Parties with national agendas are gaining ground in multicultural societies. It has largely been forgotten that between 1918 and 1921, these agendas plunged Eastern and Central Europe into civil war.
This tale completely and conveniently (or willfully) overlooks a major event that contradicts the author's argument. Pilsudski's Polish National Army route of the invading Red Army in 1920. This was not a civil war. It was the defeat of an old national enemy and 100 plus year occupying force reconstituted as a communist nation state. To suppose that this event, noted by many as one of the most significant 20th century battles, did not legitimately spark Polish national identity is a critical oversight. It may have assumed mythic status in Poland but it is not a myth.
In addition, after WWII, Stalin revived a Polish communist national state that was far less ethically or religiously diverse than the previous Republic. And lest we forget, the Poles struggled against this Russian satellite status for a very long time. Can we thus assume that the long resistance efforts of Solidarity were also a ‘civil war’ or that they should not be legitimately attached to Polish national identity? How can the author overlook this period entirely. Did Polish history stop in 1921?
Let me now paraphrase Rehan.. “The act of forgetting, I would even say, historical error, is an essential factor in the creation of” Bohler’s argument in this piece.
This tale completely and conveniently (or willfully) overlooks a major event that contradicts the author's argument. Pilsudski's Polish National Army route of the invading Red Army in 1920. This was not a civil war. It was the defeat of an old national enemy and 100 plus year occupying force reconstituted as a communist nation state. To suppose that this event, noted by many as one of the most significant 20th century battles, did not legitimately spark Polish national identity is a critical oversight. It may have assumed mythic status in Poland but it is not a myth.
In addition, after WWII, Stalin revived a Polish communist national state that was far less ethically or religiously diverse than the previous Republic. And lest we forget, the Poles struggled against this Russian satellite status for a very long time. Can we thus assume that the long resistance efforts of Solidarity were also a ‘civil war’ or that they should not be legitimately attached to Polish national identity? How can the author overlook this period entirely. Did Polish history stop in 1921?
Let me now paraphrase Rehan.. “The act of forgetting, I would even say, historical error, is an essential factor in the creation of” Bohler’s argument in this piece.