Intelligence Support Activity of Polish Military Intelligence in Subcarpathian Rus in the Late 1930s

Abstract

The research goal is to discuss the organization and various aspects of Polish military intelligence in the second half of the 1930s in Subcarpatian Rus, which belonged to the Czechoslovak state in the interwar period. The research methodology: critical analysis of hitherto unpublished archival materials of Polish military intelligence and published scholarly works on the subject. In the present article the author systematizes and specifies the existing scholarly findings concerning the organization and little-known activity of Polish military intelligence in Subcarpatian Rus. Polish military secret services conducted intensive intelligence activity in Subcarpatian Rus in the second half of the 1930s. The beginnings of such activity date back to 1919. The interest of Polish intelligence in Subcarpatian Rus was primarily a consequence of plans to create a common Polish-Hungarian border and prevent the creation of a Ukrainian state there, which would pose a threat to the security of the Second Polish Republic. The Second Department of the Main Staff of the Polish Army kept the highest Polish authorities informed on the political and military situation as well as internal and economic situation in Subcarpatian Rus. Particular attention was paid to analyzing units of the Czechoslovak army as well as police, gendarmerie and border guards stationed there. In the second half of the 1930s, Polish intelligence reported any manifestations of Soviet presence in this area, which was a result of the cooperation between Prague and Moscow. In addition, attempts to penetrate various Ukrainian organizations were made, especially those of a military nature. The Second Department of the Main Staff of the Polish Army was very active in Subcarpatian Rus in the fall of 1938 and, first of all, in March 1939, when this region was taken over by the Hungarian army. It should be remembered, however, that Subcarpatian Rus and the whole Czechoslovakia played an important, but not a primary role in the activity of Polish military intelligence in the second half of the 1930s, because their main attention was focused on the threat from the two largest neighbors of Poland – Germany and the Soviet Union.