%0 Journal Article %T Borderlands – Essay on Social History %A Kula, Marcin %J Migration Studies – Review of Polish Diaspora %V 2018 (XLIV) %R 10.4467/25444972SMPP.18.001.8910 %N Vol. 167, issue 1 %P 9-21 %K borderlands, boundary, communism, city, ethnic group, immigration country, national minorities, creativity %@ 2081-4488 %D 2018 %U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/smpp/article/pogranicze-esej-historyczno-socjologiczny %X By borderlands, the author means social phenomena where people from both sides of the variously understood boundary come into contact with each other. Boundary as a line dividing space is not necessary for the borderland to exist. In the case of a formal boundary, very oft en attempts were made to impede the emergence of borderlands. Such was the case during communism with its fortified and guarded border which prevented people on both sides to get into contact with one another. In borderlands, culture had a syncretic nature – although we need to ask how and in what aspects of life. We sometimes refer to some of its inhabitants as people of the borderlands. Th e oft en lead discussions about belonging of certain historical figures stems from the fact that they were oft en such people. At the same time borderlands sometimes are the terrains of confl icts, and people who live there suff er for it.