30 years after the tragic events in Vukovar, the Serb and Croatian communities live side by side, each cultivating their memory of their own tragedy and their own victims. The peaceful reintegration, that Croats are proud of, did not go hand in hand with building an atmosphere of reconciliation. No wonder then, that Vukovar is a model example of a divided city, where the mental divisions and psychological barriers affect its politics and everyday life. It seems that such a situation is favourable to politicians in Belgrade and Zagreb. One gets the impression that, as in 1991, Vukovar is becoming a victim of great politics and the clash of Serbian and Croatian nationalism.
The transformation of the political system in Poland after the negotiations of the'Round Table' resulted in an increased interest in modern history, accompanied by a desire to reckon with the past, in particular with the period of communist rule after 1944. Since the 1990s, government authorities and political parties have made a natural move to legitimize the democratic political system in the area of social memory and historical policy. This process has been initiated by constitutional changes, coupled with a truly spontaneous social movement to change national symbols, names of streets and squares, patrons of schools and universities, institutions and manufacturing plants rooted in the overthrown system of communist Poland. The humanities, in particular historiography, have taken steps to reassess attitudes to Polish and global history. The issues of social memory, national identity and historical policy have been reflected in the ideologies and platforms of various political parties. The issue of social (national) memory has become entangled in political disputes and a struggle for 'control of the past', of interpretations of history, the value of patriotism and, by extension, of the electorate, has been waged mainly by the Law and Justice (PiS), Civic Platform (PO), and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) parties. This paper analyzes and describes the most influential political movements in Poland in the early 21st century as regards their attitude to collective memory and the concept of historical policy. These attitudes are presented in terms of the conservative, liberal, critical and totalitarian 'models of historical policy'. The study implies that the conservative and liberal models predominate, clearly influenced by the ideology of Christian democracy and national tendencies. The attitude of conservative parties in particular is characterized by disrespect for academic findings and interpretations of history, a frequently ad hoc approach to facts and assessments of the past, which follows from a desire to find the in-depth historical legitimization of the status of a given party in society and to dominate the electorate. ; The transformation of the political system in Poland after the negotiations of the'Round Table' resulted in an increased interest in modern history, accompanied by a desire to reckon with the past, in particular with the period of communist rule after 1944. Since the 1990s, government authorities and political parties have made a natural move to legitimize the democratic political system in the area of social memory and historical policy. This process has been initiated by constitutional changes, coupled with a truly spontaneous social movement to change national symbols, names of streets and squares, patrons of schools and universities, institutions and manufacturing plants rooted in the overthrown system of communist Poland. The humanities, in particular historiography, have taken steps to reassess attitudes to Polish and global history. The issues of social memory, national identity and historical policy have been reflected in the ideologies and platforms of various political parties. The issue of social (national) memory has become entangled in political disputes and a struggle for 'control of the past', of interpretations of history, the value of patriotism and, by extension, of the electorate, has been waged mainly by the Law and Justice (PiS), Civic Platform (PO), and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) parties. This paper analyzes and describes the most influential political movements in Poland in the early 21st century as regards their attitude to collective memory and the concept of historical policy. These attitudes are presented in terms of the conservative, liberal, critical and totalitarian 'models of historical policy'. The study implies that the conservative and liberal models predominate, clearly influenced by the ideology of Christian democracy and national tendencies. The attitude of conservative parties in particular is characterized by disrespect for academic findings and interpretations of history, a frequently ad hoc approach to facts and assessments of the past, which follows from a desire to find the in-depth historical legitimization of the status of a given party in society and to dominate the electorate.
The transformation of the political system in Poland after the negotiations of the 'Round Table' resulted in an increased interest in modern history, accompanied by a desire to reckon with the past, in particular with the period of communist rule after 1944. Since the 1990s, government authorities and political parties have made a natural move to legitimize the democratic political system in the area of social memory and historical policy. This process has been initiated by constitutional changes, coupled with a truly spontaneous social movement to change national symbols, names of streets and squares, patrons of schools and universities, institutions and manufacturing plants rooted in the overthrown system of communist Poland. The humanities, in particular historiography, have taken steps to reassess attitudes to Polish and global history. The issues of social memory, national identity and historical policy have been reflected in the ideologies and platforms of various political parties. The issue of social (national) memory has become entangled in political disputes and a struggle for 'control of the past', of interpretations of history, the value of patriotism and, by extension, of the electorate, has been waged mainly by the Law and Justice (PiS), Civic Platform (PO), and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) parties. This paper analyzes and describes the most influential political movements in Poland in the early 21st century as regards their attitude to collective memory and the concept of historical policy. These attitudes are presented in terms of the conservative, liberal, critical and totalitarian 'models of historical policy'. The study implies that the conservative and liberal models predominate, clearly influenced by the ideology of Christian democracy and national tendencies. The attitude of conservative parties in particular is characterized by disrespect for academic findings and inter- pretations of history, a frequently ad hoc approach to facts and assessments of the past, which follows from a desire to find the in-depth historical legitimization of the status of a given party in society and to dominate the electorate.
The analysis of the Russian-Ukrainian relations case study shows two different models of determining contemporary historical memory. The first (Russian) consists of continuing the imperial traditions in historiography and politics of memory, focused on maintaining the superpower myths of the tsarist and Soviet empires. The second (Ukrainian) points to an attempt by researchers and the political class to escape from the influence of Russian historiography as well as to shape their own national historical narrative and policy of memory, connected with in the European tradition. Geopolitical and historical determinism are the basis of Vladimir Putin's imperial policy, trying to imitate the founders of the tsarist (Peter I) and Soviet (Stalin) empires. The conflict of the Russian imperial historical memory with the Ukrainian one was a significant reason for the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine. The Russian Federation has chosen an aggressive model of memory policy, treating history as a tool of influence against the so-called near and far abroad.
Miloš Urban, a Czech writer, is mostly associated with postmodernist playing with the convention of the metaphysical thriller. In 2001 he published Hastrman, a novel representing so-called green literature, for which he received the prestigious Magnesia Litera award. His concerns about progressive degradation of the natural environment of northern Czechia inspired him to develop a creative method which allows him to highlight threats related to the ecological crisis without excessively lecturing the reader. By reaching for genological models of the nineteenth-century ethnographic novel, combining them with elements of horror and contemporary political fiction and – first and foremost – adding the vodyanoy (i.e., a figure that is not only deeply rooted in Czech cultural memory, but also characterized by an animalistic-or demonic-human ontological duality), Urban achieved a particular ethical undecidability of the protagonist's actions. The titular hastrman acts for "a good – ecological – cause", but in order to fulfill his mission, he uses criminal, strictly terrorist methods. As a result, the novel asks questions instead of offering definitive answers, forcing the reader to rethink their own attitude and propose tools for salvation of the gradually, but inevitably disappearing traditional order based on the harmonious cooperation between man and surrounding nature. ; Miloš Urban, czeski prozaik, kojarzony przede wszystkim zpostmodernistycznymi grami zkonwencjami thrillera metafizycznego, opublikował w 2001 r. nagrodzoną prestiżową nagrodą Magnesia Litera powieść Hastrman, włączając się tym samym w nurt tak zwanej literatury zielonej. Niepokój wywołany coraz bardziej nasilającą się degradacją środowiska naturalnego północnych Czech skierował uwagę pisarza w stronę wypracowania metody twórczej, zdolnej – bez zbyt jednoznacznego pouczania czytelnika – do wskazania zagrożeń związanych zkryzysem ekologicznym. Sięgając po wzorce genologiczne dziewiętnastowiecznej powieści etnograficznej, łącząc je zelementami horroru oraz współczesnej political fiction oraz – w największej mierze – umieszczając w centrum świata przedstawionego tekstu (w funkcji narratora i protagonisty) wodnika, a zatem figurę nie tylko głęboko zakorzenioną w czeskiej pamięci kulturowej, lecz także obdarzoną dualną zwierzęco- bądź demono-ludzką charakterystyką ontologiczną, Urban uzyskał efekt swoistej etycznej nierozstrzygalności poczynań bohatera. Tytułowy hastrman działa "w słusznej – ekologicznej – sprawie", ale by zadanie swe zrealizować, korzysta ze zbrodniczych, stricte terrorystycznych, metod. Dzięki temu powieść, zamiast formułować stanowcze odpowiedzi, stawia raczej pytania, zmuszając odbiorcę do przemyślenia własnej postawy i do zaproponowania narzędzi ocalenia stopniowo, ale nieuchronnie zanikającego tradycyjnego porządku, bazującego na harmonijnej współpracy człowieka zotaczającą go przyrodą.