What Sort of Communists Are You?: The struggle between nationalism and ideology in Poland between 1944 and 1956

The post-war Polish regime perplexes many historians – in the West they are portrayed as nationalists masquerading as communists, while in Poland it is the reverse. Was there any masquerading at all? The ideological drive and the strength of nationalism clashed and produced a dual identity within the regime. While ideologically communist, the Polish leadership retained its national identity, which in many cases undermined its ideological convictions. This book offers a revised approach, acknowledging the strong ideological fervour of Polish communists while it investigates their complicated relationship with nationalism. The struggle between communist ideology and Polish nationalism produced the peculiar notion of “Polish road to socialism,” which effectively led Poland to abandon the full Soviet economic and political model. Torn between their ideological and nationalist sentiments, Polish communists failed to transform the post-war Polish society along ideological lines and served to reinforce, rather than change, the Polish national identity.