Suchergebnisse

After the times of partitions and reunification of partitioned territories, organisation of science in the Second Polish Republic had become a political task, to which the scientists of all disciplines devoted themselves with great engagement. Historical studies had a special position in this process. They served finding the identity of society and the legitimacy of the modern Polish national state. On this basis not only close connection between science and politics were formed, but also personal links with often unclear boundaries between scientists and politicians. Considering the historical burden on relations to eastern neighbours, especially to Russia, research on Eastern Europe had a special responsibility. It provided the political argumentation for the Eastern European paradigms of Poland, as a location on the border of the Western civilisation, serving as a protection wall against Russian danger which proved to be especially dangerous in the form of Bolshevism for the whole area of Europe. In this field the traditional research on Russia cooperated equally close with politics and formed new fields of research, like formed in Poland Sovietology. In this constellation Poland decisively determined the level of research in Europe.

History and politics are interlinked with unbreakable bonds, as is manifested primarily in the use of historical arguments in political disputes. Regardless of the ideological views represented, time period, and geographical location, politicians consistently and frequently use such arguments with a high degree of effectiveness. Driven by a variety of motives, they use the category of the past, (re)interpret it, and decide what should be remembered and what should be removed from the so-called collective memory. In practice, this means that a properly prepared and delivered narrative of the past can become a powerful instrument in the hands of the ruling class, influencing the social and political reality of the country concerned. Control of the past and its "correct" reconstruction can thus effectively contribute to gaining, boosting, and consolidating power by a political entity. An appropriately shaped awareness of the past thus serves an only ancillary role to politics, satisfying social expectations and ideological visions. Thus, the past, or rather the memory of it, when becoming a topic of interest in the domain of politics, forces the creators of the politics of history to improve the tools and mechanisms they wield to ensure its more efficient use.

The modern nation is an organisational form of society that has undergone numerous changes throughout history. The concept of the nation in Europe in the nineteenth century has been posed and answered in the past, but, as the basic conditions of its existence change, it is essential that this important question be asked again.Without doubt, the modern nation realizes the promises of solidarity and community which are so attractive to the masses, and has a profound effect on identity formation. Without these structures originally put in place by civil society, self-organization as the implementation of national thought is unimaginable. Understanding the necessity and the possibility of the designability of society through the idea of nation and the functionality of civil society determines the strength and stability of the national movement

This book is devoted to questions and research problems generated by the issue of civil society. It contains contributions from mostly young scientists, who develop various approaches to the position and functionality of civil society, examining different examples from both the past and the present, based on theoretical approaches to this concept. As a result, the volume adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, which allows the identification of various levels of the concept of the civil soci...

AbstractThe paper presents the results of an experimental study of Polish students' attitudes towards their government's remembrance policy (or, in other words, the intentional narration and interpretation of the past by the government). It includes four parts: a justification of why remembrance is a significant political asset in post-Communist Poland; a classification of remembrance policy instruments; a presentation of general results of the study; and a discussion of participants' attitudes to particular policy instruments. In our assessment of the general results, we discuss three types of collected data: the results of the initial measurement of attitudes; the results of measurement after the manipulation of emotions (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and commitment (no commitment vs. low commitment); and the results in terms of attitude change. In the section on attitudes to particular instruments, we compare participants' support for different commemorative actions with their support for the governments' dominant role in the popularising of remembrance narratives. The study's results lead us to formulate three conclusions about the relationships between attitudes to the policy and Polish political culture.

Michael G. Müller: VorwortVII, Ralph Schattkowsky: Nationalismus in Ostmitteleuropa. Tendenzen und Aufgaben der Forschung1, Ralph Schattkowsky: Identitätenwandel und nationale Mobilisierung in Westpreußen und Galizien. Ein Vergleich29, Wolfgang Häusler: Zwischen Wien und Czernowitz. Die Emanzipation des habsburgischen "Ostjudentums" und der Antisemitismus63, Kerstin S. Jobst: "Ein Ukrainer polnischer Kultur": Mykola Hankevyč (1869-1931) und die Sozialdemokratie Galiziens vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Zur Problematik des "nationalen Außenseiters"89, Christoph Mick: Nationale Festkultur in Lemberg vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg113, Oleksandr Dobrzhanskyj: Die Entwicklung der ukrainischen nationalen Bewegung in der Bukowina: Grundzüge und Forschungsprobleme133, Sergij Osatschuk: Die gesellschaftliche Formierung der Nationalitä-ten in der Bukowina bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg147, Eligiusz Janus: Deutsche Katholiken und die polnische Nation im preußischen Osten (am Beispiel Westpreußens)157, Cezary Obracht-Prondzyski: Die Kaschuben zwischen polnischer Kultur und deutscher Zivilisation167, Verzeichnis der Autoren183