The intelligentsia over the one hundred years of the existence of the Polish state
The intelligentsia over the one hundred years of the existence of the Polish state

Summary/Abstract: The diffcult path that the Polish intelligentsia has had to tread from its beginnings to modern times has taught it the strategy of survival. The cult of education, a sense of duty towards others and responsibility for the state enabled it to leave a permanent mark in the history of the struggle to maintain the national substance at different times. Although considerably weakened during the last war, in the years of the Polish People's Republic, it managed to maintain its own identity and to become a role model for the 'new' intelligentsia. After 1989, under capitalism that was forming in Poland, it took the role of the so-called authorities - people worthy of public trust and able to think independently and, more oen, very entrepreneurial. In a modern capitalist society there is both room and need (of which some may be unaware) for the intelligentsia to stand by its principles and values, which are to help the society to find itself in a constantly changing world.

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