The Memory of Communist Poland in the Third Polish Republic. A Tentative Systematisation

Abstract

The political discourse in Poland in the final years before the fall of communism in 1989, was based on a strong opposition between the authorities and the rest of society. Even then, however, support for the opposition was not unanimous, and it was even less so in previous years. Most Poles considered the communist system forced, exogenous, oppressive, unacceptable, and supported by the Soviet threat. Still, individual reactions were varied: there were different paths to be taken through communism. The authors of the paper discuss how these paths contributed to differing recollections of the period. They focus on the collective memory of political parties and politicians, particularly on the controversial question of collaborating with the communist regime and the rights to veteran status among the former opposition members. It is a story of two types of memory: the one stressing reconciliation and the other pushing the distinction between former regime representatives and democratic opposition members

Poland-US Defense Relations: The Pursuit of Great Power Politics in Central Europe

“…Poland started to integrate with European countries to have better cooperation in economy and political structure, and joined NATO in 1999 as well as the European Union in 2004 [9]. Poland's geopolitical situation prior to the dismissal of the Warsaw Pact did not warrant its national security, neither after the pact was dismissed.…”