Against Silence and Censorship. The Beginnings of Postwar Polish Historiography (1978–1989)

Abstract

From 1978 to 1989, a group of professional historians with a significant body of work was active in Warsaw; they undertook systematic research into the origins and early years of the People’s Republic of Poland. The participants in this informal seminar published a series of source-based articles in the uncensored journal
*Krytyka*, and in the “Krytyka” Library they also published several books highlighting the main problems (lack of sovereignty, the role of terror) and foundations (one-party rule) of the regime that had existed since 1944. After 1989, these individuals, particularly Krystyna Kersten and Andrzej Paczkowski, shaped the mainstream of postwar Polish historiography.