ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the unique experiences of Communist oppression in Poland have shaped both historical and contemporary disability hate speech. It demonstrates that the Kremlin ideology required the social amputation of disabled people from the community. Communist hate speech towards people with disabilities was framed by the political, cultural, and ideological concept of a new labour man, or socialist man, which was a central element of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Under the Communist regime, citizens were divided into clear categories: those who brought about production and those who do not raise anything. The Communist ideal was based on the idea of a “working man.” There was a prevailing cultural pattern of stigma associated with unemployment; placing people outside of the workforce in the social margins of the People’s Republic of Poland. M. Brenk points out that disability was considered shameful and incompatible with an ideal socialist state–meaning that there were no efforts at integration.
