“Politics of memory” in Poland in the first half of the 21st Century: Historical narratives, challenges and disputes. A case study
“Politics of memory” in Poland in the first half of the 21st Century: Historical narratives, challenges and disputes. A case study

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the specifics of Polish memory policy at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries and to trace the most important threads of the discourse surrounding it. The aim of the author is to characterize the conditions of continuation and modifications, and, above all, the challenges facing the Polish historical narrative. The research method used in analysis was the case study. The shaping of Polish politics of memory in the last three decades has been the result of many factors, including the post-communist nature of the state, the dispute over its role in narrating history, the Polish-Russian conflict over memory, the discourse on Polish-Jewish wartime relations, the internationalization of Polish historical narrative, as well as the “memory boom” and the development of public diplomacy. All the factors mentioned above influence the content of the Polish historical narrative. The Polish historical narrative, as in the case of many countries, includes a path of narrative about freedom and the presentation of the greatest scientific and cultural achievements. Regardless of the content of the Polish historical narrative, its greatest challenge is the asymmetry of knowledge about Polish past beyond its borders, not only in the context of losses suffered during World War II.

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