Books, Bibliographies, and Pugs: A Festschrift to Honor Murlin Croucher

Post-1989 Publishing on Previously Suppressed Topics: Trends in Czech Contemporary History, with Reference to Poland

Post-1989 Publishing on Previously Suppressed Topics: Trends in Czech Contemporary History, with Reference to Poland Michael Biggins In January 1995, an extensive feature article in the New York Times provided a rare glimpse-rare from the perspective of American mass media, at least- into the process of rebuilding the historians' guild in post-communist Poland. Interviews with leading contemporary historians at the universities of Warsaw and Wrodaw, and with scholars at the Institute of Political Studies and the Jewish Historical Institute, underscored the massive rediscovery and rewriting of history that Poland was already undertaking to rectify the distorted historical record that had been dictated by decades of communist ideological control and obeisance to Moscow. The article described a profession whose most talented senior representatives had adapted to these restrictions more or less productively (for example, by opting to specialize in older, uncontroversial historical periods and topics), while lesser lights had towed the uninspiring and false dogmatic line dictated from the center. The most problematic specialization of all, of course, was contemporary history. As one of the scholars interviewed for the article , a Warsaw University professor, stated, "No history was free, but in contemporary history there was direct party interference. Either pure and simple lies or pure and simple silence."! Looking to current and future prospects, another historian optimistically pointed to the profile of post-1989 graduate students in history and professed to be elated with the quality of their research: "They're really, really honest in methodology, use of sources and objectivity. One can say that the history of postwar Poland began just now, like a newly plowed field."2 ! Henry Kamm, "Poland Reawakens to its History as Communism's Mirror Shatters," in New York Times, January 26, 1995: AI. 2 Ibid. Gregory C. Ference and Bradley L. Schaffner, eds. Books, Bibliographies, and Pugs. Bloomington, IN: Siavica, 2006, 13- 29. (Indiana Slavic Studies, 16.) 14 MICHAEL BI GGINS On the negative side, some of the author's interviewees noted a tendency even in post-1989 Polish historiography to exchange the old communist dogma for a new nationalist one, emphasizing a view of Poland as the homeland of ethnic Poles, with little attention given to past Polish-Jewish, Polish-German, Polish-Lithuanian, and other important ethnic interrelations. And, after a few intense years when books shedding new light on recent history had been all the rage, by 1995 "that appetite [seemed] satisfied ... and Polish historians and other intellectuals say that the struggle to make a living or take advantage of new economic opportunities has crowded out most other interests."3 The rewriting of postwar East Central European history has been a fascinating and complex process and one that has understandably occupied Slavic studies librarians engaged in developing East Central European studies collections since 1989. "Filling in the blank pages" of a previously ideologized and suppressed history has been a priority for our academic programs in East Central European history, which have themselves made some significant contributions to the grand projects of excavating the past that are being led by the historical professions in the metropolitan and provincial centers of Warsaw, Krak6w, Wroclaw, Prague, Brno, Ceske Budejovice, and elsewhere. While this author is not a historian, but a Slavic studies generalist happily specializing (or rather, generalizing) in resource development for East Central European history as well as a number of other disciplines , throughout the past five years he has often wondered how thorough a job our libraries were doing. Were we capturing most of the material coming out on these subjects? And what, exactly, did the process of excavating East Central Europe's suppressed past consist of? Would it be finite or interminable? Would the once-lost Knossoses and Troys of post-1945 East Central Europe eventually be fully exhumed and exposed to objective view or would the process become messier than that, more piecemeal, subject to controversy, and never wholly finished? What would the publishing arc of this trend look like over time? Would the volume of material constantly grow, in step with the burgeoning publishing industries of East Central Europe through 3 Ibid. POST-1989 PUBLISHING ON PREVIOUSLY SUPPPRESSED TOPICS 15 the 1990s and into the new century?4 Or would it peak at some point, and then taper off, leaving us with the task of gleaning a few residual gems, while we could safely ignore the epigonal or derivative chaff? For comparison's sake, the author...