The conditions of using Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski’s Letter to the Party in contemporary historical education

Abstract

The Open Letter to the Party by Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski has appeared in history textbooks only recently and has been presented as the first open protest of Polish intellectuals against the abuse of the Communist system. Such an interpretation of the document creates a false impression that Communism was indeed a good solution and all its evil was the consequence of the fact that its rules were not adhered to. Kuroń and Modzelewski’s manifesto had been known for many years before it finally gained historiographic, historiosophical and political significance. This was largely due to the influence of its leftist interpretation, which ignores its Trotskyist and revisionist character in relation to the communist ideology. Unfortunately, since students are presented with a ready interpretation of the text, they are unable to understand it properly. The fact that the letter is mentioned in school textbooks creates an illusion that it was an important element of the anti‐communist resistance; however, this is not what actually happened. Including the text in the history curriculum aims at not only appreciating its authors but also downplaying their earlier engagement in building Communism in Poland.