“Eye to eye with the tamed”. Polish socio-cultural weeklies in the 100th anniversary of the Spring of Nations
Rafał Wardzyński
Pełny tekst artykułuThe article presents the most important theses of press articles concerning the Spring of Nations, which were published in the 100th anniversary of these events in three Polish weeklies: “Odrodzenie”, “Kuźnica” and “Tygodnik Powszechny”. The work also attempts to outline the basic differences between historiographic depictions of the Spring of Nations presented in the mentioned press titles. Two dominating and contradictory theses are presented, which aim to explain to the Polish reader the nature of the Spring of Nations. The first is the concept presented in “Tygodnik Powszechny”, which can be described as freedom-oriented. The second interpreted the events from 1848 through Marxist historical determinism. According to the author of the work, the press reader of 1948 had – unfortunately, not for long – a comfortable enough situation that he was not limited to one interpretation of the changes taking place in the mid 19th century.
KEYWORDS
Spring of Nations, “Odrodzenie”, “Kuźnica”, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, Polish Worker's Party propaganda, socio-cultural weeklies, Polish People's press, Marxism