THE ISSUE OF FATE OF THE HABSBURG MONARCHY IN THE WORKS OF ARTHUR CHERVIN

This article is dedicated to two scientific works by Arthur Chervin: “L’Autriche et la Hongrie de demain” (1915) and “De Prague à l’Adriatique” (1919). They capture the attitude of French political elites towards national issues and fate of the Habsburg Monarchy during the First World War. The key statistical source that Chervin uses to build his analysis of the position of the Habsburg Monarchy peoples upon, is the census of population made in 1910. According to the census data, the majority of the Monarchy’s population consisted of the Slavs. The author first shows that these data are crude due to the fact that national identity was recorded based on “spoken language” and not on ethnic background. Second, he discusses the French project of redrawing the map of Central Europe in the aftermath of the war, particularly the intention to create the “Czech Corridor”. In conclusion the author proves the difficulty of implementing French geopolitical plans and maintaining peace due to the mixture of peoples and cultures in this part of Europe occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy till the end of the First World War.