Independence Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. Biskupski

Abstract

Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland, by M.B.B. Biskupski. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012. xiii, 200 pp. $110.00 US (cloth). Historical narratives and national holidays are important elements of politics. For this reason, they are frequently objects of extensive scholarly research. The book under review is a penetrating study of the Polish national holiday, the of November 11. Yet for the author, a history of this celebration is only a pretext to analyze how various politicians, political movements, and authorities understood, shaped, and used the founding myth of contemporary Poland. Mieczyslaw B.B. Biskupski is the President of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America--a prestigious scholarly institution that fulfilled the tasks of the Polish Academy of Science in exile when Poland was under Soviet control. Biskupski holds the Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish Studies at the Central Connecticut State University, is an experienced animator of Polish scholarly life in America and a prolific and award-winning writer. The text of is arranged chronologically. Since the person and the memory of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski became an integral part of the holiday's celebrations, the opening chapter, presents his real and symbolic contribution to Polish politics and military struggle before 1918. Since World War I ended in Eastern Europe in such a way that it was not obvious when exactly the Polish independent state emerged, the second chapter Discovering Day charts the debates over what event marked the turning point on the road to independence. Political rivalries over national symbols continued during the first years of the interwar period as the third chapter Contesting a National Myth, 1918-26 demonstrates when November 11 was formally recognized as and, despite the bitter opposition of the nationalist Right, amalgamated with the legend of Pilsudski as the founder of the new Polish state. The fourth chapter Formalization of a Discourse, 1926-35 argues that this legend was solidified after the coup d'etat of 1926, when the Marshal became the dictator. A holiday celebration ritual was established and the cult of Pilsudski overshadowed the remembrance of historical events of 1918. After the death of the Marshal his political camp disintegrated as did its grip on power. Consequently, the meaning of the holiday's celebration changed as well, as Biskupski recounts in chapter five, Independence and the Celebration of Pilsudski's Legend, 1935-39. In 1935 it was more about mourning the Marshal's death than it was about commemorating a liberation day. Later, the Pilsudski-November 11th myth became an important part of the otherwise weak Pilsudskiite ideology and power legitimization. The outbreak of World War 11 brought a catastrophe: after it lost the September campaign, Poland was occupied by the Nazis and the Soviets, and the Government-in-Exile was dominated by General Wladyslaw Sikorski and other opponents of the Marshal. …