ABSTRACT
The more than seventy years that this book spans is a very long period. A lot happened during this time. Is my description of the reality in those days, which highlights a certain set of facts and events, objective? Yes and no. It is objective if the criterion is a faithful, unvarnished record of what happened. I followed this rule. The description is not objective if you consider that this is my subjective point of view, whether I want that to be the case or not. But here an important methodological question arises: can there be a completely objective description of past events? Does any account of historical events and analysis of archival sources, even the most highly valued one, guarantee objectivity? Not exactly. According to Polish historian and economist Witold Kula, answers are largely predetermined by questions. So it is therefore reasonable to argue (as I have indicated in this book) that “objective” historical knowledge largely depends on the questions posed by researchers. And if this is the case, then this book fits into a genre of historical knowledge about life in Poland—in the past and at present.
