The restoration of Poland’s sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic after the First War World is the subject of historical research and political discussion. However, this article focuses on the question of the place of this event in the informal collective Polish memory. An important data source are the results of the “Niepodległa ’18” research conducted by the National Centre for Culture, Poland (NCK) and TNS Polska in 2016. This paper focuses on four areas: (1) transmission of knowledge on the sovereignty restoration, (2) images of notable people (3) significant events of the time and (4) perceptions of Polish society attitudes at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Artykuł omawia polityki pamięci państw Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym w czterech obszarach. Pierwszy dotyczy sporów wokół daty uzyskania (albo odzyskania) niepodległości, względnie zjednoczenia kraju. Kolejny – pomników usuwanych i erygowanych po 1918 r. Trzeci przybliża losy grobów wojennych i upamiętnień poległych w I wojnie światowej i w walkach o niepodległość i granice. Ostatni analizuje okoliczności i symbolikę grobów nieznanego żołnierza. The article presents policies of memory pursued in the interwar period by the states of Central and Eastern Europe, on the basis of four groups of examples. The first one concerns controversies around the date of gaining (or regaining) independence, or unification of the country. The next one – monuments removed or erected after 1918. The third group focuses on the fate of war graves and commemoration places of people killed during the Great War and in fights for independence and frontiers, while the last one analyses the circumstances and symbolism of unknown soldiers’ graves.
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