CONTROVERSIES CONCERNING THE YEAR 1914 IN SELECTED POLISH HISTORICAL SYNTHESES OF THE PAST CENTURY

• Authors: Stobiecki R.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The author intends to depict the Polish interpretations of the WW I and its survey inclines towards the following conclusions. First , the authors of syntheses and parasyntheses, as a rule, treated the titular problem as marginal. Second, the discussed publications disclose a distinct Polonocentrism, which appeared both in ignoring motifs associated with the world history and in stressing the role played by the Polish question in assorted antagonisms between the warring states. Third, a large part of the presented works demonstrates a glaringly schematic approach and a sparse factographic foundation. Forth, the presented interpretations revealed different, at times diametrically so, methodological attitudes. One may divide them into 'traditional', underlining predominantly the political aspect of the events and the roles of outstanding individuals, and 'modernistic', referring to mass-scale activity and anonymous political, economic, and social processes. The latter encompasses the majority of the interpretations originating at the time of the People's Republic of Poland, and referring explicite to Marxism. Finallty emphasis must be placed on the fact that most of the researchers explaining the reasons for the outbreak of the WW I, succumbed to a phenomenon which Max Bloch describes as the 'fetish of the origin'.

Keywords

EN

WORLD WAR I (POLISH SYNTHESES)

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Dzieje Najnowsze
• Year: 2004
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 5-17
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Stobiecki R.

• R. Stobiecki, Uniwersytet Lodzki, Instytut Historii, ul. Kaminskiego 27 A, 20-219 Lodz, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04PLAAAA0027634