Abstract
This article is devoted to professor Piotr Wandycz’s (1923–2017) work in the field of history of diplomacy. The author tries to reexamine his main arguments and conceptions. Wandycz was first of all the historian of French-Polish-Czechoslovak and Soviet-Polish relations in the inter-war era, but not only. His major contribution to historiography was made in the research on Polish foreign policy (1919–1939). Wandycz’s thesis that the Polish policy of balance between Germany and Soviet Russia had no real strategic alternative seems to be one of the most convincing interpretations of the inter-war Poland’s diplomacy. The geopolitical situation of the reconstructed Poland was highly unfavorable. and Wandycz was convinced of it more than any other historian in the West. Working on international relations in the inter-war Europe, he preferred rather multilateralism than bilateralism. In his studies we can find more empathy for more moderate Polish ministers of foreign affairs like Aleksander Skrzyński (1922–1926) or August Zaleski (1926–1932) than Józef Beck (1932–1939). Wandycz’s excellent works require the special attention of historians.
