"What Sort of Communists are you?"

Jan Kozdra

The post-war Polish regime perplexes many historians – in the West they are portrayed as nationalists masquerading as communists, while in Poland it is the reverse. Was there any masquerading at all? The ideological drive and the strength of nationalism clashed and produced a dual identity within the regime. While ideologically communist, the Polish leadership retained its national identity, which in many cases undermined its ideological convictions. This book offers a revised approach, acknowledging the strong ideological fervour of Polish communists while it investigates their complicated relationship with nationalism. The struggle between communist ideology and Polish nationalism produced the peculiar notion of “Polish road to socialism,” which effectively led Poland to abandon the full Soviet economic and political model. Torn between their ideological and nationalist sentiments, Polish communists failed to transform the post-war Polish society along ideological lines and served to reinforce, rather than change, the Polish national identity.

Review

Jan Kozdra’s book is a bold debate on the apparent conflict between Communist universalist ideology versus the exclusive and narrow ideas
of 20th-century Polish nationalism. Based on a thorough investigation of state policies in relation to national minorities, education and the Catholic Church, Kozdra concludes that nationalism played an important role in all Communist projects for reforming and remoulding Polish society after the war.  He furthermore shows how the Soviet leaders—from Stalin to Khrushchev—knew that nationalism would always be integral to their debate with the Polish Communists.  A book which steers a steady course through the complexities of modern Polish history.
 
Professor Anita J Prażmowska
London School of Economics
Author of the recent published biography of Władysław Gomułka

About the Author

Jan was born and raised the Polish countryside. In 2012, he arrived in Australia to begin his studies and graduated with Masters in History. Growing up, he heard many family stories about everyday life in communist Poland, which stirred his interest in events past. What sort of communists are you? is Jan’s first book, an exploratory study of the peculiar interplay between communist ideology and nationalism in post-war Poland.

Jan’s other interests include the arts, music and politics, which he likes to pursue when he’s is not buried in historical books.

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