2013/07/01 by Magdalena Kubów · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies
paper · doi:10.5406/polishreview.58.2.0003
openalex publication_date 2013/07/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Contemporary Poland continues to struggle with its economic and sociopolitical adjustments post-1989, with communist-era monuments and architecture in its history’s peripheral view. The heritage reclaimed by Poles through the Solidarity movement is reflected in the symbols used to battle communism from the 1950s to the 1980s. Symbols of hope, freedom, and solidarity expressed through religious icons, roses, and the crowned Polish Eagle remain an integral aspect of social collective memory and culture for Poles. In addressing whether Solidarity was primarily a grassroots movement of workers who were motivated by unfair wages and starvation, or an intellectual movement defined by a need to reassert Poland’s identity by dismembering communist rule, the historian is presented with the fair and complex reality that the movement was from its inception an intimate combination of both influences. With the thirty-third anniversary of the initiation of the official Solidarity movement in 2013, memory not only correlates with a usable history but also acts as a continuing force motivating Poles to strive for greater independence from their oppressive recent past.