ABSTRACT
The de-communisation of public space was viewed by many Polish people as a coercive policy that tried to impose one ‘correct’ and centrally determined interpretation of the past onto local communities, overriding decisions taken by local authorities. After their experience of authoritarian rule, many Poles were wary about the creation of any hegemonic and obligatory narratives of the past and did not trust central policies which sought to re-shape the memorial landscape. A further reason why the de-communisation project failed was that it delegitimised any positive memories of the PRL people might have. Those who felt nostalgic for the social welfare system, stability and predictability of the PRL were accused of forgetting the victims of communism, the regime’s repression of civil liberties and its human rights abuses. Even when the nostalgics were more sympathetically depicted as unfortunate casualties of Poland’s post-communist transformation and their longing for the past was in some way defended, they were still not considered to be legitimate actors in the process of constructing a national collective memory, and their opinions on the post-war past were dismissed in official political discourses. The fact that in all national opinion polls conducted in the 2000s over 40 per cent of respondents positively evaluated the PRL has never been a subject of an open and frank debate. 1
