Dilemmas of Security: The State, Local Agency, and the Czechoslovak-Hungarian Boundary Commission, 1921–25

Abstract

In a memorandum presented to the Hungarian-Czechoslovak Boundary Commission on 23 February 1922 by the inhabitants of the southern Slovak town of Viškovce (Hungarian: Ipolyvisk), the twenty-five signatories requested “humbly for consideration and well-meaning settlement of the following concern.” The municipality was bordered on three sides by the Ipeľ (Hungarian: Ipoly) River, but had been cut off from the only usable road by the border, making communication extremely difficult. In winter and at high water in the spring and autumn, the place was “completely cut off from the outside world.” For three years, they had observed how provisional boundaries were continuously redrawn, and bore the brunt of these changes. The inhabitants said that all alternative routes had become inaccessible during that time and the center of Šahy (Hungarian: Ipolyság), which was just ten kilometers away, had become extremely difficult to reach even in urgent cases. Thus, they requested that the only existing road “be opened to us as quickly as possible and our traffic given back to us.”

Attuning to Emotions in the History of Border-Making: The Estonian-Latvian Boundary Commission in 1920

“…22 These mechanisms of civic engagement in bordering processes gave agency to border inhabitants and local activists, allowing them to communicate their wishes, grievances and their demands to the authorities. 23 In the case of the Estonian-Latvian Boundary Commission, little is known regarding the experiences of the inhabitants of the Estonian-Latvian border region or how the Boundary Commission negotiated and accommodated the various actors' diverging interests. 24 Often overlooked in the abovementioned literature on multi-scalar and bottom-up forms of boundary-making is consideration of how the high stakes of boundary-making cannot only be explained in terms of concrete material or legal demands, such as property ownership, transportation and communication links, or economic concerns, such as access to markets where farmers and manufacturers could sell their wares.…”

“…These studies, however, have primarily focused on how petitioners articulated their demands for property rights and economic considerations rather than the role of feelings and emotions. 30 I examine petitions as documents that allow us to interrogate how people felt about borders and how they invoked certain emotionssuch as anger, fear, shock and patriotismwhen interacting with the Boundary Commission. I analyse the texts of the petitions for indications of emotions, descriptions of emotions and actions that indicate sentiments, including non-verbal cues such as body language and gestures.…”

‘Drawing The Line’: Border Commissions in Eastern Europe. Introduction

“…However, while claiming the role of arbiters they often had their own agendas. 31 Catherine Gibson's article in this issue examines the Latvian-Estonian border commission as a case study of the intricate interplay between the Great Powers, the representatives of the newly formed nation-states and the population on the ground.…”