27.02.25. Games with the past

27.02.25. Games withpast

The title expression comes from issued at the end of last year Polish roots (PWN, Warsaw 2024), fresh book Urbanian Industry, mediewists, prof. at the Institute of Archaeology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The book “sells like fresh buns”, can be heard in friendly bookstores. And read it smoothly – add. This is not the first or only work in which Urbańczyk presents issues related to the formation of the Polish state (see for example monograph The hard Beginnings of Poland published in 2008 by Wydawnictwo Uniwersytet Wrocławskiego, as well as many articles and another books in which they were collected in Polish roots Hypotheses – References p. 22). It is worth remembering that historical investigation not only does not stop, but that experts still, especially with the usage of fresh methods of specified research, manage to establish fresh facts concerning the distant, deep past, which opens to fresh interpretations for a long time inviolable, would seem, a image of past times and events.

In addition, the historical context of spreading fresh aspects of historical problems is important. It is hard to imagine a better time for us to exposure cognition of history, specified as “Year 2025", or “Year of the Crowning of the 2 First Kings of Poland in Gniezno”. This is how it was defined in the Resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 24 July 2024. Archaeology, cultural anthropology, and sociology have much to say.

As a result, as in the case of Przemysław Urbańczyk's work, we will be dealing with – as the author loyally points out – "a protest of the dominant current of interpretations of our oldest past and provocation for further discussions". However, without pretense, which has besides been noted, to the exclusiveness of the presented imagination (Polish roots( p. 22). For we read:

What we call the past is only a determined current cognition and investigation skills of the image that is subject to and will be subject to inevitable modifications. It is not an nonsubjective reflection of the past reality, but a product of our cognitive procedures. The inability to verify unambiguously the various courts of the past makes it impossible to find clearly the actual interpretation, and so it is possible to interpret differently (Polish roots, p. 21).

Urbanczyk besides points out that: “The Writers national history is always burdened with a circumstantial didacticism." This seems more than obvious. It means – no less, no more – just any efforts to form a sense of historical community. The awareness of the beginning usually serves primarily to justify the right to a peculiar territory and consequently fills the collective identity with certain ideas. It is based naturally on politics, which concerns the various countries of the planet today, but besides the human request to give their existence meaning and understandable order. It can be heard and seen present as in our hands and elsewhere thanks to modern media. Urbanczyk writes:

Manipulating the past has been and is simply a common phenomenon, although in different societies it occurs in varying degrees, depending on their current interior situation and external circumstances. The intensification of tampering in the past takes place in times crucial for sustaining, recreating and even re-building a sense of collective identity – for example (from)regaining, or even aspiring to independent statehood or even a form of autonomy.
In specified game with the past – emphasizes the quoted author – it is always crucial to ask about the very beginnings, due to the fact that ancient rooting on “our” land (which can presently be ruled by individual else) is simply a useful argument in geopolitical disputes. Any effective claim to "lost land" to become "recovered land" may be supported by appropriate force, but in the long word it must be justified by historical arguments. specified a request for a "appropriate" past gains political support, which translates into the mobilisation of financial support.
Not only an incentive in the form of targeted cash triggers an explanation of the past in line with current expectations. In fact, the “researchers” who aspire to a political career and those who are (i.e.) acquainted with patriotic uplift besides supply good arguments. [...] In general, historical disputes rise greater emotions, the closer they are to our time. Even the events of which witnesses are inactive alive can be interpreted differently. This is due not only to the inevitable subjectivism of the individual view of the world, but besides to the atmosphere shaped by the media and imposed administratively "historical policy" (Polish roots, p. 10-11.

The scope of the issues concerning the beginnings of our history, discussed in Urbańczyk's book, indicates the list of questions he wrote at the entrance:

How far back do our roots go? What did the ancients know about our lands? Where did the Slavs come from? Who were the Polans? What were the functions of strongholds? What did the Slavs believe? Who were the Piasts? Where and erstwhile was the hub country created? What was the name of Mieszko I? erstwhile and why did he get baptized? Was his country Christian? What was the home I? What was his global strategy? How much of a Christian ruler was he? Why did his court attract holy martyrs? What was the Gniezno Convention? What do the names “Poland” and “Poles” mean? What was the household situation of Bolesław Chrobry? What did the Polish-German conflict look like in the early Piast era? How "imperial" was Bolesław Chrobry's policy? Did he cultivate political propaganda? Did he request a formal royal coronation? What were the consequences of his rule? (Polish roots, pp. 21-22.

The scope of the issues concerning the beginnings of our history, discussed in Urbańczyk's book, indicates the list of questions he wrote at the entrance: