The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

Budapest, and for Warsaw. The two countries were indifferent to each other, 5 at
least until 1938. In the time of the Munich agreement both Poland and Hungary
had territorial claims against Czechoslovakia. Therefore the importance of
Hory’s post increased also (too). When the Poles annexed the Olsa region, and
Hungary seized South Slovakia, the relations were more polite and worshipful
between Warsaw and Budapest.
On the 30 th January 1939 Hory could speak for two minutes with Mr.
Ribbentrop himself, when the German foreign minister travelled to the Polish
capital in order to consult on the latest developments of the European policy.
Hory would have wished a longer negotiation; because he wanted claim the
further Hungarian border-revision intentions against Czechoslovakia.
Ribbentrop rejected Hory’s offer, mentioning that Germans also suffered the
consequences of the peace treaty of Versailles, and „we hate everything, which
remind of that”. 6 When Hitler destroyed the truncated Czechoslovak state in
the spring of 1939, Hungary took over the north-eastern part of its former
territories, 7 resulting in a common Polish-Hungarian border. Like his fellow
countrymen, Hory was pleased with this event; he said later that these were one
of the most beautiful days of his life. 8 Unfortunately, this new border existed
only half a year.
The chapter is divided two parts: the first one is a summary about the
interwar international relations of Hungary, in the second one Hory narrate his
experiences of September 1939 based on his diary-notes.
On the 23 rd of August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. Like
most of the foreign diplomats, Hory took notice of this Bolshevik-Nazi
agreement with astonishment. In his memoir he referred to the Mein Kampf, in
which Hitler proclaimed a crusade against the red plague. 9 The Hungarian
diplomatic staff felt and knew, that the alliance and non-aggression pact
between Germany and the Soviet Union meant the end of Poland, as
contemporaries used the expression „finis Poloniae”. 10 The Hungarian Minister
for Foreign Affairs, István Csáky, told Hory on 26 th August, that Poland would
be divided, but, he thought Kraków and the nearby territories would remain
independent, like puppet-states. Two days earlier Csáky and Hory declared,
that Hungary would not attack Poland, and that he will not allow for the
German troops to cross the country. Although the British-French diplomacy
made all efforts to prevent and avoid the war, they could not stop the
5 HORY/MS/I: 8.
6 HORY/MS/I: 27. HORY: 254-255.
7 ROMSICS, Ignác: Hungary in the Twentieth Century. Budapest, Corvina-Osiris, 1999. 199.
„Between 15 th and 18 th March 1939 at the cost of only some minor skirmishes, the Hungarian
army marched into Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia.” The region received this new name after 1920,
because before that the appellation of the province didn’t exist before the Czechoslovakian rule.
8 HORY/MS/II: 2.
9 HORY/MS/I: 33.
10 The end of Poland (Latin).
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