TY - JOUR
TI - The Political Significance of Émigré Representations of the Polish Soldier’s Sacrifice during the Second World War
AU - Lencznarowicz, Jan
TI - The Political Significance of Émigré Representations of the Polish Soldier’s Sacrifice during the Second World War
AB - Among the Poles who after the Second World War remained beyond reach of Stalin’s power and decided not to return to their homeland military veterans were a particularly numerous and active group. It is they who played a huge role in organizing that wave of emigration in their countries of settlement and called the tune in the social and, especially, political life of war refugees. The memory of fight and loses suffered in war formed the basis of the myth of heroic Polish soldier that emerged in emigration. It became one of the pillars of the collective political identity of post-Yalta emigration. Not only did it contribute to shaping its ideological coherence, but also set out the goals of further fight, this time only political and not military one. Using a variety of primary sources, the author of the present article tries to answer the question about the role which the motif of blood sacrificed by the Polish soldier played in the symbolic representations of post-Yalta emigration, as well as about the political function those representations had.
VL - 2016
IS - Volume 13, Issue 4
PY - 2017
SN - 2083-7658
C1 - 2353-1991
SP - 392
EP - 411
DO - 10.4467/23531991KK.16.023.6762
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/konteksty-kultury/article/polityczna-wymowa-emigracyjnych-przedstawien-ofiary-polskiego-zolnierza-podczas-drugiej-wojny-swiatowej
KW - Polish emigration after the Second World War
KW - Polish soldier during the Second World War
KW - myth of heroic Polish soldier