ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the dilemmas that Polish communists faced because they were widely viewed as agents of Moscow, and the popular reaction to the symbols and rituals of High Stalinism. In order to regain legitimacy, the Polish regime decided to jump on the rolling train of de-Stalinization. The entanglements between Russia and Poland, and the uneasy relationship between the Polish nation and the Russian Empire entered a new stage. Both Polish and Russian nationalism are products of the nineteenth century. The Polish Committee of National Liberation manifesto attempted to reverse the fundamentals of Polish nationalism: the anti-Russian orientation, the pride of a Polish civilizing mission in the East, and the close connection to Catholicism were condemned. From the 1880s onwards Russian and Polish conservatives viewed the Jews as solicitors of revolution. Polish society perceived the Soviet Union as the foe which participated in the destruction of sovereignty, and the Soviets themselves vilified the Poles for decades.
