Abstract
The chapter discusses how Poland dealt with its communist past. In the first decade after 1989, this was not a priority but at the end of the 1990s, the Polish Parliament established the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). The IPN took a dominant position, organizing memory politics, framing new national narratives, and playing a judicial role. However, it also became the object of party politics under different ruling coalitions. The chapter demonstrates that the IPN resulted from a political fight but survived due to its scientific relevance. Still, both its historical and its judicial activities remained politicized and were often highly mediatized.
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Abbreviations
- BEP:
-
Biuro Edukacji Publicznej (Public Education Office)
- BStU:
-
Bundesbeauftragte für die Stasi-Unterlagen (Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records)
- BUiAD:
-
Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów (Office for Preservation and Dissemination of Archival Records )
- GKŚZpNP:
-
Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu (Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation)
- IPN:
-
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance)
- ÚPN:
-
Ústav pamäti národa (Nation’s Memory Institute)
- USTR:
-
Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů (Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes)
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Goddeeris, I. (2018). History Riding on the Waves of Government Coalitions: The First Fifteen Years of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland (2001–2016). In: Bevernage, B., Wouters, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95306-6_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95306-6_13
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