Power, State and Nationalism in East/Central Europe

An internet-assisted course

Finn Sivert Nielsen (Copenhagen) & Kristina Sliavaite (Vilnius)


Group 3: Communist nostalgia in Poland

Participants:
<< Due to Danish privacy regulations, names and emails of participants have been deleted. >>

First description of the project:
Our fieldwork project will concern "Communist nostalgia in Poland".

After the collapse of the Communist regime all state farms, which started with decollectivization in 1956, were closed in Poland. During the Communist period most of them made no profit but the vast majority of people living in [the surrounding?] villages worked there. With the closure of state farms came a problem of unemployment among state farms workers. The problem exists even now.

Ex-state farms workers are poorly educated, deprived of ownership and have no ability to change their bad situation. They are frustrated and cannot find themselves a place in the Capitalist reality. That is why they may have a strong pro-communist feelings.

What we want find out during our resarch is:
- Does Communist nostalgia exist among people in this area?
- How is the nostalgia expressed? (We think of frustration, problems with alcohol, social movements against the EU.)

The place of resarch will be:
- One village in North Poland, it is called Smiechowo (there used to be a state farm there)
- Koszalin city

Informants:
- People who used to work in state farms or state factories

Methods of resarch:
- Interviews and publications