Okrągły Stół w Polsce: 30 lat sporów o znaczenie i skutki
The Round Table in Poland. Thirty years of disputes about its significance and implications

Summary/Abstract: The issue discussed in the article falls within the area of historical policy. The past is an important field of political rivalry and building collective memory, it allows political circles to influence attitudes and behaviors in order to consolidate and build collective consciousness. The significance and effects of the Round Table have been disputed for thirty years. In the article the basic division lines and ways of using the symbolism of past events in the political struggle are presented and evaluated. The political elites’ attitude to the Round Table varied and depended on two issues: the place in the structure of state power and attitude to the Third Republic of Poland on the one hand, and the needs arising from current political rivalry on the other. These motivations prevented developing a fairly uniform view and message about the Round Table, which translated into a losing the narrative on the beginning of systemic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe by the Poles. For the “world” the upheaval in this part of Europe began with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and not with the struggle of “Solidarity” ended with the formation of the government by Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

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