Conflict with Czechoslovakia (Spiš, Orava, and Cieszyn Silesia)

Until 1918 Orava, Spiš, and Cieszyn Silesia belonged to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. After its fall they became an object of a dispute between two emerging countries — Poland and Czechoslovakia. On 5 November, Cieszyn Silesia was divided according to the ethnic criterion as a result of an agreement reached by the Polish National Council of the Cieszyn Duchy and the Czech National Council of Silesia. Most inhabitants of Cieszyn Silesia were Polish (55 percent), while Czechs and Germans constituted 27 and 18 percent respectively. The Czechoslovakian government aimed at taking control of that entire area. The main causes of the conflict were: the crucial trunk line from Bohumin to Košice — the only one joining the east and west of Czechoslovakia, the coal basin in Karviná, and foundries and steelmaking plants. The Czechoslovakian troops entered Cieszyn Silesia on 23 January 1919. They were offered resistance by a small number of Polish volunteer detachments as at that time most of the army was engaged in the war against Ukraine for Eastern Galicia.

Established in Cieszyn on 19 October 1918, the National Council of the Cieszyn Duchy was thefirst formal government on the territory of the reborn Polish state. (Cieszyn Silesia Museum

National awareness is stronger and more durable than governments.

During 28–31 January 1919 an undecided battle was fought at Skoczów which stopped the Czech offensive. In the photograph: Polish soldiers — 3 soldiers who died in combat and 17 prisoners of war murdered by Czechoslovakian soldiers on 26 January 1919 in Stonawa.

The ‘diplomats’ had cut up our county, giving the most valuable, industrial part of Silesia to the Czechs, along with the people living there who were attached to Poland with all their heart, for instance, the Karwina miners and the Trzyniec steelworkers […]. After that I broke down, same as many Silesian activists — steelworkers and miners. We were like zombies for months and years. I performed no social work for nearly five years. During that time I did not write even one sentence for print. I would venture the opinion often repeated by Silesian steelworkers: if there had been granges of the Polish nobility in Zaolzie, then Silesia would have been incorporated into Poland all the way to Ostrawica.

The issue of the disputed border was discussed during the Paris Peace Conference on the Czechoslovakian initiative. A decision was reached to conduct a referendum. In the summer of 1920, during the Bolshevik offensive on Warsaw, at the Spa Conference the Czechoslovakian delegation forced through resignation from the referendum and division of the territory in the manner favorable to Czechoslovakia without considering the local population’s will. Czechoslovakia received 1,270 square kilometers with 283,000 inhabitants (48.6 percent Polish, 39.9 percent of Czech, and 11.32 percent German). The Czechoslovakian state now had all the coal mines and the Bohumin–Jablunkov railway. The situation in Spiš and Orava was similar as Poland received 27 localities, while Czechoslovakia received as many as 44.