Ideologiczno-metodologiczne meandry Rozważań o wojnie domowej Pawła Jasienicy. Uwagi o dziele i jego recepcji
Ideology and Method in Rozważania o wojnie domowej (Reflections on the Civil War) by Paweł Jasienica. Regarding the work and its reception

Summary/Abstract: This article sets itself two tasks. First, it attempts to offer an insight into Rozważania o wojnie domowej (Reflections on the Civil War), the last book by Paweł Jasienica, an essayist and acclaimed history writer known mainly for his books on the history of Poland. Second, it also investigates the reception of the work it interprets. In executing the first task, the author focuses mainly on extracting the critique of the communist ideology which Jasienica included, in some veiled way, in his account of the main topic to which his last book is devoted – the Vendée rebellion of 1793. Throughout the text, the reader is made to believe that the leading revolutionaries whom Jasienica considered responsible for the atrocities committed in the course of suppressing the Vendée rebellion were guided by the idea of historical necessity. However, the concept of historical necessity, argues the author, should be viewed as pertaining to the ideology not of the French revolutionaries but of the communists in Poland. While the concept played no part in the former’s efforts to justify the overthrow of the old regime, it was used by the latter to legitimise their rule in Poland. By associating the concept of historical necessity with the Vendée massacres, Jasienica sought to “discredit” the communist ideology on which the political system in Poland was based. In other words, he used his account of one of the episodes of the French revolution to criticise the PRL’s political system, arguing, one should add, in favour of replacing it with liberal democracy.

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