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Allies out of Ashes? Polish Ideas for the Refounding of Medieval Western Slavic States after 1945

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Digging Politics
This chapter is in the book Digging Politics

Abstract

References to an (alleged) Slavic kinship played an important propagandistic role in forging a Soviet-dominated East-Central Europe after the Second World War. On behalf of the Kremlin, several governments adopted such narratives and these histories helped to explain the legitimacy of their country’s alliance with the Soviet Union. To win over the intellectual elites, so-called ‘Slavic Committees’ took up a central role in countries like Poland, the focus of this chapter. Despite being designed as a Communist transmission belt, the Slavic Committee in Poland (KSwP) was not solely a propaganda agency. The organization comprised several pre-war Slavophiles who created enough space to push very different agendas. Two particularly stark examples illustrating both the vividness of the ‘Slavic idea’ among Polish intellectuals, as well as the loose control over the Committee, were the publications edited by Karol Stojanowski and Władysław Kołodziej. Both the former national democrat, Stojanowski, as well as the neo-pagan activist, Kołodziej, pleaded for the restoration of the long-gone world of medieval Slavdom in Germany. As this chapter will explain, these ‘Slavic’ proposals were inspired by Western Thought1 and aimed at strengthening Poland’s position, although they were strongly out of line with the Communist Polish government’s official policy.

Abstract

References to an (alleged) Slavic kinship played an important propagandistic role in forging a Soviet-dominated East-Central Europe after the Second World War. On behalf of the Kremlin, several governments adopted such narratives and these histories helped to explain the legitimacy of their country’s alliance with the Soviet Union. To win over the intellectual elites, so-called ‘Slavic Committees’ took up a central role in countries like Poland, the focus of this chapter. Despite being designed as a Communist transmission belt, the Slavic Committee in Poland (KSwP) was not solely a propaganda agency. The organization comprised several pre-war Slavophiles who created enough space to push very different agendas. Two particularly stark examples illustrating both the vividness of the ‘Slavic idea’ among Polish intellectuals, as well as the loose control over the Committee, were the publications edited by Karol Stojanowski and Władysław Kołodziej. Both the former national democrat, Stojanowski, as well as the neo-pagan activist, Kołodziej, pleaded for the restoration of the long-gone world of medieval Slavdom in Germany. As this chapter will explain, these ‘Slavic’ proposals were inspired by Western Thought1 and aimed at strengthening Poland’s position, although they were strongly out of line with the Communist Polish government’s official policy.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. List of Contributors IX
  4. Digging Politics: The Ancient Past and Contested Present 1
  5. Balkan Antiquity as Decolonial Eurocentrism During the Cold War 17
  6. Thracian Archaeology and National Identity in Communist Bulgaria: The Ideological Pattern of Museum Exhibitions 45
  7. Imagining King’s Landing: Dubrovnik, the Diegetic Heritage of Game of Thrones, and the Imperialism of Popular Culture 77
  8. Slavic Archaeology as “A Special Obligation”? Researching the Early Slavs in Communist Poland and East Germany 107
  9. Allies out of Ashes? Polish Ideas for the Refounding of Medieval Western Slavic States after 1945 131
  10. Roman Heritage in Hungary: The Case of the Fertőrákos Mithraeum on the Iron Curtain 157
  11. ‘Eurasian Magyars’: The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary 181
  12. Beyond Radical Right Politics: LGBTQ+ Rights in Hungary and Romania 217
  13. The Protochronistic Depiction of the Transylvanian Saxons in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s History Textbooks (1976–1989) 241
  14. Dacian Blood: Autochthonous Discourse in Romania during the Interwar Period 257
  15. Why Nationalism Survives in Romanian Archaeology and What Could Limit its Impact 287
  16. Archaeology and the Challenge of Continuity: East-Central Europe during the Age of Migrations 307
  17. Index 347
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110697445-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. List of Contributors IX
  4. Digging Politics: The Ancient Past and Contested Present 1
  5. Balkan Antiquity as Decolonial Eurocentrism During the Cold War 17
  6. Thracian Archaeology and National Identity in Communist Bulgaria: The Ideological Pattern of Museum Exhibitions 45
  7. Imagining King’s Landing: Dubrovnik, the Diegetic Heritage of Game of Thrones, and the Imperialism of Popular Culture 77
  8. Slavic Archaeology as “A Special Obligation”? Researching the Early Slavs in Communist Poland and East Germany 107
  9. Allies out of Ashes? Polish Ideas for the Refounding of Medieval Western Slavic States after 1945 131
  10. Roman Heritage in Hungary: The Case of the Fertőrákos Mithraeum on the Iron Curtain 157
  11. ‘Eurasian Magyars’: The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary 181
  12. Beyond Radical Right Politics: LGBTQ+ Rights in Hungary and Romania 217
  13. The Protochronistic Depiction of the Transylvanian Saxons in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s History Textbooks (1976–1989) 241
  14. Dacian Blood: Autochthonous Discourse in Romania during the Interwar Period 257
  15. Why Nationalism Survives in Romanian Archaeology and What Could Limit its Impact 287
  16. Archaeology and the Challenge of Continuity: East-Central Europe during the Age of Migrations 307
  17. Index 347
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