Citation

Kaftan J. Nations Nationalism 2007; 13(2): 301-320.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1469-8129.2007.00289.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Poland provides a critical example for studying how national identity is transformed to fit new domestic and global circumstances. While Poles must re-identify themselves as a democratic nation, they have a choice of whether to incorporate aspects of the communist experience or to ignore it and draw solely from other historical sources. A comparison of holiday newspaper articles from before and after 1989 provides an opportunity to observe this process through the lens of national commemoration. This review shows that themes of national identity are influenced by political context and their potential to unify without contestation. In addition, while the communist period remained a salient unifying historical experience for Poles, democratic values did not act as a unifying theme during the first ten years of Polish democracy.