Izabella Main (Central European University)
The Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland, its Popular Perception and Memory
My paper will discuss and analyse the state project of celebrating the 10th anniversary of the establishment of communist rule in Poland. On July 22, 1944, the so-called July Manifesto was proclaimed by a group of Polish communists in Moscow. It became the founding act of the new regime and the 22nd July a state holiday. The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Manifesto aimed at strengthening the myth of the creation of the Communist state in Poland and the Polish character of the new regime. Lublin, the place was the first communist government was said to be formed and where the Manifesto was proclaimed played a special role in the celebrations. The central ceremony took place in the city and it was decided to build a monument there commemorating the liberation on July 22nd.
An examination of the celebration in 1954 sheds light on social attitudes in early communist Poland. Firstly, although the Catholic Church, very influential in Poland, participated in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the foundation of People's Poland, it actually undermined the official message. Believers and the clergy celebrated their own holidays (the Marian Year, Corpus Christi) and used certain banned symbols (e.g., the crowned eagle). Secondly, the early 1950s are described as "the conquest of society, or generalised terror" by many historians. However, there were moments of independent private actions, directed against the regime. Thirdly, a memory of the 1950s includes a broad support for social transformation and achievements in reconstructing country destroyed by war. People in Lublin also remember and appreciate the relocation of the prison from the castle.
It remains a difficult question whether support was a common popular experience or a projection of nostalgic memory resulting from the dissatisfaction with the present situation in Poland. Therefore, my paper closely re-examines the common experiences and memory of the mid-1950s when the Polish regime observed its anniversary while different groups and individuals opposed or supported it.