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Scout Rally at Birmingham and Imperial Scout Exhibition organised in July of 1913 by the Boy Scouts Association constituted educational propaganda of the British Empire. The term "imperial", which was used in the British press, reflects the ideological meaning of this outsized event which gathered scouts from the United Kingdom and its dominions, and much smaller groups of scouts from Europe, including quite numerous groups from Poland. In the eyes of Poles, British "imperialism" or "patriotism" confronted as an ideal compared to Russian and German rule, and their attitudes were enthusiastically Anglomaniacal. This is the psychological key to understand the attractiveness of performing on the British arena for the representation of the young generation of Poles who were invited. For Polish scouts, the Scout Rally in Birmingham was an opportunity to demonstrate not only their skills but also patriotism as a function of political presence. This is how the Polish press understood these things, and which after the British -- what needs to be emphasised -- paid the most attention to the events in Birmingham. The most important Polish dailies publishing in Cracow, Warsaw, Poznan, and Lvov (now Lviv) closely followed the course of the rally, which was given the rank of success by a two-sentence "depeche" from London and a lengthy letter published in the "Czas" daily paper. The object of interest for the author of the article is the book written by the founder of Polish scouting, Andrzej Malkowski, which constitutes a noteworthy record of observations made by him during the Scout Rally as well as those made by other organisers of the Polish delegation's trip and of letters from journalists who accompanied this delegation and sent their correspondence to the Polish press from Birmingham, London, and Paris. Only one journalist broke out from apologetic opinions about the excellent performance of Polish scouts, who noticed shortcomings in performance and wrote about them. The article introduces the content of these letters and interprets and compares them. The opinion about the triumphant rally in Birmingham rooted firmly in Polish public opinion, constituting an important element of the founding myth of Polish scouting, which in the history of this movement is worth noting.

The increase in nationalist tendencies around the world after 2001 signifies changes in the concept of citizenship as reflected in the discourses of the parties coming to power. How does this translate into changes in education? In this article, I analyse the case of Poland. The research is focused on finding an answer to the following question: How does the postulate present in the programme discourse of the ruling, conservative party, of strengthening the national identity, translate into the changes in the school core curricula (CCs)? The applied method of analysis is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The approach by Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl was adopted. The application of discursive strategies in learning outcomes relating to national identity, social equality, and diversity in the old and in the new CCs, was investigated. The analyses demonstrated a significant discursive strengthening of the national identity on the one hand, and application of mitigation/exclusion strategies in relation to issues of social equality and diversity on the other. The analyses presented in this paper contribute to the discussion on the relationship between curriculum studies and educational politics by showing the influence of the dominant ideology of contemporary politics on the concept of citizenship in the national CCs.

In this article, we use the zombies as a metaphor for reforms in the Polish academy and a description of how neoliberalism works. According to the interpretation of the production of zombies as a critique of late capitalism, we want to show, by using an autoethnographic method, how subjectivity, relationships with others and the world are changing in the neoliberal regime. How do reforms attempt to transform subjectivity, and raise a new academic? Our co-autoethnography challenges the University of the (Un)Dead. We write together to show the experience of an insider (Oskar) and a quasi-outsider (former PhD student, Dominika). We are trying to show how nationalist authoritarianism emerges, at the same time, as part of the neoliberal regime. Our story is a record from the time of the apocalypse -- an attempt to provoke. Let us trust the stories.

Despite predictions that liberal democracy was ascendent as a paradigm for governance in the contemporary era, the world has witnessed an alarming rise in authoritarian nationalism. A seeming preference for open and transparent models of plural democratic government has been challenged by the global advance of despotic and repressive regimes that are organized around racial, religious, and nationalist themes. Social work, grounded in the practice and pursuit of human rights, stands in stark contrast to authoritarian nationalism and is called to act through public diplomacy and soft power to counter emergent neo-fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of websites as historical sources, using a comparative case study of Germany and Poland's respective lost territories after WWII and the border changes ordered by Stalin. The article proposes a methodology derived from the 'Toolbox' of the Oxford Internet Institute, which includes link and referral analysis plus sourcing of data about websites in past formats via the 'Wayback Machine' (archive.org). Its aim is to suggest ways in which historians can better assess the material function of these online sources within the wider taxonomy of historical discussion, in ways often taken for granted for traditional publications: for instance, noting ascribed provenance, prominence, age and stability as textual sources, in addition to their contents. The approach is tested through two websites each from Poland and Germany, construed as a pilot and spur to further investigation for application to other cases beyond where contentious episodes of 20th Century history are reframed to serve illiberal agendas, notably in Central Europe by parties such as Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary, or AfD in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the case law in Poland on matters of the return of children wrongfully removed or retained within the framework of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction during the period of the "populist" government (2020–2022). It takes account of the legislative and judicial developments in the EU and the European Court of Human Rights and of the aims of the Hague Convention. It seeks to ascertain whether the influence of populist reforms and politicisation of the courts has become apparent in the case law of the Polish Supreme Court on international child abduction cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how highly skilled immigrants from Poland become middle-class in Germany through a transnational and intersectional lens. Hence, it asks what is the middle-class, and who and where belongs to it. First, it considers the fluidity of social class in post-socialist Poland to deconstruct middle-classness. Second, it draws on Reckwitz's distinction between the new and old middle classes in Germany and their factions to argue that immigrants cannot become middle class members by default. Based on the analysis of empirical material consisting of narrations of Polish immigrants, the article asks if Polish immigrants become middle class 'by effort'. The analysis shows that Polish immigrants' habitus locates them in-between different middle-class factions. The narrations suggest that these immigrants experience discrimination and exclusion, but – curiously – also demonstrate these immigrants' lack of awareness of structural barriers in access to the middle-class factions in Germany. It argues that such 'blindness' to structural underpinnings of exclusion is a result of the entanglements of nationalism and neoliberalism, for example, the immigrants' belief in meritocratic principles. Finally, the article suggests avenues for future theory-building by addressing the intersection of social class, gender, life course, and ethnicity to better understand middle-classness of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated efforts to combat species extinction mobilize a network of institutional and logistical interventions, as well as politicized ideas about indigeneity and belonging. This article maps out the knowledge exchange and circulation of animal bodies between the Zoological Garden in Poznań and the forest reserve in Białowieża during the interwar period in Poland as part of the state-building project. A focus on the reintroduction of the wisent (Bison bonasus) and the back-breeding of the tarpan wild horse (Equus ferus ferus) exposes the biopolitical logistics of infrastructuring wildlife in the age of nationalism. Through these two breeding projects, animal bodies emerge at the interface between zoological and war logistics, demonstrating how biological life becomes the target of military intervention via species conservation. Looking closely at the efforts to restore the populations of extinct and extant representatives of local megafauna, this article highlights the renewed interest in native species as an accessible resource for recrafting institutional and national identities. By analyzing the logistical strategies of a marginal zoological collection in relation to a nature reserve in the last primeval forest of Europe, it traces how these strategies impacted both local and global scientific research and its popularization. Not only does such a shared institutional history reveal the itineraries of knowledge production but also the ways in which war has shaped nature management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two related goals: theoretical and empirical. First, it develops the theory of hegemony by integrating it with the concept of the collective emotional field in the context of nationalist memory politics. It then draws on the concept of hegemony to analyze the commemoration of the postwar anticommunist underground in Poland after 1989 and its grassroots reception. The article shows how memory politics work not only on the symbolic but also on the emotional level as a manifestation of a nationalist exclusionary affective politics of citizenship that creates a collective emotional field of pride but also of fear and threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Solidarity movement narratives, focusing on church representatives, religious issues, and symbols in the Polish history textbooks for upper secondary schools between 1991 and 2018. The analysed textbooks prove to reinforce Poland's national and religious identities, with John Paul II and the priest Popiełuszko being the primary national heroes of the Solidarity movement. The Catholic Church is presented as a protector of national values during the Solidarity period. The study also reveals the gradual reduction and simplification of the textbooks' content. This tendency is a trigger for the polarisation of the historical discourse, posing a weapon for secular policies to misuse the ideological and symbolic roles of the Church in reproducing the Pole-Catholic pattern in history textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1990s, large numbers of Polish Roma have emigrated, mainly to Germany and Great Britain. Unlike the migration of Polish (non-Roma) citizens there was an intriguing silence regarding the migration of this ethnic group. The absence of Roma in the grand narrative of migrations from Poland, as we argue, suggests that the notion of belonging and citizenship were unequally distributed among Poland's population. Based on our ongoing ethnographic research among Polish Roma migrants, complemented by an analysis of relevant documents, we argue that these inequalities and hierarchies are deeply rooted and there is an interesting continuity in how they were produced and reproduced prior to and after the 1989 regime change. We argue that one of the key factors in these movements, the collectiveness of the migration project – i.e. migrating as an extended family group as a component of the moral economy of Roma mobility – is mutually produced by unequal citizenship, mobility regimes and strong moral obligations stemming from kinship ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how politically active Polish women starting in the late nineteenth century until the start of World War II viewed themselves and their duties vis-a-vis the Polish nation. It traces the women's movement in Poland from the first calls for women's right to work, to their eventual enfranchisement under a newly independent Polish state in 1918. Challenges to women's equality took many forms: men from both sides of the political spectrum viewed women's entry into the salaried workforce and the public sphere as largely undesirable and deployed a variety of arguments to reinforce traditional gender hierarchy. Yet many educated Polish women, even from conservative, Catholic perspectives, viewed their engagement in the public sphere as necessary work for the good of the Polish nation. This article uses letters, political pamphlets, and published works to explore how modern Polish women attempted to strike a balance between breaking and preserving traditional notions of gender in order to secure new rights for themselves in a volatile political atmosphere. While Polish women's groups differed on their vision of the ideal Polish state, they generally agreed that women's roles as mothers provided the moral legitimacy required to act in the public sphere. They successfully carved a space for themselves in the new Polish state of 1918 but remained marginalized in a separate and unequal status in the interwar period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three case studies depict different attitudes of anthropologists toward the politics of nationalism promoted by the prewar Polish state. Ethnographer Stanisław Dworakowski, involved in a governmental Committee for the Issues of Petty Nobility in Eastern Poland, elaborated a study on this social stratum. Although based on reliable field research, it can hardly be considered scientific work, as it has many features of political propaganda. Quite opposite is the case of folklorist Joachim Chajes, secretary of the Ethnographical Commission of YIVO. Contemporary Soviet folklore was one of the fields of his research, which Polish anticommunist and antisemitic authorities found suspicious. Accused of communist activity, he was imprisoned. Social anthropologist Józef Obrębski can be situated between those two extremes. His field research among East Slavic peasants in Eastern Poland, concerning their developing national identity, although conducted within a national scientific program and financed by the state, is an example of intellectual independence. By revealing the negative attitude of the peasants toward Polish authorities, Obrębski achieved an outcome, which did not fulfill the official political expectations. These three trajectories show competitive coexistence of the meta-field of power and the scientific field, focused on their respective stakes: power and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of commemorative street names as carriers of memory and signs of national identity. The overall collection of Polish streets, gathered in the TERYT database of the Central Statistical Office, is taken into consideration. The specificity of commemorative names and the essence of commemoration as a social phenomenon are discussed. The article presents a list of the 100 most common street namesakes in Poland, along with their most general characteristics (typology of namesakes) linked to numerical data. The final section sketchily outlines the research potential based on such a database, focused on unveiling significant aspects of Polish culture and value patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores anti-Jewish violence in Galicia and the Czech Lands during 1918– 1919, revealing dynamics amidst the collapse of the Austrian monarchy. The interconnected factors of economic hardships, and nationalism were manifested differently in each region. The delegitimization of state power served as a backdrop, with attacks on Jews expressing dissatisfaction with the old order. Both territories witnessed Jews targeted during hunger riots, emphasizing the blend of economic discontent and anti-Jewish sentiments. Robust national consciousness played a pivotal role, although accompanied by a strong social revolutionary factor. Symbolic acts of violence expressed a moral economy that condemned the perceived hoarding and immoral profiteering and Jewish impure relationship with God. While both regions faced violent outbreaks, Galicia endured incomparably more severe and deadly violence. This comparative analysis provides insights into the complex dynamics that shaped post-monarchy East Central Europe, crucial for understanding the complexities surrounding anti-Jewish violence during this revolutionary period. Furthermore, this comparative analysis highlights how different socio-cultural and economic contexts influenced violence against Jews, simultaneously shedding light on the larger process of nation-building in post-World War I East Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article historicizes social and state practices that Jasbir Puar dubbed "homonationalism." It argues against simplistic applications of the term to the relations between "western" and "eastern" European countries. Instead, it appeals for a more profound contextualisation of every national case. Using 20th-century Poland as a case study, it demonstrates that both homophobia and homonationalism had antecedents and that both can be used as political strategies by nationalist actors that have not previously deployed them. It also seeks to decentre the narrative about homonationalism by averting attention from the state and focusing it on lived queer experiences in Poland. The term grassroots homonationalism is an attempt to bring such analytical attention to the agency of queer subjects and their communities. It aims to conceptualise their attitudes toward nationalist discourses and state practices (both homophobic and homonationalist) and expose ways in which non-normative sexualities and their history have been politically instrumentalised. It helps to analyse attitudes that some queers in Poland have adopted when facing the issue that Puar described as a "collusion of nationalism and queer subjects". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to investigate the concept of minority up to the temporary stabilization of its meaning in Polish concluded in the adoption of the March constitution of 1921. The history of the concept of national minority bore an imprint on the accommodation to the new political, territorial, and discursive circumstances after transition from empire to nation-state. The idea itself was well anchored in the liberal tradition, but the nationalist right also took it on board to protect the cultural hegemony of the Poles in the areas where they were a minority. Tackling the nexus of the emerging nation-state and the ensuing logic of minoritization sheds light on tiered visions of citizenship essential for understanding the 1921 debate. For this purpose, I use various available sub-corpora of texts—political leaflets, press, and parliamentary debates from the period 1788–1922. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the difference between the construction of national and local identifications related to the new place of residence. It shows that local identification is more inclusive than national, and therefore may be a key to strengthening social cohesion. National and local identities can both be seen as forms of place identification (i.e., of spatial or territorial identity). The article builds on qualitative research on highly skilled migrants living in Wrocław, Poland. The empirical data shows that these migrants would rather obtain a city identification and call themselves Wrocławianie (inhabitants of Wrocław), and do not want, or only partially want, Polish national identity. Living in and experiencing Wrocław makes them feel like insiders, while experiencing Poland positions them as outsiders. While national identity is built around the difference between "us" and "them", local identity focuses on gaining knowledge about the particularity of a place and therefore allows for acceptance of heterogeneity and is easier for migrants to obtain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose is to attempt to analyze the socio-political development and military situation in the Volyn area during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917--1921. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and specifically historical research methods, including problemchronological, synchronous, diachronic, comparative-historical, etc. The scientific novelty. An attempt is made to summarize the events of the Ukrainian revolution on the territory of Volyn in the context of the national and international situation. Conclusions. During 1917--1921, Volyn, like all of Ukraine, experienced revolutionary upheavals. During the time of administration by the Russian Provisional Government, the people of Volyn felt the rise of national consciousness in the general revolutionary wave, formed the structures of the national movement, and undertook the democratization and Ukrainization of social and political life. In November 1917, Volyn, as a part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, almost immediately fell into the vortex of the first Bolshevik-Ukrainian war. Also, the front of World War I ran through the region, which certainly left its mark. The outermost west of Volyn continued to be under the control of the Austrians until November 1918. In 1919, it became one of the epicenters of the Ukrainian Revolution, where significant events took place (including V. Oskilko's coup d'état attempt, O. Volokh's theft of the state treasury, the Liubar Declaration, etc.). Shortly, Volyn became the place of the last chord of the Ukrainian revolution -- the 2nd Winter Campaign of the Ukrainian People's Republic Army. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to analyse the mobilisation of a collective memory for political purposes by the Law and Justice party in Poland. PiS is often presented as a populist party, which came to power thanks to an anti-elite rhetoric and social programme. The party portrayed itself as a representative of socially excluded groups as well as a defender of 'normal' people against corrupted elites. At the same time, PiS mobilised its supporters by referring to a certain construction of the national past. We analyse the tension between populist rhetoric accompanying social reforms aimed at social inclusion and the practice of mobilising exclusive historical memory and strengthening exclusionary Polish national identity. In the selected examples of education reform, museum policy and the cult of the Cursed Soldiers, we demonstrate the traditional and nationalist approach of the party to history, which is reduced to heroic struggles for national freedom. In the image of the past evoked by PiS, the sharp division between 'we, the simple people' and 'elites' weakens; instead, the dichotomy between 'us' and 'them' is constructed in the national terms 'Poles' vs. 'Others'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football stadiums are one of the places where nationalistic views are presented. This is done by means of displays held by organised supporters – ultras. This study aims to examine (1) to what extent the postulates of performative national ideology presented by ultras in Polish stadiums are shared by fans of Polish football clubs; and (2) whether they translate into corresponding attitudes at the individual level. The study is based on a survey conducted on a sample representative for Polish citizens (N = 4030) from which football fans were extracted (N = 643). The results show that being a fan of a Polish football club accounts for significantly higher scores on postulates referring to ethnic and racial criteria of national identity, belief in permanent struggle of nations, small nation type of collective memory and glorification of past war heroes. They also indicate that a higher level of acceptance of these postulates by fans predicts higher levels of prejudice against minorities and other nations, and higher levels of national pride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the growing rift between Western and Eastern Europe regarding the commemoration of Europe's recent past and related historical narratives of nationhood that shape contemporary political preferences. More specifically, it investigates the connections between collective memory, national identities, and democratic cultures as they manifest themselves in Germany and Poland. With the help of an interpretative analysis focused on the discourse of political elites in both countries, the article identifies competing ways of interpreting 20th-century history and providing it with meaning for contemporary audiences. The national case studies of Germany and Poland present a contrasting logic in this respect: the promise of freedom and democracy in Poland is primarily narrated as the liberation from foreign rule and the desire for national independence. This narration is significantly built around a notion of popular sovereignty in which dissenting views of the heroic national past tend to be discredited and largely banned from public debate. In contrast, in Germany, the memory of fascism and the Holocaust has established a stronger rights-based approach to democracy in the liberal tradition and an openness to contesting historical narratives in the public domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the anti-Lukashenka protest movement in Belarus by comparing it to the Solidarity movement in Poland. We organize our analysis around the concept of four stages identifiable in the development of social movements: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline. We argue that protests in Belarus reached the bureaucratization stage, but their transformation into a more durable movement was slowed down by the brutal repressions unleashed by the Lukashenka regime propped up by Putin's Russia. However, the spectacular changes in people's conceptions of national identity built around symbols different from those associated with the officialdom may sustain emotional mobilization necessary for formation of higher levels of organizations in the oppressive context of today's Belarus. The contours of this process are brought into sharp relief when compared with the long, cumulative trajectory of the 1956-89 anti-authoritarian Polish revolts. This opens the way for cautious prognostication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the ethnic entanglements of the land reform debate in the first Polish Diet (1919–1922). Against the backdrop of global comparative studies, interwar Poland, haunted by land hunger, rural poverty, and high concentration of land ownership, is an odd case. Despite conditions conducive to far-reaching land reforms, that is, a high level of inter-elite conflict and semiautocratic order, the Polish reform was very moderate, if not disappointing. Unpacking the series of moves in the debate and the sequence of hairbreadth voting on its shape, I ask why, despite broad acceptance of the reform across the political spectrum, it could not attract enough support to be swiftly executed. The ethnic composition of the country triggered controversies concerning German farmers and peasants of the ethnically diversified eastern borderlands. Major political parties shared tacit Polish nationalism, but the history of political alignments made the nationalist politicians susceptible to the lobbying of the landed elite and estranged them from peasant parties. The land holdings of nobles were considered a bulwark of the nation, which effectively blocked the alternative idea of integrating the ethnic minorities via land ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take the shifting position of »Ukrainians« within the political and imaginary European space since the full Russian invasion and EU’s activation of the »temporary protection directive« as an entry point to examine how the relation between the border, »race« and »Europeanness« is currently reaffirmed in the consolidation of a bifurcated European border regime. Against the backdrop of a research trip to the Polish Belarusian border zone, we argue that the massive fortification of the EU external borders needs to be read not only as a »deterrence regime« directed outwards but in relation to its »internalizing effects« and in conjunction with the ongoing authoritarian transformation of European politics and societies. We examine the fortified border spectacle as racializing infrastructures and trace the emergence of a new spatio-moral regime we call »fortified nationalism« which is directed at reconstituting the body politic as a morally purified, white Christian nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three decades ago, political science and legal studies took almost no interest in a small region in Central Europe called Upper Silesia. Today, the scholarly literature in many disciplines is growing due, among other things, to the references to the situation of Silesians made by the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Fourth Opinion on Poland. However, most of those studies do not include analysis of the most important political context: ethnopolitics in the Republic of Poland, its past and present. In this paper, we aim to explore the dynamic relations between Poles and Silesians and the consequences of those relations on public law. We also analyse the rise of the ethnoregionalist movement in Upper Silesia. Then, we analyse ethnopolitics in Poland in relation to Upper Silesia, especially in the context of Polish national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion influencing politics and politics impacting religion to achieve its own, very non-religious, goals are determining the reality of contemporary states and of global politics. Mutual relations between religion and nationalism have proven to be one of the most complex and unequivocal challenges shaping contemporary states in the areas of both their domestic and their foreign policies. This article is an attempt to compare two cases which are often wrongly perceived as twin models of links between religion and politics, namely Poland and Hungary. In both states, based either on actually present or on "constructed" Christian values, myths and symbols religious–national narratives have been developed by leading politicians (Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland and Viktor Orbán in Hungary) linked directly to the sacralization of ethnos (nation) and the ethnicization of religion. The conducted analysis has a theoretical character. The sacralization of nation and the ethnicization of religion occurring in Poland and Hungary are presented against quite different historical and cultural backgrounds and levels of religiosity/secularization in both countries. In order to explain this specificity, an analysis is performed upon a broader historical and cultural context and upon a specific understanding of religion and nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work suggests that collective narcissism—an exaggerated, unrealistic belief in an ingroup's greatness that demands constant external validation—is a strong predictor of a variety of political attitudes. In the present study, we use nationally representative panel data from Poland to examine the relationship between national collective narcissism and nationalism, a belief that the national ingroup is superior and should dominate other nations. We first demonstrate that national collective narcissism, nationalism, and mere satisfaction with national ingroup are distinct. In turn, in both cross‐sectional and panel analyses, we find that (1) national collective narcissism is positively related to nationalism, whereas satisfaction with the national ingroup is not; and (2) national collective narcissism is a stronger predictor of nationalism than national ingroup satisfaction is in absolute terms. Our analyses thus provide evidence that nationalism may be rooted in narcissistic exaggeration of the greatness of the national ingroup rather than nonnarcissistic national ingroup satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the article is to deconstruct slogans and phrases that transmit anti-Semitism in Poland despite the apparent changing political and historical context. It contains a comparative analysis of messages from two historical periods: the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 and the nationalist and anti-Semitic revival in 2018. The material related to the 1968 events comes from archival press materials published between 1967 and 1968. On the other hand, materials illustrating the upsurge of anti-Semitism in the public space after the adoption of the memory law emanate from various sources representing the PiS (Law and Justice) party environment released between January and May 2018. The analysis of the anti-Semitic narrative from two different historical periods shows that nationalist message is always intended to strengthen the authoritarian power and mobilise its supporters by attacking imaginary opponents. Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in communist Poland served a similar function as anti-Semitic clichés under the rule of the populist right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Democratic erosion, also referred in the academic literature as democratic backsliding, occurs when the democratic institutions, instruments, and mechanisms that a state possesses start to lose their functionality, thus resulting in weaker democracies, making them vulnerable to become an authoritarian or illiberal regime. Considering the rise of populist and nationalist tendencies displayed throughout Europe in recent years, this article focuses on Poland, addressing three principal aspects: What changes can be identified and traced in Poland that led to democratic erosion? Were there any precursors or facilitators to this erosion? How does the opposition respond to the process of democratic erosion? In order to answer these questions, we turned to the existing literature, as it offers the necessary complex understanding of the current dynamic. We analysed different democratic indexes that allowed us to compare multiple indicators and we followed the chain of events that contributed to creating the context for illiberal actors to enter the political scene. Some of the problems this article addresses are related to the effect Poland's democratic backsliding has in matters such as the electoral process, government functionality, civil society, individual rights, school system, justice and media, and the overall welfare of the population. Our research brings forward the role that the socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the population have in the tailoring of Poland's political path centred around the changes between 2015 and 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gender & Language is the property of Equinox Publishing Group and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ber Mark, the longstanding director of ŻIH (1949–1966), is generally considered a regime historian who adhered to the Communist Party line in his histories of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, most of which were significantly distorted by Communist bias. In 1957, however, he published a book dealing with premodern Jewish history. Di geshikhte fun yidn in poyln (bizn sof fun XV y[or]h[undert]) (The History of Jews in Poland [until the End of the Fifteenth Century]) represents an attempt by Mark to reconcile an orthodox Marxist interpretation of Jewish history with a Zionist Marxist construction, with its nod to Jewish nationalism. In this book, then, Mark had ultimately reached a crossroads in his writing of Jewish history. With its incorporation of a nationalist understanding of Jewish history in coexistence with a Communist one, Di geshikhte fun yidn in poyln marks the end of pure Marxist historiography in Yiddish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces two letters by outstanding Polish émigrés: Józef Czapski (1896–1993), renowned painter and author of a memoir from the time of his incarceration in the Soviet prisons, and Andrzej Bobkowski (1913–1961), the writer best known for his book of diaries, Szkice piórkiem [Wartime notebooks: France, 1940–1944]. The introductory essay describes the long friendship between these two icons of the post-war Polish diaspora, men of strikingly different personalities, the contemplative Czapski and flamboyant Bobkowski. Both created remarkable books of diaries, compared and analyzed here within the context of their authors' biographies, and the multi-faceted Polish cultural life in exile from communist-ruled Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The article aims to investigate how patriotic entrepreneurship is understood by Polish and Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Research Design & Methods: Qualitative research was carried out as part of the research conducted on the opportunities presented by the development of patriotic entrepreneurship. As part of the qualitative research, in-depth individual inter-views were conducted with ten entrepreneurs doing business in Poland and Ukraine. Findings: The results showed that the concept of patriotic entrepreneurship was positively evaluated by the entrepreneurs and should be expressed in greater entrepreneurial independence. In their answers, the entrepreneurs paid attention to the need to 'humanise' entrepreneurship. They also showed understanding and strong support for consumer ethnocentrism, which is one of the dimensions of patriotic entrepreneurship. Patriotic entrepreneurship is also determined by preferences as to where a business is conducted. Respondents also indicated that the best place to do business was their own country of origin, empowering their own business, which increases independence from international consortia. Implications & Recommendations: Patriotic entrepreneurship can be one of the important motivations for consumer, managerial, and employee actions. Contribution & Value Added: The study was exploratory in nature. Due to the very scarce literature in the field of patriotic entrepreneur-ship, it will serve as a basis for future research in the mentioned area. By systematising the knowledge in this area, it will be possible to better prepare future research projects in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examines psychological concomitants of support for anti-abortion laws in Poland in the wake of the Constitutional Tribunal's 2020 ruling restricting access to abortion in cases of fetal malformations. Results of two cross-sectional studies conducted on representative samples of Poles (Study 1, N = 994 and Study 2, N = 432) indicated that support for an almost total abortion ban was associated with national narcissism – a belief in the national in-group's greatness that is contingent on its external validation. In both studies, the relationship between national narcissism and support for anti-abortion laws was mediated by hostile, but not benevolent, sexism. Study 2 additionally showed that this effect remained significant even when we accounted for other important variables, such as individual narcissism or prejudice towards people with Down syndrome. Overall, our results indicate that national narcissism may play an important role in shaping anti-abortion attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the fate of liberal nationalism in the post-communist space and the rise of illiberal variants in recent years. It explores how liberalism has been decoupled from nationalism and is now closely associated with cosmopolitanism, which supports universal rights while downplaying notions of national citizenship. The result is that, as publics have grown sour on globalization and institutions such as the European Union, illiberal nationalism has become the "default" nationalist response. While recognizing that this reaction holds across much of Europe, it investigates the rise of illiberal nationalism in Hungary and Poland. In addition to analyzing actions and statements of political elites, it presents public opinion data to argue that there remains a pronounced East-West gap on several fundamental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses responses to the typhus epidemic in German-occupied Poland during the First World War. The German conquest of the Kingdom of Poland in 1915 not only instated a new political regime, but also brought about social misery on an unprecedented scale. Especially in larger cities, the poor segments of the population were made homeless or cramped into tiny apartments and suffered from hunger and disease. From 1915 outbreaks of typhus occurred in major cities, often found amongst the Jewish population. The German occupiers forcefully responded by fumigating houses, quarantining suspected cases, and forcing thousands of families into delousing facilities. These measures particularly targeted Jews as German medical officials identified them as the carriers and spreaders of the disease – some of them characterized typhus itself as a 'Jewish disease'. In an effort to prevent the spread of the disease to Germany and to protect the German Volkskörper, Polish Jews – for the fact that they were Jews – were from 1918 onwards barred from crossing the border and thousands of Jewish migrant workers in German industry were arrested and deported. The article examines both the political and the medical context in which these policies were employed and analyses Jewish responses to both the spreading of the disease and the German anti-Jewish policies. It shows the close connection between health policy and antisemitic and nationalist ideological narratives and projects, and identifies this racialization of disease as a key moment in the development of German antisemitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article contains a cultural analysis of the March of Independence as a symbol of nationalist revival in Poland. The authors analyse the social context of this event, show its history and, inspired by Goffman's classic approach, describe the theatrical setting of this annual event – its scenography, props, musical setting and costumes ('patriotic clothing'). In addition to participant observation, the authors analyse materials posted by the organisers of the March of Independence on the YouTube channel. The article presents historical and cultural patterns used by contemporary Polish nationalists – primarily symbols, messages and ideology of nationalists from the interwar period (1918–1939). According to the authors, events such as the March of Independence are a manifestation of local discourse over Western modernisation. The neoliberal order in Eastern Europe cannot do without the help of nationalism – losers of the neoliberal transformation have become the main basis for the 'national awakening'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the preponderance of men within radical-nationalist circles, an increase in women's participation has recently been observed. Considering the general anti-feminist statements voiced in nationalist milieus, it is crucial to find out how women, in particular, frame their nationalist involvement and, more generally, their role in society. Based on an analysis of articles published by female nationalists, this article explores the discursive strategies used by these women in the construction of gender roles and women's position in the society. The article thus highlights the heterogenous character of women's involvement in nationalism, and distinguishes two main wings among female nationalists: (dominant) nationalist conservatives and (less present) nationalist quasi-feminists. On the one hand, female nationalists perceive women as keepers and reproducers of culture, and their activities can be understood as a kind of alternative emancipation linked to a rejection of (liberal) feminism. On the other hand, certain female nationalists attempt to negotiate between notions of conservatism and feminism, calling for new (right-wing) spaces of female political involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isaiah Trunk (1905–81), the author of the classic work Judenrat, was one of the few Polish Jewish historians to survive the Holocaust. His trajectory reflects the key political and intellectual experiences and developments that shaped Jewish historiography in the twentieth century, from the Russian Revolution and the revival of Yiddish culture in the interwar years to Stalinism, the Holocaust, and the period of relative peace and prosperity in the postwar United States. The Holocaust and Stalinism left Trunk disillusioned with socialist internationalism and prompted a shift in his historical thinking "from class to nation." Nevertheless, his lifelong commitment to Bundism reflected his determination to fight for the preservation of Polish Jewish culture, including its socialist traditions. Moreover, throughout his life, he retained a concern for social equality and the conviction that history, as an empirical science, was an important weapon in the struggle against antisemitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to provide a holistic presentation of the genesis, intensity, and directions of movement, as well as the spatial and temporal distribution of the German national group which settled in Central Poland from the end of the 18th century to the 1820-1830 period. This paper analyses the determinants of the inflow of German immigrants, and their geographical origin, as well as the social and occupational structure. The settlers from German lands were a very diverse social group. In the case of first and second-generation immigrants who came to Central Poland, the social integration process was still quite slow. The colonists and settlers living in the diaspora developed a certain pattern of existence that focused on their immediate environment separating them from the outside world, while the retention of their mother tongue and religious tradition was more an expression of traditionalist consciousness than national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at a cultural component of Scottish nationalism and presents a novel understanding of state-church relations concerning nationalism in the twenty-first century. It offers an in-depth analysis of decisions and strategies employed by religious actors in dealing with the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. In contrast to the nationalist polarisation fuelled by exclusionary claims of national religion in contemporary democracies such as India, Poland or the USA, religion in Scotland depolarised nationalism. Most churches were willing to risk the existing state-church hierarchy of a national church for the religious autonomy inherent in ecumenism. The study discusses religious pluralism and equality as mechanisms through which religion depolarises nationalism and enables democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Members of the Greek community living in Poland are making efforts to obtain the status of a national minority. Their ancestors have been present on Polish lands since the Middle Ages. Over the centuries, Greeks played an important role in the development of economic and scientific life of Polish cities. They were co-creators of Polish culture, art, and animators of the development of Orthodox religious life. Nowadays, the Greek minority is a permanent element of the Polish society, cultivating its own national and religious traditions. Its representatives are political and local government activists. Through the created organizational structures, they emphasize and cultivate their own national identity. The Greeks in Poland meet all the legal requirements for recognition as a national minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the phenomenon of nationalist rap in Poland. According to the authors, the seemingly independent rap uses a more radical version of the discourse of the right-wing establishment that refers to nationalism, Islamophobia, and opposition to migrants. As there is no left-wing cultural narrative in the public space, nationalist rap has become a voice of those who have not benefited from the process of neoliberal transformation in Eastern Europe and a musical setting for the far right. From this perspective, nationalist rap is an identity response to class marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses a popular survey on national identity in Poland. However, the analysis of the survey is a pretext to remind one of the limitations of crude quantitative methods and to look at the Polish national identity itself. The article shows that the survey questions are far from unambiguous, and respondents might attribute different meanings to them. The survey does not "measure" national identity existing in the world, rather it serves to maintain the hegemonic concept of Polishness. It diminishes the significance of Catholicism and the perceived biological dimension of Polishness. It ignores public sentiment linking Whiteness and Polishness, contributing to maintaining the dominant image of Polishness as free of racism. Under the guise of objective research, the survey is one of the elements sustaining the image of a relatively open and inclusive Polishness. Referring to my own qualitative research and recent literature on the topic, I argue that Polish identity must be seen in terms of selective racism without racism—that is, it is an identity based on racial premises but which at the same time neglects its racial character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]