Agnieszka Kastory

In January 1991, an impasse in Polish-Soviet negotiations regarding the evacuation of the Soviet army from Poland and their transit from Germany through Polish territory occurred. Therefore, on 25 January 1991, the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Senate met to hear the government’s relation and decide on the role of the Senate in this crisis. The meeting was an opportunity for government members and senators to discuss the tactics of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the negotiations with the Soviet Union and evaluate it. The discussion revealed a critical assessment of the negotiations, including the fixed date of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Poland and making the consent to transit the troops from Germany subject to their prior evacuation from Poland. During the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Senate decided to organise an information campaign regarding the Polish position, particularly in Germany. In the following months of 1991, Poland gradually mitigated its position in its negotiations with the USSR, increasing its flexibility in the matter of both evacuation and transit.

Internationalisation of Polish rivers after the First World War
After the First World War victorious countries adopted a rule granting free navigation on all rivers classified as international. This rule applied to such German rivers as the Danube, Elbe, Oder and Neman for which there appointed international river commissions. Poland became a member of International Commission for the Oder as a riverside state. The only commission which finally was not created was the one appointed for the Neman.
During the peace conference in Paris there was considered a Czechoslovakian proposal for the internalization of the Vistula. Poland rejected the motion as Poles considered the Vistula a national river. Yet the Little Treaty of Versailles obliged Poland to apply to the Vistula the same regulations as the Treaty of Versailles assumed for German rivers. Furthermore, Poland lost direct control over the Lower Vistula flowing through Gdańsk, which from now on was to be controlled by the Council of the Port and Waterways of the Free City of Danzig.
Fear of the internationalisation of the Vistula and of German economic expansion made Poland reject the rule of free navigation on international rivers. Poland did not subject its sections of the Warta and Noteć to the International Commission for the Oder and by doing so it contributed considerably to the dissolution of the Commission. What is more, Poland did not ratify the Barcelona Convention