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In the People’s Republic of Poland, Warsaw experienced two periods of accelerated urbandevelopment. The first one was the time of reconstruction, which lasted until 1955. The second occurred in the first half of the 1970s . Wisłostrada and Trasa Łazienkowska were built, the Central Railway Station was erected, and design works on the underground railway line were resumed. These activities, completely different from the stagnant investment policies implemented by Władysław Gomułka, owed a lot to the communist party patronage, although it would be difficult to point to specific names. The reconstruction years were inextricably linked with Bolesław Bierut. The article analyses the maintenance of Warsaw’s capital city status, the political and private involvement of Bierut in the process of rebuilding and redevelopment of the city, his relationships with architects, and his propagandist image of the “builder of the capital”. Reference has been made to the Soviet models for city redevelopment, serving as a basis for the “6-Year Capital Reconstruction Plan” of 1949. The cited architectural and party documents reveal an image of Bolesław Bierut as a person particularly engaged in the post-war reconstruction of Warsaw. From 1949 onwards, Warsaw was being designed in line with the postulates of socialist realism, imposed on Poland along with the advances of Stalinism. During Bierut’s reign, the reconstructed districts in Warsaw included the Old Town destroyed by Germans, Krakowskie Przedmieście, and numerous monuments. At the same time, the capital of Poland was supposed to become an industrial city with a totally different social tissue. It was all in line with the general plans of Stalin, Bierut being their executioner.
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The revolutionary social and political changes initiated in the summer of 1980, related to the birth of and activities conducted by the Solidarity movement, took place mainly because of the social mobilization of workers. The direction and nature of these changes were also determined – albeit not necessarily in an active manner – by the attitude of other social structures, particularly the creative circles. Opole, the city regarded since 1963 in terms of an informal capital of the Polish song – is a good example. The 19th National Contest of the Polish Song, held from 25 until 28 June 1981, became a legend. The song “Let Poland be Poland”, performed to the general public at this festival, became an unofficial anthem of the Solidarity revolution. For political reasons, the festival organizers could not interfere in the course of the festival. The censorship intervention proved unsuccessful, as well. The activity of TSA, a rock group set up in Opole, was also a major phenomenon on a national scale. The group’s songs constituted a certain attempt at escaping from the greyness and hopelessness of everyday life in communist Poland. Somehow shadowed by these phenomena were local facts connected with individual attitudes of representatives of the Opole creative circles towards the revolutionary changes taking place in Poland’s social and political life. These facts, however, are also significant in the context of illustrating the social realities of the 1980s. A vast majority of artists from Opole was not actively engaged in the endeavours of the opposition forces, but – at the same time – they would neither attack the opposition nor side with the authorities. Cases of active involvement in the activities undertaken by one or the other side of the political barricade were quite rare. The longstanding opposition activity of the Opole actor Tadeusz Żyliński calls for special attention. This man is an example through which one can see quite clearly how much could be done by politically active artists after August 1980. Unfortunately, only a small part of the Opole creative circles was interested in such opportunities. Political passivity, coupled with efforts aimed at fulfilling one’s own personal and professional ambitions, were definitely more prevailing. Everyday social and political reality of the 1980s in Poland was a far cry from the idealistic views on the social mission of our intelligentsia.
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The article presents the history of the Democratic-National League, an opposition organization with a national profile, which operated in the years 1957–1961, in the context of events associated with the Polish national movement after World War II, as well as in the time-frame during which the movement was active – the first years of Gomułka’s government. The author describes the structure of the organization and its programme, trying to find the sources of the ideas which it contained. He also tries to present the links between the Democratic-National League and national activists from outside its structures as well as the Catholic Church. Describing the historical context, the author goes back to the end of World War II, while the main part of the work covers the 1957–1961 period – from the moment of making the decision to set up the organization until its co-founders and key members were sentenced. The main sources for the article were documents from the IPN Archive and interviews with the League members.
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Writing about historical cartoons, one has to keep in mind two perspectives –that of art and that of history. Each of these perspectives specifies different tasks for a cartoon and these tasks are often contradictory to each other. While – for a historian – an ideal in a historical cartoon is compliance of the content and images with source documents, for a cartoon creator, the principal objective is an efficient fulfilment of the storyline. In the article, the author raises the question of a possibility to create a historical cartoon which would satisfy both art critics and historians. This question is in fact a question about the truth of historical facts in art. Searching the answer to the above question, the author points to postmodernistand avant-garde dictate, dominating today in theoretical digressions concerning the role of the art and of the history. The author recognises that the contemporary positions of theoreticians do not make it easier for him to find answers to the questions raised above.Therefore, the author turns in his considerations to classical solutions, paying attention to the attractiveness of the Aristotle principle of mimesis. He also notices that similar problems to these the cartoon creators are facing now while trying to present history in a form of a storyline, were the challenges classical authors of historical novels had to cope with earlier. Since the cartoon can be considered a part of the literary horizon, the author gives some thoughts to a dilemma whether novelists’ experiences will remain useful for cartoon creators. It seems that it is not entirely so, since contemporary fiction (and hence also cartoon) is influenced by phenomena related to a fragmentation of the plot. Therefore, the author is rather inclined to adopt the position that historical cartoon, if it wants to upkeep an element of a storytelling, will – in the future – be forced to use the experiences of filmmakers since the plot still plays an important role in movies. Closing paragraphs of the article are devoted to a poetic value of a historical cartoon and the attempt at defining it. The author tries to prove that chronological descriptions of events also characteristic of a historical source material, in case of a historical cartoon turns into a logical course of events filled with the protagonists’ emotions while, from the point of view of plastic art, it turns intoa sequence of drawn images subordinated to the rights of aesthetics of a frame and a chart. The author underlines that despite determination to accurately recreate facts in a storyline, as well as, to recreate the visual impression of the relevant epoch, the creators should also try to accomplish their own goals identical to the objectives a work of art is supposed to accomplish.
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The author undertakes the attempt to analyse an increasingly popular in Polandphenomenon of historical reconstruction. She refers to such terminological issues as historical reconstruction, historical recreation, staging, mistakenly regarded as homogenous. In order to distinguish between the above mentioned definitions, she additionally specifies the reconstruction levels as represented in a particularenvironment. The article contains a review of main problems connected with reconstructionand its perception, issues of ethics and morality included. Moreover, she presents an outline of the history of the reconstruction movement both in the world and in Poland. The author tries to reveal, step by step, the mechanism of the formation of historical reconstruction groups and similar associations, beginning with a gathering of the people interested in forming the group through the selection of its name and the vision of its activities, up to collecting the equipment. This process results in the emergence and development of a separate reconstruction environment where those who share the common passion have a chance to exchange experience and knowledge. The text also describes the forms of activities practiced by the performers (apart from specific recreations) and their tasks. It is connected with the presentation of objectives, the historical reconstruction tries to achieveand which stand behind the reconstruction performers’ motivations. The article shows merits of the phenomenon, not ignoring, at the same time, its deficiencies and potential threats. The author also tries to answer the question: what the historical education provided by historical reconstruction should be based upon?
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The author analysed songs performed at the Soldiers’ Song Festival in Kołobrzeg in the period of 1968–1989. Both these songs and the entire Festival with its stage design played an important role in the process of building the socialist society. Forms and methods of using pop music by propaganda of the Polish People’s Republic were changing in the course of social and political transformations. However, no matter, who the leader of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) was, music, and pop music in particular, was an extremely important tool of creating new mentality. Through pop music, and the Soldiers’ Song Festival was a part of the pop music landscape, attempts were made to shape the awareness of the socialist society. Among many lyrics, one can find numerous examples of references to history, primarily to the history of World War II but also many examples of everyday life of the Military. Selections of relevant content allowed the authorities to create their own vision of the past and present. The author of the article identified the most popular content promoted by the Kołobrzeg hits, as well as, the attitudes thus created. She also assessed the importance of the Soldiers’ Song Festival in Kołobrzeg.
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The aim of this paper is to describe the changes in the warfare that occurred in the 17th century and to outline their social and political implications. During early modern period in Europe, and specially during Thirty Years’ War, several European countries have shifted away from professional, mercenary-based formations and begun creating standing armies, conscripted from the local population. This resulted in changing of the social perception of warfare, and had great impact on the culture of the entire continent. The figure of a mercenary a professional soldier, who was perceived as a type of craftsman deeply attached to his personal honour, became obsolete, pushing it into the area of marginal identities of contemporary and future society. The paper follows the case studies of mercenaries who served in the middle of the 17th century, both actual and fictional, and presents their lives in typical context of early modern warfare. It also explain possible reasons behind the switch to conscripted standing armies, which were the predecessors of current national armies and have direct impact in creating modern societies.
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The paper is an attempt to reread the history of Volyn balagulas. In Polish tradition these groups of young gentry decadents flirting with peasants culture are the symbol of lost generation. I would like to remind the forgotten discussion held by 19th century conservative writers who described balagulas movement as the threat to Polish identity.
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Review of: ROSŮLEK, P.: Albánci a Makedonská republika (1991 – 2014). Praha: Libri, 2015. 395 s. ISBN 978-80-7277-526-2.
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