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Does anybody know if Hergé ever commented on the apparent change of Syldavian politics that takes place between the Moon adventure and The Calculus Affair?

I have considered it somewhat odd that a country which Calculus has been closely cooperating with about a nuclear power plant and a space programme (everything being guarded by Syldavian secret police), seems to have become hostile towards him in the following album.

One can argue, of course, that the Syldavian agents liberate him from the Bordurian ones, but the fact that they gag him and talk about him "being in their power" demonstrates that they are kidnappers as well.

One can also argue that they are working independently, but presumably you would need the backing of a government in order to build a large-scale secret weapon.

Of course Syldavian politics has been known to be relatively unstable, but then why on Earth would an (apparently) international team of researchers choose this country for their nuclear space programme?

I was always bemused by this as well, but remember that Calculus is convinced about using technology for "peaceful purposes". He says so quite clearly in "Destination Moon" about not wanting to build nuclear weapons.

In all likelihood Calculus must have resigned from the Research Center when he was forced to help create nuclear weapons (after the successful moon trip) and he had returned to his own country.

That might explain the Syldavians' attitude. Also the fact that the Bordurians were keen on acquiring the professor's talents must have sent panic waves amidst them and the kidnapping might have been a reaction to that...

I suppose that makes sense - possibly, it is Hergé's line of thought. I'm still wondering, though, if he was ever asked about this by anyone.

And of course it still puzzles me, that the researchers would choose Syldavia for the lunar programme.

And of course it still puzzles me, that the researchers would choose Syldavia for the lunar programme.
Calculus explains this when Haddock has the same question, in that the Research Centre was built in the Z– Mountains (I can only remember they started with Z...!) because of the uranium that was discovered there.
On the politics of Syldavia, I always wondered what happened to King Muskar from King Ottokar's Sceptre.
I amuse myself with the notion that he is still there in The Calculus Affair but has turned evil & is taking great delight in tormenting Tintin (the only foreign recipient of the Order of the Gold Pelican) and his friends.

Moderator Note: You must be thinking of the Zmyhlpathian Mountains - the name just rolls off the tongue, can't imagine why it slipped your mind...! ;-) (Destination Moon, page 9, frame 4, if anyone is looking for the reference).
If you want to know how the name of the mountains was derived, look no further than this post here...!
The Toungue-Twisted Tintinologist Team

I believe harishankar got it correctly - the Syldavians aggressive stance was more of a reaction against the Bordurian attempts to kidnap Calculus.

Besides, I doubt that King Muskar would have anything to do with the entire affair. I believe Syldavia to be a Constitutional Monarchy (at least political parties exist, as it becomes evident in King Ottokar's Ceptre - Müsster, who was organising the entire conspiracy, was the leader of a far-right party, named the steel guard or something like that), hence the King would have little power, holding ceremonial duties instead. Being that the case, it is probable that he never knew whatever was happening in terms of Syldavian external espionage.

I think Muskar was more than a figurehead as he was clearly in control of the army, in that he gave orders for troop placements & the arrest of the aforementioned Musstler.
I can't remember much more as I haven't read it for a while.

I see it less a "shift in Politics", more a case of Hergé not wanting to set the adventures in any real countries.

He could quite easily have made The Calculus Affair about cold war espionage between two real countries; USSR and Britain, for example (or any two countries either side of the 'Iron Curtain'), but this would probably have led to criticism or upset somebody. So he avoided something that might come back to haunt him by using two countries that he'd already invented, and that Tintin fans would be familiar with; Syldavia and Borduria.

The same goes for the Moon adventures. By choosing Syldavia (America had been his first choice) it was easier to include all the espionage without indicting, or upsetting, anyone.

Still, it would have been great if Belgium had been the first country to successfully land people on the Moon!

For me the later shift in Syldavian politics from the pre-war Monarchy of King Muskar in 1930's Kingdom of Syldavia to the post-war Cold-War 1950's "Police State" style dictatorship of Borduria and presumably neighbouring Syldavia too, always perfectly fitted the political changes of pre-war Balkan Monarchies to later post-war Balkan Communist and Stalinist Dictatorships, either loosely allied or regional and ideological rivals - isolationist Stalinist Albania, Titoist Yugoslavia, Ceaucescu Romania, or Bulgaria, etc.

This all made sense to me in explaining the changing times and politics from "King Ottokar's Sceptre" to "The Calculus Affair".

However, I must admit this never explained or made sense to me in understanding the changed Syldavia of the Moon books, and Tintin, Calculus, and Haddocks, involvement with this politically ambiguous Syldavia.
That Moon story Syldavia was politically undefined, yet oddly omitted mentioning either the Monarchy or King Muskar, yet also explaining no clear political change.

We learn more about Borduria in these later books, and Syldavia for me becomes less believable and certainly less exotic and interesting than "King Ottokar's Sceptre" Kingdom of Syldavia that I originally fell in love with!