„Zna dobrze i nie zapomina duszy robotnika”. Akta osobowe działaczy politycznych i historia ludowa
“He knows well and does not forget The soul of the worker”. Personal files of political activists and people’s history

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this article comprises the experiences of representatives of the Polish peasant strata who, in the first post-war years, became politically active as party activists or state officials. The main thesis of the paper is that the pre-war Polish communist movement and post-war structures of power constitute a space of simultaneous overlapping and tensions between people’s history and political history. The personal files of working-class and peasant activists may be regarded as source material for the above. In this article, the author indicates the benefits that historians and sociologists can draw from an in-depth and empathetic analysis of this source base, revealing patterns of political socialisation, the dynamics of biographical transformations and their perception, the status uncertainty of “former labourers” and “former peasants”, the horizons of their aspirations and their claims to agency and its political limitations.

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