The Cursed or Damned Soldiers

This article presents the place, as well as political and military role of the Polish reactionary guerilla in 1944-1948, identified mainly with the National Army Forces (NSZ), named colloquially as „cursed soldiers”. The great part of the Polish people uses, however, the cathegory of „damned soldiers”, which casts the political class and ascribes negative evaluation to this unit. The civil war and the reactionary querilla in the 1940s years are now presented by the reactionary right forces such as the party „Law and Justice” (PiS) as the „inflexible soldiers”, which did not surrender after the War World II and they battled against the People’s Republic of Poland. Under the German occupation they struggled against Polish leftand Soviet parisants and were also collaborating with the Wehrmacht and Gestapo (the Saint Cross Brigade of the NSZ). After WW II they murdered about 20.000 activists and functionaries of leftist political parties, of the state and local governments. Currently, they are presented as new heroes, which is a great historical lie, which established the new ideologic-political myth of the reactionary right forces in Poland as a fundament of the IV Polish Republic. In 1944-1945, Poland decided to chang the military and political situation in the result of liberation from German occupation by the Red Army and the Polish Army. In July, there was established the Polish Committee of the National Liberation, which introduced the people’s democracy, the agrar reform and the social progress. In December 1944, there was founded the Provisionally Government and in June 1945 the Provisionally Government of the National Unity, which were internationally acknowledged by all great powers and states of world. Since then, the Warsaw government had not only revolutionary and political mandate, but also international support to consquently eliminate the military underground („cursed”), which later changed in the terrorist-plunder gangs. At that time, they lost former glory and political authority, especially after the referndum in 1946, the parliamentary election in 1947, and after the amnesty of 1947, which strengthened the current leftin Poland. The National Armed Forces (NSZ) which operated in 1944-1948 are remembered by Poles not as the „cursed soldiers”, but as the „damned soldiers”, who used terror against the civilian people and introduced in Poland the political destabilization and wanted to provoke the III World War. They were armed conterrevolutionists, who buttled against the people’s, democracy and the political power of the working class. They were against new born Polish People’s Republic.

Polish patriotism as allegiance to the common roots of Western civilization. Reflections on another note of the Italian edition of the treatise by Father Józef Maria (Innocent) Bocheński OP

This article is the Polish version of the introduction to the Italian translation of the treatise by Father Józef Maria Bocheński OP (monastic name: Innocent) entitled: On patriotism. The author of the treatise, an outstanding Polish logician, lecturer at many universities in Europe and around the world, published his text originally intended for soldiers of the Polish II Corps fighting in Italy during the Second World War. The context of this edition, as well as the contemporary edition of the text in Italian (in the book: Alla guardia dello spirito e della fede. Il patriottismo polacco sulsuolo italiano neitestiripropostin el centenario della Battaglia di Varsavia (1920) e nel 25° anniversario della morte di padre Józef Maria (Di Innocenzo), a cura di M. Lenart, Opole University Press, Opole 2020) prompted the author of the article to show the value of patriotism in the context of Italian culture, in which this topic, and even the concept itself, is currently being eliminated from the public sphere. Thus, conducting discussions on topics related to patriotism encounters many difficulties despite the widespread belief in close cultural relations between Poland and Italy.

A much needed history awareness lesson for students. National tradition and the present day

This article focuses on the reflections from the period of lockdown and the risks brought by Covid-19 during Spring 2020. History is one of the key subjects that have a significant impact on the shaping of attitudes in a society, as well setting goals for the future, as well as the young. Historians teach how to interpret the past, important facts and essential universal values, and creativity in the pursuit of knowledge. The school education system should be open and implement a model based on showcasing different views and social phenomena. This is where the teachers and history lessons focus their efforts and work towards that common goal. The school education system allows the use of various sources of knowledge, teaching how to critically assess its content. It allows you to step beyond the textbook and support the formation of social awareness in the young generation.

Citizenship Patriotism as a New Model of Patriotism: Theoretical and Methodological Basis

Based on a sociological survey conducted within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian project, the article analyses the state of citizenship of Ukrainians through the prism of developing their patriotic attitudes. The authors make a theoretical attempt to combine the notions of «citizenship » and «patriotism» with a view to their mutual informative reinforcement in the new model of citizenship patriotism. It is determined that the most integrative potential for the successful completion of democratic transit in Ukraine is a model of citizenship patriotism, based on a high level of citizenship competence of individuals (which implies a well-grounded positive assessment of the national realities, the attitude of conscious fulfilment of civil duties and active position of citizens in the field of protection of public interest).

Patriotic Education as a Factorin The Formation of National Identity in the Conditions of Russian Aggression

The article examines the features of patriotic education of Ukrainian youth in the context of the formation of national identity. It is noted that this process was significantly intensified in the context of Russian aggression, when the entire Ukrainian people united into one, defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, democratic values, human rights and freedoms. Today, Ukraine is an outpost of European civilization, protecting it from the expansion of the Russian Federation. It is noted that in the context of increasing current threats and challenges, national-patriotic education is an important security factor, as it is aimed at forming the national identity of young people, their willingness to defend their homeland. It is emphasized that patriotism is the basis for the formation of national identity. It is pointed out that, in essence, national identity is a multidimensional concept that can integrate cultural, ethnic, professional, regional, gender, or other types of identities, preserving each of them. It is noted that several identity groups coexist in Ukraine, each of which seeks to become national. The first group includes identities that have a strong national-patriotic character, focused on preserving the identity of Ukrainians, the development of national language, culture, customs and more. The second group is partly pro-European cosmopolitan identities, focused on democratic pan-European values, seeking integration with the European Union. The third group includes pro-Russian identities, which are disappearing in the face of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, as Russia has completely discredited itself by destroying peaceful towns and villages, killing civilians. The last, fourth group consists of cosmopolitan identities that perceive themselves as citizens of the vanished USSR and do not accept the values of the three previous groups. It is noted that the idea of polyethnic, social, political harmony on the basis of the generally accepted goal – ensuring the spiritual and material well-being of the citizens of Ukraine should be the basis for the formation of national identity; The idea of patriotism, love for Ukraine as a defining value; national self-esteem and respect for representatives of other nations and national minorities. It is emphasized that in the conditions of Russian aggression there is an active formation of national identity, which is based primarily on supporting the culture and language of the titular Ukrainian ethnic group, education of patriotism and the formation of the Ukrainian political nation.

The article presents the issue of patriotic discourse in school textbooks for teaching Polish for grades 4–8 of primary schools. At the same time, this issue is placed in the aspect of recent changes in education made and announced by the minister of science and education. The analysis of the textbooks carried out using the KAD method shows that, although we constantly deal with a romantic vision of patriotism due to the canon of reading, it is sometimes broken through reflection on historical events and the past. The martyrdom tendency, formed in the period of Romanticism, is still the dominant one, the presence of which is part of the paradigm of the long duration of Romanticism. The article also addresses what patriotic education at school should be today. Not only today, but for a long time now, we have been dealing with a tendency to produce and reproduce a conservative discourse and be closed within a martyrological narrative. This way of understanding patriotism today may lead young people to consider any form of patriotism as anachronistic and inadequate to our times.

New citizenship and patriotism at the cultural frontier: a cross-cultural context

The cultural diversification of states deconstructs the model of a homogenous national community, yet it requires the maintenance of the stability of democratic institutions in a situation where culturally different citizens are increasingly resistant to forced assimilation and subjugation. A multicultural state must actively protect the cultural identities of its citizens. Some dilemmas arise in the understanding of citizenship and patriotism, for which state multiculturalism and interculturalism at the level of an individual citizen become contextual references. Therefore, the subject of this article is the different types of new citizenship and patriotism, with model approaches to them. The author exposes multiculturalism, revealing the new citizenship and intercultural connotations of patriotism. She looks at these categories from a cultural borderland perspective. With reference to the pillars of coexistence identified on the basis of empirical research in this borderland, the author conceptualizes intercultural citizenship and patriotism. She also points to their multidimensional nature with an intercultural connotation. The author sees them as integrating factors of a culturally diverse society. Their national-cultural, identity, and community provenance gives an intercultural character to the integration process. Integration conceived in this way fosters the evolution of the nation-state into a heterogeneous national community operating within its borders.