Jakub Szumski | Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (original) (raw)

Peer-Reviewed Papers by Jakub Szumski

Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 2023

Existing scholarship treats congresses of the ruling communist parties in the Eastern Bloc as sta... more Existing scholarship treats congresses of the ruling communist parties in the Eastern Bloc as staged performances intended to manufacture support and signal new policy trends. This article, using the examples of extraordinary party congresses held during revolutionary times in Poland (1981) and the German Democratic Republic (1989) offers another perspective. It looks at the events as spaces where rank-and-file delegates could contest particular decisions of their organization, while simultaneously straying away from more radical forms of dissent. This article follows and compares the actions of delegates in both countries by highlighting how they disrupted the agenda of the congresses over the question of elite corruption committed by former members of the party leadership and accountability for these wrongdoings. These episodes show that anti-corruption was a genuinely important moral preoccupation, as well as an argument for demanding change, and that, during the 1980s, ideas grounded in socialism still possessed major legitimacy.

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Journal of Modern European History, 2020

During the tumultuous 1980s, Polish People’s Republic experimented with legal reforms and institu... more During the tumultuous 1980s, Polish People’s Republic experimented with legal reforms and institutions of the constitutional state. Among these institutions, set up according to the ideas of socialist legality, was the State Tribunal, tasked with determining accountability of the former leadership from the 1970s. Brought to life amid debates around economic crisis and official corruption and legally and politically constrained, the Tribunal failed to satisfy popular demands for justice. This article explores the idea of socialist legality by looking at the history of the State Tribunal in Poland. It analyses different understandings of justice and accountability, expressed during the Solidarity Revolution, and shows how they played out in public debates and the legislative process. In order to guarantee legitimacy in the unstable political situation, Polish socialist legality needed to go further than in other Eastern Bloc countries and to address popular grievances. In Poland therefore, socialist constitutional state-building started before martial law and significantly predated the turn to liberal democracy and market capitalism in 1989.

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The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, 2018

The article examines the relationship between the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the... more The article examines the relationship between the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the First Secretary of the Polish United Worker’s Party, Edward Gierek, during the 1970s and contributes to the understanding of relationships between Brezhnev and other leaders of the Eastern Bloc. In order to fulfill his foreign policy goals, Brezhnev needed active and willing cooperation from the Eastern Bloc and its leaders benefited from this endeavor. Gierek responded to this demand by entering into an “uneven friendship” with Brezhnev that was established according to the Soviet “friendship code.” This privileged relationship was dependent on the inner situation within the Soviet leadership, the progress of détente, Poland’s domestic stability, and ultimately did not counterbalance Poland’s structurally disadvantageous status in the Eastern Bloc.

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Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, 2018

Zbigniew Iwanów (1948–1987) was an economic manager in a state-run factory in Toruń, Poland, and ... more Zbigniew Iwanów (1948–1987) was an economic manager in a state-run factory in Toruń, Poland, and a member of the Polish United Worker’s Party. During the “Polish Crisis” of 1980/1981 he started ‘unsupervised’ activity within the communist party, which aimed at democratization, free elections and autonomy for the rank-and-file organization. This led to his expulsion. The failure to change the party from within led him to join the independent trade union “Solidarity”. Incarcerated during the period of martial law and forced to migrate to the USA afterwards, he died in Texas in 1987. The article describes his political biography and analyses it in the light of Robert Merton’s theory of rebellion.

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Polska 1944/45-1989: studia i materiały, 2016

In the 1970s in Western Europe, in the United States, in the Middle East and in Central and South... more In the 1970s in Western Europe, in the United States, in the Middle East and in Central and South America many brutal terrorist attacks took place. The public opinion witnessed the activity of various groups, representing different systems of values. The acts of political violence were exercised in the name of ideology, national liberation or religion. Polish public opinion during the communist rule observed the happenings from a distance, but with much attention. People’s Poland in the 1970s published more than a dozen academic, journalist and popular works on the topic of terrorism. The most influential weekly papers (Polityka, Kultura) dedicated many features to the problem of terrorism. The article, basing on books and press articles from the period, aims to answer two questions. What did the state of public knowledge about terrorism, which could be acquired from open sources, look like? How was the phenomenon of international terrorism and its various forms described and evaluated?

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Neerlandica Wratislaviensia, 2015

Polish mining immigration to Belgium between 1918 and 1939 is a significant, yet overlooked pheno... more Polish mining immigration to Belgium between 1918 and 1939 is a significant, yet overlooked phenomenon. Despite difficult circumstances, Polish miners did not constitute a socially radical group. In fact, we witness quite opposite attitudes: focusing on honest work, religion and family. To understand this situation, we need to reconstruct various factors that influenced Polish miners in Belgium. An analysis led to dividing these factors into two categories: destabilising and stabilising. The former are rapid migration dynamics, blocked social advancement and communist activity. The latter I found in the presence of old mining societies and - most importantly - Polish diaspora's concentration, which slowed down the assimilation and also dispersion processes. Overall, Belgium was not treated as a necessary evil and after many years the province of Limburg was still called the "Belgian Silesia".

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Chapters in Edited Volumes by Jakub Szumski

W poszukiwaniu programu. Studia i szkice z dziejów opozycji politycznej w PRL 1976–1989, 2020

The article is an interpretation of the intellectual output of the political opposition in Poland... more The article is an interpretation of the intellectual output of the political opposition in Poland based on texts by Adam Michnik, Jacek Kuroń, and Leszek Moczulski, through the prism of the classical political philosophy as understood by Leo Strauss and Hanna Arendt. Similarly to the classics, Polish dissidents did not focus on the idea of the state and did not create any specific plans concerning a political system for the future. The center of their interest was the human being as a citizen and 'here and now' actions. They believed that the primary subject matter of politics is the society capable of voluntary self-organization. They rejected any use of violence in the name of the execution of abstract goals, as well as the separation between the areas of politics and ethics, so typical of modernity. These features were common to dissident movements in the entire Eastern Bloc.

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Historical Memory of Central and East European Communism, 2018

The chapter analyzes the official narrative of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) aimed at e... more The chapter analyzes the official narrative of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) aimed at explaining to its members the dramatic events of August 1980–December 1981 in the Polish People’s Republic. The chapter provides a historical outline of the events and describes the content of the official story, focusing on the occurrences inside the PUWP. The author argues that in the face of a sociopolitical conflict, caused by the introduction of martial law (state of war) on December 13, 1981, in reaction to tensions between the Polish communist authorities and the independent self-governing trade union “Solidarity” (established in August 1980), the Communist Party itself faced serious difficulties that could jeopardize its existence and effectiveness. Using social engineering methods of memory forging and a story narrative, the PUWP leadership persuaded its members to perceive the situation of August 1980–December 1981 as unbearable and the introduction of martial law as unavoidable. PUWP did it by way of pamphlets, booklets, reading and training materials, official speeches and addresses.

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In September 1975 Lazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw, a newly-build construction, caught fire. The eve... more In September 1975 Lazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw, a newly-build construction, caught fire. The event was preceded and succeeded by another three major blazes in the city. The series of catastrophes procured a spread of rumor and conspiracy theories concerning the nature of the event and its alleged perpetrators. The article analyzes the fire itself, its police investigation, as well as social reactions and their causes.

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Biographical sketch of Zbigniew Iwanów, leader of an informal democratic movement within Polish U... more Biographical sketch of Zbigniew Iwanów, leader of an informal democratic movement within Polish United Workers Party in the 1980s. Economic executive in Toruń's Towimor marine engineering plant and popular party secretary, he challenged the Communist establishment with his ideas of democratic socialism and deep reforms. Expelled from PZPR, jailed and exiled, he died in Austin, TX in 1987.
The article describes Iwanów's political biography until September 1980.

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A story from 1980-1981 Polish Crisis. The article is based on three biographical case studies of ... more A story from 1980-1981 Polish Crisis. The article is based on three biographical case studies of people engaged at the same time in the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) and Solidarity Trade Union.

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The article in general describes the process of reckoning with Edward Gierek, which took place be... more The article in general describes the process of reckoning with Edward Gierek, which took place between 1980 and 1984. The author points out political, legal and social aspects of the problem and discusses some theoretical interpretations.

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"Puls" was an underground (Samizdat) literary magazine published in Łódź between 1977 and 1981. I... more "Puls" was an underground (Samizdat) literary magazine published in Łódź between 1977 and 1981. Its activity questioned previously untouchable styles and dogmas of Polish underground press of the 1970s: positions on public censorship and the Stalinist past. The article describes the magazine's history with a focus on its conflicts with Warsaw political opposition elites.

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Co-edited volumes by Jakub Szumski

Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2015: referaty, 2016

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This working papers series presents a broad range of research in post-1945 Polish studies gathere... more This working papers series presents a broad range of research in post-1945 Polish studies gathered under the common title 'Post-1945 Poland: Modernities, Transformations and Evolving Identities'. It contains edited versions of papers given at the cross-disciplinary two-day postgraduate conference that was organised by the Programme on Modern Poland (St Antony’s College, University of Oxford) in June 2015.

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Reviews by Jakub Szumski

Review of Tomasz Kizwalter's "W stronę równości" (Wydawnictwo Universitas, Kraków 2014).

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A review article of Edward Gierek's 2014 popular biography.

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Call for Papers by Jakub Szumski

The Party is always right! Claims and realities of the communist parties in the German Democratic... more The Party is always right! Claims and realities of the communist parties in the German Democratic Republic and the Polish People's Republic since the 1970s

8-9 December 2017

German Institute of Polish Studies in Darmstadt, Germany

http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/

The workshop organized by the German Institute of Polish Studies (Deutsches Polen-Institut) is dedicated to the last two decades of communist rule in Germany and Poland and focuses on the communist parties: the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP). If the early 1970s in the German Democratic Republic and in Poland have been read as a time of stability, the 1980s represent a decade of political and economical decline. However, what do these allocations mean specifically, in a perspective concentrating on the communist parties themselves as well as on their societal context?

Aim of this workshop is to foster a dialogue between researchers from the dynamic and interdisciplinary field of historical party research. We want to discuss the functions of the communist parties in the central power structure of the German Democratic Republic and the People’s Republic of Poland. The workshop is directed at creating a differentiated idea of the inner networks of the party, the relations between party, state and society and the decline of state socialist parties. Thus not only dimensions of political history, but also of social and cultural history are to be considered. With these perspectives the claim of the parties to unlimited power and unity can be related to the many-layered historical realities.
Contributions might address topics such as:

- Historicity, present developments, approaches and perspectives of research on the SED and the PUWP,
- Inner networks, relations and functionalities of the parties since the 1970s (structures, factions, schisms, interest groups);
- Interactions and entanglements in the frame of party-state-society,
- Crises, decline and dissolution phenomena of the SED and the PUWP in the 1980s.

Confirmed commentators / speakers for the workshop:

Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Borodziej (Warschau)
Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow (Berlin/Potsdam

Working language:

The working language is German.
Deadlines and Requirements:

Talks on innovative case studies, comparative or overarching topics should not exceed 20 minutes.
Please send an abstract of your paper to roettjer@dpi-da.de by August 7, 2017. Notification of acceptance will be e-mailed as soon as possible thereafter.
Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length. Please also include a biographical note with current affiliation.
Travel expenses of panelists will be reimbursed within Europe and supported within the limits of project funding in the case of overseas travel.

The workshop is funded by the foundation "Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur".
Organizers:

Julia Röttjer M.A. (German Institute of Polish Studies, Darmstadt)

Jakub Szumski M.A. (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/assets/Forschungsprojekt-Kommunis...

Contact Info:

Julia Röttjer M.A.
Deutsches Polen-Institut
Residenzschloss / Marktplatz 15
64283 Darmstadt
Germany
Contact Email:
roettjer@dpi-da.de
URL:
http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/

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Edited volumes by Jakub Szumski

Routledge, 2018

Every political movement creates its own historical memory. The communist movement, though origin... more Every political movement creates its own historical memory. The communist movement, though originally oriented towards the future, was no exception: The theory of human history constitutes a substantial part of Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’s writings, and the movement inspired by them very soon developed its own strong historical identity, combining the Marxist theory of history with the movement’s victorious milestones such as the October Revolution and later the Great Patriotic War, which served as communist legitimization myths throughout almost the entire twentieth century. During the Stalinist period, however, the movement´s history became strongly reinterpreted to suit Joseph Stalin’s political goals. After 1956, this reinterpretation lost most of its legitimating power and instead began to be a burden. The (unwanted) memory of Stalinism and subsequent examples of violence (the Gulag, Katyń, the 1956 Budapest uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring) contributed to the crisis of Eastern European state socialism in the late 1980s and led to attempts at reformulating or even rejecting communist self-identity. This book’s first section analyzes the post-1989 memory of communism and state socialism and the self-identity of the Eastern and Western European left. The second section examines the state-socialist and post-socialist memorial landscapes in the former German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia. The final section concentrates on the narratives the movement established, when in power, about its own past, with the examples of the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

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Books by Jakub Szumski

Nielegalnie budowane wille i domy letniskowe, darmowe remonty mieszkań, ułatwiony dostęp do talon... more Nielegalnie budowane wille i domy letniskowe, darmowe remonty mieszkań, ułatwiony dostęp do talonów samochodowych i innych pożądanych dóbr. To tylko część zarzutów, z którymi po strajkach z sierpnia 1980 r. i zmianach personalnych na najwyższym szczeblu musiała się zmierzyć odchodząca ekipa Edwarda Gierka.
Podczas rewolucji „Solidarności” i w trakcie stanu wojennego trwały zarówno żywiołowe, jak i instytucjonalne rozliczenia z ekipą rządzącą krajem w latach siedemdziesiątych. Władze zostały poddane społecznemu naciskowi, aby ujawnić i osądzić przypadki korupcji i nadużywania stanowisk. W wyjaśnianie tych spraw zaangażowały się instytucje partyjne, państwowe oraz sądy, ale efekty ich działań nie były satysfakcjonujące.
Książka opowiada o korupcji wśród rządzących w sytuacji braku kontroli, o głęboko zakorzenionym społecznym pragnieniu równości i sprawiedliwości oraz o słabości państwa, które bezskutecznie próbowało pociągnąć do odpowiedzialności polityków kierujących krajem w poprzedniej dekadzie.
Książka nagrodzona w konkursie im. Władysława Pobóg-Malinowskiego na Najlepszy Debiut Historyczny Roku.

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Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 2023

Existing scholarship treats congresses of the ruling communist parties in the Eastern Bloc as sta... more Existing scholarship treats congresses of the ruling communist parties in the Eastern Bloc as staged performances intended to manufacture support and signal new policy trends. This article, using the examples of extraordinary party congresses held during revolutionary times in Poland (1981) and the German Democratic Republic (1989) offers another perspective. It looks at the events as spaces where rank-and-file delegates could contest particular decisions of their organization, while simultaneously straying away from more radical forms of dissent. This article follows and compares the actions of delegates in both countries by highlighting how they disrupted the agenda of the congresses over the question of elite corruption committed by former members of the party leadership and accountability for these wrongdoings. These episodes show that anti-corruption was a genuinely important moral preoccupation, as well as an argument for demanding change, and that, during the 1980s, ideas grounded in socialism still possessed major legitimacy.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Journal of Modern European History, 2020

During the tumultuous 1980s, Polish People’s Republic experimented with legal reforms and institu... more During the tumultuous 1980s, Polish People’s Republic experimented with legal reforms and institutions of the constitutional state. Among these institutions, set up according to the ideas of socialist legality, was the State Tribunal, tasked with determining accountability of the former leadership from the 1970s. Brought to life amid debates around economic crisis and official corruption and legally and politically constrained, the Tribunal failed to satisfy popular demands for justice. This article explores the idea of socialist legality by looking at the history of the State Tribunal in Poland. It analyses different understandings of justice and accountability, expressed during the Solidarity Revolution, and shows how they played out in public debates and the legislative process. In order to guarantee legitimacy in the unstable political situation, Polish socialist legality needed to go further than in other Eastern Bloc countries and to address popular grievances. In Poland therefore, socialist constitutional state-building started before martial law and significantly predated the turn to liberal democracy and market capitalism in 1989.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, 2018

The article examines the relationship between the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the... more The article examines the relationship between the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the First Secretary of the Polish United Worker’s Party, Edward Gierek, during the 1970s and contributes to the understanding of relationships between Brezhnev and other leaders of the Eastern Bloc. In order to fulfill his foreign policy goals, Brezhnev needed active and willing cooperation from the Eastern Bloc and its leaders benefited from this endeavor. Gierek responded to this demand by entering into an “uneven friendship” with Brezhnev that was established according to the Soviet “friendship code.” This privileged relationship was dependent on the inner situation within the Soviet leadership, the progress of détente, Poland’s domestic stability, and ultimately did not counterbalance Poland’s structurally disadvantageous status in the Eastern Bloc.

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Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, 2018

Zbigniew Iwanów (1948–1987) was an economic manager in a state-run factory in Toruń, Poland, and ... more Zbigniew Iwanów (1948–1987) was an economic manager in a state-run factory in Toruń, Poland, and a member of the Polish United Worker’s Party. During the “Polish Crisis” of 1980/1981 he started ‘unsupervised’ activity within the communist party, which aimed at democratization, free elections and autonomy for the rank-and-file organization. This led to his expulsion. The failure to change the party from within led him to join the independent trade union “Solidarity”. Incarcerated during the period of martial law and forced to migrate to the USA afterwards, he died in Texas in 1987. The article describes his political biography and analyses it in the light of Robert Merton’s theory of rebellion.

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Polska 1944/45-1989: studia i materiały, 2016

In the 1970s in Western Europe, in the United States, in the Middle East and in Central and South... more In the 1970s in Western Europe, in the United States, in the Middle East and in Central and South America many brutal terrorist attacks took place. The public opinion witnessed the activity of various groups, representing different systems of values. The acts of political violence were exercised in the name of ideology, national liberation or religion. Polish public opinion during the communist rule observed the happenings from a distance, but with much attention. People’s Poland in the 1970s published more than a dozen academic, journalist and popular works on the topic of terrorism. The most influential weekly papers (Polityka, Kultura) dedicated many features to the problem of terrorism. The article, basing on books and press articles from the period, aims to answer two questions. What did the state of public knowledge about terrorism, which could be acquired from open sources, look like? How was the phenomenon of international terrorism and its various forms described and evaluated?

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Neerlandica Wratislaviensia, 2015

Polish mining immigration to Belgium between 1918 and 1939 is a significant, yet overlooked pheno... more Polish mining immigration to Belgium between 1918 and 1939 is a significant, yet overlooked phenomenon. Despite difficult circumstances, Polish miners did not constitute a socially radical group. In fact, we witness quite opposite attitudes: focusing on honest work, religion and family. To understand this situation, we need to reconstruct various factors that influenced Polish miners in Belgium. An analysis led to dividing these factors into two categories: destabilising and stabilising. The former are rapid migration dynamics, blocked social advancement and communist activity. The latter I found in the presence of old mining societies and - most importantly - Polish diaspora's concentration, which slowed down the assimilation and also dispersion processes. Overall, Belgium was not treated as a necessary evil and after many years the province of Limburg was still called the "Belgian Silesia".

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W poszukiwaniu programu. Studia i szkice z dziejów opozycji politycznej w PRL 1976–1989, 2020

The article is an interpretation of the intellectual output of the political opposition in Poland... more The article is an interpretation of the intellectual output of the political opposition in Poland based on texts by Adam Michnik, Jacek Kuroń, and Leszek Moczulski, through the prism of the classical political philosophy as understood by Leo Strauss and Hanna Arendt. Similarly to the classics, Polish dissidents did not focus on the idea of the state and did not create any specific plans concerning a political system for the future. The center of their interest was the human being as a citizen and 'here and now' actions. They believed that the primary subject matter of politics is the society capable of voluntary self-organization. They rejected any use of violence in the name of the execution of abstract goals, as well as the separation between the areas of politics and ethics, so typical of modernity. These features were common to dissident movements in the entire Eastern Bloc.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Historical Memory of Central and East European Communism, 2018

The chapter analyzes the official narrative of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) aimed at e... more The chapter analyzes the official narrative of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP) aimed at explaining to its members the dramatic events of August 1980–December 1981 in the Polish People’s Republic. The chapter provides a historical outline of the events and describes the content of the official story, focusing on the occurrences inside the PUWP. The author argues that in the face of a sociopolitical conflict, caused by the introduction of martial law (state of war) on December 13, 1981, in reaction to tensions between the Polish communist authorities and the independent self-governing trade union “Solidarity” (established in August 1980), the Communist Party itself faced serious difficulties that could jeopardize its existence and effectiveness. Using social engineering methods of memory forging and a story narrative, the PUWP leadership persuaded its members to perceive the situation of August 1980–December 1981 as unbearable and the introduction of martial law as unavoidable. PUWP did it by way of pamphlets, booklets, reading and training materials, official speeches and addresses.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

In September 1975 Lazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw, a newly-build construction, caught fire. The eve... more In September 1975 Lazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw, a newly-build construction, caught fire. The event was preceded and succeeded by another three major blazes in the city. The series of catastrophes procured a spread of rumor and conspiracy theories concerning the nature of the event and its alleged perpetrators. The article analyzes the fire itself, its police investigation, as well as social reactions and their causes.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Biographical sketch of Zbigniew Iwanów, leader of an informal democratic movement within Polish U... more Biographical sketch of Zbigniew Iwanów, leader of an informal democratic movement within Polish United Workers Party in the 1980s. Economic executive in Toruń's Towimor marine engineering plant and popular party secretary, he challenged the Communist establishment with his ideas of democratic socialism and deep reforms. Expelled from PZPR, jailed and exiled, he died in Austin, TX in 1987.
The article describes Iwanów's political biography until September 1980.

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A story from 1980-1981 Polish Crisis. The article is based on three biographical case studies of ... more A story from 1980-1981 Polish Crisis. The article is based on three biographical case studies of people engaged at the same time in the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) and Solidarity Trade Union.

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The article in general describes the process of reckoning with Edward Gierek, which took place be... more The article in general describes the process of reckoning with Edward Gierek, which took place between 1980 and 1984. The author points out political, legal and social aspects of the problem and discusses some theoretical interpretations.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

"Puls" was an underground (Samizdat) literary magazine published in Łódź between 1977 and 1981. I... more "Puls" was an underground (Samizdat) literary magazine published in Łódź between 1977 and 1981. Its activity questioned previously untouchable styles and dogmas of Polish underground press of the 1970s: positions on public censorship and the Stalinist past. The article describes the magazine's history with a focus on its conflicts with Warsaw political opposition elites.

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Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2015: referaty, 2016

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This working papers series presents a broad range of research in post-1945 Polish studies gathere... more This working papers series presents a broad range of research in post-1945 Polish studies gathered under the common title 'Post-1945 Poland: Modernities, Transformations and Evolving Identities'. It contains edited versions of papers given at the cross-disciplinary two-day postgraduate conference that was organised by the Programme on Modern Poland (St Antony’s College, University of Oxford) in June 2015.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The Party is always right! Claims and realities of the communist parties in the German Democratic... more The Party is always right! Claims and realities of the communist parties in the German Democratic Republic and the Polish People's Republic since the 1970s

8-9 December 2017

German Institute of Polish Studies in Darmstadt, Germany

http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/

The workshop organized by the German Institute of Polish Studies (Deutsches Polen-Institut) is dedicated to the last two decades of communist rule in Germany and Poland and focuses on the communist parties: the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP). If the early 1970s in the German Democratic Republic and in Poland have been read as a time of stability, the 1980s represent a decade of political and economical decline. However, what do these allocations mean specifically, in a perspective concentrating on the communist parties themselves as well as on their societal context?

Aim of this workshop is to foster a dialogue between researchers from the dynamic and interdisciplinary field of historical party research. We want to discuss the functions of the communist parties in the central power structure of the German Democratic Republic and the People’s Republic of Poland. The workshop is directed at creating a differentiated idea of the inner networks of the party, the relations between party, state and society and the decline of state socialist parties. Thus not only dimensions of political history, but also of social and cultural history are to be considered. With these perspectives the claim of the parties to unlimited power and unity can be related to the many-layered historical realities.
Contributions might address topics such as:

- Historicity, present developments, approaches and perspectives of research on the SED and the PUWP,
- Inner networks, relations and functionalities of the parties since the 1970s (structures, factions, schisms, interest groups);
- Interactions and entanglements in the frame of party-state-society,
- Crises, decline and dissolution phenomena of the SED and the PUWP in the 1980s.

Confirmed commentators / speakers for the workshop:

Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Borodziej (Warschau)
Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow (Berlin/Potsdam

Working language:

The working language is German.
Deadlines and Requirements:

Talks on innovative case studies, comparative or overarching topics should not exceed 20 minutes.
Please send an abstract of your paper to roettjer@dpi-da.de by August 7, 2017. Notification of acceptance will be e-mailed as soon as possible thereafter.
Abstracts should be no more than 300 words in length. Please also include a biographical note with current affiliation.
Travel expenses of panelists will be reimbursed within Europe and supported within the limits of project funding in the case of overseas travel.

The workshop is funded by the foundation "Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur".
Organizers:

Julia Röttjer M.A. (German Institute of Polish Studies, Darmstadt)

Jakub Szumski M.A. (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)

http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/assets/Forschungsprojekt-Kommunis...

Contact Info:

Julia Röttjer M.A.
Deutsches Polen-Institut
Residenzschloss / Marktplatz 15
64283 Darmstadt
Germany
Contact Email:
roettjer@dpi-da.de
URL:
http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de/

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Routledge, 2018

Every political movement creates its own historical memory. The communist movement, though origin... more Every political movement creates its own historical memory. The communist movement, though originally oriented towards the future, was no exception: The theory of human history constitutes a substantial part of Karl Marx’s and Friedrich Engels’s writings, and the movement inspired by them very soon developed its own strong historical identity, combining the Marxist theory of history with the movement’s victorious milestones such as the October Revolution and later the Great Patriotic War, which served as communist legitimization myths throughout almost the entire twentieth century. During the Stalinist period, however, the movement´s history became strongly reinterpreted to suit Joseph Stalin’s political goals. After 1956, this reinterpretation lost most of its legitimating power and instead began to be a burden. The (unwanted) memory of Stalinism and subsequent examples of violence (the Gulag, Katyń, the 1956 Budapest uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring) contributed to the crisis of Eastern European state socialism in the late 1980s and led to attempts at reformulating or even rejecting communist self-identity. This book’s first section analyzes the post-1989 memory of communism and state socialism and the self-identity of the Eastern and Western European left. The second section examines the state-socialist and post-socialist memorial landscapes in the former German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia. The final section concentrates on the narratives the movement established, when in power, about its own past, with the examples of the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.

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Nielegalnie budowane wille i domy letniskowe, darmowe remonty mieszkań, ułatwiony dostęp do talon... more Nielegalnie budowane wille i domy letniskowe, darmowe remonty mieszkań, ułatwiony dostęp do talonów samochodowych i innych pożądanych dóbr. To tylko część zarzutów, z którymi po strajkach z sierpnia 1980 r. i zmianach personalnych na najwyższym szczeblu musiała się zmierzyć odchodząca ekipa Edwarda Gierka.
Podczas rewolucji „Solidarności” i w trakcie stanu wojennego trwały zarówno żywiołowe, jak i instytucjonalne rozliczenia z ekipą rządzącą krajem w latach siedemdziesiątych. Władze zostały poddane społecznemu naciskowi, aby ujawnić i osądzić przypadki korupcji i nadużywania stanowisk. W wyjaśnianie tych spraw zaangażowały się instytucje partyjne, państwowe oraz sądy, ale efekty ich działań nie były satysfakcjonujące.
Książka opowiada o korupcji wśród rządzących w sytuacji braku kontroli, o głęboko zakorzenionym społecznym pragnieniu równości i sprawiedliwości oraz o słabości państwa, które bezskutecznie próbowało pociągnąć do odpowiedzialności polityków kierujących krajem w poprzedniej dekadzie.
Książka nagrodzona w konkursie im. Władysława Pobóg-Malinowskiego na Najlepszy Debiut Historyczny Roku.

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The Coming to Terms with Political Corruption and Office Abuse Cases in Poland and the German Dem... more The Coming to Terms with Political Corruption and Office Abuse Cases in Poland and the German Democratic Republic during the 1980s. A Historical-Sociological Study.

During the 1980s state socialist Poland and East Germany were a scene of coming to terms with the fallen party leaderships of Edward Gierek and Erich Honecker. The fallen leaders and their confidants faced charges, among other things, of political corruption and office abuse. The events, which happened during transformative periods (1980/1981 in Poland and 1989/1990 in the German Democratic Republic) produced anti-corruption mindsets, discourses and activities and influenced the transformative periods’ dynamic and contributed to the demise of the system.

The applicant studies official documents, summaries of popular moods, legal proceedings and personal materials of top political figures. He analyzes the build-up of structures of the elite political corruption and the coming to terms with them during transformative periods in Poland and the German Democratic Republic during the 1980s. He seeks similarities and common patterns of revolutions. The goal of the project is to show unknown aspects of Polish-German and state socialist history.

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