euforie rond deze aanpak is evenwel van korte duur. Het sociaal overleg loopt vanaf eind 1921 uitermate stroef en evolueert in de jaren 1930 naar een sociaal revanchisme door een uitermate goed georganiseerd mijnpatronaat. Ook de loonvorming blijft transparantie missen en manifesteert zich steeds sterker als conflictbron wanneer de mijnsector vanaf 1930 economisch zwaar onder druk komt. De conclusie luidt dat van een modernisering van de arbeidsverhoudingen tijdens het interbellum nauwelijks iets is terecht gekomen. Voor de mijnwerkers overheerst diepe ontgoocheling over de “ beloften van 1919 en 1920” en ze ontvluchten massaal de sector. De leegloop van de mijnen in 1944-1945 dient gezien te worden als de cumulatie van 25 jaar falend personeelsbeleid. De promotie van de mijnwerker tot “ ereburger” in 1945 roept de mijnvlucht geen halt toe.
Les années 1919-1920 marquent un tournant dans l’histoire sociale du secteur minier en Belgique. De nouvelles conditions de travail sont censées apaiser les tensions qui se sont accumulées depuis le dernier quart du XIXe siècle. Les partenaires sociaux décident en effet de changer la donne, dans un climat de mutations profondes voire révolutionnaire. La pacification du secteur minier repose désormais sur l’indexation des salaires et sur la concertation sociale. L’euphorie n’est que de courte durée cependant. Vers la fin de 1921, les concertations entre partenaires sociaux s’enlisent jusqu’à passer au revanchisme social dans les années 1930 par le biais d’un patronat minier particulièrement bien organisé. La formation des salaires manque elle aussi de transparence et s’avère une source de conflit toujours plus grande, tandis que le secteur minier subit une pression économique de plus en plus importante à partir de 1930. En conclusion, les relations de travail n’ont pu être modernisées que marginalement pendant l’Entre-deux-guerres. Il règne une grande déception parmi les mineurs quant aux «promesses de 1919 et 1920 » et ils quittent massivement l’industrie. Les départs massifs en 1944-1945 sont considérés comme le point culminant d’une politique de ressource humaine défaillante depuis 25 ans. Même la distinction comme «citoyens d’honneur » pour les mineurs en 1945 ne les arrêtera pas de déserter massivement les charbonnages.
The years 1919 and 1920 were a turning point in the social history of the mining sector in Belgium. New working conditions were supposed to appease the tensions that had been rising since the last quarter of the 19th century. As the working conditions underwent profound changes and a breeze of revolution was felt, management and labour (social partners) decided to take a wholly new path. Wage indexation and social dialogue henceforward laid the foundation for the pacification of the mining industry. But the momentum was short-lived. Social dialogue began to stall in late 1921 and even became a sort of social revanchism in the 1930s due to a very wellorganised mining management. Wage policies were also lacking in transparency, which became a major source for conflict in a mining sector that was under economic pressure as from 1930. Ultimately, the intended modernisation of working conditions hardly translated into reality in the inter-war period. Miners were deeply disappointed about the “ promises of 1919 and 1920” and there was a massive drain from the sector. Failed human resources policies, that had been waged for 25 years, culminated in the emptying of mines in the years 1944-1945. Even bestowing the miners with “ honorary citizenship” in 1945 did not reverse this workforce drain.
I analyze factory worker households in the early 1920s in Osaka to examine idiosyncratic income shocks and consumption. Using the household-level monthly panel dataset, I find that while households ...could not fully cope with idiosyncratic income shocks at that time, they mitigated fluctuations in indispensable consumption during economic hardship. In terms of risk-coping mechanisms, I find suggestive evidence that savings institutions helped mitigate vulnerabilities and that both using borrowing institutions and adjusting labor supply served as risk-coping strategies among households with less savings.
Paris 1919: Politiker und Diplomaten stehen vor einer Aufgabe, der sich noch keine Generation zuvor stellen musste: die Schaffung einer globalen Friedensordnung nach dem Ende eines Krieges, der ...erstmals die ganze Welt erfasste. Für die Liberalen am Verhandlungstisch war das Ziel ein Frieden im Zeichen freier Selbstbestimmung demokratischer Nationen. US-Präsident Wilson hatte es verkündet. Die Anhänger der traditionellen Großmachtpolitik hingegen wollten vor allem Entschädigungen für die eigenen Opfer. Und Lenins Bolschewiki propagierten den Weltfrieden durch die Diktatur des Proletariats. Die Vielzahl der Kriegsparteien und Fragen der nationalen "Ehre" erschwerten die Verhandlungen, die sich bis 1923 hinzogen. Von der Glaubwürdigkeit der Friedensbedingungen für Sieger und Besiegte aber hing die Haltbarkeit des Friedens ab. Mit dem Abstand eines Jahrhunderts schildert Klaus Schwabe Verhandler und Verhandlungen, die europäische und weltweite Dimension des Versailler Vertragswerkes und bewertet es neu, indem er die Leistungen und bis heute nachwirkenden Konsequenzen dieses Abkommens herausstellt: Versailles musste nicht von vorn herein scheitern. - 2018/2019: 100 Jahre Kriegsende und Versailler Friedenskonferenz - Die Friedensverträge aus europäischer und globaler Sicht - ,,Schanddiktat" oder Versuch einer demokratischen Zukunft? The author of this study attempts to reassess the Versailles peace settlements. He views them as compromises between liberal-democratic values, as espoused by Woodrow Wilson, traditional realpolitik, and Russian Bolshevism. The prospects of an enduring peace depended on the credibility of the compromises hammered out at the Peace Conferences. On the basis of the available sources and emphasising the personality factor the author, in conclusion, suggests answers to the question regarding the viability of the peace
settlement after World War One.
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