A Distant Mirror: Poland in the Visegrad Group or in the Eastern Alliance?

Abstract

The article discusses the legacy of the Visegrad Group, the 14th Century political coalition formed between the kingdoms of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary, on the overall development of Central-Eastern Europe. Poland later aligned itself with Lithuania as defence against the power exerted by the Teutonic Order. The liaison was sealed in a marriage pact forming the base of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and then (the Union of Lublin 1569) into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, an entity which enhanced integration and cohesion in Central-Eastern Europe up until the partitioning the Commonwealth at the end of the 18th Century. The ensuing wave of nationalism resulting in the demise of the Commonwealth immured disparate nations into ethnically defined entities. The paper explores the ramifications of the role played by the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Alliance in the process of European integration and cooperation. This historiosophical examination of the questions posed by these bodies on the region’s current political climate questions their narrow reactionary effects on present day European cohesion, and interaction. In contrast, the Eastern Alliance offers a more enlightened approach to future cooperation and constructive exchange in the region.