History /
Why do schools teach "The battle of Warsaw" but not "the history of communist Poland?" [16]
Isn't it about time Poland faced up to it's recent history and stopped ignoring it?
First, I agree with doug, sometimes I mention something from the communist period and students have no idea what I'm talking about, they know lots about the kings and WWII but the period 1944-89 is a black hole. From asking, it seems that there's a lot of variation by school, some schools cover it to some extent but most high schools mostly give it only the most cursory of attention.
There's still an ideological war going on behind the scenes about the narrative of what happened during communism.... and any version will please some people and drive others into a blind rage and so the safest thing is to ignore it.
The government of course has been trying to.... put a particular spin on the period with the cursed soldiers as shiny heroes and Lech Kaczyński as the single most important anti-communist (kind of nonsense, but....)
But also, what do teach about Wałęsa? Heroic opposition figure? Secret agent for the commies? Church puppet?
What about 1968.... anti-semitism for the sake of anti-semitism or vicious intra-party struggle?
Martial law... misguided effort to prevent soviet engagement or crude power grab?
Who was responsible for domestic repression? Soviets? Jews? Poles?
History is less about isolated facts but more about a story and no one can agree what the story of communism was...
