Category: Uncategorised

For interwar Romanian writers and intellectuals, the Great Depression exacerbated an already precarious situation. The period brought job cuts in civil service and teaching, the fields which traditionally employed intellectuals, fewer publishing opportunities, and wage delays. The crisis affected even established and popular writers. Cezar Petrescu made an acclaimed debut in 1928 with his novel … Continue reading “Living and Writing in the 1930s: A Romanian Novelist’s Financial Troubles”

At the height of the Great Depression, the League of Nations addressed the economic restoration of Central and Eastern Europe at a special conference, which was mandated by the Lausanne Conference of 1932 with the aim to prepare proposals for the Commission of Enquiry for European Union to restore Central and Eastern Europe’s economy. This … Continue reading “The Economic Restoration of Central and Eastern Europe (Stresa Conference)”

Few Americans were as concerned with how to overcome the economic crisis and infrastructural fragmentation of East Central Europe as the US economist Leo Pasvolsky. Apart from his comprehensive studies of the impact of post-war economic disintegration (Economic Nationalism in the Danubian States, 1928; Bulgaria’s Economic Position, 1930), which he authored as part of his … Continue reading “Leo Pasvolsky and Interwar Financial Chaos”

Ferdinand Marek is the defining figure in interwar Austrian-Czechoslovak relations, and his writings are invaluable sources to gauge the perspectives of crisis-riddled Austria on the highly industrialised First Czechoslovak Republic. After the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire, Marek was Austria’s first envoy in Prague, where he was charged with the establishment of an Austrian embassy. … Continue reading “Austria, the Nazis, and the Great Depression in Czechoslovakia”

According to the Encyclopedia of Romania, published in 1938 after years of data collection, domestic servants made up 24.9 percent of the active population of Bucharest in the 1930s. They were the second largest category of employment, after industrial workers (28 percent), but ahead of civil servants and clerks (19.3 percent). This was a significant … Continue reading “Domestic Servants in 1930s Romania”

Stemming from an initiative of French Prime Minister Aristide Briand, the Commission of Enquiry for European Union, set up by the League of Nations in September 1930, showcases how the Great Depression turned the mood of European politicians against Eastern Europe. Originally designed to promote a closer entanglement of European national economies and thus secure … Continue reading “European Union and European Disintegration”

On the 9th of May 1935 King Carol II of Romania opened the festivities of the newly inaugurated Month of Bucharest (Luna Bucureştilor). The month-long event, which would take place annually until 1940, included festivals, exhibitions and various events meant to showcase urban modernization, cultural heritage, and the achievements of the regime in general. It … Continue reading “An Uncomfortable Book: Bucharest (1935)”

The failures of interwar democracy in Eastern Europe are often ascribed to the lack of experience of the newly enfranchised population. In Romania, while the new voters indeed lacked experience, those who organized elections did not. Already before the war, the existing parties established extensive networks of party agents and civil servants in charge of … Continue reading “An Electoral Experience in Interwar Romania”

Our project bibliography aims to list (largely) secondary literature on the Great Depression with a specific focus on Interwar East Central Europe. It will be updated on a regular basis. You can find it via Zotero Groups under Bibliography of Economic Crisis in Interwar East Central Europe.

In the Second Republic of Poland, the group that was hit the hardest by the Great Economic Crisis but the least recognized in the social welfare system were the farmers. The social group of farmers was not homogenous, and the differences in poverty and wealth among them could not have been bigger. At one end … Continue reading ““Poverty in the [Polish] countryside””