The article discusses the book We władzy pozoru [Ruled by the appearance] by Aleksander Fiut, containing sixteen sketches and essays written between 2006 and 2014. They examine the Polish post-war literature which, according to Fiut, has not ended in 1989. The subject matter of this literature, the presented problems and the issues brought up by individual writers are set by the author in wide social, historical, cultural and ideological contexts. The researcher enriched his narrative with a polysemantic category of “appearance” and the overly broadened concepts of “totalitarian state”, “totalitarian system”, turning these terms into a methodological key to the understanding of the Polish reality and literature from 1945 to 1989 and, subsequently, in the modern times. Especially until 1989, according to A. Fiut, we used to be ruled only by appearances. The author of the sketch opposes the one-sided vision of the past, regarded by him to be overly simplified. The important book by Aleksander Fiut fits into the very significant and valuable trend of present reckonings and revisions of the past. However, when pursuing the truth, it is important that we should not give in to the snares of appearances of our epoch as well.