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In the paper, we analyze the image of the Soviet Union and Russia presented by the Lithuanian and Polish states to the youngest generation. Our empirical data comes from textbooks for social sciences and recent history, beginning from the gaining independence of both countries after the First World War until the aggression on Ukraine in 2014. We focused on the ways of presenting to the pupils the politics, society, and culture of the Soviet and Russian states. We show how textbooks present the Russian state as irrational and dangerous and how the longue durée of the imperial thinking is seen as the leitmotiv of the narratives on Russian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author analyzes research results concerning visitors to the Museum of Warsaw. The creation of a new main exhibition at the museum was driven by a turn towards objects, which was a novelty in Poland. The study was conducted using the focus group interview method, with three groups: Polish students from Warsaw universities, Warsaw guides, and students from foreign countries who study at Warsaw universities. The paper presents what different visitors expect from the city museum and how those expectations correspond with the assumptions of the museum's curators. It also analyzes the role of emotions in experiencing a museum exhibition and the issue of the "authenticity" expected by visitors when they are in the museum. In addition, the author presents how visitors' expectations are divided between "knowledge" and "experience" categories and the consequences of this division for thinking about how the past is experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the narrative strategies employed by horse racing gamblers in the context of their interactions within interviews. The empirical base consisted of 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with long-term regular gamblers from Warsaw, Poland. First, we state our position in the context of interviews with people aware they may be assessed negatively regarding a very important part of their lives. Second, we discuss how the interlocutors presented their biographies and employed discursive methods of protection against negative interpretation. The research reveals how bettors justify their passion by referring to individual myths about the origins of their interest in gambling. We reveal how bettors consciously employ emotive discursive methods that alleviate the discourse of addiction. Emotions are not presented as triggered by compulsively realized needs but as a result of intellectual passion, pursued by like-minded people joined by a drive for agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article foregrounds Ukrainian migrants' perception of their social situation as followers of various Christian denominations--Roman Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodox--who live in Warsaw. I analyze their narratives through theories of belonging and anchoring. Based on interviews with Ukrainian religious activists I analyze the Ukrainian migrants' challenges regarding their religious and national loyalties. The article shows how religious divisions in Ukrainian society entered Poland along with the migrants and how Ukrainian national identity and place in Polish society are negotiated at the intersection of the three Christian denominations' activities, which thus creates a triangle of religious-national-political relations, in which Ukrainian migrants constantly negotiate belonging to the Polish society, the Ukrainian nation, and the religious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the authors examine the different phases of feminisation of the horse racing field in Poland, starting from the early communist times up to the present. The empirical material for the article is comprised of 20 in-depth interviews with women riders whose careers spanned different decades and is supplemented by field observation and statistics. Following the nationalisation of horse racing in 1950, women were excluded due to the employment policy pursued by the State Horse Racetrack Company and the traditional apprenticeship system. Things changed in 1968, when the status of amateur riders was formally established. After 1989, along with the privatisation of horse racing stables, a new influx of women riders was observed, although only a few have achieved the jockey status so far. The analysis of the social context and class background of women in horse racing is supplemented with the investigation of stereotypes on women's attributes internalised by female riders. The main claim of the article is that although the socio-economic conditions for horse racing in Poland changed dramatically over many decades, women invariably played 'rescue roles', which placed them on the fringes of the world of horse racing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the memory narrations of regular visitors to the Służewiec Racetrack in Warsaw are analysed. This, the only one long-term operating horse racetrack in communist Poland, was an enclave within public space, called by racegoers, who are predominantly elderly men, an 'oasis of freedom' – distant from the everyday reality and the rules of the official socialist ideology. The intricacies of the memory of regular racegoers are considered in reference to a broader discussion on the phenomenon of 'post-communist nostalgia'. The nostalgic narrations are not only connected with communism but also with the imaginations of inter-war period's horseracing. The authors show that contemporary interpretations of the horseracing world in communist Poland in terms of a 'paradise lost' expresses not positive assessing of the past but rather the criticism of post-communist times, when Polish horseracing has impoverished. Although the betting pools are now low, the ritualized gambling, practiced within the space of the Warsaw racetrack, seems to restore among the regular racegoers a sense of being in contact with that past better world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article the authors present an outline of the history of the Służewiec State Racecourse in People's Poland as well as during the political and social transformations after 1989. The Racecourse flourished in the communist era, although the principles of its functioning contradicted the official ideology of the socialist state. The authors also analyse memories of people associated with the Racecourse -- employees, horse racing regulars and journalists writing about horse racing in Warsaw. One motif keeps recurring in all these narratives about the past: more or less direct belief in the uniqueness, autonomy and in many cases emancipating functions of the Warsaw racecourse in People's Poland. The main axis of all analyses is provided by common social references to the category of "freedom" as well as related concepts of liberal attitude, empowerment and security present in the narratives concerning horse racing in communist times. The complexities of the memory of racecourse regulars are examined with regard to a broader discussion about the phenomenon of "post-communist nostalgia". The authors demonstrate that contemporary interpretations of the world of horse racing in communist Poland as a "paradise lost" express not a positive view of the past, but, rather, criticism of the post-communist era, when Polish horse racing declined rapidly. In the Racecourse employees' accounts nostalgia for lost freedom is associated primarily with a sense of social security within a community of fellow professionals and neighbours, a community isolated from the outside world and living its own life. On the other hand, for racecourse regulars the category of "freedom" is associated with a sense of being able to freely take economic risks as well as with acceptance of one's actions by the very sizeable and varied horse racing public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They compare two assistance programs for people with disabilities -- the program of the city of Warsaw and the program of he Office for People with Disabilities at the University of Warsaw. The authors show that in the assistants' statements one can find three images of "strangeness" of people with disabilities and analyze in details their content. Only one of them is a picture showing a social inclusion, and two others -- although they seem to be positive -- create distance between people with disabilities and the rest of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

У статті авторка аналізує спосіб мислення представників недержавні органі- зації любителів кресів II Речі Посполитої в сучасній Польщі. На підставі інтерв'ю з активістами, представниками трьох різних поколінь, авторкою було представлено суспільний поділ мнемічної праці стосовно пам'яті давніх кресів - суспільний поділ ролей, які відіграють представники наступних поколінь, їх мотивації, відносини і емо- ції, їх власна оцінка перебігу міжпоколінного діалогу пам'яті давніх кресів II Речі По- сполитої в сучасній Польщі та його сиспільного та індивідуального аспектів. In the article the author analyzes the way of thinking of NGO's representatives on transmission of the memory of the lost eastern borderlands of the Second Republic of Poland (called Kresy) in contemporary social and cultural conditions. Basing on interviews with activists from three different generations the author presents social division of mnemonic labor of Kresy - roles played by people from different generations, their motivations, emotional attitudes and their diagnosis of the process of memory transmission and its social and individual aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polish minorities in the westernmost post-Soviet states: The article provides an overview of the social situation of Polish minorities in Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. First, the author presents historical and social data on Polish minorities in these countries. It is stated that in each country the situation of Poles, and their identity as well, varies significantly depending on their different historical backgrounds, the Polish government's position on their case and the current policies of these states. Therefore, this diversity should be taken into consideration by the Polish government in order to execute its policy efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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