Books by Mikolaj Kunicki
This book is the first to systematically examine the connection between religion and transitional... more This book is the first to systematically examine the connection between religion and transitional justice in post-communism. There are four main goals motivating this book: 1) to explain how civil society (groups such as religious denominations) contribute to transitional justice efforts to address and redress past dictatorial repression; 2) to ascertain the impact of state-led reckoning programs on religious communities and their members; 3) to renew the focus on the factors that determine the adoption (or rejection) of efforts to reckon with past human rights abuses in post-communism; and 4) to examine the limitations of enacting specific transitional justice methods, programs and practices in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union countries, whose democratization has differed in terms of its nature and pace. Various churches and their relationship with the communist states are covered in the following countries: Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Belarus.
Table of Contents
Central Europe
Catholic Church, Stasi, and Post-communism in Germany by Gregor Buß
Lustration and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland by Mikołaj Kunicki
Religion and Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic by Frank Cibulka
Slovakian Catholics and Lutherans Facing the Communist Past by Pavol Jakubčin
The Balkans
The Romanian Orthodox Church Rewriting Its History by Lucian Turcescu
Bulgaria: Revealed Secrets, Unreckoned Past by Momchil Metodiev
Transitional-Unconditional Justice? The Case of the Catholic Church of Albania by Ines Angeli Murzaku
The Baltic Republics
Comfortably Numb: The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church During and After the Soviet Era by Atko Remmel and Priit Rohtmets
The Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches in Latvia by Solveiga Krumina-Konkova
The Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania and Its Soviet Past by Arūnas Streikus
Former Soviet Republics in Europe
The Russian Orthodox Church and Its Communist Past by Lavinia Stan
Restorative Justice and Orthodox Church in Belarus by Nelly Bekus
Papers by Mikolaj Kunicki
The Screen Censorship Companion: Critical Explorations in the Control of Film and Screen Media, 2024
Stored in a few Polish archives, the records of the Chief Board of Cinema (Naczelny Zarząd Kinema... more Stored in a few Polish archives, the records of the Chief Board of Cinema (Naczelny Zarząd Kinematografii), which oversaw the Polish film industry during the communist period, are incomplete, inconsistent, yet fascinating and compelling. Not only do they document the history of the Polish national film industry under state socialism, but they also constitute a kaleidoscope of changing relations between the communist regime and Poland's cinematic community and artistic intelligentsia. Following the demise of Stalinism in the mid-1950s, this cohabitation became more nuanced during the long reign of Władysław Gomułka, who came to power in 1956 while riding the combined waves of social discontent, liberalization of the communist system, nationalism, and anxiety among the Party elites. 1 The political, social and cultural climate of Gomułka's era was brilliantly captured by the metaphor of 'the little stabilization'. Coined by the prominent Polish poet and playwright Tadeusz Różewicz, the term projected the discrepancy between people's expectations raised by de-Stalinization and the outcome of post-Stalinist reforms. 2 It also represented the regime's predilection for stability rather than revolutionary changes and a shift from coercive Stalinist control over society to social integration based on compliance, conformism and tacit acceptance of communist rule.
Turcescu L., Stan L. (eds) Lustration and the Churches, Memory and Justice in Post-Communism. Memory Politics and Transitional Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. , 2021
This chapter analyses the attempted lustration of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland in the firs... more This chapter analyses the attempted lustration of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It links the belated vetting of the Catholic clergy to the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the lustration drive of the Law and Justice Party government in 2005–2007, and responses to the paedophilia scandals within the Polish church. Focusing on the lustration cases of Reverend Michał Czajkowski, Archbishop Stanisław Wielgus, and Father Henryk Jankowski, the chapter pays attention to different currents within the Catholic community in Poland and the politicization and inconsistencies of de-communization mechanisms. It argues that while the nominally pro-Catholic PiS launched the lustration of the church, it soon abandoned it due to contemporary political concerns. The chapter also suggests that paedophilia affairs obliterated the hunt for communist security agents among the clergy.
Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, 2021
Using film analysis and primary and secondary sources, this article examines Roman Załuski's Zara... more Using film analysis and primary and secondary sources, this article examines Roman Załuski's Zaraza / The Epidemic (1971), the only pandemic feature film produced in Poland to this date. The movie is inspired by the 1963 epidemic of smallpox in Wrocław, one of the last outbreaks of this disease in Europe. The epidemic resulted in 99 infections and seven deaths. The authorities responded with the mass vaccination of 426,000 residents (95% of the city's population), the compulsory isolation of infected patients and all those who came in contact with them, and the cordoning of the city. Wrocław was declared free of smallpox in September 1963, two months after the discovery of infections. Załuski's film outlines the course of the epidemic and measures taken by health services and authorities. However, the movie does not provide a precise, documentary reconstruction of the 1963 events. Instead, Załuski aspired, in his own words, to tell a universal, realistic story about a plague and the medical and social responses to it. He changed the names of real-life people and introduced fictional subplots and characters, including the main protagonist, epidemiologist Adam Rawicz (Tadeusz Borowski). This article concentrates on Załuski's portrayal of the epidemic, especially, his depiction of healthcare workers, medical procedures, and social reactions. It argues that the director's representation of the struggle against epidemic is hardly universal and significantly differs from cinematic conventions common in the West. Shot in communist Poland, The Epidemic depicts the outbreak of infectious disease and its handling in a non-democratic country under state socialism. Hence, the movie provides invaluable insights into physicians' relationship with the authoritarian state.
Lviv and Wrocław, Cities in Parallel? Myth, Memory and Migration, 1890 – present, 2020
The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007, 2020
If the James Bond films were officially unavailable to East European audiences until 1989, the Ea... more If the James Bond films were officially unavailable to East European audiences until 1989, the Eastern Bloc did not escape the global reach of the Bond phenomenon. East European spy dramas began to appear during the late 1960s, and they were mostly made for television and not all that distant in spirit from the Bond f ilms. This chapter examines three television series: More Than Life at Stake (1967-1968) from Poland, The Invisible Gun Sight (1973-1979) from the German Democratic Republic, and Seventeen Moments of Spring (1972) from the Soviet Union. While these tales of espionage evince the projections of the west in the east during the Cold War, they reveal foremost the powerful appeal of consumerism behind the Iron Curtain.
The Handbook of COURAGE: Cultural Opposition and Its Heritage in Eastern Europe, 2018
The Handbook of COURAGE: CULTURAL OPPOSITION AND ITS HERITAGE IN EASTERN EUROPE, 2018
Using archival sources, movie reviews, secondary sources
and films, this article examines the cin... more Using archival sources, movie reviews, secondary sources
and films, this article examines the cinema of Jerzy Passendorfer,
the founding father of action movies genre in People’s
Poland, but also the staunch supporter of Władysław
Gomułka’s ‘Polish road to Socialism’ and General Mieczysław
Moczar’s ultranationalist faction of the Partisans in the Polish
United Workers’ Party. It demonstrates how Passendorfer’s
blend of mainstream cinema and propaganda legitimized
the party state and contributed to the construction of a new
ethos, identity, and politics of history that enforced historical
amnesia and syncretized past and present. It also argues that
Passendorfer’s promotion of nationalist and authoritarian state
ideology, militaristic patriotism and Polish-Soviet alliance,
commissioned by the regime, sat well with mass audiences,
precisely because of the use of popular genres adopted from
the West and the quench for optimistic visions of nationhood.
Although Passendorfer’s patriotic actions flicks faded away
with the fall of Gomułka’s regime, they constitute a model,
which can be still emulated.
Referencing archival sources, movie reviews, secondary sources, and a number of films, this artic... more Referencing archival sources, movie reviews, secondary sources, and a number of films, this article explores the political controversy that accompanied the domestic release of Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s seminal work Mother Joan of the Angels, which occurred at the time of a major conflict betweenthe Catholic Church and the party regime in Poland during the 1960s. It also discusses other films attacked by the Polish episcopate for their alleged anti-Catholicism and examines the relationship between the Polish School and Catholicism. I argue that the government officials responsible for the movie industry as well as most filmmakers steered away from aggressive anti-clericalism and atheist propaganda. By contrast, Polish bishops had no qualms about orchestrating attacks against movies they deemed as anti-Catholic and supported various forms of censorship. In my analysis, the case of Mother Joan of the Angels questions traditional narratives about the Church-State conflict in People’s Poland and the cultural policies of the communist regime.
Ditmar Müller, Lars Karl, Katherina Seibert (Hrsg.), Der lange Weg nach Hause: Konstruktionen von Heimat im europäischen Spielfilm. , 2014
Peaceful Coexistence or Iron Curtain? Austria, Neutrality, and Eastern Europe in the Cold War and Detente, 1955-1989, 2009
European Review of History, 2001
Contemporary European HIstory, May 1, 2012
Using archival sources, film reviews, interviews, secondary sources and movies, this article exam... more 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.
East European Politics & Societies, Jan 1, 2005
Aspects of European Political Culture, Jan 1, 2005
Book and Film Reviews by Mikolaj Kunicki
Antisemitism Studies, 2024
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Books by Mikolaj Kunicki
Table of Contents
Central Europe
Catholic Church, Stasi, and Post-communism in Germany by Gregor Buß
Lustration and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland by Mikołaj Kunicki
Religion and Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic by Frank Cibulka
Slovakian Catholics and Lutherans Facing the Communist Past by Pavol Jakubčin
The Balkans
The Romanian Orthodox Church Rewriting Its History by Lucian Turcescu
Bulgaria: Revealed Secrets, Unreckoned Past by Momchil Metodiev
Transitional-Unconditional Justice? The Case of the Catholic Church of Albania by Ines Angeli Murzaku
The Baltic Republics
Comfortably Numb: The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church During and After the Soviet Era by Atko Remmel and Priit Rohtmets
The Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches in Latvia by Solveiga Krumina-Konkova
The Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania and Its Soviet Past by Arūnas Streikus
Former Soviet Republics in Europe
The Russian Orthodox Church and Its Communist Past by Lavinia Stan
Restorative Justice and Orthodox Church in Belarus by Nelly Bekus
Papers by Mikolaj Kunicki
and films, this article examines the cinema of Jerzy Passendorfer,
the founding father of action movies genre in People’s
Poland, but also the staunch supporter of Władysław
Gomułka’s ‘Polish road to Socialism’ and General Mieczysław
Moczar’s ultranationalist faction of the Partisans in the Polish
United Workers’ Party. It demonstrates how Passendorfer’s
blend of mainstream cinema and propaganda legitimized
the party state and contributed to the construction of a new
ethos, identity, and politics of history that enforced historical
amnesia and syncretized past and present. It also argues that
Passendorfer’s promotion of nationalist and authoritarian state
ideology, militaristic patriotism and Polish-Soviet alliance,
commissioned by the regime, sat well with mass audiences,
precisely because of the use of popular genres adopted from
the West and the quench for optimistic visions of nationhood.
Although Passendorfer’s patriotic actions flicks faded away
with the fall of Gomułka’s regime, they constitute a model,
which can be still emulated.
Book and Film Reviews by Mikolaj Kunicki
Table of Contents
Central Europe
Catholic Church, Stasi, and Post-communism in Germany by Gregor Buß
Lustration and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland by Mikołaj Kunicki
Religion and Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic by Frank Cibulka
Slovakian Catholics and Lutherans Facing the Communist Past by Pavol Jakubčin
The Balkans
The Romanian Orthodox Church Rewriting Its History by Lucian Turcescu
Bulgaria: Revealed Secrets, Unreckoned Past by Momchil Metodiev
Transitional-Unconditional Justice? The Case of the Catholic Church of Albania by Ines Angeli Murzaku
The Baltic Republics
Comfortably Numb: The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church During and After the Soviet Era by Atko Remmel and Priit Rohtmets
The Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches in Latvia by Solveiga Krumina-Konkova
The Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania and Its Soviet Past by Arūnas Streikus
Former Soviet Republics in Europe
The Russian Orthodox Church and Its Communist Past by Lavinia Stan
Restorative Justice and Orthodox Church in Belarus by Nelly Bekus
and films, this article examines the cinema of Jerzy Passendorfer,
the founding father of action movies genre in People’s
Poland, but also the staunch supporter of Władysław
Gomułka’s ‘Polish road to Socialism’ and General Mieczysław
Moczar’s ultranationalist faction of the Partisans in the Polish
United Workers’ Party. It demonstrates how Passendorfer’s
blend of mainstream cinema and propaganda legitimized
the party state and contributed to the construction of a new
ethos, identity, and politics of history that enforced historical
amnesia and syncretized past and present. It also argues that
Passendorfer’s promotion of nationalist and authoritarian state
ideology, militaristic patriotism and Polish-Soviet alliance,
commissioned by the regime, sat well with mass audiences,
precisely because of the use of popular genres adopted from
the West and the quench for optimistic visions of nationhood.
Although Passendorfer’s patriotic actions flicks faded away
with the fall of Gomułka’s regime, they constitute a model,
which can be still emulated.
However, in its reliance on history, memory, and culture in the quest for the
empowerment of new elites and the promotion of a particular form of national identity, Jarosław Kaczyński’s party joined the procession of political forces and actors that have dominated Poland since 1918 and which have made selective and instrumental use of the past.
In different periods, ideologically and politically driven projects have sought to provide an account of Polish contemporary history while simultaneously claiming that specific political movements embody national values and the true expression of Polishness. What were the similarities and differences in the way historical policy was conducted in the Second Republic, the Polish People's Republic, and the Third Republic? This main question will be addressed during an international conference on the politics of history and memory in Poland organised on the 18 May 2024 by the European History unit of Polish University Abroad in London. This online event aims to provide us with a better understanding of the problem of the contemporary politics of history and memory, presented in a broader historical perspective than existing analyses and studies.