Abstract
The article presents the results of empirical research concerning the collective memory in Białystok and Lublin – two largest cities in the Eastern Poland. Before World War II they were multi-ethnic cities with big and important communities of Poles, Jews, Germans, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Their contemporary ethnic structure was formed as a result of World War II, in particular the Holocaust, post-war border shifts and intense migration from the countryside to the city in the next decades. Both Białystok and Lublin are an example of the typical cities in Central and Eastern Europe, which after World War II the memory politics was built on in the completely new political and social circumstances. We aim to confront the contemporary official memory of the cities, transmitted by major public institutions and the vernacular memories of their present inhabitants. Straipsnyje pristatomi Balstogės ir Liublino – dviejų didžiausių Rytų Lenkijos miestų kolektyvinės atminties empirinio tyrimo rezultatai. Prieš Antrąjį pasaulinį karą tai buvo daugiaetniniai miestai, turintys dideles ir svarbias lenkų, žydų, vokiečių, ukrainiečių ir baltarusių bendruomenes. Šių miestų šiuolaikinė struktūra susiformavo kaip Antrojo pasaulinio karo, ypač holokausto, sienų persislinkimų pokario metu ir vėlesniais dešimtmečiais vykusios intensyvios migracijos iš kaimo į miestus, rezultatas. Tiek Balstogė, tiek Liublinas yra tipiški Vidurio ir Rytų Europos miestų pavyzdžiai, kurių atminties politika po Antrojo pasaulinio karo buvo kuriama visiškai naujomis politinėmis ir socialinėmis aplinkybėmis. Straipsnyje siekiama palyginti šiuolaikinę oficialią šių miestų atmintį, kurios reguliavimas perduotas pagrindinėms viešosioms institucijoms, ir dabartinių miestų gyventojų vietines atmintis.
Highlights
Collective memory as a popular concept in the contemporary social studies stems mainly from the landmark study of Maurice Halbwachs, The Social Frameworks of Memory (1925), in which he stated that “It is in society that people normally acquire their memories
The idea of multiculturalism in local memory politics is somehow anachronic and unreflective, which is a possible result of postwar changes in the social structure of the city
Much as the local authorities use the concept of multicultural past more (Lublin) or less (Białystok) effectively, they do so in random and anachronic manner, excepting most topics that might be controversial from the point of view of the dominant group
Summary
Collective memory as a popular concept in the contemporary social studies stems mainly from the landmark study of Maurice Halbwachs, The Social Frameworks of Memory (1925), in which he stated that “It is in society that people normally acquire their memories. This situation is stimulating for the various disciplines of social sciences interested in collective memory issues, that is sociology, social psychology, historiography, philosophy, political sciences, and, for example literary criticism It seems that in the situation of the multitude of European collective memories and profound differences in the interpretation of historical events (the best example being the Second World War, the role of Nazism and Stalinism or Holocaust), effective strategy to seek consensus in the scientific, public and political discourses on memory is to investigate collective memories at their local, regional and interregional levels in order to seek commonalities and discussing the differences. We shall speak of multicultural local memory as a hypothesis, the results of research show that it still is rather a postulate than reality
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