Dr Mikolaj Kunicki
Associate Member
History
Mikolaj is involved in the Courage Research Project.
Publications
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‘Optimism against all odds’: Polish National Identity in War Films of Jerzy Passendorfer
January 2017|Journal article|Sprawy Narodowosciowe -
Between the brown and the red: Nationalism, catholicism, and communism in twentieth-century poland-the politics of Bolesław Piasecki
December 2012|BookBetween the Brown and the lied probes the trajectories of the modern nationalist movement and political continuities in Poland and East Central Europe from the inter-war period to the end of the Cold War. Tracing the evolution of the Marxist party-state into a nationalist-populist regime, it also captures the multifaceted nature of church-state relations in communist Poland, relations that oscillated between mutual confrontation, accommodation, and dialogue. Ironically, under communism the bond between religion and nation in Poland grew stronger. This happened in spite of the fact that the government deployed nationalist themes in order to portray itself as more Polish than communist. Between the Brown and the Red also introduces to the reader one of the most fascinating figures in the history of twentieth-century Poland and the communist world. © 2012 by Ohio University Press. All rights reserved. -
Heroism, Raison d'état, and National Communism: Red Nationalism in the Cinema of People's Poland
May 2012|Journal article|Contemporary European History<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Using archival sources, film reviews, interviews, secondary sources and movies, this article examines a Polish nationalist-communist school of directors who supported the Communist Party regime in constructing a new ethos, which consisted of ethnocentric nationalism and authoritarian nation state ideology. It demonstrates how the party state tried to legitimise itself by endorsing popular culture, specifically mainstream cinema. It also argues that National Communism inevitably led to the nationalist-authoritarian fusion, which set up the conditions for a pluralist and polyphonic realm, outside, but also within the ruling camp.</jats:p> -
The red and the brown: Bolesław piasecki, the Polish communists, and the anti-zionist campaign in Poland, 1967-68
March 2005|Journal article|East European Politics and SocietiesThis article complements studies on 1968 in Poland that have explained the anti-Semitic campaign by pointing to the Soviet factor, traditional Polish anti-Semitism, or factional conflict within the Polish Communist Party. The article attributes March 1968 to the communists' growing reliance on Polish nationalism. It narrows the scale of historical observation to the case of Bolesław Piasecki (1915-79), a prominent nationalist politician. A fascist in the 1930s and a proregime Catholic activist after the war, Piasecki was the leading proponent of the mutual reinforcement of nationalism and communism. Melding Piasecki's role in the 1968 drama with the ideological metamorphosis of the Polish Communist Party, the article argues that under certain conditions, not only did the communists utilize nationalism, but they also prolonged the existence of the nationalist radical right, which supplied the chauvinistic message during the anti-Semitic campaign. © 2005 by the American Council of Learned Societies. All rights reserved. -
Unwanted Collaborators: Leon Koz ^ owski, W ^ adys ^ aw Studnicki, and the Problem of Collaboration among Polish Conservative Politicians in World War II
August 2001|Journal article|European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire