What is the State of Polish Historiography Today?

This article describes the evolution of Polish historiography since 1989. Among the subjects which have particularly attracted the attention of historians in these years are how communist power was established, how far the People’s Republic of Poland was a sovereign state, whether its political system can accurately be described as ‘totalitarian’, to what extent the claims of its rulers to have achieved a significant economic and social transformation of Poland are justified and their relations with the Catholic Church. Other topics investigated include the long-term effects of serfdom, the attempts to engage in armed resistance to the regime established in July 1944, and the nature of the agreements that led to the end of communism in 1989. There have also been attempts to explore the controversial issues of Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Jewish relations, above all during the Second World War. Despite the bitterness these controversies have aroused, real progress has been made in our understanding of them, and it is hoped that this will continue.