Fiume, Danzig, Vilnius: the myth of mutilated victory and power politics in post-WWI Italy and Poland

The author aims to compare and contrast the Italian and Polish experience in the aftermath of WW1 in terms of postwar trauma and power politics. Whatever their differences, Italy as “the least of the Great Powers” and Poland as a nation-state newly reborn, both countries found themselves deeply disappointed with the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference (“The Mutilated Victory”) concerning the ethnically mixed borderland areas (e.g. Fiume, Danzig, Vilnius). D’Annunzio’s military coup to seize the city of Fiume for Italy was followed by Żeligowski’s march on Vilnius. Masses of Italian and Polish citizens proudly supported these power politics acts which – the author claims – paved the way for the subsequent triumph of dictatorships in both countries.