Orava and Spiš: Sources of Inspiration for the Polish Nationalist Program of the Early 20th Century

This study examines the origins as well as the causes of the Czechoslovak-Polish territorial dispute over the northern Orava and Spiš regions, which escalated shortly after the First World War at the Paris Peace Conference. The author analyses how activists from the Kraków and Podhale region formulated their concept of the so-called Kresy południowe (Southern Borderlands) at the turn of the 20^th century. Predicated on ethnolinguistic arguments and the “Highlander myth” (Goral myth), the theory categorized the Goral population on the Hungarian side of the Carpathians as ethnic Poles with a “dormant” national consciousness. Furthermore, the paper elucidates the internal conflict within the Polish national movement—specifically between Kraków-based Slavophiles and regionalists—concerning future strategies, particularly in relation to Hungarian state policy and representatives of the Slovak national movement.