Rewriting the Past to Right the Present

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the current Hungarian and Polish governments—Fidesz and the Law and Justice (PiS) parties, respectively—engage in historical revisionism to legitimize their illiberal regimes. They act as “mnemonic warriors” by mobilizing, or weaponizing, history for their political gain. They rebuke international criticism of their democratic backsliding, erosion of the rule of law, and media censorship by emphasizing their role as defenders of the nation. Specifically, Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński seek legitimacy by grounding their historical interpretations in wartime resistance movements. They continually praise these wartime figures for fighting valiantly to defend their nations from foreign attacks and try to position themselves as their successors, striving to extend these historical narratives of heroism and struggle to their current fight against European Union elites, who criticize their democratic backsliding and illiberalism. In this paper, I will discuss how Orbán and Kaczyński try to revise the official and popular memory of their nations’ experiences in both the Second World War and Revolutions of 1989. I analyze specific monuments, museums, and laws implemented by each regime and compare and contrast their historical revisionism efforts—namely, victimization in Hungary and heroism in Poland—within their current political context to show how they mobilize their historical narratives in their fight against EU elites.