Please join the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies in welcoming visiting faculty from the University of Warsaw, Professor Marcin Wojciech Solarz from the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies and Dr. Anna M. Solarz from the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies for a special lecture on Poland’s Geography of Memory.
Abstract: The history of Poland in the 250 years since the beginning of the reign of the last king of Poland (1764) has been a real rollercoaster. His reign began in a country deeply dependent on Russia. Attempts at reforms and armed resistance led to the division of the country between Russia, Prussia and Austria from 1772-1795. Poland was erased from the political map of Europe for 123 years. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the Duchy of Warsaw, dependent on France, was established (1807) on part of Polish territory, which, cut down in 1815, became an autonomous kingdom under the rule of the Russian tsar. The November Uprising (1830-1831) put an end to autonomy, and the next uprising (1863-1865) began a period of intense Russification. Nevertheless, in 1918 Poland regained independence, only to fall again in 1939 and be divided between Germany and the USSR. After the end of World War II, Poland became a state subordinated to the USSR, subject to Stalinization until 1956. For the second time in the 20th century, Poland regained independence in 1989 thanks to the ‘Solidarity’ social movement, which experienced its "carnival" in 1980-81 as the first independent trade union in the communist bloc.
‘Solidarity’ was a phenomenon on a global scale, that was very strongly linked to the religious factor, but completely open to all for whom truth and freedom was important, including atheists and leftists. It remains a symbol of the Polish "open history", which inspired the greatest geopolitical changes in the 20th century. For this reason, it is worth paying particular attention to the Polish version of the idea of "brotherhood" or "fraternity”, which, as the "missing element" of modern liberal society, is beginning to be noticed again over the world.
All these changes were reflected in the public space of the capital of Poland: Warsaw. Each occupier, regime or authority tried to shape the downtown of the Polish capital in such a way as to show its power over the political heart of Poland, and therefore over the entire country. The presentation traces changes in the political language of public space in downtown Warsaw on 8 map schemes. Different narratives are shown in different colors, imposed on public space, leading to the shaping of the contemporary political landscape of Warsaw. The presentation is based on “Atlas of Poland’s political geography. Poland in the modern world: 2022 Perspective”.
The clash between Polishness and foreignness is also visible on the peripheries of Poland. As the Kingdom of Poland began to expand towards the east in the 1340s, a large-scale settlement initiative commenced on the former Polish-Ruthenian border in the river basins of Wisłoka and Wisłok in the Carpathians. This initiative, along with integration of German and Polish colonists, resulted in the emergence of a Polish cultural group known as Forest Germans (in Polish Głuchoniemcy). The settlement action was connected with the need to populate and develop the previously unsettled areas of the wild Carpathian Forest. In the area around Biecz, German communities underwent a process of Polonization as early as the second half of the 16th century and in other places of Forest Germany no later than to the end of the 18th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the escalating Polish-German conflict led to the ethnonym and choronym being removed from both academic and popular discourse. As a result, no systematic geographical research into the location and borders of their settlement and no research on their history were carried out. Despite the erasure of this term from discourse and effective obstruction of the process of self-determination by the local population as Forest Germans at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the existence of a community which can be identified today as Forest Germans is a fact. The most visible relics of their settlement in the space of contemporary Poland are toponyms and anthroponyms. The presentation will focus on the former.
This talk is organized in conjunction with INTSTDS 5196/Polish 5196: Topics in Polish and European Culture. Attendance is free and open to the public.
If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodations, please contact CSEEES at cseees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks' notice will allow us to provide access, but we will try to accommodate requests that come in after the two week mark.