Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

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Historical Bias in Poland: Lustration as a Political Instrument 105 Andrzej Friszke By its very nature, history, and especially recent history, is a very particular branch of learning. It exists in an uneasy relationship with the memories of those involved in the events concerned. It can play an important role in either legitimising or challenging a contemporary state, its regime and ruling class. History played all those roles during the inter-war period and then throughout the lifetime of the People’s Republic of Poland. It continues to play those roles today, although the contemporary situation has its own specific characteristics. For the last sixty years, history has been involved in ideological and political disputes in Poland. That the state and regime of the People’s Republic of Poland have generally been perceived as negative is not disputed. The nature of the condemnation of the state and of the individuals involved is the focus of the dispute. Other factors in the dispute are the extent to which changes of opinion and circumstances are taken into account. Criticism of the communist regime can be so severe that it often overlooks the international context, the economic and social situation and other people’s attitudes. Before moving on to comment on the contemporary situation, I would like to consider the specific features of the Polish left in the country’s history over the past decade. Until 1945, leftist ideology was espoused by the Polish Socialist Party; established in 1892, it aspired to regain independence and to gradually form a socialist regime. In the decades that followed, and in particular in 1918, the Andrzej Friszke is Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. Before 1989, Friszke was active in underground publications. He is an author of scientific works on the history of pre-1945 Polish political thought. During the recent years, he studied various aspects of the history of the Polish People’s Republic. In 1994, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled “Formation of Pre-Solidarity Opposition 1968-1980.” In 1999, Friszke was chosen to serve on the Council of the Institute of National Remembrance.
Polish Socialist Party played a significant role in developing the proindependence movement around Józef Piłsudski and in laying the foundations for an independent state. The Polish Socialist Party was one of the main political parties active during the inter-war period. It took the lead in organising the Polish left. For most of the inter-war period, however, it was in opposition to right-wing governments. Following the coup d’état in May 1926, the Polish Socialist Party became one of the main opponents of dictatorship and defender of citizens’ rights and national minorities, in particular of Jews who were the target of attacks by Polish nationalists. During the Second World War the Polish Socialist Party was part of the coalition supporting the Polish government-in-exile in London and the extensive underground structures that grew in Poland itself. The communist movement had not played a significant role in Poland until that time. The Communist Party was officially established in 1918 to overthrow the Polish state and merge with the so-called socialist homeland, the Soviet Union. Such a revolutionary approach was hardly likely to gain support in a country that had just regained its independence. The Polish Communist Party was outlawed on the eve of the war between Poland and the Soviet Union. It remained illegal until 1938 when it was eliminated by the Comintern during the Stalinist purges. At Stalin’s behest, the Polish Communist Party was reconstituted following Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, it remained on the margins of the main opposition movement. It came to power in 1944 when the Red Army seized Polish land and Stalin imposed a communist government on Poland. During the immediate post-war period, the Polish Workers’ Party was the dominant party, not through any wish of the voters but as a fait accompli of Soviet domination. The Polish Socialist Party was reborn after the war as a party that was essentially dependent on the communists, with a new leadership and restricted freedom of action. This period of limited pluralism ended in 1948 when the Polish Socialist Party and the Polish Workers’ Party merged to become the Polish United Workers’ Party. In terms of its organisation and programme it was identical to other communist parties under Soviet control. 106
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Twenty years after the end of the C
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Dedicated to Bronisław Geremek Bro
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Table of contents Preface: Never Ag
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Preface Never again 7 Martin Schulz
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Preface The Past Does Not Go Away A
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Introduction by the Editors In 2008
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about the tense and ambivalent rela
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another debate formulated by Richar
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theoretical and practical impossibi
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History and national identity Histo
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the subject of much controversy, th
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everything on Stalin and communism:
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Prague Spring: “In the mid-1950s,
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Literature Arendt, Hannah (1951) Th
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Common Memory and European Identity
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cried the Ossies as the Berlin Wall
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the first phase of negotiations aft
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eference to a common destiny, and t
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The ‘enlargement fatigue’ obser
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on each other. The only way of chan
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“The Word Concentration Camp mean
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I think history is essential to thi
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denying it is like saying evil does
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Soviet camp, not because he had don
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Q: In Germany there is a strong fee
Page 54 and 55: the 17 th century so that the South
Page 56 and 57: forests near Minsk. I was taken the
Page 58 and 59: harmonious and prosperous, with the
Page 60: were doing and why they were doing
Page 63 and 64: an explanation. I told him that I e
Page 65 and 66: This movement once had a big meetin
Page 67 and 68: guests of Imre Pozsgay, minister of
Page 70: HISTORICAL DILEMMAS
Page 73 and 74: National myths Every society has a
Page 75 and 76: confessions. The culmination of thi
Page 77 and 78: First, few countries undertake a th
Page 79 and 80: Finally, confronted with the experi
Page 81 and 82: no better placed than governments t
Page 83 and 84: compartments, and that one must som
Page 85 and 86: Such an approach certainly has its
Page 88 and 89: History and Politics: Recommendatio
Page 90 and 91: The tension between academic histor
Page 92 and 93: oth a collective and individual exo
Page 94 and 95: Europe’s responsibilities It is c
Page 96: egimes provides a deeper understand
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Page 101 and 102: This shift later inspired the devel
Page 103 and 104: In Germany, public historical cultu
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Page 110 and 111: The right’s criticism of the meth
Page 112 and 113: epresents one more step in the broa
Page 114 and 115: European Social Democracy and 20 th
Page 116 and 117: the KPD - even now - is not about p
Page 118 and 119: esisted them in many cases. The ove
Page 120 and 121: turned some of them against the SPD
Page 122 and 123: The Interpretation of the Soviet Un
Page 124 and 125: the result of a war of liberation a
Page 126 and 127: Molotov-Ribbentrop protocol? How di
Page 128: pen in Lithuania. The idea was adva
Page 131 and 132: and politician Giovanni Amendola to
Page 133 and 134: The most influential analytical mod
Page 135 and 136: 2. A single mass party consisting o
Page 137 and 138: their differences. Most comparative
Page 139 and 140: communism are legal heirs of the En
Page 141 and 142: the world war and to exculpate the
Page 143 and 144: They also criticized “revisionist
Page 145 and 146: seen above, after careful scrutiny
Page 148 and 149: The Real Problem Latvians Have with
Page 150 and 151: not see it as something important e
Page 152 and 153: structures Latvian domestic politic
Page 154 and 155: the language of instruction in scho
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Diversity in Historical Education:
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and sometimes in adjustment and ada
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For the Record: PSE MEPs react 159
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F. especially the Nazi- and the Sta
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having always been victims, trying
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SPECIAL REPORT: SLOVAKS AND HUNGARI
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Much has happened in the last two y
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The conference concentrated, as the
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aristocratic, Estates-based ‘nati
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A person’s identification with a
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ians to evaluate the extent to whic
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more intensive part in forming the
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A Common Past, a Divided History 18
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nearly seven hundred kilometres of
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It is extremely important to note,
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historical public opinion and self-
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thousands of Hungarian and Slovak c
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enewed historiography will also be
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we shall turn our attention to two
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In response to these questions, two
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While more than 80% of the oldest a
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Table 2 Opinions of respondents of
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6,0 5,5 5,0 4,5 4,0 3,5 3,0 2,5 ▼
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we consider the trends suggested be
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Resistance and Exile Miguel Angel M
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it was necessary to formulate socia
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degree of generosity, activism and
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the ICFTU. There my work focused on
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After Stalin’s death, most of the
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Moscow versus Prague 219 Boris Orlo
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Of all the problems that my country
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Social Democracy and the Prague Spr
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comprehend the overwhelming contrad
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Renaissance of Socialism Observatio
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My Personal Encounters with History
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Over a decade later, political chan
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monument, its location and particul
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Minister, Dimitri Rupel, I founded
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people exactly know what actually w
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tablished democracies. What was the
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Memory is a Loaded Gun An Epilogue
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Post office, Gdansk
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Solidarność Memorial
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Krzysztof Pomian, a well known Poli
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effective and positive factor in gi
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Martin Schulz, leader of the PSE Gr
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