Institucional Subordination of Polish Historical Sciences to the Soviet Union 1944-mid 1960s

• Authors: Jan Szumski
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The below text aims to analyse the structure of dependency of Poland from the USSR in reference to historical sciences, and the mechanisms by which Moscow imposed its vision of history on Warsaw. The control system of science in the Soviet Union and in the countries of the so-called "People's democracies" was based on a few large-scale pillars, each dully fulfilling their role. At the top of the pyramid of power and the party hierarchy was the Central Committee of the CPSU (the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), which, above all, combined the functions of a body governing the state’s life, and secondly dealt with matters concerning the party ideology and propaganda. The various departments of the Central Committee, all subordinate research institutes and state institutions, created a complex body controlling the historical sciences in the USSR and abroad on behalf of the Communist Party. On the second level, which may be conventionally described as scientific, one may find different research institutions concentrated in the structure of the Academy of Social Sciences of the USSR, with the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Academy of Social Science of the USSR, having a special place. The Institute of Slavic Studies and the Institute of History of the USSR were considered a kind of a laboratory where, in consultation and close cooperation with various institutions and the Central Committee’s The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)/ CPSU, the Soviet vision of the Polish history was being forged. An important role in the control of scientific relations between the Soviet Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, were assigned to the so-called, social organizations of cultural and educational nature, among others Komitet Słowiański, Wszechzwiązkowe Towarzystwo na Rzecz Stosunków Kulturalnych z Zagranicą, et al. The key, however, place was given to a Science Division of the CPSU, which formulated the most important guidelines for historians, research centres and publications. The historical science was one of the tools used by ideology and state policy. Changing priorities or the specific way of treating certain issues, which meant matching the facts to respective concepts or frequently upfront falsification, were not due to the requirements of theoretical and methodological nature, but merely a temporary "correction" of a current course.

Keywords

EN

Central Committee of CPSU; the Institute of Slavic Studies; Komitet Słowiański; historical science; structures of dependency

• Publisher: Instytut Historii Nauki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 67-88

Contributors

author

Jan Szumski

• Uniwersytet Kardynala Stefana Wyszyńskiego; Instytut Hstorii Nauki im. L. I A. Birkenmajerów Warszawa, Polska