The article presents the issue of influence of the political myth of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu on the thought of contemporary Polish nationalist groups. The Legionary Movement is a particular example of combining a strong religious commitment with political extremism. The figure of Codreanu is one of the most frequently invoked in the discourse of contemporary nationalist groups. The aim of this article is to show the influence of the Codreanu myth on the political thought of four contemporary Polish groups: National Revival of Poland, All-Polish Youth, National-Radical Camp, and Falanga. As a result of the analysis of the content presented by the groups mentioned above, the political myth of Codreanu can be considered the most popular personal political myth of contemporary Polish as well as European nationalism.

The semiological approach to the studies of the political myth by the example of the Smolensk myth

This article is an attempt to present the Smolensk myth (which is a very important subject in Polish myth studies) from the perspective of the semiological approach. The analysis of the two most important theories in that field: one by Roland Barthes and another one by Tadeusz Biernat, will allow to examine the mythologization of the social and political reality after the Smolensk catastrophe. That examination will be conducted by analysing the ways of creating symbolic signs which may express the mythical political meaning. That analysis will also enable the depiction of the semiological meaning of political myths in the events or statements from the times after the catastrophe. In conclusion, the aim of this article will be a depiction of an historical event, which had an enormous impact on today’s Polish political reality, from the perspective of creation of the mythical constructs in the collective memory.

The essence of political myths, their structure and key functions have been analyzed in the article. The peculiarities of the political myths’ creation in the Ukrainian society have been also characterized. It has been determined that political myths are an effective tool of influencing the political culture and consciousness of the citizens and that they are being used by the present-day Ukrainian politicians in order to gain and keep power. The attention to the predominantly destructive role of political myths in the development of modern Ukrainian society has also been drawn in the article. The authors claim that with the development of the information society a political myth is becoming more adaptive and gains the ability to create an illusion of reality and its manipulative influence is becoming more masterly and less noticeable. This influence often leads to the simulation of the democratic principles, depression and passive attitude of the citizens. It is possible to minimize the social consciousness manipulation through raising the level of the political culture and consciousness of the citizens, forming an open communication system between authorities and citizens, developing independent mass media, etc.

In this article, I would like to show that the “Siege of Sarajevo” is one such fragment of the past that has grown into a national myth. It will not be an abuse to say that today this city, by the fact that it constantly bears the marks of war, has become a kind of sanctuary for the Bosnian ethnos.