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A Century of Selective Ignorance: Poland 1918–2018

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2019

Maciej Górny
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Abstract

The article identifies some of the rarely recalled phenomena accompanying Poland's path towards independence. First is the level of economic, cultural, and everyday integration with imperial centers. Second is the growing intensity of interethnic strife. Third, the social turmoil, at times bordering on popular revolt, started in 1917 and lasted long after 1918. Fourth is the large-scale economic transformation and deprivations that this transformation brought about. Finally is the general longing for restoring law and order, a feeling that facilitated actions by minor groups of nationalists capable of creating at least a rudimentary state apparatus. None of the newly-created states of east central Europe was a result of consequent political action. Rather, they came into existence out of the interplay of social, economic, and cultural factors.

Type
Critical Discussion Forum: 1918/2018
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , Fall 2019 , pp. 654 - 662
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2019 

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