Professional Affiliation

Professor, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Expert Bio

I was born on October 1, 1938, in the small Polish town of Krasnystaw. I attended secondary school in Warsaw, and this is also where I did my studies (1955-1960) -- in the History Department of Warsaw University. I wrote my Master's thesis on a certain Polish periodical dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and for many years I researched the history of the press in Poland and of the Polish emigre press. In 1966, I completed my Ph.D. ("Political Press of the Peasant Movement in the Years 1918-1939", published in 1970). In 1975, I received a post-doctoral degree (thesis on "The Press and the Polish Community in France in the Years 1920-1940," published in 1978). The extensive volume Polish Press 1918-1939 -- published in 1980 -- marked the pinnacle of my research on this topic. In 1974, I was dismissed, for political reasons, from my job at the Polish Academy of Sciences for publishing in the Paris-based periodical Etudes Comparatives l'Est-l'Ouest an article on the biography of Gomulka. I then worked for five years at the National Library. During that period, I began to shift my interest to the political history sensu stricto and to the post-war period. After the creation of Solidarnosc, I was able to return to the Academy of Sciences. Following the introduction of the martial law, I was co-organizer and editor of the illegal publishing series Archiwum Solidarnosci. In the years 1984-1989, we published (with the assistance of the MacArthur Foundation) twenty-four books of documentary character. I simultaneously carried out research and pursued conspiratorial activity that was connected to my research on modern Polish history. After the fall of the communist system and the abolition of censorship, I was able to publish a monograph devoted to Mikolajczyk, the emigré premier of Poland (1943-1944) and deputy premier in the coalition government with the communists (1945-1947), which I had been preparing for several years. In 1990, I organized a research group to study the modern political history of Poland in the newly created Institute of Political Studies. Our work is based on the detailed analysis of archived documents that were "top secret" until recently. We also focus on oral history and have organized -- among others, with the Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project -- two conferences (notably, Gen. Jaruzelski, Marshal Kulikov, Gens. Odom, Brzezinski, Pipes and Mazowiecki took part in the conference devoted to Poland 1980-1982). I have since published (on my own or together with colleagues) many volumes of both Polish and Soviet documents from 1944-1989. I have also published an extensive synthesis of the history of Poland in the years 1939-1989, consisting of a collection of essays. I have published numerous articles. When researching the final years of communist Poland, I became interested in a phenomenon I like to describe as a "civil war over tradition." Specifically, I mean the counteractions undertaken by the communist party and the state apparatus towards historians and publicists attempting to put straight all that was contained in the official historiography and disseminated through the state-controlled mass media. Ultimately, these opposition intellectuals aimed to de-legitimize the communist system -- for instance, by attacking the official description of the formerly taboo Katyn crime. The struggle between state and individuals on these issues was essentially a "battle" for historical consciousness. In my view, it is worthwhile to determine whether that battle goes on after the fall of the system and if so, in what form and at what level of intensity. The attitude to the past proved to be an admirably durable element of Polish political life and political discourse. To determine whether this is a differentia specifica or a generic condition, I would like to compare Poland with two other post-communist countries that are in an identical macro-political situation (i.e., members of NATO). Adding even further impetus to my desire to conduct this comparative study was my recent appointment, by the Polish parliament, to the Council of the Institute for National Remembrance.

 

Expertise

History of Poland, specifically: Communist Party, Security Apparatus, Mass Media

Wilson Center Project

"Memory and Politics: How the New NATO Members Cope with Their Communist Past, 1989-1999"

Project Summary

My research concerns attitudes toward the communist past in the three post-communist countries that have recently become NATO members:





 

• Czech Republic
  
   
• Hungary
  
   
• Poland

 

The central question I will explore for each of these countries is: what is the attitude of the general public and political elites toward their shared communist past, are there significant differences, and if so, how does one characterize? My study will also contrast the three sets of findings, explaining why people in Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic remember the Soviet era differently.



The research will be conducted on the basis of election results, public opinion polls, and public debates. The results should inform our view of Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic: how do these countries fit among their partners in NATO? It should also help us forecast events in other, still authoritarian, post-communist states.

 

 

Major Publications

• Half a Century of Polish History, 1939-1989 (Warsaw, 1995)
  
   
• Stanislaw Mikolajczyk (1901-1966), or the Fall of a Realist: Outline of a Political Biography (Warsaw, 1991)
  
   
• Polish Press 1918-1939 (Warsaw, 1980)