Fatalism and Choice: The Moral Component in the Narratives of Polish Dissident Historians in the 1980s. : the Cases of Krystyna Kersten and Jerzy Holzer

González Álvarez, Cristina

doi:0001-6829

- ris
- BibTeX
- EndNote
- Csv

Fatalism and Choice: The Moral Component in the Narratives of Polish Dissident Historians in the 1980s. : the Cases of Krystyna Kersten and Jerzy Holzer González Álvarez, Cristina

Object structure

Fatalism and Choice: The Moral Component in the Narratives of Polish Dissident Historians in the 1980s. : the Cases of Krystyna Kersten and Jerzy Holzer

Acta Poloniae Historica T. 116 (2017), Studies

González Álvarez, Cristina

Hartzell, James : Red. ; Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk ; Komitet Nauk Historycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Polska -- historia -- czasopisma [KABA]

This article discusses the moral dimension of history writing in the opposition milieus during the last decade of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). It focuses on the works of two dissident historians who dealt with untold or contested aspects of Polish contemporary history: Krystyna Kersten and Jerzy Holzer. First, the essay describes the narratives about the values and experiences shared in the PRL context by people belonging simultaneously to the intelligentsia, opposition dissidence, and academia (professional historians), with a special emphasis on the discovery and search for the truth under positivistic premises. Secondly, it analyses the counterfactual questions posed by Kersten and Holzer in their bestseller underground books about post-war politics and the trade union Solidarity’s legal period, respectively. The reflections that these two scholars developed about pasts-that-didn’t-take-place provided a complementary ethical component to their discourses concerning decision-making processes and Polish society’s political agency. The idea of losing, the ultimate inevitability of defeat, and the way that defeat was faced in two different moments of Poland’s recent history are tackled by Kersten and Holzer with an educational goal: to explain to readers that, however minute the range of choice is, ethics, together with remembrance, plays an important role in social consciousness and empowerment, and hence can make a crucial difference in the long run.

Babiuch-Luxmoore Jolanta, Portrety i autoportrety inteligencji polskiej (Warszawa, 1989).
Bajer Magdalena, Blizny po ukąszeniu (Warszawa, 2005).
Falk Barbara, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe. Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings (Budapest and New York, 2003).
Friszke Andrzej, Opozycja polityczna w PRL 1945–1980 (London, 1994).
Holzer Jerzy, Solidarność 1980–1981. Geneza i historia (Warszawa, 1990 [1984]).
Kersten Krystyna, Jałta w polskiej perspektywie (London and Warszawa, 1989).
Kersten Krystyna, Narodziny systemu władzy. Polska 1943–1948 (Warszawa, 1987).
Mate Reyes, Medianoche en la historia. Comentarios a las tesis de Walter Benjamin ‘Sobre el concepto de historia’ (Madrid, 2006).
Meller Marcin, ‘Rola myślenia o historii w ruchu Solidarność w latach 1980–1981’, in Marcin Kula (ed.), Solidarność w ruchu 1980–1981 (Warszawa, 2000), 219–66.
Mikołajczyk Magdalena, Jak się pisało o historii…: problemy polityczne powojennej Polski w publikacjach drugiego obiegu lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych (Kraków, 1998).
Romek Zbigniew, Cenzura a nauka historyczna w Polsce 194–1970 (Warszawa, 2010).
Stobiecki Rafał, Historiografia PRL. Ani dobra, ani mądra, ani piękna… ale skomplikowana. Studia i szkice (Warszawa, 2007).
Stråth Bo (ed.), Myth and Memory in the Construction of Community. Historical Patterns in Europe and Beyond (Brussels, 2000).
Törnquist-Plewa Barbara, The Wheel of Polish Fortune. Myths in Polish Collective Consciousness during the First Years of Solidarity (Lund, 1992).
Wawrzyniak Joanna, ‘History and Memory: The Social Frames of Contemporary Polish Historiography’, Acta Poloniae Historica, 103 (2011), 127–46.