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1

Grupy etniczne, sprawcy i ofiary

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Hänschen S.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

Ethnic groups, offenders and victimsThe propagandist portrayals of the past, present in the discourse for years, still influence discussions on the memory of the acts of violence committed by the Soviet and the Nazi regimes in Eastern Europe. Problems arise from the fact that the dividing line between the victims and the perpetrators is not always clear. What is more, the fortunes of individual participants have received only marginal attention. Snyder, in his book Bloodlands, accomplished a formidable task and adequately depicted the suffering of the people in the region, however, the comparison between the USSR and Nazi Germany still remains quite superficial. The repressive policies of both regimes were targeted mainly at ethnic minorities. The perpetrators' motivations and their ideological background supported the interests of the regimes. The political configuration in Bloodlands, however, was too complex to be fit into a dualistic, ethnically orientated, concept.

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Go native. Debaty o książce Timothy Snydera

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Tokarska-Bakir J.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

Go native. Debates on a book by Timothy Snyder This article debates the content of the latest issue of “Contemporary European History” from 2012 (vol. 21, no. 2) dedicated to Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands. The debate includes contributions by: Mark Mazower (Columbia University), Dan Diner (Hebrew University/Simon-Dubnow-Institute Leipzig), Thomas Kühne (Clark University) and Jörg Baberowski (Humboldt University). Timothy Snyder reacts to their comments in an extensive essay.

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Globalne tezy, lokalne przemilczenia

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Krzywiec G.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

Global theses with local omissionsTimothy Snyder’s book is an ambitious monograph which attempts at placing Shoah in a more appropriate context of the murderous fight between the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Russia from the perspective of civilian victims. However, the book offers no new evidence or new arguments. On the one hand, most of the interpretations come from established scholars. On the other hand, Bloodlands presents a sort of synthesis of the latest discussions of the Holocaust historians and Eastern European experience of the Soviet rule. Nonetheless, as Snyder himself has stated, the novelty of the book lies rather in a parallel insight into systems and events. Such “parallelism” must, and surely will, trigger a wealth of reflections.The review article focuses on one particular aspect of the book. One of the most suggestive assumptions of Snyder’s method is that the book overcomes national narratives by examining the cruelest period in the 20th century from the above-mentioned universal point of view. However, for Snyder, a leading scholar of Eastern European, and first and foremost, Polish history, these “national” motifs play a significant, and often even crucial role in his book.Yet, as it is claimed in the review, the author frequently cannot free himself from them. On the contrary, his narrative delivers systematic permeations of Polish martyrological stereotypes and biases, which in the end results in a reproduction of many handbook schemes and even metaphorical figures from the so-called Polish “historical politics”. This also leads to many false and misleading juxtapositions with the most striking one being the comparison between the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Warsaw Uprising.Interestingly enough, evading many national particularities, Snyder relapses in deeply rooted national, and to be specific, Polish tales. He proves to be more “national” than many other “national” scholars critical in their research of this period.

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„Skrwawione ziemie” Timothy Snydera. Krytyczne uwagi na temat konstrukcji krajobrazu historycznego

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Zarusky J.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

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Timothy Snyder’s "Bloodlands". Critical comments on the construction of historical landscapeJürgen Zarusky's text is an extensive deconstruction of Timothy Snyder's narration presented in Bloodlands. The narration is based on the assumption, that both regimes – Nazi and Soviet – and their extermination practicies were similar. In Bloodlands Stalin's crimes are presented as a form of ethnic extermination. Thus Snyder suggested ideological kinship between both dictators without analysing specific ideologies. Although the author specifies the differences between these two ideologies he does not ask about their significance to the enemy image and extermination practicies. Snyder's narration concentrates excessively on Poland – as the core of “bloodlands”. In the closing chapter of the book Poles are depicted as the actual martyrs of “bloodlands” in Poland, as well as on the territory of the Soviet Union. Yet up to this day there are ethinc gorups – like Sinti and Romany - who have to fight for the recognition of their tragic experiences as the victims of crimes commited by German authorities. The author also does not mention about the victims of the agressive wars against the Soviet Union. Thus the point of Bloodlands is not to present all the victims of totalitarianism and the war, all the victims from “bloodlands”, but to present only the victims selected by the author. „Skrwawione ziemie” Timothy Snydera. Krytyczne uwagi na temat konstrukcji krajobrazu historycznegoTekst Jürgen Zarusky'ego to obszerna dekonstrukcja narracji Timothy Snydera zaprezentowanej w książce Skrwawione ziemie. Zasadza się ona na założeniu, że oba reżimy - niemiecki i radziecki - oraz ich praktyki eksterminacyjne były bardzo do siebie zbliżone. W książce przedstawiono stalinowskie zbrodnie masowe jako formę etnicznej eksterminacji. W ten sposób Snyder zasugerował ideologiczne pokrewieństwo między obu dyktatorami, nie podejmując się analizy konkretnych ideologii. Chociaż wymienia różnice między nimi, jednak nie pyta o ich znaczenie dla obrazu wroga i praktyk eksterminacyjnych. Narracja Snydera nazbyt koncentruje się na Polsce jako jądrze „skrwawionych ziem”. Polaków przedstawia w końcowym rozdziale jako właściwych męczenników „skrwawionej ziemi”, tak w samej Polsce, jak na terenie Związku Radzieckiego. Tymczasem niektóre grupy muszą do dziś walczyć o uznanie swojego tragicznego losu prześladowanych, jak choćby Sinti i Romowie, którzy masowo byli mordowani przez nazistowskie władze. W Skrwawionych ziemiach nie pojawia się słowo na ich temat. W książce nie znajdują także odbicia ofiary wojen zaczepnych, szczególnie skierowanych przeciwko Związkowi Radzieckiemu. W pracy Snydera nie chodzi zatem o wszystkie ofiary totalitaryzmu i wojny, w tym także nie wszystkie z terenów „skrwawionych ziem”, lecz o ich wybór dokonany przez autora.

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Opowieść o nieuwikłanych ziemiach

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Kozłowski M.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

Narrative of untangled lands Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands is an extremely ambitious project not only of historiography but also, we dare say, of historiosophy. Snyder seeks originality in shaping both the geography and the narrative of what he considers to be the central occurrence of contemporary history – mass killings of the Nazi regime and Stalinist Russia. He claims that in order to comprehend the logic of the killings we need to put emphasis on the (intentional and unintentional) collusion (interaction) of the two regimes. I believe that this interpretation is trivial if we take its weak interpretation, and wrong if we want to understand it in a strong way. Snyder is widely praised for adopting or giving justice to the Central European (namely Polish) perception of the WWII, but in doing it he gladly succumbs to its lacunas and deliberate misinterpretations. He not only downgrades the importance of the Shoah but also downplays the role of Eastern European anti-Semitism and its interaction with the Nazi “messianic” anti-judaismus as the key factor in successful execution of the Final Solution.

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Czytając Snydera. Refleksje białoruskiego historyka

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Smalanczuk A.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

Reading Snyder. Reflections of a Belarusian historianTimothy Snyder has carried out a detailed comparison of mass extermination practices of two different though similar regimes. His comparison indicates basic resemblances as well as a large number of discrepancies. At the same time, the conclusions drawn by the author of Bloodlands challenge numerous commonly accepted theses from the field of political history. However, it is easy for a historian from Belarus to notice some inaccuracies regarding the “Belarusian theme.” Timothy Snyder is not familiar with the most important works of Belarusian historiography, which refer to the question of the monograph directly (the works by Jerzy Turonek, Eugeniusz Mironowicz, Igor Kuzniecow and others). Whereas Snyder’s approach to the “Polish theme” lacks some criticism. Nevertheless, Snyder’s book offers quite a comprehensive analysis of the history of mass extermination. Bloodlands demonstrates that the main victim of these murders was Human: death annihilates all national and cultural differences, whereas the most important is the human aspect of the tragedy suffered by the millions, which should not be regarded as statistics.

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Fałszywy znak równości

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Zuroff E.

Studia Litteraria et Historica

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2012

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issue 1

EN

The equivalency canardEfraim Zuroff's text, originally published in Haaretz magazine, is a review of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands. Snyder distinguishes six main mass murders commited by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union during the period of the Third Reich's existence. In Zuroff's opinion there are some significant differences between these tragedies. Dubious comparisons proposed by Snyder made the Holocaust most affected. Describing the Shoah as one of the six equally horryfying mass murders, the author ignores its ideological roots. Roots that sentenced to death all Jews - regardless of their political views, religious practicies or the level of identification with Jewish community. Moreover Snyder takes no notice of the georaphical scope of the Holocaust. He also does not notice the fact, that the Nazis effectively managed to make so many Europeans their accomplices, who actively supported the Shoah. Fałszywy znak równościTekst Efraima Zuroffa, który pierwotnie ukazał się w piśmie Haaretz, to recenzja książki Skrwawione ziemie Timothy Snydera. Snyder wyróżnia sześć głównych masowych mordów popełnionych przez Niemcy i Związek Radziecki w okresie, który odpowiada istnieniu Trzeciej Rzeszy. Istnieją jednak, zdaniem Zuroffa, znaczące różnice między tymi tragediami. Na wątpliwych porównaniach, które proponuje Snyder, najbardziej „ucierpiał” Holokaust. Opisując Shoah jako jeden z sześciu równie straszliwych, masowych mordów, autor pomija jego ideologiczne korzenie, które sprawiały, że na śmierć skazany był każdy bez wyjątku Żyd, niezależnie od jego poglądów politycznych, praktyk religijnych czy stopnia identyfikacji z żydowską wspólnotą. Ponadto Snyder ignoruje ogromny zasięg geograficzny Holokaustu. Nie zauważa także skuteczności, z jaką naziści potrafili uczynić swoimi wspólnikami tak wielu Europejczyków, którzy w konsekwencji aktywnie wspomagali Shoah.

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7 Studia Litteraria et Historica

1 Hänschen S.

1 Kozłowski M.

1 Krzywiec G.

1 Smalanczuk A.

1 Tokarska-Bakir J.

1 Zarusky J.

1 Zuroff E.

7 2012

Grupy etniczne, sprawcy i ofiary

Go native. Debaty o książce Timothy Snydera

Globalne tezy, lokalne przemilczenia

„Skrwawione ziemie” Timothy Snydera. Krytyczne uwagi na temat konstrukcji krajobrazu historycznego

Opowieść o nieuwikłanych ziemiach

Czytając Snydera. Refleksje białoruskiego historyka

Fałszywy znak równości