‘명확한 종결’ 선언에서 ‘민족기억연구소’까지

From Thick Line Policy to the Establishment of the Institute for National Remebrance - Debates on the Dealing with the Communist Past in Poland since 1989

This article starts with the understanding of the dual past . While since establishment of the communist regime in Poland the interests in the past were focused only on the atrocities of nazi Germany, as in cases of Katyn and Jedwabne those of Sowjet army and the Polish were covered up or not treated. Since 1989 Poland was confronted with two difficulties: the transition to democratic system and the liquidation of communist past. In the course of liquidation of communist past in Poland the remarkable characters can be summarized as follows: Firstly, the transition to democratic system in Poland was gradually advanced, and the liquidation of communist past was compromising and legal; secondly, most of victims in the period of communist regime were since 1990 rehabilitated, and the assets of organizations, which were nationalized after the WWII or confiscated unter martial law in 1980, were partly restituted; thirdly, the lustration act (1997) and the Institute for National Remembrance (1998) were institutional instruments which made the lawful liquidation possible; fourthly, the aim of liquidation of communist past in Poland lied not in the decommunisation and punishment , but in the admission of truth and social integration; fifthly, the former communists in academic fields continued to be employed for the most part and became the best gainer from the privatization after 1990. According to four levels of Helmuth König the dealing to terms with past in Poland can be concluded as follows: firstly, Mazowiecki wanted to avoid the dealing to terms with past under ambiguous thick line policy, but Oleksy affair brought the need of lustration home to Polish politicians; secondly, aims and tasks of lustration were set up in the early phase separately and unsystematic, so that legislation was urgent; thirdly, the ideological confrontation between the political parties obstructed reasonable discussions, because they put their own temporary and real interests before truth and mutual understanding; fourthly, one of the greatest difficulties in the dealing to terms with past in Poland seemed to be caused by the facts that its agent was unclear or unauthorized.