Łukasz Łoziński

After the Second World War the Polish-Slovak borderland became a zone of serious tensions. Particularly controversial is the activity of the Polish partisan group “Błyskawica”, led by Józef Kuraś “Ogień”. The soldiers are responsible for takings of private property and acts of violence carried out in villages in South Poland that were inhabited mostly by Slovaks. This paper – based mainly on the query at the Archives of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance – aims to present the scale and circumstances of those activities. The work takes wider historical context into account and uses selected anthropological and sociological theories. In this perspective, it seems justified to explain the analyzed events through the mechanism of revenge, widespread in the post-war period of anomie and crisis. Sources indicate that the Polish partisans’ actions from the years 1946–1947 were not attempts to pacify the Slovak separatists (although some authors claim so) but rather repressions for the earlier actions of members of that nation.

*The paper presents a part of the results of the research project “Józef Kuraś «Ogień» and his subordinates in social imagination: An anthropological study of experiencing the past”. The grant no. 2016/21/B/HS3/02921 was financed by the Polish National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki). The team consisted of the researchers from the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Jagiellonian University: Monika Golonka-Czajkowska (coordinator), Vojtech Bagin, Kaja Kajder, Łukasz Łoziński, Dariusz Nikiel.

Patriotic Marketing and Design in Poland. An Example of Próchnik and Red Is Bad Clothing Brands

The article is an anthropological analysis of ideas of patriotism created by two companies – Próchnik (which sells mostly formal and smart casual clothing) and Red Is Bad (which offers predominantly street fashion). The both firms’ clients are probably middle-class men, what is more the both firms continuously refer to Polish history and national imaginarium. However, the companies create different worldviews and shapes of patriotism. Próchnik creates narrative of military and sport successes achieved by the Poles in the West and in the homeland. Red Is Bad exploit themes connected with Polish expansion in the East and the nation’s martyrology. One may be astonished by constant efforts made by the both companies, in order to educate the customers and to make them proud of their identity. Such grandiloquent style of marketing and design seems to be an answer to many Poles’ needs.