The large compendium titled Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild contains two volumes devoted to Bohemia (1894 and 1896) and one volume devoted to Moravia and Silesia (1897). Chapters on folk culture are accompanied by a plethora of pictures, a significant number of which depict rural residents wearing traditional dress. However, the informative value of illustrations depicting folk costumes from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia as a source for ethnological research is limited. The unbalanced selection of examples from individual regions is problematic. Understandably, a great emphasis was placed on the German ethnic group, but even ethnographic regions inhabited by Czech population are not represented proportionally to the preservation of traditional culture, so the resulting visual perception does not even correspond to the reality in the late nineteenth century. Czech painters were addressed to illustrate two volumes about Bohemia, but the Moravia and Silesia volume was illustrated almost exclusively by artists with ties to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied or taught, and to the imperial court. However, not only Viennese, but even all Czech painters had no direct experience with the folk culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. They worked according to supplied photographs, the availability of which eventually influenced the choice of illustrations. The successful level of both the drawing and painting templates and their xylographic treatments posed a positive aspect. And what is essential - the comparison with the traced model photographs confirms their basically faithful interpretation. Even so, the ethnologist cannot underestimate the critical insight into the documentary value of the illustrations accompanying the admirably monumental work Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, named Kronprinzenwerk after its initiator and partly co-author, Crown Prince Rudolf.
The Treaty on Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Postwar Cooperation between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed on 12 December 1943 in Moscow had a fundamental impact on the orientation of Czechoslovak foreign policy at the end of the war and in the years that followed. At the same time, the lengthy negotiations in 1943, which ultimately resulted in signing the treaty in question, were one of the few moments during the war when Czechoslovakia became the object of an opinion clash between the Great Powers. In this study, which is based primarily on British and US documents (some of which have not been used before), the author analyses in detail the role of the Czechoslovak-Soviet treaty project in the policies of the two Western powers until the signing of the document, before assessing the impact of the treaty in concern on Czechoslovakia’s relations with the United Kingdom and the United States at the end of the war. He points out that neither the British nor the Americans were prepared to conclude a similar treaty with Czechoslovakia since both Western powers wanted the international security system to be based on foundations different from those which had repeatedly failed during the previous three decades. However, the signing of the Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty dramatically reduced any chance for a federative or confederative arrangement in the region of Central Europe, as well as hopes for a multilateral treaty of alliance ensuring security in this region. For this reason, it was accepted without enthusiasm both in London and in Washington.