ABSTRACT
For the purpose of this chapter, we conceive the politics of history – as opposed to the culture of remembrance – as a top-down, state-led practice, the aim of which is to construct, spread and inculcate images of the past (Łuczewski and Bednarz-Łuczewska 2011a: 10; see also Assmann 1999, 2006: 273–274; Nijakowski 2008: 41). Thus understood, all actions taken by the state in order to establish a certain interpretation of history belong to the realm of the politics of history. Practices that fit this definition most usually: (1) select real and imagined historical facts; (2) diminish or silence some facts while highlighting or inventing others; (3) construct or deconstruct relations within in-groups as well as relations with out-groups; and, finally, formulate claims about (4) the context and direct causes of historical events or (5) their consequences.
