A Ship Emerges in the Distance... People Stand and Applaud. The (Un)obvious Contexts of the Wrocław Sea Festival Celebrations in June 1945
A Ship Emerges in the Distance... People Stand and Applaud. The (Un)obvious Contexts of the Wrocław Sea Festival Celebrations in June 1945

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to attempt to answer whether the celebrations of secular holidays and ceremonies sponsored by the emerging communist governments in Poland can be reduced solely to the implementation of ideological tasks leading to the political subjugation of the nation. How did this issue appear from the perspective of the local society defined by the immediate post-war reality? The realisation of this goal has been designed in the form of presenting and analysing the (un)obvious contexts of the Sea Festival celebrations in Wrocław in 1945, which have not yet (similarly to other parts of the “Recovered Territories”) received the attention they deserve from historians. In this situation, this text, while also considering the role of Wrocław in the propaganda of the Polish state in the second half of the 1940s, aims to fill this research gap. The author’s intention in this case study is not only to highlight the political and ideological dimensions of the Wrocław Sea Festival in 1945 but also to equally emphasise its social and cultural context. Through the analysis of archival sources created by municipal and provincial authorities, notes and press articles, memoirs, and leaflets, it has been determined that while propaganda was the dominant feature of these celebrations, their significance for the foundational moment of Polish culture in the post-German city was equally fundamental. The Sea Festival in Wrocław in 1945 also exemplifies grassroots awakening of authentic social activity, skilfully reconciling the propaganda needs of the authorities with the requirements of the devastated city.

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