COMMEMORATIONS AND THE SHAPINGOF MODERN POLAND

Patrice M. Dabrowski investigates the nation-building activities of Polesduring the decades preceding World War I, when the stateless Poles wereminorities within the empires of Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary.Could Poles maintain a sense of national identity, or would they becomeGermans, Austrians, or Russians? Dabrowski demonstrates that Poles availedthemselves of the ability to celebrate anniversaries of past deeds andpersonages to strengthen their nation from within, providing a ground fora national discourse capable of unifying Poles across political boundariesand social and cultural differences. Public commemorations such as thejubilee of the writer Jozef Kraszewski, the bicentennial of the Relief ofVienna, and the return to Poland of the remains of the poet AdamMickiewicz are reconstructed here in vivid detail.