The present paper raises the issue of cultural security in the programme-related ideas conceived by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (hereinafter referred to as the Law and Justice or – to use an abbreviated term – PiS) in 21st century. In the present paper, the issues related to national identity and national culture were scrutinized, the former and the latter being two constituents of cultural security of the state.
Political programmes of the Law and Justice specified mainly the dangers to national identity in the context of European integration and of striving for the unification of European culture. On the other hand, in the realm of national culture, what was noticed was the phenomenon of neglecting the said issue and not considering it important from the point of view of security of the state.

Commemorative resolutions of the Senat in the Polish legal order

The author at the outset clarifies the title concept of „commemorative resolution”. The Senat’s commemorative resolution is a symbolic, nonbinding, nonauthoritative and solemn form of parliamentary expression. The given kind of resolution is neither normative act (source of law) nor an act of law administration. It doesn’t belong to the legal system, but is part of the broader construct of the legal order. There are two types of commemorative resolutions, namely commemorative resolutions in the strict sense and the so called problem resolutions. The first ones serve to pay tribute to national heroes and to commemorate important moments in the nation’s and the state’s history and tradition. With the second ones the Senat usually addresses the current domestic and international affairs. In this form MPs turn to specified authorities to take appropriate actions to achieve the desired purposes anticipated by parliament. The next part of the article presents the procedure for adopting commemorative resolutions, in particular with an emphasis on the aspects distinguishing it from the procedure for adopting ordinary resolutions. The author references to relevant provisions of The Standing Orders of the Senat including it’s amendment introduced in the Resolution of 20 June 2013. The last section of the study deals with commemorative resolutions in the Senat’s parliamentary practice in the years 1997–2013. The author gives statistical data related to these resolutions and contained in three tables. Based on quantitative research He indicates that number of commemorative resolutions has increased from 5 in the Senat of the fourth term to 38 in the Senat of the seventh term. Finally, the author concludes that commemorative resolutions are part of the historical policy of the state. In this way, the upper house „safeguards the national heritage”, as required by article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and „bequeaths to future generations all that is valuable from over one thousand years’ (Poland’s) heritage” as referred to in the preamble to the same act.

Historical politics as a form of construction of the image of Polish in international arena

Article raises the issue of the importance of historical policy, also known as the politics of memory, as a category, which in recent years is the subject of heated debate. This is because, through the tools of historical policy, the authority has the opportunity to shape the expected vision of the state and nation in the international arena. This remains controversial due to the fact that the possibility of an arbitrary silence inconvenient facts and events. The main aim of this article was to show the importance of historical policy as a tool to build the country’s image in the international arena, not evaluating the policy pursued by the authorities. This issue is discussed in a wide range in the pages of various publications and at scientific conferences or debates historians. Analysing the literature and the press reports and official documents of institutions and government agencies have been in the paper a short review of selected policy definitions historical aspects of its tools and its implementation and postulates policy history in the future.
Historical policy should be implemented by the Polish state as part of the construction of the position of the State in the international sphere, but mainly as an element of education of the next generations of Poles.
I have no doubt that in the international, worldwide, all reasonable state, who understand their needs, and above all, to have a sense of their statehood and dignity, pursue an active policy of history.

W niniejszym artykule omówiono rosyjską narrację historyczną w rodzimym szkolnictwie. Poruszony temat polega na badaniu polityki historycznej Federacji Rosyjskiej i Związku Radzieckiego. Uwagę skupiono na zawartym w podręcznikach Federacji Rosyjskiej oraz Związku Radzieckiego opisie 17 września 1939 roku. Podstawą analizy stała się szeroko zakrojona kwerenda, w trakcie której zanalizowano teksty obowiązujących od 1954 roku podręczników szkolnych. Główne uzasadnienie podjętej tematyki stanowi cieszący się popularnością w polskiej publicystyce dyskurs nawiązujący do polityki historycznej Rosji. Zgodnie z założeniem artykułu historyczna wiedza przekazywana w szkołach Rosji cechuje się starannym pomijaniem wątków związanych z radziecką agresją na Polskę.

The article deals with the issue of the internal historical politics of Law and Justice party (PiS) during their years of power in 2005–2007. From the very beginning, the party put an extreme importance to the issue of patriotism and national memory, making them one of their main objectives. With the inception of power in 2005, the leaders of this group clearly declared that the important goal of their actions would be to restore historical memory, which was to be initiated by the “new historical politics”. When analyzing the historical policy pursued by Law and Justice in the internal dimension, it should be noted that it focused on several key elements. The first of them was building patriotic attitudes among the Polish society. The historical settlement of the communist times became the second goal of the party’s historical politics. The past has begun to be used by the leaders of this formation also to stigmatize political opponents. Moreover, it served as an effective tool to both Kaczyński brothers for mobilizing their own supporters.

Celem artykułu jest podjęcie refleksji dotyczącej uwarunkowań (możliwości i ograniczeń) realizacji przez podmioty państwowe polityki historycznej w zróżnicowanym społeczeństwie - w warunkach liberalnej demokracji. Tak zarysowane zadanie wymaga w pierwszej kolejności wskazania kreatorów oraz pola znaczeniowego terminu „polityka historyczna”, a także możliwych (dostępnych) sposobów, którymi może być ona realizowana. Ze względu na objętość artykułu będzie to jedynie próba zasygnalizowania pewnych, w przekonaniu autorów istotnych dla tytułowej problematyki, zagadnień mogących stanowić przyczynek do dalszych badań.

The aim of this article is to present the dependence path and the number of factors which influenced its shape in the process of achieving transitional justice on the post-Soviet area. In comparative studies carried out in Estonia, Georgia and Poland, it has been demonstrated that there were a number of factors that diversified the process of transformation from the authoritarian to democratic system. The need to settle accounts with the Soviet authoritarian regime was diverse and depended on historical and geopolitical conditions, as well as on the political system which was adopted by individual states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has been observed that in Georgia the process of achieving transitional justice was not initiated but replaced, after consolidating the democratic system, by the process of achieving historical justice; however, in Estonia and in Poland, the problem of settling accounts with the outgoing authoritarian regime constituted one of the key issues of the transformation.

Putin and His Version of “Remembrance Policy” Towards Russians

The Russian “remembrance policy” is an approach to instrumental treating history for creating new image of Russian patriotism after the collapse of the USSR. It has been initiated by Gorbachev, supplemented by Yeltsin, and specified by Putin. The latter has used history for actual politics. It has little to do with the historical truth but that is not important in his “remembrance policy”. Significant is a possibility of placing its elements the “information warfare” that aims to enhance the imperial position of contemporary Russia, also by using military force. A “remembrance policy” understood in this way has served for building strong Russian nationalism.

Ethical standards of the work of historians in the specific context of historical cognition

The existing „Code of Ethics for Employees” in Poland, as well as other documents prepared by representatives of all sciences gathered in research institutes of the appropriate reputation, do not in themselves distinguish between the specific characteristics of particular fields, especially between the humanities and nature sciences, The scientist in itself based on the general ethical standards in force in the European cultural circle. The purpose of this article is to attempt to exemplify the ethical dangers inherent in its scientific activity, and which derives from the specificity of the theory of historical cognition, whose verification differs fundamentally from the verification of conclusions formulated by rigorous sciences or social sciences based on statistical methods. This task was also undertaken with an indication of differences in the intensity of problematic ethical issues depending on the intent and object of historical research.

Russian “historical policy” towards Poland. The “Anti-Katyń” issue

The Russian Federation ruled by Putin seeks to rebuild the superpower position of the USSR, formerly the Russian Empire. A certain difficulty for her is Poland’s attitude and its eastern policy. Hence the use of information warfare means to combat it, including a specific “historical policy” whose origins date back centuries. Due to the need to admit to committing the Katyn massacre, in order to weaken its meaning, the “Anti-Katyń” issue was promoted, based on the alleged genocide of Poles on Russian prisoners of war in 1919–1920. This is a propaganda invention not confirmed by historical facts.

Polish Politics Of History In The Assessment Of The Contemporary National Movement

The aim of this article is to analyse the political thought of the contemporary National Movement in terms of politics of history. The main research hypothesis assumes that the National Movement promotes its own vision of politics of history. The properly shaped politics of history is primarily intended to shape national identity and facilitate the definition of boundaries of the national community. The actions taken by other political entities operating in Poland were assessed from this perspective. They were often accused of conducting anti-national activities. Liberals were criticised for ignoring history and accepting its critical form, while conservatives were accused of lacking organisational capacity and being submissive to competing models of the politics of history shaped by other nations. Hence the offensive character and the justification for using the language of disfavour or even hostility and hatred. The national interest, remaining the main category of political thought, often became an argument that made polemic or discussion impossible. Attempts to pass over uncomfortable historical events or to shift meanings were not avoided either. The differentiation of national groups facilitated discussion within the milieu, but it practically did not play an independent role within Polish political thought, reinforcing the message associated with the conservative model of politics of history and, in the political sphere, often supporting the activities of Law and Justice. Recognising the usefulness of politics of history, however, it was emphasised that it is not a shortterm political event-type activity but a long-term political work.

The Remembrance Policy in Poland: the System Between the Constitutional Obligation and the Instrumentalization of Law

The paper analyzes relations between the law and the system of politics of memory in Poland, integrating legal and political research. The main objective is a discussion of co-dependencies between the law – including the constitutional law – and the government’s involvement in the politics of memory. The paper summarizes the legal status, the remembrance system’s formal framework and political decisions executing the constitutional obligation of commemorating the past. Considering the complexity of the remembrance policy system in Poland, its foundation in the legal system, and the dynamics of policymaking, the Authors present that the seeming servitude of law to politics is an apparent complex interdependence based on the constitutional bases of memory politics.

Memory nodes. The issue of the Katyn massacre in Polish-Russian relations

The article focuses on discussing the impact of the conditions regarding the Katyn massacre on the current relations between Warsaw and Moscow. The history of these two countries is characterized by a long and difficult past, which is why numerous unresolved disputes, burdens and myths have arisen and are still visible today, negatively affecting bilateral contacts. In 1989, right after the fall of the communist system in Poland, the new political elites, coordinating the process of democratic changes in our country, made efforts to sort out the controversial threads in the common Polish-Russian history. Without a doubt, the most important of them was the Katyn massacre. For the political elites of the Third Polish Republic, explaining the overall circumstances of those events was the most important goal of diplomatic activities undertaken towards the Kremlin. In Warsaw’s opinion, untangling this knot of memory from the history of relations between the two countries was supposed to help free them from past burdens and negative accumulations and contribute to strengthening friendship in current times. Unfortunately, it quickly turned out that this topic soon became one of the main elements negatively burdening mutual relations.