Na bagnetach trudno siedzieć. Kryzys legitymizacyjny PRL
It is hard to sit on bayonets. Legitimization crisis in the Polish People's Republic

Summary/Abstract: Any regime, even the most despotic, tries to legitimize itself in the eyes of people. The communists in Poland tried to convince the citizens that they represent what the country needs, with the help of different arguments, not necessarily Marxist and/or communist ones. The class vision of history ceased to be their instrument since the beginning of 1960s. The idea that the communist regime is developing the country’s economy and improves the existence of everyday life finally proved to be a nonsense at the end of 1970s. Nationalism was always an important argument of communists, but they had difficulty to convince the population that they are more nationalist than internationalist and friends of Soviet Union. Even the chauvinism, to which the communist elite had recourse many times, and in particular in 1968, proved not very efficient. The argument that the Soviet Union is the unique friend which could protect us against Germany, and that the communists are the only potential partners for Soviet Union in Poland, lost its validity with the changes going on in Russia as well as in Germany.

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