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'Munich, 1938' workshop

75 years ago in Munich, British prime-minister Neville Chamberlain, French prime-minister Edouard Daladier, German reichskanzler Adolf Hitler and Italian prime-minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty giving the Sudet region of Czechoslovakia to Germany. This was the culmination of European leaders’ appeasement policy. Was it an attempt at rebuilding the degrading Versailles system by diplomacy (as per Chamberlain’s well-known phrase “peace for our time”), or was it an attempt by capitalist countries to crush the utterly alien system of Europe’s eastern neighbor — the Soviet Union?

Those questions, along with many others, were discussed by the participants of the workshop organized as part of traditional meetings with readers and authors of “E-journal. Public Administration”. “Munich, 1938” workshop is the second workshop hosted by “E-journal. Public Administration”, the first was “Communication management and strategic communication in the contemporary world” and took place on November 15, 2012.

The meeting opened with a speech by Deputy Dean for Science Oleg R. Airapetov, who invited the participants to discuss various aspects of Munich agreements and outlined some possible topics for discussion, such as the problems of Russian and Anglo-American historiography, the evaluation of Soviet Union’s role in the events, the importance of Polish foreign policy and the problems of evaluating the events of 1938–1939.

Deputy editor-in-chief of “E-journal. Public Administration”, Professor Yuri Y. Petrunin also addressed the participants. He pointed out that the journal is one of the first of its kind both in the Moscow State University and in Russia in general, as well as one of the first online publications recognized by HAC (Higher Attestation Commission). Professor Petrunin highlighted some of the advantages of online publication, such as availability (the journal is available both on its own website and via eLibrary), no limits on article size, illustrations being published without quality loss, and relatively fast publication — since new issues come out six time a year, you can expect an article to be published within two month after being accepted for publication.

The first presentation was given by editor-in-chief of “Rodina” magazine, associate professor of Department of Southern and Western Slavic History (Faculty of History, MSU) Yuri A. Borisenok. He stressed the importance of the treaty of Munich for European history and the need for reevaluation of the role of the Soviet Union in pre-war international politics.

Head of Chair of Southern and Western Slavic History, Professor Gennady F. Matveev highlighted the importance of viewing the Munich Agreement from the point of view of the states created after World War I and the regional aspect of international politics, transcending the borders of a single state. His presentation dealt with causes and reasons for polish invasion of Czechoslovakia which resulted in annexation of Cieszyn Silesia.

Alexander I. Kolpakidi, a specialist in military history and history of intelligence services, raised an important question — would the Soviet Union be able to assist Czechoslovakia in case of German attack? According to Kolpakidi, military cooperation between the two countries was sufficiently strong and the Soviet Union was more than eager to demonstrate its willingness to intervene in the conflict.

Andrey A. Smirnov, associate professor of Moscow Institute of Architecture, described a number of issues in the Red Army training system which made the perspective of military confrontation with Germany less obvious than it is usually assumed.

Mikhail I. Meltuhov, a researcher for Russian Institute of Documents and Historical Records Research in his presentation analyzed diplomatic, military and political aspects of the Munich Agreement. He underlined the immensity of political consequences of the treaty of Munich and expressed the desire for Russian historians to create a comprehensive collective monograph examining the international crisis of 1938 in all its complexity.

Valery N. Gorohov, associate professor of Department of Modern and Contemporary History (Faculty of History, MSU) demonstrated the scale of the impact of the Munich Agreement on international relations of the 1930s, and stressed that political leaders of the time understood that the treaty of Munich will lead to a full-scale war.

Alexander O. Naumov, associate professor of the Department of International Organizations and Global Governance (School of Public Administration, MSU) drew his colleagues’ attention to the importance of informing the public on the events leading up to the beginning of World War II.

Head of scientific and cultural programs of Historical Perspectives Foundation, lead researcher for the RAS Institute of Russian History, Elena N. Rudaya urged the researchers to stress the fact that the treaty of Munich paved the way for the events of August, 1939. Dr. Rudaya also thanked the organizers of the event since the School of Public Administration, in her opinion, was the only organization to discuss this important topic.

Head of Chair of Political History of the School of Public Administration, Professor Alexandr V. Sidorov, pointed out the acute significance of the events of the late 1930s today.

Professor Airapetov summarized the workshop’s conclusions and invited the participants to meet again next march to discuss the next subject — the division of Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939.

Anna R. Lagno
executive editor, “E-journal. Public Administration”